Wolfenstein: the New Colossus: The Nazis better watch out of this one!
Triple A Video Game development Industry as we all know lays it’s game foundation on open-world micro transactions, RPG leveling mechanics and mundane side- quests copy pasted and are pumping them out like there is no tomorrow. Yet Bethesda and MachineGames are escalating with a single player FPS opting out Micro-transaction in sight that is easily the top shooter since 2016’s big hit DOOM reboot proving that quality games can be made without slapping on consumer’s face.
Legendary Hero and almost immortal Super soldier B.J. Blazkowicz is back again to put down Nazi Bad guys. Following certain events from the previous game B.J is not in his best state initially. But then the game takes a leap with B.J. turning lethal pinning down every Nazi in his sight with a sweet upgraded armor suit. Coupling him is his pregnant wife Anya and a host of allies with a massive Submarine base for operations. Their mission is to retake America from the occupying Nazi forces.
It is no surprise the game series Wolfenstein may come of more like wild, crazy and foolish. Remember the battle with the robotic Hitler? However the NEW ORDER had a new strategy to change this with a more serious tone and did quite well. The NEW COLOSSUS does it better, combining uncanny seriousness and dark humor narrations, silly background images, daft conversations and plenty of stupid scenarios that you can find only from Nazi Soldiers or a bunch of crazies running around with nukes. Somehow the game manages to fit in all these tones, largely with the strength of its characters.
The next paragraph contains spoilers for some of the game’s early scenes. Skip ahead if you don’t want to know.
The Game is not to be taken seriously though. Even with strong dark moments like the brief walk through of a young B.J.’s relationship with his horrible father who believed B.J. to be fragile. He restrains B.J. to get over his remorse of his Jewish wife whom he married purely for business benefits. Characters may die but when a dog is under torture we all know our heart skips a beat. B.J. is handed with a shotgun to shoot his family dog. It gets worse, unless you pull the trigger the scene doesn’t resolve and not a few minutes later you get to see a foul Nazi lady beheading a friend and you get to witness the dead eyes stare vacantly with dripping blood everywhere as she tosses the head. It is a weird blend but it somehow works making you hate the enemy more. It is no surprise you buy into it, that’s because MachineGames are a 100%committed to the world they make. The designers can control pace giving you moments to soak in the moments and side quests and flesh out the game.
Despite some rough patches the NEW COLOSSUS manages to be dark, funny, stylish and touching. The walk through B.J.’s history flesh out a protagonist character and helps us bond with the game characters. Summing up the game is hugely enjoyable from start to finish.
In the 2015 reboot the core combat loop was introduced to the series and it remains unchanged as its core, but has been refined. Scenarios are in a way which encourages you to consider going in stealth mode or just blow up everything. In the new game you get to move faster, which makes you want to run and gun. But you need to balance out as you are fragile giving you the chance to strategically judge when are where to be a maniac.
The game action is emphasized on giving you the joy of run and gun tactics where as reminding you your vulnerability.
The only flaw we came across is the damage feedback being poor. Using a controller you may feel the rumble but for those who are playing through a P.C., their character would have to die of a number of times simply because there are no feedbacks about you nearing the last breath.
Levels and mission designs are impressive with more open areas creating more curiosity in you. However it also slows down the game by side quests with running around to kill the bad guys or covering check points. Even with the improved gunplay a little more variety like riding a flame throwing robotic dog would have got it going well for long. Wish there were more sequences like it though.
This packed game with bloodshed, chaos and general madness has grey metal as its colour palette. There are also plenty of other vibrant colors thrown in like the Red of Nazi regime and lighting mixture with particle effects to create some amazing visual for your eyes.
The audio and background score does justice over all. While it boosts up with some head-banging tracks there are some drops when it comes to characters voices. The main casts are done well however some supporting characters are not.
To get a good gauge on the frame-rate, overlays like FRAPS has to work well and with Vulkan API it is not possible, Unlike DirectX. You may feel this problem in the performance.
Even with the game has got an enjoyable story some may find it difficult to process the humor. Also some may find it not worth because of the short length. Clocks around 7-10 hours depending on the difficulty level you choose. And then the climax leaves us underwhelmed. It just doesn’t manage to build up to the finale correctly.
Wolfenstein: The New Colossus is not flawless, but it has what it takes to become an enjoyable game with good game-play, story line, action, insanity and weird humor. It is the Best Shooting game since the game DOOM.
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