Now Playing: Wolfenstein The Old Blood

So I warned you I'd be playing this, and yup I am! So how's the Prequel mini-sequel to last year's best linear shooter? Well pretty great! I can't exactly say its too fantastic (at least not yet), but its fairly great and it does enough to have me excited to be back. For the record I'm in the middle of chapter 3 now, so maybe I'm like 1/3rd or so of the way through.

The most interesting thing I realized off the bat is how I recognized parts of the plot. I thought it was just a name drop first of an older character with some references, but as I went along it kept coming back more and more until it was clear that actually the first area of Return to Castle wolfesntein is being fleshed out in this prequel. No really, talk of dead kings, alchemy that brought people back to life, the paranormal SS division, and just a ton of stuff was added onto such an old and quickly dispatched enemy from a game over a decade old. That actually surprised me, but I'm quite happy for it really. Although it does mean that unless they wipe the old game cannon clean, I also know that we wont be killing her here. However its already given us personal logs, detailed work papers, nazi conversations about her and the work, invented a new interesting character who assists Helga, and even made a clever easter egg out of the scene (lets just say those who speak dragon will get it). I can't help but wonder if the future of the game will have me fighting paranormal stuff, which would be a nice surprise considering how MachineGames emphasized they wanted to stay away from that in the original game.

What of the gameplay? Well lets get the nitpicky complaints out of the way first. For starters the opening is slow. Its fine at first since the prologue is kind of expected to do that, but then almost the entire first level is made up of these fixed patrolling brutes that need to be taken out a very precise way. Its done in a way that really tests your patience above all else, and there's no real room to experiment or much to explore, its just a very boring way to start out a game especially with it in mind that this is kind of a shorter game. In concept the enemy used was neat and there was one really cool challenge to timing your move right, but making an entire level out of them was just... ugh.

These guys aren't what I play wolfenstein for

The only other real thing I could complain about is that stealth just doesn't feel as solid as I remember it. I think the AI has improved, but also they now consistently notice when a body is lying around and get worked up over something that you can in almost no way prevent. On top of that, I've just had moments where I've been shocked by what they do or do not notice. It just feels more shakey. Outside of that though everything is good, and it is really good. Lots of logs and lore to read, a bit of humor, and of course the core gameplay is just great. Watching after my health, collecting ammo with a decent pile and styles of weapons to go in with, and the eagerness to work on perks for minor improved features.

I will say though I'm not sure if I've gotten rusty or the enemies have gotten better. The enemies seem faster, more responsive, and love vaulting over rails whenever they can. Unfortunately I'm backwards and I'm pretty sure I'm slower at reacting from not playing a good FPS game in a while (been mostly playing R&C, and Dust before this). However as usual I'm coming to grips with things fast, and having a blast killing nazis.

Gimme my perks!

I'm also having a good bit of trouble with collectibles. I'm not oblivious to secrets or anything, I've found a good share of them, but I'm still missing what are probably just the lightly obscured collectibles you can easily walk right past. However whether I need a guide or just a few more playthroughs, I'm going to see what I need and do what I can to grab that platinum like I did with the main game. First thing is first though, there are 8 chapters and quite a bit more need to be worked on before I talk about replaying anything. I will say the length of the chapters does surprise me so far, even if the 1st drags on a bit. For a short DLC piece, I'm starting to think more and more that this is really closer to a sequel with how in depth I feel the experience has been so far. Besides Helga really is starting to interest me more than deathshead did, she actually feels like she's got more of a build-up and I'm truly excited to see all of this go through. Now if you'll excuse me, its time to proceed and get rid of nazis.

...and stare at their creepy decor while I'm at it