Monday 30 October 2017

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus - A mediocre game with a strong, important message


 
Grace's opening line. Easily the best character.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is the story of a simple man, Billy Blazkowicz, who has one simple goal - kill all nazis. And that's it. Hilariously, this concept has become... more than a little controversial as of late.

The plot of Wolfenstein 2 centres in an alternate history, a "what if" where the Nazis won WW2 and now rule America (the "American Territories") with an iron, fascist fist. People of colour, jews, LGTBQ members, are of course either killed or corralled. The country itself is forced to learn German, and everything must be German made. And most people, tragically, go along with it with limited resistance... All except your group, of course.

Anya doesn't screw around.
Where Wolfenstein 2 shines is in its people. Whether it's Billy's bloodthirsty, very pregnant wife, Anya, your overtly Jewish scientist, Set, and his monkeycat (yes), or the charismatic, vibrant and deadly Grace... they're all there to explore. The dialogue is written expertly, and even the voice acting sounds like they must have had actors record lines together because conversations flow without sounding disjointed. Characters explain their goals and reasons for fighting, often while first debating Billy himself just to make sure his convictions are right.

They know EXACTLY what they're saying
I... want to say more. There's much more TO be said, but truthfully, I don't want to spoil the plot. It's worth seeing for yourself, even if you only do so through your favourite Let's Player. What is important to note, however, is that this game DOES take sides. You'll get titles, and developers, who will try to both sides us with nonsense; remember Bioshock Infinite trying to pretend the slaves were just as bad? It happens a lot. But Wolfenstein is not that title.

More than a few times, you're tasked with killing a commander
before he alerts the base
Now, truth be told, as important as this game's message is in today's world... the gameplay just doesn't cut it. Your guns are huge, taking up way too much of the screen and making the collection side stuff a pain to do as you won't always be able to see around them. The game, despite bringing you all over the place, is primarily in greys and browns about 90% of the time. And oh god, the overuse of "stealth" in the game without any real mechanics gets REALLY old REALLY quickly. From beginning to end, it insists on shoehorning in stealth mechanics. I know, I know, past Wolfenstein games did the same, but I hope they did it far better than this. Lighting and distance make no difference, as it's entirely about Line of Sight; enemies can spot you from a mile away no matter how much shadow you're in. Noise makes limited difference as you can walk right behind most enemies so long as you don't sprint. And, just as annoyingly, there's no "I guess he's gone, call off the alert"; it's either seen you, mild alert, or full alert. No degrade.

But of course, if (and when) you ARE spotted, you can fight through it. Now I admit, FPS games aren't exactly my bread and butter... but isn't "have a button to snap to cover" kind of like, FPS 101 at this point? But instead, the game has a "lean" button; hold down alt and press any direction so you can lean up or left to shoot. Trust me when I say, it works at best half the time. I, personally, never bothered to use it.

That's middling important at best when you consider how many enemies you can cheese. Dogs rarely work as they're supposed to (supposed to run up and bite you, but they tend to just run into you and do nothing), and most big robot enemies you can just sit in a room and shoot at while they stare because apparently the programmers didn't account for "why would I go outside".

And yet, honestly? I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I don't know if the game is worth 90 dollars Canadian (it definitely isn't), especially for its relatively short like 12 hour~ plot, but is it still a fun game? Yes.

Personally, I'm going to give it a 6/10. If this game had no message, if it was just another shooter? It'd be below 5 easily. And they knew that going in, so I respect that.

Play Wolfenstein 2 (or watch it). Just don't expect it to be the best game ever - treat it more like an interactive movie.

And for god sake, the DLC better be letting me play as Anya.