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[antitrop]

I don't know how it takes some people 15 hours to play through this game. My first two playthroughs were approximately 9 hours long, and each subsequent playthrough has been even shorter. And I didn't even rush it on my first two runs. Well, not that much anyway.

I dunno, took me about 14 hours and I was going at a normal pace.

 

[Messofanego]

Just started this, got through the first chapters. The part in the intro where Deathshead is just staring at you through the window in the door was super creepy. The music and the noise, coupled with his expression was just really unsettling. Creeped me out big time.

hahaha what are you doing in there?

 

[Andrew.]

This is one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life

 

[epmode]

Man, how did I ignore this game for so long? It's goddamned awesome and I expected garbage prior to release. So glad I bought it.

 

[DocSeuss]

hahaha what are you doing in there?

He's a happy man

 

[SPACECADET]

this game is really great so far. i love being able to choose a stealthy approach and knowing when i fuck it up i can destroy everything. the story so far is impressive, it's really gripping. i feel like it is taking a lot of inspiration from tarantino. a good amount of his serious but playful spirit. even if it doesn't outdo him.

 

[def sim]

It was kinda funny. He came out of nowhere with that smile!

 

[VeryGooster]

I know it might detract from situations where shooting is an intense, quick-thinking moment, but I kind of wish this game had a photo mode like Infamous: SS's.

 

[Minion101]

The game is less cheesy than I expected which makes me happy.

 

[DocSeuss]

I know it might detract from situations where shooting is an intense, quick-thinking moment, but I kind of wish this game had a photo mode like Infamous: SS's.

Just use a screenshot program and map it to a hotkey. Obviously, avoid Steam's for the compression.

 

[DukeBobby]

This is one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life

antitrop said the same thing. I wouldn't go that far, but it's definitely one of the best games I've played in the last few years.

 

[dhi]

Finished this today.

Chapter 13 is great, and has the best atmosphere and sound in the game.
Chapter 14 is a lot of fun.
Chapter 15 is a lot of fun.
Chapter 16 is overload on special enemy types, and the final boss is a bit of a slog

Spoiler

I suspect my aggressive style of trying to get a few more shots in before running away was making Mecha Deathshead harder than it's supposed to be because as soon as I settled down (and got a bit lucky with his slow turn speed) I beat him pretty handily.

_________________________________________________________



Overall this is one of the best shooters I've played in a long, long time, but it's not necessarily due to any one thing. Just like this team's previous projects, it's a mix of great pacing, really natural writing and great characterization, great world building/atmosphere, and (this time) great shootouts. I can give a few reasons as to why the game isn't a 10/10: Stealth is pretty easy due to dumb AI, textures and IQ are not great, latter chapters rely too heavily on tank enemies, cutscene transitions and location changes between chapters feel abrupt which eats into the presentation a bit, the sound mix is effed until you hack your console audio output (and even then its tinny), I found the weapon wheel right stick movement a bit inaccurate compared to other games,

Spoiler

shotgun supersolders

are massively annoying enemies, etc. whatever, who cares, let's get to the good stuff

Why It Works

- Pacing: The game took me around 20 hours to complete, and for 19 hours and 30 minutes of that it never felt like it was dragging, and nothing felt like it played out too quickly. Each chapter is given as much time as it needs to breathe and encounters, set-pieces, and tasks within those chapters vary in tone, speed, and difficulty. You go from shooting, to character moments, to stealth, to mini-bosses, to underwater, to bigger bosses, to vent crawling, to fetch missions back to shooting, and all of it feels like it was done by a team timing every second out so they hit the marks just right. I've seen some criticism for Chapter 1, but I thought it was a good introduction to all of the mechanics and situations you'll be faced with on the journey. I've seen some criticism for Chapter 8, but I thought it was placed exactly where it needed to be to kick off the 2nd half of the game. and showcased MachineGames' doing what they do even in the face of a balls out shooter like Wolfenstein. It's a game that has a good flow to its arcs and feels in control. Inhale, count to four. Exhale, count to four.

- Writing and Characterization: This is something the members of MachineGames got right a decade ago so it being a positive didn't surprise me at all. Every key player has a strong voice, and even the smaller roles feel like characters ripe to be fleshed out. The villains are horrible disgusting villains with a lot of charisma and are always kept in the frame by good plotting even when it seems like you're a world away. Lines are delivered naturally in and out of gameplay, and everything from BJ + Anya's relationship to cutscenes are handled with a finesse not only unique within shooters of the last few years, but in the industry at large. Yes it's pulpy, but it's done well and gets you to care about what's happening even after you've spent 15 minutes killin' Nazis.

