Blog:TigerBlazer Reviews, Episode 2: Wolfenstein II for Nintendo Switch

'Disclaimer: I have put a lot of work into this blog post. I do not want people looking at it, upvoting, and barely reading it. I have had the feeling recently that people are not reading what I put out. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate it if you all read this whole thing, and would like to discuss it with me.'

Recently, I have been playing a lot of FPS games. It seems to have been something that had caught my attention the most in my gaming experiences this year. A while back, I re-played Doom (1993) for the first time in two years, and it has been an uphill ride since. I have downloaded GZDoom, a bunch of mods, and began playing more modern FPS games. I played Doom (2016) and it was honestly my best gaming experience this year. Currently, Doom Eternal and the entire Quake series (Which I surprisingly have never played) are on my Christmas wish-list. My most recent of my adventures through this genre has been playing a game I have wanted to play for four years now: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

In my 7 hours of playing through this shooter, I have found a lot to talk about. You see, this game was an interesting experience. There are many things that have been done right with this game. It is genuinely a good game. However, it is also one of the most flawed objectively good games I have ever played in my entire life. I will not deny that this game was one of the best things that gaming brought us in the year 2017. It released to near critical acclaim upon release, with critics going around awarding this game 9 out of 10s and scores like that. To an extent, I can agree with these reviews. This game has a lot of good in it. However, scores like 9.75/10 from GameInformer? That is what I call over-praise. At the most, this game deserves a solid 8.75/10, and it also deserves scores as low as 6 in my opinion, as I will explain as this review goes on. This review will cover the main aspects of this game, the graphics, gameplay, story, and content. I will also give off some of my personal thoughts after that and give the game my final score.

'I want to warn you all I have never played "Wolfenstein: The New Order" or "The Old Blood". I have only played five minutes of "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", and really, the only other game in the series I have played at this point is "Wolfenstein 3D" (But really, who hasn't played that?). Therefore, my view on the pros and flaws of "The New Colossus" will be significantly different from other reviews of this game out there. Reader discretion is advised.'

Graphics
I played Wolfenstein II on the Nintendo Switch, and I have to say that similar to the ports of Doom (2016) and Skyrim, this port looks absolutely fantastic considering the hardware limitations. The in-game graphics and textures do have a bit of blur to them that can definitely break immersion if you pay attention to that, but most of the time you will be moving to much to notice these flaws. It's not until the in-game cinematic where the flaws of the graphics are very obvious, but even then I can easily forgive the game for that. I'm very used to this kind of graphical quality, and after all, this is just a port of a game on less powerful hardware. Of course it's not going to look as good. The cinematic cutscenes I think look just as good as they look on the other versions, and I noticed no real differences between the cinematics in the PC version compared to Switch. Overall, I think everything looks pretty good, and this just shows that when put into the right hands of really talented porters like Panic Button, the Switch can do so much more in the graphics department if developers bothered to look into it enough, and I bet you could port Cyberpunk 2077 to the console if in the right hands of devs like Panic Button.

Gameplay
Okay, I commented enough on graphical quality, and we all know that gameplay is what makes a game so good in the first place, so how well does Wolfenstein II play compare to other similar games. The easiest and shortest answer to that question would be that it's good, but way to familiar for its own good. The only really unique idea I found in the combat was that it has an awesome dual-wielding system. It's somewhat self-explanatory, with the system allowing the player is use two weapons at once rather than being restricted to a single weapon. It doesn't matter how big the gun is, you can use two at a time. I found using one or two weapons to both have their pros and cons, as using two weapons will make fights go by a lot faster, but will also seriously harm your ammo reserves, while only one does less damage, but will lead to shorter reloads and less ammo being used. I found myself using only two at a time, but as the difficulty got harder and i found myself running out of ammo quickly, I created a system where I would use one weapon when my ammo max was below half, and used two when if was above half. Another cool feature about the dual-wielding is that you can use two different weapons at once. While this is an interesting idea, I never really had any use for it outside of having a shotgun in one hand to take out close enemies while having an assault rifle to take out distanced enemies at the same time, removing pesky weapon swapping. I also found combat encounters getting way to repetitive as the game dragged on. Everything else about the combat is just typical shooter fare, and if you've played any other modern FPS, you really shouldn't expect much here. However, most of the fun comes from dual-wielding and combat encounters which, while they can feel samey and get repetitive, they can get really tense and are a fun time, especially in the few times you have a lot of open space to move.

