Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

After my experience with Wolfenstein: The New Order one may think that my venture into this franchise would be completely over. I thought so too because that game simply got to the point where it wasn't fun anymore. The only reasons I didn't outright hate it were because it wasn't completely broken, plus it still had some good moments that couldn't be overlooked, such as the visuals and carnage. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood which is a prequel to The New Order is more of the same, but for some reason it feels a slight bit more polished yet all of the previous problems are well intact.

This game once again follows Captain B.J. Blazkowicz as he embarks on a mission with another operative by the name of Wesley to infiltrate the Nazi base and steal their plans. The mission goes south, and B.J. ends up searching for other agents along with more locals, which leads him deep underground into battle with a very unexpected and sinister threat.

While this game frustrated me once again with the same ailments of the previous; I still had a lot of fun here. The game play still features B.J. shooting, dodging, and searching for cover against hordes of Nazi enemies. He still uses the same weapons as the previous game minus the laser firing guns found in The New Order, which I don't think is a bad thing because those weapons were garbage, and I think Bethesda knew that too since that segment of the game was mercifully short. Anyway, this game provides B.J. with broken water pipes for weapons, and although this may sound weird at first they have a surprisingly good use for scaling walls. It's interesting at first, but Bethesda milks the hell out of it very early. In any case, the pipes serve their purpose and they do feature some nice kills. I completely forgot about the combat knife.

There are some good moments of piloting a boat with a mini-gun, plus a mecha-bot that splatters enemies all over the place. So the action has quite a bit more going for it this time. Late in the game after some really brutal shootouts that will leave the player with some sweaty palms; the game introduces zombies in probably the coolest fuckin' way imaginable. I must admit this caught me so off guard and I found myself amped for what was next. The zombie element isn't just window dressing though as it serves a nice purpose. When some soldiers are shot dead by B.J., they immediately turn right there and start attacking their friends, which can take the focus off of you, and you can rip into the enemies with the weapons. I loved this part of the game, and I refused to take any breaks at this point. The zombies will crawl from crevices as well creating this spooky and uneasy feeling deep inside of the catacombs.

Unfortunately, there are still some very unfair moments like being thrust into an open area with no real cover against OP enemies. Plus there are some glitches here such as the machine gun which was firing full auto since the beginning, all of a sudden now firing three round burst or pop shots without me doing anything to trigger that; and on one occasion during a big fight, my automatic shotgun which I was just using and had ammo wasn't there. It got on my nerves because it happened at the worst time. There's also a pretty weak boss battle at the end, but it didn't feel annoying like the previous game. In fact, the final battle in The New Order really didn't bother me like it did many people, as I beat that on my first try.

The control set up still follows that annoying clockwise interface found last game, yet it felt more fluid this time or maybe it was just me (I doubt that). For those who don't know what I mean; B.J. can only select weapons while on the move, the game doesn't pause in that portion at all, and this is something that must be done quick because the pressure in combat is constant. The menu opens up and the weapons must be selected with one of the sticks. It can be very annoying, yet it felt better here.

I still have the same opinion on the visuals with the game looking quite good. The gore is still really good with limbs and heads being blown off, along with the fast paced battles experiencing no slowdown. The fire burning village with that zombie twist was too well done and the BGM for it was the best. The music felt eerie and worked really nice with its atmosphere. In fact, the last segment of the game was the best in this area. I have to give credit to the voice acting and bit of humor when B.J. was Nazi killing. There's one moment that came out of nowhere and I pretty much died of laughter.

Overall, The Old Blood felt like an improvement and the flaws didn't bother me as much. This game is more of the same and for those who enjoyed the last outing will like this one as well. I didn't like the last game yet I couldn't put this down. Still, I believe there are better FPS' out there and this should only be checked out by diehard Wolfenstein fans, and those who like fairly difficult games. As a heads up, this game also doesn't feature multi-player.

Rating: 6

The Good: Second half of game is really good, feels a bit smoother than last outing

The Bad: An annoying glitch, some game play issues