Wednesday 11 June 2014

VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Wolfenstein: The New Order - Bethesda

Release Date:  20/05/14
Publisher:  Bethesda

SYNOPSIS:

Armed with a mysterious advanced technology, the Nazi's unrelenting force and intimidation brought even the most powerful nations to their knees. Awakened from a 14-year coma to a world changed forever, war hero B.J. Blazkowicz emerges into this unimaginable alternate version of the 1960s. One in which the monstrous Nazi regime has won World War II, and now rule the globe with an iron fist.

You are B.J. Blazkowicz, the American war hero, and the only man capable of rewriting history.

KEY FEATURES:

The Action and Adventure: Wolfenstein's breath-taking set pieces feature intense mountain-top car chases, underwater exploration, player-controlled Nazi war machines, and much more – all combined to create an exhilarating action-adventure experience.

The Story and Characters: Hi-octane action and thrilling adventure weaved together into a tightly paced, super immersive game narrative featuring memorable characters.

The History and Setting: Set against a backdrop of an alternate 1960s, discover an unfamiliar world ruled by a familiar enemy—one that has changed and twisted history as you know it.

The Arsenal and Assault: Break into secret research facilities and heavily guarded weapon stashes to upgrade your tools of destruction. Experience intense first-person combat as you go up against oversized Nazi robots, hulking Super Soldiers and elite shock troops.


REVIEW:

Wolfenstein has been a hard game to review, firstly because along with Doom its seen as the originator of the FPS (First Person Shooter) and with having played the series for years, you want to like it as you have a lot of fond memories of various play through’s.

Yet in the modern times, the gamer is not content to just have something linear, they like to be able to think, the like good storytelling as well as having characters that they care about, its more about having a game in film format where there are surprises that jump out into the readers imagination and having something so basically linear will turn a lot of gamers off, regardless of whether they have nostalgic moments or not.

What Wolfenstein brings to the fore, in this, is latest incarnation is a good story and brings back to the gamer the return of old friend B.J. Blazkowicz who this time is more rounded, a complex character with emotions thrust into a world that he doesn’t understand. It works very well and for me as a gamer I loved the complexity, yet for all that, the player is given the same thing to do time and again, find the villains, kill them and move onto the next with the only real option being whether you choose to do it silently or go in all guns blazing (although when one is alerted the rest of the level is pretty much a free for all blasting mayhem.)

All in its pretty much the same sort of thing that those who have a history with the game will expect with a better story. Its very repetitive but if you love the chance to blow the living daylights out of things a lot of gamers will find it satisfying.

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