Everything that Wolfenstein: The New Order brought to the single player shooter table back in 2014 has been turned to 11 with The New Colossus. Bethesda and Machinegames have delivered an amazing high octane shooter once again striking gold.
The game picks up immediately after
*** Spoiler - click to reveal *** The New Order’s end boss fight with General Deathshead and gives explanation on how BJ made it out safely from the nuclear blast he ordered on the compound
. From there the game’s prologue sets tone, quality and atmosphere of this incredible sequel.
The New Colossus also sets outs to fix the minor problems of the New Order, such as automatically picking up ammo and armour whenever you run over the item in question instead of having to button mash to pick them up everytime.
Another new mechanic introduced is the ability to hard save whenever you want from the pause menu. Thought trivial at first this mechanic became a life and time saver as I could save in between the hard firefights and the extremely hard but challenging boss fights. However one small issue is that Bj is quite particular on what he wants to vault and jump over, which caused me to die several times. You will die a lot in the game, Bj is a human wrecking ball but he is not invincible. This forces players to think on their feet and to try new ways to finish and dominate a firefight. I found new ways to be crafty and to kill on the fly.
Gunplay is phenomenally fun and intense, some of the best in recent generational memory. Each firefight feel like an orchestra of pure mayhem and chaos yet I somehow survived by the skin of my teeth. You can approach enemies in two ways, guns blazing or the more stealthy option in using the silenced pistol. However the stealth option never really lasts for long as the AI is quick to spot you and once again, guns start blazing. The ability to dual wield two primary weapons returns adding to the mayhem.
Well written three dimensional characters is what the current Wolfenstein series does best. William Joseph “B.J.” Blazkowicz is still the all American fighting machine he was in the first game, however he now questions his mortality after his fight with Deathshead left his body broken. We also receive backstory about his childhood through one of the most powerful opening prologues in a game since Dead Rising and Half Life.
The usual suspects Anya, Set, Max Hass, Bomebate, and (Wyatt/Fergus) return and have their time to shine. New characters also join the game with notable mentions for resistance fighter Grace Williams who has some of the best moments of the game, as well as Sigrun Engel who always steals the spotlight. However the best character of Wolfenstein 2 goes to antagonist Frau Irene Engel who makes one of the most memorable and chilling villains of 2017.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is one of the best games I’ve played in recent memory and by far one of the best single player shooters I’ve ever played. It’s a must for those who want to have a fun single player game with an excellent story.
4.5