Kris Wall reviews Wolfenstein: The Old Blood…
Wolfenstein has long been considered ‘The Godfather’ of the first person shooter genre, the one which started it all, without which there would be no Battlefield, no Halo and no Call of Duty, a bold and lofty claim but not one without evidence and merit. 2001’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein is revered as the highpoint of the Wolfenstein franchise, personally it’s still my favourite shooter of all time and a regular mainstay in my all time top 10. It’s a brilliant bullet strewn quest through an alternate history gone wrong with lashings of gore, great levels and some excellent weapons,all put through a glorious B-movie blender.
Post RTCW, the series floundered, struggling to recapture that magic until Machine Games released The New Order last year, a game which had a clear love and understanding of its legacy while confidently carving out its own path and vision. It was a ridiculously fun blaster that told a great story with some great characters and some fun weapons while staying true to its old school roots, eschewing almost all modern day trends that the genre had brought in over the years, it ended up being my favourite game of 2014 and if you haven’t played it then stop reading this and go and play it right now, actually, finish reading this first and then go and play it right after.
The Old Blood is a prequel to The New Blood, telling the story of how B.J started out on the fateful trail he began in The New Order. The game is split into 2 parts with 4 chapters each, part 1 is titled Rudi Jager and the Den of Wolves and tasks series hero B.J Blazkowicz with breaking into Castle Wolfenstein to steal a document that contains the location of General Deathshead’s compound. Castle Wolfenstein is now being ruled by the sadistic prison warden, Rudi Jager, who’s preferred tactic is allowing his beloved dogs to tear prisoners apart. In part 2 : The Dark Secrets of Helga Von Schabbs, B.J heads to the city of Wulfburg where the Nazi’s are dabbling in the occult and attempting to bring something back from the other side, an endeavor which threatens to unleash hell on earth. It’s a brief 5-6 hour blast but it’s a fun story and Jager is a menacing villain to go up against.
Wolfenstein is first and foremost about the firefights and gun play remains just as brilliant as it was in The New Order with most of the weapons in the game feeling like hefty pieces of warfare that give a really satisfying kickback and are able to be dual wielded, transforming you into a walking firestorm of death. The Old Blood adds a few new weapons to the mix for B.J to play around with, chief amongst these is the seemingly lowly pipe which B.J acquires soon after the prologue. The pipe can be split between a bat like weapon to crack skulls and twin daggers for when stealth is the preferred option. It’s also the swiss army knife of B.J’s arsenal, allowing him to wedge open heavy doors to slide under, jack up access hatches and pull down emergency ladders while the twin version allows him to scale walls for alternative routes.
Also new to The Old Blood is the Kampfpistole, a large handgun that fires grenades that turn enemies into a fine red mist upon contact. The Bombenschuss is an incredibly powerful bolt-action scoped rifle and definitely feels like a nod to the paratrooper rifle from Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Best of the new bunch though is the Shockhammer, a hulking semi-automatic shotgun that can be dual wielded, triggering many rampages of absolutely bloody carnage. In a nice nod to The New Order, it’s also fun to see and use early prototype variants on the assault rifles and such that would become the mainstays of the Nazi war machine later on.
Speaking of prototypes, The Old Blood also has fun with early versions of advanced enemies from later on in B.J’s adventure with the early super soldiers far too advanced for their own good and unable to operate without being hooked up to power lines overhead, giving B.J the option to either assault them until their armour falls apart or sneak around trying to break their power connection, opening them up to instant takedowns. Machine Games have done a great job once again of carefully designing the level layouts to cater for players to tackle them either guns blazing or carefully sneaking around picking off enemies silently, though The Old Blood does tend to usher players more towards the SHOOT EVERYTHING style of playing on more than a few occasions, not least in the final half of the campaign when the zombies show up and just shamble after you, taking away from Wolfenstein’s gloriously brutal firefights.
The Old Blood looks fantastic with weapon models, environments and character outfits all looking incredibly detailed. There are a couple of moments of breathtaking scale such as the cable car ascent to Castle Wolfenstein , the keep looming ever larger and looking more imposing the closer it gets and the moment the Nazi’s unleash hell on Wulfburg, the skyline ignited with fire, zeppelins ablaze and falling to earth as zombies rain from the skies, it’s a truly brilliant and hair-raising spectacle to behold. Having played RTCW to death, returning to this Castle Wolfenstein is a treat to explore, its various sections from the prison dungeons to its grand hallways up to the historical upper keep all feeling distinct, making it looks and feel like the iconic piece of video game history that it is rather than just another generic enemy fortress
What holds The Old Blood back from sharing in The New Order’s greatness is the tonal shift that puts it at odds with itself and the greater story looming large in The New Order. Part 1 is a tense game of cat and mouse in and around Castle Wolfenstein which culminates in a brutal battle with Jager himself while he screams at you for murdering his favourite dog (The Old Blood retains that wonderfully dark streak of humour than ran through The New Order), the first half of the game sits nicely within the canon that The New Order set up.
Part 2, while still being a large amount of fun, focuses more on referencing and revering the old Return to Castle Wolfenstein with a B-movie turn into the occult and Helga unleashing an undead apocalypse on Germany. Not only does it sit at odds with the semi-serious 1st half but is also completely at odds with The New Order despite that featuring a Nazi base on the moon. Unleashing an undead end times being far worse than anything B.J encounters in the main game from General Deathshead and also something that is strangely never mentioned, you think you’d remember seeing Germany burning in hellfire while fending off the dead.
One of the best things I found with The New Order was the amount of heart and soul it packed into its character development throughout the story, a refreshing and most welcome surprise in this genre of gung-ho heroes and mercenaries and one that I don’t think anyone was expecting from a Wolfenstein game. Come the end of The New Order, you came to really care about B.J, his relationship with Anya and the various members of the resistance, all of whom had their own personalities, quirks and eccentricities. The HQ being a small game in its own right where just exploring the rooms gave you insight into the lives of each character. The Old Blood has a few of these beats, notably with both Agents One and Two very briefly but the pace of the game is so relentless they barely register and are very much missed.
The Old Blood is basically a love letter to fans of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and if the idea of sneaking and blasting around the iconic stronghold once again is exciting then The Old Blood will be more than enough to satisfy fans. At £14.99 and just over 5 hours long (longer if you hunt for secrets and take up its tough challenge mode) it’s a brief yet incredibly fun ride, its brisk pace delivering as much carnage as it possibly can without out staying its welcome, it’s just a shame that the story trips over itself in order to end on a crazy high and lacks some of the heart that made The New Order so unique and special in its genre. As it stands though, Machine Games have done a remarkable job of resurrecting this series to its former glory and I’m all in to see where they can possibly go next with Wolfenstein.
Pros:
+ Great action
+ Fun story
+ Looks superb
Cons:
– Lacks the heart of The New Order
– Tonal shift between campaigns at odds with itself and The New Order
Rating: 7.5/10
Kris Wall – Follow me on Twitter