Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

By: Robert Murphy

Nothing excites me more than when a title for a great new game gets another add on or story thrown into the mix and that was most assuredly true when I saw that the new Wolfenstein game was receiving a pre-quel story add on to it. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood takes place before the events of The New Order and part of the game even takes place at Castle Wolfenstein which is the lair of Helga Von Schabbs, head of the occult research division for the Reich. You once again play as William "B.J." Blazkowicz and you and your partner are put to the task of sneaking into the castle to recover a secret document that has the location of Colonel Deathshead. A location that you find yourself already on your way towards in the first game but a place that remains unknown at this point and a place that the Allies desperately need to find if they have any hope of winning the war. This is no problem for old Blazhowicz though as you travel through the two act story in the hopes of saving the world from being under the boot of the Nazies.

After the success and joy I had playing The New Order, I felt that a game like The Old Blood could do no wrong and already had plenty of good ground to stand on and for the most part I was right. The gameplay is much the same as it was for the new titles release last year as you sneak or charge head first into Nazi filled areas guns blazing and half naked some of the time. There is a perfect blend of stealth and chaos with these two games, I can easily sneak through an area with my suppressed pistol and knives in my hands, taking out bad guys before they even know what hit them. On the opposite end though I could just as easily go two handed with my shotguns and blow body parts right off my enemies and get through an area that way. It really is a well balanced system and one that you probably wouldn't expect from the way the game is marketed, a straight forward shooter with explosions and giant robot killing machines. It is that to be sure but it also has a gentler touch to it if you choose to go that route.

Players will also see the return of the in game progression system and other goodies/secrets that the first game had. The progression system is a fairly straight forward one where you get perks and upgrades for the skills you use most, if you're stealthy that means you get better take downs from repeated knife attacks or hidden gold will be revealed on your map if you silent pistol commander Nazies. You also have easy to get perks such as increase health from over eating the in game health pacts or the ability to over charge your armor by putting on so many pieces of it as you go through the story. There is also the hidden gold to find throughout each level along with the hidden letters and character skins, I do wish that the gold finding was a little more creative than just three gold bars hidden in the levels, where in The New Order they were actual items like gold plates and trophies. You then have the continuation of the "nightmare" levels from the previous game, this was a hidden Easter Egg in the first game where you played an old school Wolfenstein level from the pixelated days. Now though if you want to crack the one thousand gamer score for the game you have to find all the beds in each level and complete the levels for achievements, an addition I felt was ridiculous and ruined the fun it brought from the first game, it really felt like they just needed more achievements for you to get and furthers my claim that the developers could have worked a little harder on the in game extras. 

Where The Old Blood really takes it's hit is with the actual story you play through. There are two overlaying arcs to the games story where the first half you go to Castle Wolfenstein and take part in an act called "Rudi Jager and the Den of Wolves" and the second half you go to a quiet little town in the mountains in an act called "The Dark Secrets of Helga von Schabbs". The first arc is much of the same shoot'em up action like I said earlier, there is brief character introduction of your partner and your main enemy Rudi Jager but that's about it. I never felt invested enough about my partner to care about rescuing him but yet that's what I spend the whole time trying to do and in the end when he dies I really didn't feel that angry or vengeful. The New Order had very rich character development and I felt sad when one of them died or at the very beginning when I had to choose which character gets to live, it wad grueling. Things here were so fast paced that I never felt invested in what I was doing and even when I killed Rudi in the end it wasn't that satisfying.

The second arc however did prove to change my opinions but at the same time introduced aspects that made things no better for The Old Blood. Your main enemy Helga is someone you instantly hate, she bares similar personality traits to Irene Engel from the first game but is more twisted in her own way. Think Ms. Trenchbull from the movie Matilda. She is deep in the occult and sniffs you out immediately when you try and make a quick get away with the secret documents and this is when all hell breaks lose, literally. The dead are rising up and Nazies you kill come back to life if you don't finish them off quickly, it appears Helga's occult research has taken her to some dark places. But this, admittedly funny and interesting direction for the game didn't seem to pain out as I found stealth became useless to bother with, headshots wouldn't kill enemies, it would turn them into zombies shambling about that I'd have to kill all over again. The interesting final boss fight was a nice touch but ultimately the Nazi zombie angle is best left off in the past, not even a sawed-off shotgun will change my opinion on that.

In the end, most of what made the core gameplay of Wolfenstein: The New Order was brought forth in this expansion but not much of the character was brought along with it. Gun play is still compelling as you deal untold damage to enemy Nazi that stands in your way whether its with a lead pipe takedown weapon or a handheld pistol grenade launcher. But much of the story gets lost in the first arc of the game and while it does get picked up in the second, Nazi zombies just were a real pain to deal with and weren't something I felt was needed here.

Good:

- The core combat and weapon mechanics are still solid

- Hidden items, perks and abilities still present

- Helga von Schabbs and what she brings to the second arc of the story

Bad:

- The first arc of the story leaves you with little to invest your time with

- Nazi zombies were an interesting choice but not a good one

Scully Rating: 6.0 out of 10