Wolfenstein Review PS3

Ah Wolfenstein, a cult classic from yester year that always try to reinvent itself every few years much like Doom. Unlike Return to Castle Wolfenstein, this game falls flat on its face. The story is boring at best and the gameplay brings nothing new to the table to rejuvenate the series in a memorable way. The game revolves around the continuing adventures of B.J. Blazkowicz from the original Wolfenstein 3D and Return to Castle Wolfenstein games. In this game, in addition to standard weapons, the player also has the veil ability which allows one to see through walls, slow down time, create a defensive shield, and increase damage from weapons temporarily. Although it fits into the Nazi occult theme that the franchise has been known for, the veil abilities hinder the game rather than enhance it. The multiplayer is a whole other fiasco in itself.

Graphic and sound:

Wolfenstein looks good considering it is using the old id Tech 4 engine from Doom 3. The engine has been modified extensively since then which is why Wolfenstein is able to sport the latest in eye candy. Level design is poor, with many small areas enclosed with rubble, which force the player through linear environments with no exploration or tactical strategy involved. Later in the game, levels become much larger and open, but the beginning levels may bore most players. Looking at the game through the murky green veil ability is ugly. All textures become muddy and psychodelic.

Voiceovers in Wolfenstein are devoid of emotion. For a company that has created countless video games that have been of high caliber, one would expect quality to be consistent. Some voice actors provide dialogue for multiple characters, which leads to some humorous conversations between guards with the same voice actor providing the voice for both. Also, weapon sounds vary from fairly accurate representations to complete garbage toy gun sounds. Quality control seems to have been off-shored like most things these days.

Gameplay and controls:

Wolfenstein has a very short single player campaign with 9 main missions and 5 side optional side quests. The player will need to use the veil ability to traverse certain areas of the game and in order to obtain all the secret items and achievements. The veil system seems to be more of a last minute gimmick thrown together with no real thought put into the design in order to provide some sort of innovation. Another problem that harkens back to yesteryears are the abundance of destructible crates. Does no one have any imagination to create something besides crates to hold ammo or secrets in?

Multiplayer consists of 3 game modes which are essentially team deathmatch, objective based, and objective based with a time limit. Also, 3 character classes exist for the player to choose from: medic, engineer, and soldier. The multiplayer has a plethora of issues plaguing it such as connection problems and lag. A patch was released to address some issues on launch day and the development team for the multiplayer component was also fired on the same day. Those two pieces of information alone should warn any player from even attempting to try multiplayer in Wolfenstein.

Overall thoughts:

Wolfenstein had the potential to reinvigorate the series that has not had a sequel in quite a few years and instead, the game fell flat on its face with the dismal quality. Not even the employees behind Legendary were fired and we all know how bad that game was… This game should be a warning to all developers that outsourcing and off-shoring work to others is not always cost effective and can lead to the utter destruction of a franchise and even the parent developer company or publisher as well from all of the bad publicity attached to the product. Do not buy this game, hell do not even bother renting it as you will wish you bought a candy bar and a soda instead.