Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

The holidays have begun.  I know we are only in August, but let me assure you that we’ve officially seen the first AAA title.  It’s the return of “Schutzstaffel”, it’s the return of “Mien leiben!”, and it is the return of Wolfenstein.  For those who don’t know, this game represents the 7th installment in the Wolfenstein series.  Starting with the 1981 kickoff of Castle Wolfenstein, we as gamers have been training hard.   There are two groups that we’ve been conditioned like so many of Pavlov’s Dogs to destroy on sight – Nazis and Zombies.  Combining the two has proven time and time again to be a recipe for success, and this first Next-Gen title is no different.

Jumping back into the combat boots of B.J. Blazkowicz, we are dropped back into fires of the second World War.  After taking out Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse’s Übersoldat program, B.J. teams up with some new allies to continue his assault against Hitler’s paranormal division.  Their new agenda seems to be the development of a near-unlimited power source that will allow them to develop new and more terrifying weaponry.  "Once again the powers of good will call on the Office of Secret Actions to keep the world safe." 

Was ist los?
The game kicks off in 1943, and Hitler’s paranormal division has begun research on a new paranormal device called the Thule Medallion.  This device, when coupled with special crystals, grants the wielder incredible powers.  On a more global scale, this Thule Medallion seems to also have the potential to unlock a near limitless power supply that could be used to fuel the Nazi war machine.  Ripping through enemy soldiers, B.J. manages to get his hands on a Thule Medallion and finds his world forever changed.  Through the medallion a new shadow world called The Vale is revealed.  Similar to The Gloom in the movie Nightwatch, this shadow world grants B.J. accelerated speed, greater visibility of his enemies, as well as the ability to pass through solid stone barriers that are invisible to everyone else. 

As B.J. digs deeper into the world of the paranormal, his powers over the Vale expand greatly.  Throughout the game he’ll learn to stop time, stop or reflect bullets, or amp his own damage to the point that it literally rips his enemies into small chunks.  Unfortunately for B.J., it doesn’t take long before the “perfectly safe” experiments that the Nazis are conducting blow up in their faces, causing horrible mutations and disfigurements.  Soon they too will begin to master the Vale, twisting it to their own evil ends. 

As far as gameplay enhancements go this really is a fairly straightforward on the surface, but it doesn’t take long before the game becomes something more.  Rather than using the straightforward linear approach of its predecessor, Wolfenstein opens up into a semi-open world that allows players to pick and chose their missions at will.  Similarly, the weapon choice moves beyond the knife, pistol, rifle, machine gun, exotic path.  Early on you’ll meet up with members of The Black Market who will grant you access to various component upgrades to all of your weapons.  From larger bores for your rifles to carburetors for your flamethrower, there are more upgrades than you’ll have money to afford.  This encourages players to pick and chose the arsenal that works for them, individualizing the experience. 

Halt die Klappe!
Another agency that B.J. will align with is the Kreisau Circle.  The Circle will provide safety and shelter for B.J., as well as occasionally go out on missions with him.  It’s at this point that you’ll want to shoot each and every one of them in the head.  While the voice acting is top notch, the constant nagging is absolutely grating.  When you start your mission you’ll be told how many chunks of gold (the currency of the game, in addition to the mission rewards), pieces of Intel, and Tomes (they unlock Veil powers) there are in the area.  You can imagine how frustrating it is to search the vast play area hearing some soldier saying “B.J. – if you want to go to the safehouse, we need to get going.” and “B.J. we need to go!” and “B.J.! This way!”, etc. et. al. constantly.  Their nagging is constant and can carry for miles.  You’ll also notice that all of the Germans speak English rather well. How cool would it have been to have an option to have the Germans speak their native language?  As I mentioned before though, the voice acting is very well done.  General Zetta sounds like a big fat evil bastard, the officers have a command presence, and the resistance members sound very authentic to their native ethnicities.  Even B.J. has a particular swagger you’d expect from a one man army that he is. 

Graphically Wolfenstein is a great looking title.  Utilizing a heavily modified id Tech 4 (Doom 3/Quake 4) engine, the game features all the bells and whistles we saw in those titles, as well as depth of field, soft shadows, Havok physics, and quite a bit more.  The levels are varied, featuring large open spaces, narrow corridors, great verticality, as well as the green/blue tinged effect of the Vale world overlay.  All of that beauty comes at a price.  Even with a hard drive install there were a few moments where the framerate was less than stable.  I never saw it during combat, but there were a few transition moments where the framerate dropped visibly.  That said, Wolfenstein is one of the best looking titles on the Xbox 360 to date.

This graphic enhancement extends nicely to the animation system as well.  The death animations are usually the first thing you'll see repeated in most shooters, but that isn't the case here.  For every way you can eviscerate an enemy, there are at least two animations for them to die.  You can pop off an arm, pop off a leg, or with a large enough calibur round, rip the head clean off of an enemy.  Sometimes you'll gut-shot an enemy only to watch them slowly drop to their knees and die.  Balcony-perched enemies will occasionally double over the rails and sail over the edge to their death.  Shooting Veil Geists will cause an arc of electricity to rip through nearby Nazis, making them twitch and seize in place.  Motion capturing these animations must have been hilarious to watch.

Zu den waffen!
Raven helmed the single player experience, but the multiplayer portion of the game, just like in the previous game, is being developed by a third party. Endrant Studios has taken the 12-player template from Return to Castle Wolfenstein and ran with it.  The Engineer, Medic, and Soldier class-based combat returns, as does the classic Team Death Match and Objective based modes.  Adding to this is a new Stopwatch mode where one team attacks an objective and the other team defends it, and then the roles are reversed.  After the match plays out, the team with the fastest time wins.  Just like the single player game, it is the addition of the Vale powers that makes all of the difference.  All three classes have access to the Veil, utilizing it in different ways.  The Soldier can throw a grenade of Veil energy that disrupts gravity, the Engineer can use the Veil to increase his run speed, and the Medic is able to use the Veil to heal his nearby allies.  These powers are in addition to the pack drops (satchel charges, ammunition, health) that were present in the previous game.  
 

Taking another page from the single player game, and borrowing one from the Call of Duty franchise, you will be able to persistently unlock new powers, weapon upgrades, and Veil powers.  The hitch is that you can only use one unlock in each category at a time, so you’ll have to chose wisely.  Just like in Call of Duty 4, you’ll be able to change these after each death, so you won’t feel locked into a particular power if what you’ve chosen doesn’t work for the objective. 

There is one page from other shooters that, for some reason, didn't make the leap to this title.  There is no cover mechanic or lean mechanic in the game.  The game doesn't suffer from it much, but its absense is somewhat baffling.

When talking to the guys at Activision Blizzard about this title, apparently I had a small bout of turrets when recalling how much time I played the multiplayer in Return to Castle Wolfenstein.  Well, it was like Déjà Vu all over again, as the multiplayer is fantastic.  I’d use some Rated M language to describe just how much I played the multiplayer, but it goes beyond that – the game is solid all the way around.  Compelling single player with a fresh take on things doesn’t happen every day.  It’s just that much better when it comes bundled with a fantastic multiplayer experience to boot.

Gaming Trend Score

90

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 85
3. Controls: 85
4. Gameplay: 92
5. Value/Replay: 95
6. OVERALL:90