I f*cking love the new Wolfenstein

I spent the last few moments of 2018 beating Wolfenstein: The New Order just before the new year and that felt like a pretty good way to start 2019.

Over the past four or five days, I've been playing the hell out of Wolfenstein: The New Order, which is odd because I am not typically into first person shooters. The last FPS I beat from start to finish was 2013's BioShock Infinite, No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't get into Metroid Prime, and DOOM (2016) was also a game I tried so hard to love but got to a point where I just got tired of playing it.

So why Wolfenstein?

Amidst receiving Red Dead Redemption II, Fallout 4, and Sunset Overdrive for Christmas, Wolfenstein was the game that made me go, "I'm not touching any other game until I beat this one."

The game throws you straight into World War II and has you portray BJ Blaskowicz, who at first seems nothing more than a Nazi-killing hunk of meat. I thought that I was just gonna pick up The New Order for about half an hour and put it down to go back to Red Dead II but to my dismay, I was immediately hooked by how snappy the gameplay felt and kept wanting to play more and more. As soon as the title appeared on screen, I remember saying out loud, "That was just the intro?"

From that point, you learn that this is a game that takes place in an alternate reality where the Nazis have won World War II and the plot of the game revolves around forming a resistance to hinder the Nazi's control of the world.

The campaign is roughly ten hours long. I don't think this game overstayed its welcome at all. The chapters are fairly short and simple and they move along quite fast. If anything, I thought there weren't enough moments given to take a breather. There are about a few moments where you can roam around the tiny resistance bunker and sleep to gain health upgrades and listen to other people's conversations but after a certain point, you're throttled straight through to the end.

One of the strengths with Wolfenstein is how far it goes to develop its characters. Upon first impressions, I thought BJ Blaskowicz was just gonna be silent hunk of meat programmed to kill Nazis but the inner monologues of BJ and the way he interacts with his fellow teammates goes a long way to ensure that this dude is a mortal human being and has just as many soft spots as the rest of us. The game is just as focused on developing BJ's relationships as much as it is about killing Nazis.

A great segway into the gameplay because killing Nazis feels so good. If there's one word I would use to describe the gunplay, it's "snappy."

It's quick, it's fast, and it's snappy. The gameplay is quite similar to DOOM, but the difference is that it's just not as frantic. You're not zooming around the map as much as you are in that game and neither are your enemies but if I think that's why I prefer Wolfenstein over DOOM.

DOOM get's tons of praise because of how non-traditional of a first person shooter it is and I can totally understand that. But that frantic zooming-through-the-map gameplay didn't work for me as much as Wolfenstein's corridors of Mecha-Nazis and dual-wielding shootouts.

At a glance, Wolfenstein looks like any other typical first person shooter, I'll admit that. But I don't think it plays the same way as many other FPSs out there either. Wolfenstein doesn't play like a simple war simulator or focus on replicating realistic military battles. I think the game is more focused on having fun with its gameplay more than making it as realistic as possible. The guns still have weight and recoil to them but they also cover a ton of range and auto-aim is built into the gameplay. I mean, I'm not complaining, given I suck at typical FPSs anyways.

It's hard to explain just how over-the-top some moments can be in Wolfenstein: The New Order but just take into account that this is a game that has one guy take down Mecha-Nazis on the f*cking moon. The game loves to be in your face as much as it can so it knows when it's being ridiculous. But even with its cartoonish scenarios, there are still moments meant to have the player sympathize with BJs choices and decisions... I'll leave it at that because as soon as I beat The New Order, I jumped straight into The New Colossus.

My first thoughts upon starting Wolfenstein: The New Colossus was "Wow, I'm so glad I got into the game late so I didn't have to wait three years to see what happens next", also everything looks so much clearer in The New Colossus, it was like putting on the proper pair of glasses for the first time.

I have only played an hour of The New Colossus at this point but upon the first few moments, I can say that they took the gunplay of The New Order and made it even snappier than before. These games prioritize framerate and making movements as fluid as possible and I love it. I'm glad this game has a hub in between levels unlike the previous game. I enjoy taking a breather before taking down a barrage of Nazis.

But anyways, I feel like I've thrown up enough to call this a lengthy post. I got to play more Wolfenstein. I f*cking love it.