Review

Developed by:MachineGames Published by:Bethesda Genre(s):
  • FPS
  • Platform:
  • Microsoft
  • PC
  • Sony
  • Cost:$19.99 ESRB Rating:MATURE Players:1 Release date:May 5, 2015 Reviewed on:XBox One
    8.5

    Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

    As much as I wanted to, I never could get into Wolfenstein: The New Order. It wasn’t because the game was bad. From what I played it was great. It was more due to time constraints, life, everything that tends to happen when you least expect. But, when I was contacted asking to review Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, I jumped at the chance. It’s a prequel to The New Order, so I figured whenever I do get a chance to play it, I’ll be ready. Little did I know how much fun I was about to have.

    The Old Blood begins just prior to the prologue of The New Order, with you in control of BJ Blazkowicz and your partner, Richard Wesley. You are on a mission to sneak into Castle Wolfenstein to obtain a top secret folder containing the location of a major Nazi general, but as these type of stories go, things don’t necessarily go according to plan. I really don’t want to get too much into the story, just because the story is SO wall-to-wall action packed, ludicrous, B-Movie material that it would be a shame to ruin it. The two part campaign is about five to seven hours of Nazi-zombie monster ridiculousness that needs to be experienced to believe. What I can say is that it’s more entertaining than it sounds, and it sounds pretty great!

    The gameplay is identical to The New Order, with buttery slick 60fps and 1080p goodness – a must for today’s first person shooters. You can either go stealth or no holds barred Rambo depending on your gameplay style (I’m partial to the latter). The gun battles are absolutely a blast, with weapons that give you a fighting edge; the bolt-action rifle, rocket handgun, and my personal favorite, the trusty sawed-off shotgun are all effective at dismembering foes. The perk system is back, but nerfed a bit. It’s almost too easy to gain them now, making a BJ a walking killing machine resulting in a less challenging experience. To be fair, because of the game’s length MachineGames probably sped things up to give players more time to use them. Still, it would have been nice to keep the level of tension found early on throughout the whole game.

    The world you are thrust into is absolutely gorgeous, with lush scenery and realistic corridors that help with the emersion. What’s great though it that there aren’t any frame rate issue like the ones found in the New Order (at least on PC). It’s also lacking texture pop-ins, screen tearing…basically Old Blood’s visuals look new and improved. The voice work it still great but musical scores aren’t as great as I remembered; the soundtrack seems more jarring this time around. Of course, this didn’t ruin my playthrough as the rest of the game was more or less pleasant.

    Once finished, I doubt you’ll want to replay. Even though the game is short and the story is wild and absurd (good things), the old school FPS action does become quite a chore after a while. There are nods to Wolfenstein 3D and Return to Castle Wolfenstein for those who still remember these classics, with both parts of the story basically being based on the first chapters of both games. For those sick of zombies in their first person shooters, which I absolutely understand (I’m talking to you, Call of Duty), give The Old Blood a chance. It’s not all zombies. That being said, I had a blast and definitely makes me want to pick up The New Order and finish what I started last year!

    Gameplay:

    9

    The Old Blood controls the same as The New Order, which is to be expected. Perks are a bit much but easily forgiven due to the length.

    Graphics:

    10

    Looks just as good as you would expect. Simply amazing characters, guns, and zombified Nazis make for delicious eye candy.

    Sound:

    9

    The music and sound are percussive and jarring. The voice work is well done.

    Replay Value:

    6

    As fun as it was to enter this outlandish world, I won't be replaying this for achievements. Just too much stimulation for me personally Others might be fine with it (especially when considering the length) so take this score with a grain of salt.

    Final Score:

    8.5

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