I have to give a special mention to our hero, B.J. Blazkowicz. I think what MachineGames was able to do here is pretty cool, and will be largely unappreciated due to the IP and genre. They've managed to make a protagonist badass enough to be the soldier the game calls for, but infused with a heart, a voice, memories, and a sense of humor all unique to him. This isn't a one liner factory on a camera swivel, this is a guy that feels like his mind is churning, and thanks to that great little internal dialogue narrative device, we get to hear bits and pieces of him float to the surface through the violence and the muck. Whether its flowery lines during his reflective moments, or weird issues he has with the way a certain word sounds, or how he feels about falling off a bridge, or his economical dialogue with Anya; this is a character.

- World Building/Atmosphere: They've created a cohesive whole despite basically being a globetrotting WWII adventure. Every chapter is memorable and neck deep within the mood its trying to set from the classic "War Is Hell" trenches of the prologue, to the horror flavored asylum BJ "wakes up" in to really start the campaign, to the oppressive walls of a labor camp, to the 60s sci-fi visual and aural aesthetic of Chapter 13. Combined with the news clippings found throughout the game, you truly get a sense of what this alternate Nazi ruled future is like from many perspectives. Another aspect of this is the music which from the distorted, grinding noise accompanying Deathshead's scenes, to the somber guitar work found in the low key moments, to the metal and electronic offerings sprinkled everywhere else, it simply works. The rough sound mix will dampen some of this, but if you can get the levels right, you'll be treated to a very effective score.

- Gameplay: Plain and simple: this is a fun shooter. Guns have impact, explosives splatter enemies, leaning is really well done, hip fire is useful PRAISE DAH LAWD, the perk systems asks you to change your playstyle and offers great rewards, EVERY gun upgrade is useful and handed out right when you're getting used to your arsenal, knife takedowns look good, there's a "rock" for most every enemy's "scissors," and dual wielding giant auto-shotguns is amazing. Best of all, the non-shooting elements are well done too, and offer a nice bit of variety and anticipation for the next shootout. It all runs at a high clip and feels good on the sticks. It's to the point that I can almost forgive the AI for being so dumb in stealth sections because I'm still having fun. Even the little environmental puzzles and collectables are interesting enough for me to go out of my way to complete.

In Conclusion

It's a winner. MachineGames has taken their old formula and thrown everything they know into a blender with much better movement and shooting mechanics, and what we have is a 2nd generation shooter (1997-2007) with a ton of heart, and the kind of linear singleplayer ambition found in only a handful of shooters over the last 10 years. If there's any justice in the world, they'll be allowed to keep carrying this torch either with a Wolf sequel (I'd love to go to more countries and see

Spoiler

the resistance on the offensive on a large scale

, or work on a new IP with the same qualities. I need more of this in my life.

Final Rating: Dual Shrapnel Round Firing Auto-Shotguns Ripping Enemies To Pieces /10

Couldn't agree more. Great reading!

 

[Myansie]

I actually wish they put a little bit more effort into the achievements.

I mean, 32 achievements tied to perks, really? Pretty lazy.

Lol, I felt the opposite. I normally hate achievements and have them turned off. The perks are obviously just achievements, but actually serve a purpose with rpg like skill boosts. You want faster reloads then pull off 5 headshots.

 

[psychotron]

Greetings,

We are aware of the sound issue, in the most recent patch we had a fix for this problem. On the PS4 once the game is fully downloaded and up to date, clearing the cache and restarting the system will help if the problem is not fixed immediately. Thank your for being proactive in your support of Wolfenstein, and I am glad you are able to enjoy the game with the proper audio levels!


Thank you for contacting us!

Customer Support
Bethesda Softworks

Fixed. I don't think so.

 

[SeanR1221]

Decided to pick up my best buy preorder.

I'm actually glad I did. It's pretty fun! Chapter 1 suuuucked though.

 

[Freezasaurus]

This actually has my attention now. Is it worth paying the full $60 for, or should I wait for a price drop?

 

[antitrop]

This actually has my attention now. Is it worth paying the full $60 for, or should I wait for a price drop?

