Wolfenstein

Most gamers no doubt remember the granddaddy of first person shooters, Wolfenstein 3D. Although it was wildly successful, it was somewhat overshadowed by Doom's following success and most people often mistake the creepy tale of the lone space marine as the one that started it all.

Then came the sequel, Return To Castle Wolfenstein. It not only offered a fantastic campaign with very satisfying gameplay and intelligent AI that really presented a challenge, but soon arrived a unique multi-player mode which went on to be a smashing hit and is seen in games today.

And now, many years later, we get Wolfenstein. You still play as B.J. Blazkowitz, a US agent who always somehow finds himself killing a whole lot of Nazis one way or another. You're immediately thrown into the action as your commanding officers have sent you on a mission in the fictional city of Isenstadt, where you will (yes indeed, you guessed it) kill a whole freakin' lot of Nazis.

And I say this twice because that's basically a lot of what you're doing most of the time. By the end, it turns into this grotesque bloodbath where you're not even sure why you're even doing all of this in the first place. But heed not, for that's not necessarily a bad thing, because Wolfenstein feels classic from start to finish and completely nails that retro style from start to finish.

The main thing which will keep you interested in the whole affair is the satisfying weapons and powers. You have your standard assortment of WWII weapons, the MP40 submachine gun, the Kar 98 rifle, MP 43 assault rifle, and a seemingly useless rocket launcher plus an effective flamethrower. Then there's some more unconventional stuff like the Tesla gun and Particle Cannon, which are quite devastating. The oddities don't end there however, as the game gives you an ability to enter sort of an alternate dimension called The Veil early on. When using it, you're faster, enemies are highlighted, and the color of the world changes to dark and grim looking green. As you move on you'll find more uses for it such as being able to slow down time, create a shield, and do extra damage. It's pretty engaging stuff, and you'll most certainly need to learn how to use them appropriately, as the game certainly doesn't lack challenge, even on the normal difficulty.

There's also upgrades which you purchase from Black Market undergrounds, both for weapons and Veil powers. You unlock upgrades as the game progresses, and purchase them with gold which you get from either completed missions or searching the game world for scattered hidden stashes. It's also worth noting that there isn't nearly enough gold to be found for all upgrades, so you'll have to manage wisely. You also find hidden intelligence and power tomes the latter of which is required for upgrading Veil abilities.

For all this to work, the game can't work as a linear romp, right? Yes, the game has a semi-open ended structure, where the town acts as a hub to go from mission to mission and is mostly open to exploration. Of course, you'll still fight a bunch of Nazis even when you're not on a mission. It's not exactly non linear either, though, seeing as there's little side missions and not really much else to do besides the main quest.

There's also challenging and equally fun boss fights regularly, which require precise use of Veil abilities to succeed. They're also probably the most frustrating parts of the game, but are also some of the most satisfying.

With all that praise, you'd think the game is virtually flawless, but sadly, it does come with some very noticeable flaws. While it's mostly fun and a challenge, most of the difficulty boarders on cheap, with instant kills, enemies that spawn right behind you, and so on. Enemy AI itself is below average and get the drop on you by attacking in large numbers. It also gets somewhat repetitive as most of the unique enemies are fought on little occasion and you spend too much time mowing down standard German soldiers. The game also doesn't take long to complete, taking from 6 to 8 hours to complete even when you go off track to explore a bit.

The game uses the Doom 3 engine, though you wouldn't know that from just looking at it as it's been modified from the ground up for next gen standards. In short, it looks good and the only real downside here is that the framerate occasionally takes hits no matter which platform you're playing on, mostly during use of the Veil as activating it triggers an effect presumably very resource demanding and makes the game choppy for half a second.

While it may get stale after a while, and inconsistently difficult, with dumb AI, short length and choppy visuals, it's a fun, very gory and challenging ride that's worth revisiting after completion.