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dkirschner's Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PC)

[June 26, 2021 01:02:49 PM]

This is basically the same game as The New Order, which is to say that it is incredible. The perks system that encourages experimentation remains, the weapons are pretty much the same (except maybe new heavy weapons that shoot lasers and grenades), the enemies aren’t much different. If you loved the reboot, you’ll love this one.

One drawback to the series is few and/or lackluster boss fights. There kind of…aren’t…boss fights in this game. Once, you fight a giant mechanized dog robot, but then you see them again later. Easy. The “last boss” is two hulking robots and an endless stream of soldiers. That one was actually really hard. But you don’t fight anything with a personality. No London Monitor. No mad scientist. Nothing in a boss fight at least.

Like The New Order’s intense train segment, some of the best parts of The New Colossus are interactive scenes. If you’ve read anything about The New Colossus, you probably know that Hitler makes a cameo. I won’t spoil it at all, but this is by far one of the best scenes in any video game ever. The ending scene is similarly fantastic. Whoever writes and directs these scenes are brilliant.

Again, the writers work magic. This game explores BJ Blazkowicz’s childhood on a Texas farm with his parents. His father is an abusive authoritarian and his mother an abused Jewish wife. We are treated to another cool resistance base with memorable characters. Elsewhere in the story, BJ goes to Venus. Last game was the moon, this game is Venus. Somehow the story is even more bonkers.

The story also contains commentary on racial justice and gender equity, really progressive. I have noticed a trend of user reviews for games giving one star and saying “SJW trash” or something. Usually I cannot find anything in the game to that effect. For example, I read reviews complaining that Control was forcing feminism on players because “men screwed things up and a woman fixes everything,” but there was nothing explicitly feminist about the game. The main character was a woman. In most stories, men ruin things and men fix them. But if a woman fixes them, it becomes feminist propaganda? The woman could have been replaced with a man and nothing in the story would have changed. I would very much like to do a research project on user reviews about these sorts of issues in games.

Anyway, I’ve pointed out how similar this one is to the previous game, which is great. One of the few new things they added are “contraptions” that you unlock halfway through the game. You get a choice of three. The Battle Walker gives you Go-Go Gadget legs, allowing you to reach high places. The Constrictor Harness lets you squeeze into tight spaces. The Ram Shackles allow you to smash through things. I chose the extendable legs for tactical height advantage, but I hated them! You activate them by pressing jump again. Now, I often mash the jump button in video games. Even when I only have to press it once, I’ll go “jump jump jump!” So this led to the frustrating outcome of my legs extending when I meant to jump. I’m trying to sprint-jump away from enemies, and I just go high instead (and you move really slowly on the legs), and I get shot and die. Like really, I hated it and regretted my choice. The stealth option looked stupid because this is Wolfenstein and who stealths through this game? I should have gone with the ramming armor.

The game get difficult later on, but after many deaths, I learned that I can just sprint to checkpoints. My time with the game was probably frontloaded, and toward the end I just whooshed past many encounters. It worked! Great game, highly recommended.