Wolfenstein II’s Identity Crisis

*SPOILERS*

              The last few years have seen a revival of Bethesda’s heralded shooters including the Doom and Wolfenstein series.  Doom has maintained its status as shooter first, pushing players to charge into firefights and do as much destruction as possible, while Wolfenstein has attempted to separate itself with a surprisingly fragile BJ Blazkowicz guiding gamers towards a more wait-and-see approach.  Wolfenstein has also decided to focus on story much more so than Doom, to the point of not allowing the user to skip or pause cutscenes in The New Colossus.  Doomguy takes pride in slaughtering everything he comes in contact with and being independent, while BJ tends to take a backseat despite his aggressive tendencies to kill each and every Nazi out there.  This uneven protagonist leads a game that can never quite find its footing on what it wants to be, making The New Colossus one of the more disappointing titles of 2017.

              Wolfenstein II’s issues stem from BJ’s issues, and the major factor that forces your playstyle in the game is BJ’s health.  He is the textbook definition of a glass cannon, able to shred enemies quite quickly (especially in a game with no bosses), but step out into the open and he can expect a quick, sweet death.  BJ has both health and shields, however, having max of both will only extend BJ’s lifespan long enough to get behind more cover.  It should also be noted that the onscreen indicators for BJ’s health are quite poor and you often don’t realize how low your health truly is until you are at death’s door.

              BJ relies on cover far more than one would anticipate in a game about killing Nazis.  The best tactic, once spotted, is often to just stand behind cover and blast away at the incapable enemy AI that loves to run just into view, so you can murder them and all their buddies, leaving a pile of corpses before sprinting out of cover in an attempt to kill the commanders and stop the never-ending flow of enemies.

              The commanders play a big role in the game, as each time you enter a new section of a level, you are often met with two indicators as to how far away the commanders are, with no indication of where they are vertically.  If you take out the commanders, they are unable to alert more troops to pile in, and you only have to take out the current enemies in the area, or just bypass them to your next objective, which is pointless in a game about killing Nazis.  The problem with this system is that Wolfenstein II’s level design doesn’t support typical stealth options like any other games in the genre. 

There are a limited amount of ways to get to the commanders, and they seem to lessen as the game goes on, as I found more vents and side routes in the first few areas than I did in the later ones.  Also, if any enemy spots you, both commanders immediately go on alert.  While the enemy AI in Wolfenstein II can’t figure out how to uproot you from behind cover, they sure as hell have eagle eyes and are able to spot you across the map.  There are also robots that float around in most of the later levels, along with hulking mechanical enemies that require a great amount of firepower to take down, further toeing the line between stealth and straight up killing Nazis.  None of this is helped by some of BJ’s janky motions, particularly his jump, where he has trouble grabbing onto ledges, further noticed if you choose the walker upgrade (it’s useless) later in the game.  Side missions become available late in the game with the use of the enigma codes, but focus on stealth as well as you are tasked with taking down uber commanders and have to restart from the beginning of the level anytime you are killed.

I understand MachineGames wanted to differentiate Wolfenstein from Doom, but the game is worse for it.  The gunplay, particularly with the heavy guns, is excellent, but oftentimes you will find yourself playing a cover shooter instead of blasting through a sea of Nazis.  I would argue that BJ never feels particularly strong outside of one late mission where you command a Nazi beast and can finally do what you’ve wanted to do all game.  The final mission amplifies this issue as you are ambushed by a swarm of enemies and a few larger ones that require use of your heavy weapons to take down.  There is a bunker with two rows in the middle of the map, and each corner has a turret, gear, and ammunition.  The turrets are useless due to BJ’s small health bar and even leave you open to deadly damage if you just try to grab the gun and run (not to mention, BJ will sometimes pick up items off the ground on his own, but other times require a button press causing a frantic mess of hopeful reloading or collecting).  The best way to handle this is to sit in the bunker and destroy the waves of enemies until they expire, before peeking out and firing a shot or two at the big baddies before repeating ad nauseum.  This is not fun in the slightest, and the chaotic killing is kept to the cutscenes.

Speaking of the story, The New Colossus suffers from an inconsistent tone and an abundance of cutscenes that would’ve been better to play through than watch.  At times, something wild will happen and you’ll be feeling like a badass, and then the developers will take it a step too far and you’ll be like okay, when is enough enough?  There is one particular moment where BJ is decapitated, only to have his head caught by some robotic arms before falling into flames, and then being re-attached to a new body.  This is clearly the story jumping the shark and it doesn’t stop there.  The tale also tries to get a bit too political at times, having a character breastfeed in front of BJ for no particular reason, and then another pregnant character later rip off her shirt and slaughter a bunch of Nazis.  Okay.  I think they could’ve accomplished what they wanted with a little more tact, which is saying a lot considering we are talking about Wolfenstein here.

The cutscenes themselves run far too long, with the pacing in the start of the game really being thrown off by this, as you will play extremely short levels and then get a cutscene almost as long.  This focus on the story over gameplay is further emphasized by the level design, as nothing feels truly unique outside of your first few steps in Roswell, NM, where you aren’t even able to do anything other than walk and collect items.  You are then tunneled into a tunnel (pun intended), and set off to experience a level hardly different from the last.

All-in-all, Wolfenstein II is not so much a game about killing Nazis as it is about progressing cowardly to yet another cutscene, where you are always told what to do, displaying energy missing from the actual game.  You will spend the majority of your time in this game behind walls, wondering if you should pop out and have some damn fun, or cheese your way through the poor enemy AI and level design.  It’s a damn shame that the tight gunplay is wasted, but at least we will always have the audition.

Note: Future essays will have more graphics, but I've already sold the game, so all I have are trophy screenshots.