There is a stealth aspect to this game, but the only real summary I can say to it is that it is heavily flawed. The levels often feel like they are not built for stealth encounters, and it is actually impossible at times to finish a combat area using only stealth. There is almost no room to sneak at times, and that really is a problem when some places have no cover to hide behind to assess the situation. It's the most weak aspect of the combat, and that's a shame because the game encourages it often when in reality there is almost no point at all. You are better of running into battle and engaging in normal combat rather than wasting time with the stealth aspects.

Story
I think the thing that this game has the most going for it is the story. The combat is good, but nothing to special, so in my mind, I think the story of this game accommodates the lack of originality in gameplay well. In short, the story is absolutely fantastic. It takes place about six months after The New Order, and if you have never played that game like I have, you need a serious plot recap to be able to understand the story well, which the game does provide, but I found the Wikipedia article on The New Order helped me out with that a lot better and got me up to speed. The game is about a resistance group working to stop their Nazi overlords in an alternate timeline where the Axis powers won World War 2. The concept itself is already great and unique in itself, and the execution is honestly incredible. I really cared about the characters and what they were working to accomplish, and I grew to hate the antagonist, something that should always be executed well in the game, and killing her at the end was so satisfying and concluded the game on a high note for me, as I felt like I had done something that would lead to a better world in the future. However, there were a lot of sequel-baity moments that frustrated me a lot and the game ended with so many questions left unanswered. In addition, while the ending was very satisfying, I found that the characters didn't leave a lot of impact to make the world better. You were pretty much in the same position as you were at the beginning of the game at the end, and the only difference is one (albeit major) dead leader and hope for a better world. This will all be answered in the sequel, but it still hurt me to find that I had to wait for the next game to answer my questions. Putting that aside, the story really is something you should experience. The opening is one of the most powerful gaming experiences for me, and to all dog owners, you may want to hug your pal for a while after seeing the opening. There is a surprise plot point about halfway that affects the story strongly that I won't spoil, but is a huge event that will leave an impact on the player. Overall, the found the story the most unique aspect about the game, and is its biggest selling point.

Content
There is nothing outside of the single-player campaign. The campaign in general will take up about 7 to 10 hours of playing based on player skill and chosen difficulty, but about a little less than 2 hours of that will be experiencing the cutscenes (More on that later). However, all of the levels have secrets to uncover, but I never really felt compelled enough to get them all. The game has a lot of difficulty modes, and let me tell you, this game can get very hard at times. The added challenge is definitely enough to keep you coming back for more in my opinion. In addition, based on who you save at the game's beginning, there are two different timelines to play through, each having its own unique twists. There are also three abilities to chose from halfway through that increase replay value in seeing how each ability is used. Finally, there is some post-game content that can take up another two hours of playing. This is a lot to see for completionist goals, but that's not enough to justify the $60 price tag. In fact, most players will likely finish the campaign once, and be done with the game entirely. To make it worth your money, picking it up on sale is a better choice.

Personal Thoughts
Okay, you heard me say a lot of positive things about this game, while also pointing out a few glaring flaws. However, as much praise as I just gave this game, there is one glaring issue that I want you to know of before deciding whether to play this game or not.

There are a lot of, and I mean a LOT of cutscenes.

One thing I have found many people complain about is how many cutscenes there are and I will agree when I say, this game tries way to hard to be like a movie at times. I play games in 45 minute chunks at a time and sometimes, I feel like I have spent about 25 of those minutes actually playing the game. Myself as a person wasn't to bothered by this, as the story was so good I wanted to finish the level to see the next cutscene, but I know many people will hate this. People play games to, well, play, and I have heard many people outright call this game one of their least favorites just because of how many cutscenes there are. I may sound immature for saying this, but I understand these complaints. A game with a lot of cutscenes can really only work if you find the story so good you want to play to see what happens. I felt like that with this game, but I know many others will disagree if they hate the story or just don't connect with it.

Outside of this, here are a few things I would like to mention that, at least when thinking in my terms, may also affect if you should play this game.
 * Some people may find the subject matter a little to sensitive. This game is literally about a world under Nazi rule, and there are some very disturbing things shown and implied, such as images of wife beating, animal abuse, and the KKK are actually allied with the villains as well. There is also implied genocide of Jewish and black communities. If you are sensitive to this, than this is not the game for you.
 * As mentioned above, there is no content outside of the single-player campaign, which can turn off people who are fans of games like Call of Duty and Battlefield.

Final Thoughts
In short, I recommend this game, just please know what you are getting into first. It really is a special game, and the story is once again, something everyone should play once in their life. The combat is good, but stealth brings it down a bit. The graphics are phenomenal and there is some (not much) post-game content. My final score is...

Final Score: 8.3/10 (Recommended, but know what you are getting into first.)

Thank you so much for reading until the end. Have a good rest of your day, and stay nice :)