Picked this up over the black friday PSN sale and slowly making my way through. I'm halfway through now, at the very beginning of part 2.
Honestly, I'm really disappointed with it. I knew it was pretty divisive beforehand, and I read some of the complaints, but I still thought I was going to like it more than I am. I'll start with what I like about it though:
-Amazing art direction. People give the machinegame Wolfenstein games shit for not looking good, but I honestly think they look seriously fantastic. Old Blood might have even better art direction than New Order too, I love the more retro vibe and gothic spookiness of it. Every area is joy to explore because it all looks so good, and is my favorite part of this DLC/expansion/prequel so far.
-Gunplay remains fantastic. Seriously one of, if not the, best FPS's in terms of weapon feedback (gun sounds notwithstanding, sadly). The new bolt action rifle is amazing too, I love the head popping.
Sadly, that's about it as far as the positives so far. My main issue is the encounter design in tandem with the pacing. This game is much, much less story heavy than New Order (one of the strengths) and often you will go like an hour or more of playing and then the only development you get are diary entries and then a line or two from BJ. Which leaves the meat of the game as just combat encounter after combat encounter, without any of the exploration/pacing sections New Order was so good at. And the encounters themselves are worse, as almost every single one has two commanders that are increasingly further spread out, and an abundance of armored enemies and special enemies that pour out from every nook and cranny of the maps as you try and rush your way to the commanders should you fail to make it to them stealthily. And stealth is a lot harder this time because the arenas are much more open so enemies can spot you easier, are filled with special enemies that can't be stealth killed from range, dudes with helmets that you can't stealth drop with headshots, and a dire lack of throwing knives.
It takes all the flaws of New Order's encounter and enemy design (which held it back from being my #1 GOTY in 2014) and magnifies them to a frustrating degree, which in turn magnifies some of the core problems with the mechanics (at least on console). I find myself constantly irritated with having to manually pick up ammo and health in the heat of an encounter, having to fiddle with the finicky weapon wheel that doesn't slow time or anything, and having a useless overcharge system and really quick damage degradation with an almost useless regen system (both because you take damage so quickly), all while you're taking shots from every angle. This leads to having to stay in cover when the game excels when you're mobile. I had to turn the difficulty down to normal to play it more enjoyably (something I only had to do in New Order for one encounter), and even then it's still annoying.
Maybe the second half will be better, but I kinda doubt it considering the very first encounter is just like the ones in the first half except the commanders are ever further spread apart.