It's a decently length single player campaign that you will probably play twice. It might be the most a SP only shooter has been worth full price in a while.

I can see myself coming back to this one throughout the year when I need a shooter with great gunplay. This will be my goto game to kill shit for the foreseeable future. I see this game kind of like Doom, the core gameplay is so solid that it will always be fun to play.

And I'm totally in for DLC.

 

[Big_Al]

One thing that surprised me looking at the cast credits was that Dwight Schultz (Murdoch from A-Team) did the voice for Deathshead! Now I know his main profession is as a voice actor and it doesn't surprise me he's good but it was still a surprise seeing that. Great performance.

 

[NullPointer]

- Writing and Characterization: This is something the members of MachineGames got right a decade ago so it being a positive didn't surprise me at all. Every key player has a strong voice, and even the smaller roles feel like characters ripe to be fleshed out. The villains are horrible disgusting villains with a lot of charisma and are always kept in the frame by good plotting even when it seems like you're a world away. Lines are delivered naturally in and out of gameplay, and everything from BJ + Anya's relationship to cutscenes are handled with a finesse not only unique within shooters of the last few years, but in the industry at large. Yes it's pulpy, but it's done well and gets you to care about what's happening even after you've spent 15 minutes killin' Nazis.

I have to give a special mention to our hero, B.J. Blazkowicz. I think what MachineGames was able to do here is pretty cool, and will be largely unappreciated due to the IP and genre. They've managed to make a protagonist badass enough to be the soldier the game calls for, but infused with a heart, a voice, memories, and a sense of humor all unique to him. This isn't a one liner factory on a camera swivel, this is a guy that feels like his mind is churning, and thanks to that great little internal dialogue narrative device, we get to hear bits and pieces of him float to the surface through the violence and the muck. Whether its flowery lines during his reflective moments, or weird issues he has with the way a certain word sounds, or how he feels about falling off a bridge, or his economical dialogue with Anya; this is a character.

All this right here. Perfectly put too.

And one bit to add from my second playthrough - I do truly hate those shotgun troopers with a passion, but man, when you nail em in the chest with a rocket they disintegrate with the most satisfying, pulpy, messy SPLAT. This game is a drug.

 

[Sullichin]

I dunno, took me about 14 hours and I was going at a normal pace.

Man, I'm 9 hours in and I'm only on chapter 8 or 9. I've been dying a lot (second hardest difficulty) and some of that time was spent tweaking settings just getting the game to be playable, but still. Wouldn't be surprised if my first playthrough was over 15 hours.

Speaking of BJ's internal monologues... if you flush more than one toilet, he says something like "is this becoming a compulsive habit or something?" Lots of nice touches like that.

 

[MrS]

This is one of the best games I've ever played in my entire life

It's certainly memorable but it ain't Quake/HL2/Duke Nukem 3D level

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

EUGH I'M SO STUPID. Got the ending of Wolfenstein spoiled for me. Stupid YouTube comments.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

Fixed. I don't think so.

Whoa, they're actually saying it's fixed and we've never turned our system off since downloading and we're wrong?

Maybe they should play it once or twice. It certainly isn't fixed. I guess now we know for sure they're not gonna fix it.

 

[RedSwirl]

Bruh, how many languages can BJ understand?

German? Okay, he's fighting a war in Germany, it's understandable he'd pick up the local language?

Polish? Fine. He's of Polish descent so he could have easily picked it up from his parents or grandparents.

Hebrew? Okay, he might be Jewish.

But French, and Chinese too? Is there some aside somewhere in the game about how BJ's hobby is linguistics or something? Or at least some observation that he's a polyglot?

 

[NoMoreTrolls]

When do you get an extra knife for throwing? I could have sworn you did in chapter one, but I haven't so far...

 

[epmode]

I had an extra knife disappear when I reloaded a checkpoint in Chapter 1. Didn't find another until the beginning of Chapter 2.

 

[Silky]

Bruh, how many languages can BJ understand?

German? Okay, he's fighting a war in Germany, it's understandable he'd pick up the local language?

Polish? Fine. He's of Polish descent so he could have easily picked it up from his parents or grandparents.

Hebrew? Okay, he might be Jewish.

But French, and Chinese too? Is there some aside somewhere in the game about how BJ's hobby is linguistics or something? Or at least some observation that he's a polyglot?

