At last! A return to the series’ less-interesting past!
Last summer we fought Nazis on the Moon. We still impress people with that fact at parties, right up until they realise we’re talking about a videogame. But what a videogame! 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order was a globetrotting – and occasionally globe-leaving – tour de force. It used its fantastical premise (what if the Nazis won World War II? And had robot technology? And soldiers could carry more than two weapons at the same time?) – to take us anywhere it damn well liked. We’ve been to the Moon and back; where could the series possibly take us now?
So a return to Castle Wolfenstein had us worried, and not just because the occult-obsessed Nazis are still running the shop. Once you’ve seen one tapestry/turret/dining hall you’ve seen them all, and focusing on the iconic doom fortress was bound to get samey. Luckily, Machine Games knows the fight for freedom should feel free, and The Old Blood flourishes most when it breaks out of the castle walls. An escape takes in breathtaking mountain views, a German village practically glows in the setting sun, and even catacombs – rarely a tourist hotspot – have a welcome Indiana Jones vibe. You bring a gun to fight this war; you’ll wish you’d brought a camera.
Your guns might not connect to Instagram, but there’s little else to complain about. Rifles shoot crossbow bolts, dual shotgun blasts send Reich limbs flying Reich off and a handgun that fires out grenades is an early contender for new weapon of the year. The returning perks system offers rewards to those who try different weapons and techniques – a clever way to encourage you to mix up your play style. The majority of the guns have a satisfying kick to each shot (or at least a satisfying blood splatter or limb removal) that keeps shooting fun, if not fresh, throughout the campaign.
Stealth takes more of a priority this time, too, with a compelling opening act that relies on perfectly timed sneaking to avoid hulking supergrunts. Action junkies may find the initial powerlessness infuriating, but this is still a shooter at heart. For us, the time spent clutching a humble crowbar made the moments when you get your mitts on the big guns sweeter, especially when we got some petty revenge on those super-soldiers.
Later levels let you choose whether to take the stealth route, slowly taking out everyone from Naz-A to Naz-Z, or going in all guns blazing screaming about apple pie and the American way. This freedom is a feature many modern action titles promise but few deliver this well – even if it isn’t always clear which method is best. These moments of confusion, along with the odd difficulty spike, force you into trial-and-error runs, which can get frustrating. It’s rewarding but tough, even on lower difficulties.
There’s not a dud in the bunch of The Old Blood’s cast either. Blazkowicz is once again an endearing lead, practising his terrible German, threatening Nazi scum and getting all poetic about the horrors of war. Your allies are easy to warm to, too, showing remarkable wit and compassion in the face of evil. A late-game speech about courage is so inspiring that we still haven’t stopped saluting. New villain Helga von Schabbs is an inspired addition, never letting her mad search for mystical power distract her from recommending a good wine. She also has a great eye for put downs – any game that features the line, “You toe-sucking coward!” should win the gaming equivalent of the Booker Prize. Just like The New Order, that high quality of writing includes the letters and diary entries you find, even if there is a bit more exposition this time.
But sadly, ‘just like The New Order’ is a sentence we could’ve used in every paragraph of this review. Well told as the story is, it’s also a very familiar one. It’s rare a game makes us wish the Nazis had won the war, but without that concept, Machine Games struggles to spin an original yarn. Too often it relies on clichés and tropes that would’ve got groans out of us in the original Wolfenstein, let alone in 2015. Nazi Zombies? Seriously? After South Park: The Stick of Truth? Drop and give me 20, character designers.
Those powerful guns? Still great, but few are new. That perks system? Still smart, but the same as last year. Terrifying face-offs with Nazi leaders as you bluff your allegiance to the Third Reich? Still tense, but there’s nothing here that beats the original’s ‘purity test’ sequence with Frau Engel.
This almost feels like the game we should’ve gotten first. An introduction to Machine Games’ confident vision for Wolfenstein before their more ambitious New Order truly wowed us. But The New Order was a great game that needed no introduction, especially a whole year after winning us over. The Old Blood is still a great first-person shooter, but a once-winning cliché cocktail is starting to look cloudy, and when ‘ideas’ like Nazi zombies start to shamble from the crypt, you might wonder if it’s beginning to curdle.