Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is is the latest game in the Wolfenstein franchise. The franchise is known to be set in a alternate future where the Nazi’s somehow won World War II and have taken over the world. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus takes place in a Nazi occupied America where you will play as William “B.J.” Blazkowicz who is a liberator of soughts that works hard to disrupt the Nazi’s.
In playing this game the first thing that you need understand is that the Nazi’s in this are really just fictional ones, it’s a story about a potential alternate history. Much of the game will have you with the primary objective to kill Nazi’s who in this story are the villains.
Being the villains, the Nazi’s have created a very grim and dark world with their winnings. The tone of the game is dark and is a little depressing to play through. The colour tone is mostly grey and brown, with many things appearing quite gloomy. This was I guess my only gripe with the game as the experience was a little sad due to the nature of its topic and I think it did take away from the fun I was looking to have with it. Additionally the Nazi characters are quite evil and represent the worse of things we’ve heard from the war. All this mixed in with the tone and the presentation of it all I feel might make some more sensitive people in the world a little uncomfortable with the experience that Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus provides.
In light of the gloomy tone for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus the action isn’t as serious as one would expect and is where the fun component comes from. Killing the enemies by shooting them will result in all types of blood and gruesome effects which are at times funny. You can even shoot explosives and the Nazi’s will explode from them all over the level. There’s a certain aspect of fun from this over the top violence and I had a great time shooting things in this game.
As a first person shooter, your main objective is basically the kill everything in each of the levels. But scattered throughout the game there is the odd collectable to find. There’s also health packs and various items such as weapons or ammunition to help you along the way.
The gameplay is centered around the fun of killing, but doesn’t make you overly powerful in the process. I found at times that I needed to make sure I monitored my health and sought out the health packs frequently in order to stay alive, this is made evident to players from the beginning of the game and is relevant until the end. You also more often than not, are not able to take on too many enemies together at a time, those Nazi’s will kill you every time no matter how strong you think your gun is, if you’re out in the open you will still get shot at and killed. So you do need to be careful how you approach some stages. You can also stealth at certain times, but I found running and gunning was suitable most of the time.
The only issue I had with the gameplay was that while things were mostly linear, in much of the levels, at times I got lost while exploring. You can press a button on your control which will put a marker somewhere so you can see the direction you need to go. But I thought that the marker was way too small, I could barely see it and remained lost as a result.
There are a few difficulty levels which you can change at any time in the game. The harder settings are really very challenging and would be difficult even for experienced FPS people. But if you’re in it for just some fun, there are easier difficulty settings for playing the game so you can experience the story. Although I did find most of them to be quite difficult.
The graphics in this game are quite good. For something released in 2017 this one stands out as one of the better looking games for the year. The sound effects for the weapons all seem just right and the music is well mixed for the high intensity moments in the game.
Overall Wolfenstein II: The New Collussus offers players a fun FPS experience in fictional world filled with Nazi’s to kill. The graphics are nice and the sound the weapons make provide a great experience. I did at times get lost in the levels and had trouble with the marker telling me where to go and the game is a little gloomy. But overall it is well put together and offers players a decent FPS gaming experience.
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