BJ's jewish

 

[Minion101]

There should be a Pervitin item in the game.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I had no hype for this game but im really enjoying it. I think not having to worry about a multiplayer and being able to completely focus on making a good single player makes a huge difference.

 

[Nemesis_]

I had no hype for this game but im really enjoying it. I think not having to worry about a multiplayer and being able to completely focus on making a good single player makes a huge difference.

I do wonder about this. Like, yeah, sometimes you get a second studio to put together a multiplayer component so that the primary studio doesn't have to worry about it. But for some reason this game still manages to be better than others that take that approach.

The only one where I think it's actually worked well and the single player didn't suffer too much is Mass Effect 3.

But I digress. I read a review that I really agreed with - this game harkens back to the days where the single player experience was the cornerstone of the game's offering, not a side offering relegated to the back stalls by multiplayer and other design choices made to ensure you don't trade the game in straight away.

 

[RedSwirl]

Okay Chapter 6 is as far as I can get in this game with a controller. Maybe it's just because I haven't seriously played console first person shooters in years, but the same thing happened when I tried a PS3 rental of BioShock Infinite. Both to me feel like I'm trying to play a PC shooter with an analog stick.

Game seems great. Will buy it sometime this year after I get through other games.

Oh, and the loading screens make me frustrated at how much my German has deteriorated. In most of them I can understand the whole quote except like one word.

 

[Freezasaurus]

I can see myself coming back to this one throughout the year when I need a shooter with great gunplay. This will be my goto game to kill shit for the foreseeable future. I see this game kind of like Doom, the core gameplay is so solid that it will always be fun to play.

Sounds good. I was pretty impressed with the footage I've seen so far. I wasn't too interested in the game to begin with, but that was mostly due to the last Wolfenstein game. I'll probably check this one out after I finish with Watch Dogs.

 

[Bog]

So are the two timelines completely different games, or are there just slight tweaks to the levels?

 

[UnwrittenZero]

I don't normally go for DLC but I would pay good money to put my knife in Frau Engel's skull.

Spoiler

I don't mind if they mass effect 2 BJ either.

 

[Nemesis_]

So are the two timelines completely different games, or are there just slight tweaks to the levels?

Fergus Timeline

• Hotwiring skill available
• Tekla appears in the hideout
• Optional cutscene with Tekla after sleeping in bed for third time.
• In the hideout, sleeping in your bed spawns a health upgrade each time you visit.
• Health upgrades available throughout the campaign

Wyatt Timeline

• Lockpicking skill available
• J appears in the hideout
• Optional cutscene with J after examining workbench for third time.
• You sleep in the room Tekla would've lived in. Use the workbench to create armour upgrades each time you visit.
• Armour upgrades are available throughout the campaign

Both timelines have very small areas accessible to the player that normally aren't. They're INCREDIBLY minor though.

Fergus and Wyatt behave differently too and have a kind of different temperament and outlook on life so their dialogue is different throughout missions too, obviously.

 

[GolazoDan]

I'm up to chapter 12. Apparently shit gets really crazy here (well, 13, so nearly there) but I'm enjoying this so much. I liked this description of it: it doesn't really do a lot of "new" things but it does a lot of old things incredibly well. Not only that, said old things haven't been done in so long they're basically new again. It seems like a few reviews (the odd one that compared it to Call of Duty, corridor shooter and all that stuff) basically reviewed the control scheme which is a shame because there's much more nuance to shooters than that. It's hard for me to describe but I feel like I can mosey through a Call of Duty game whereas Wolfenstein is making me think about how to approach the combat. I die a lot (second highest difficulty) but I give it another go, a try a different approach, I try a different weapon, and there we go. The story's also way more interesting than it has any right to be. Like, you fight your way out of a

Spoiler

concentration camp in a gigantic Titanfall mech

and that's not appalling. Good characters throughout so far, the main two villains are creepy as fuck.

 

[MR ARCADE FOREVER]

Do you like Arcade style, hectic corridor shooters with air tight controls, big guns, and bigger enemies? Add all that to a well paced level structure and great voice acting/cinematic cut scenes and you have Wolfenstein TNO. If all that sounds good... then yeah... you should check it out.

Thanks I will probably get it!

 

[GolazoDan]

- Writing and Characterization: This is something the members of MachineGames got right a decade ago so it being a positive didn't surprise me at all. Every key player has a strong voice, and even the smaller roles feel like characters ripe to be fleshed out. The villains are horrible disgusting villains with a lot of charisma and are always kept in the frame by good plotting even when it seems like you're a world away. Lines are delivered naturally in and out of gameplay, and everything from BJ + Anya's relationship to cutscenes are handled with a finesse not only unique within shooters of the last few years, but in the industry at large. Yes it's pulpy, but it's done well and gets you to care about what's happening even after you've spent 15 minutes killin' Nazis.

I have to give a special mention to our hero, B.J. Blazkowicz. I think what MachineGames was able to do here is pretty cool, and will be largely unappreciated due to the IP and genre. They've managed to make a protagonist badass enough to be the soldier the game calls for, but infused with a heart, a voice, memories, and a sense of humor all unique to him. This isn't a one liner factory on a camera swivel, this is a guy that feels like his mind is churning, and thanks to that great little internal dialogue narrative device, we get to hear bits and pieces of him float to the surface through the violence and the muck. Whether its flowery lines during his reflective moments, or weird issues he has with the way a certain word sounds, or how he feels about falling off a bridge, or his economical dialogue with Anya; this is a character

This is spot on. BJ's a great character from what I've played so far, which is a bit odd as someone who's never played a Wolf game before but basically knows BJ as the first "bald (space) marine" type that has basically become commonplace in military shooters. Unlike most of them, BJ has a well-defined character. He doesn't come across as a meathead. He's a machine of a man but he's no dummy. He's got some intelligence and integrity about him.

Spoiler

Buoy?

 

[LeonSPBR]

Just finished the game and this game is amazing. Been a long time since I played a good single player FPS game. Now it's time to hunt that plat.

And I agree on everything Net_Wrecker said about this game. This game is a gem that I fear with the metacritic score that it have, many players will pass.

 

[Dug]

Just beat

Spoiler

London Monitor

. How much longer?

 

[therealminime]

Just beat

Spoiler

London Monitor

. How much longer?

Not much, couple hours at most.

 

[nhlducks35]

Pretty fun plat

 

[Steelyuhas]

Anyone have any issues with the title update on XBO?

I bought the game the other day (digital) and it downloaded, haven't tried to play it until now. When I fired it up I got an update prompt (which was puzzling because day one updates install with the game on XBO). The update fails, and then the weird part is if I hit cancel the game will actually load up to the menu. So, I'm not sure if the update has actually been applied and the system just thinks it hasn't for some reason...

Anyone else experience anything like this?

 

[DukeBobby]

Just beat

Spoiler

London Monitor

. How much longer?

Not much. 2 chapters left.

 

[Bricky]

Just finished the game on Death Incarnate. Overall the game was easy-ish with some relatively big dificullty spikes here and there. The last chapter especially was difficult and extremely intense. It's been a while since I had to try that hard to not die in a FPS and I loved the tension and excitement it gave (because it wasn't unfair at all, you just had to play well). The final boss was a bit too much for me though.

Spoiler

The first part was very doable once you 'got' it, but the second part... I just kept emptying all my weapons (mostly grenade launcher and laser gun) on him with no succes. After ten tries or so I got so desperate ('is this guy invincible or something?') I decided to google a bit to see if I wasn't doing something very simple wrong; I was, all I had to do was shoot him in the damn head more. Boom, one try later I got it. Felt great. The depth of field effect was HORRIBLE in that fight though, made it extremely hard to spot the damn guy. Maybe that was intended, not sure, but it just got too visually chaotic with that and all the fire when the fight neared its end if you ask me.

Loved the style, story, characters and the great feeling of finally playing a classic FPS campaign without any BS again. With the exception of Chapter 10 (the swimming, diving and its controls were awful), everything was greatly paced and always fun. 8/10 would double shotgun again.

 

[Hurley]

Wow just heard this monologue from BJ during chapter 10 -

Spoiler

Age 32, swam the cesspools beneath Deathshead's X-Labs. But it wasn't as dirty as this.

Thought it was pretty neat.

 

[King Radical]

Oh no guys, many of the employee.

 

[Rizzi]

So, character spoiler about Anya.

Spoiler

Anya is Ramona?

 

[MattyG]

So, character spoiler about Anya.

Spoiler

Anya is Ramona?

It seems like that's the implication, especially after the last few

Spoiler

diaries.

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

So, character spoiler about Anya.

Spoiler

Anya is Ramona?

That seem to be the case. If so, then it would make sense if she was a patient first, and then became a nurse.