Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

The story is subpar and it and the characters are cliche as in the 'supposed to be cliche' way and that makes them twice as cliche. Not a single one is inherently likeable, particularly Grace, who is more annoying than Navi tenfold. The gameplay is excessively mundane. You die too quick to play the game fast and hiding behind cover is boring. The game never really picks up either. It's boring all the way through and doesn't let up.

Rating - 35%

This game takes everything that worked well in the first one, redesigned everything that didn't work that well in the first one, added a way more emotional and character-driven story (as well as A LOT of crazy happenings that will make your jaw drop or you tears run from laughter) and mixed it all into one helluva great game. Slaughtering Nazis have never ever felt this good before!

Thanks to a very good map design and a lot of interesting collectibles (as well as many "readable" newspapers, diaries, letters etc which gives you insight not only into the life of the nazi soldiers but also into the life's of the normal Americans and recently arrived Germans) It took me just about 20 hours from start to end on medium difficulty. The map design and all the collectibles as well as the opportunity to sneak around all enemies to try and take out the officers first (only the officers can raise the alarm and call for reinforcements) makes you actually wanting to find out what happened in the very different cities you're visiting.

All in all, this game was a blast! Great gun play with the possibility to upgrade almost every weapon, great level design, very graphically improved from the last game along with new shades and lightning, great character-driven story and a lot of crazy moments that will make you remember this game for a long time makes for an extremely well crafted old school fps in a world filled with multiplayer games and loot boxes. Kudos Machine Games!

The positives: bad ass story, great acting and music, dual wielded weapons still feel amazing.

Negatives: bad level design, bare bones stealth mechanics which game constantly pushes you to use, AI is lazy and unfair.

To survive any decent difficulty you have to be constantly on the move but absence of auto pickup makes you stop every time you need to stop and pixel hunt for pickup icon to get any ammo, armor or health.

Aiming is quite rubbish. Many levels have terrible flow, most of the time every NPC will gang up on you in the first two rooms and then you run around empty rooms.

Wolfenstein II is a game about executing Nazis with a hatchet and talking to yourself after performing literally any action. It has great gameplay, graphic / character design, story writing, and (usually) gameplay. It does however suffer from relatively bland gameplay at times, (I thought the first level being played entirely in a slow wheelchair was a stupid idea) and a playtime shorter than that of an indie RPG. Cutscenes drag on for a loooooooong time and skipping them could leave you confused. The humor also feels a bit off and writing isn't always the best. The worst thing though is probably the repetition of the level design, with it basically always boiling down to "find commander, execute, kill soldiers, move to next area, repeat" which usually leaves you wondering when the game's gonna end.

TL;DR game good, suffers from short runtime and bland gameplay

'Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (2017)' is the sequel to 'Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014)', a franchise revival that took the series back to its roots. This game carries on where the previous left off, introducing extra elements to its gameplay and generally refining things even more than before. However, it is an inferior experience for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, the game doesn't strike a great balance between plot and gameplay, with long cut-scenes constantly interrupting the flow of play. Secondly, it doesn't have a very good tonal balance, which makes the story difficult to become engaged with. Finally, it takes a long time to get fully underway and feels like it's stopped short because of it. The story really is quite silly, told mainly by over-the-top characters spouting long, uninteresting speeches. It isn't compelling in the way you'd expect, especially since its predecessor's narrative really is quite good. Having said all that, the game still is a really fun time when it gets out of its own way. The best aspects of it are actually optional side-tasks that see you returning to previously explored locations in order to assassinate a Nazi official. These segments focus wholly on gameplay and are all the better for it. On the higher difficulty settings, the piece becomes decidedly less enjoyable than it ought to be because you simply aren't afforded the health or ammo to 'run and gun' the way it wants you to. It can be really challenging at times - frustrating, even. Ultimately, though, the game is still an entertaining time. Its shooting is refined and its extra mechanics are typically successful. Its flaws don't prevent you from playing or, even, massively reduce its overall effect. Hopefully, the developers manage to find a balance between the gameplay of this title and the storytelling of its predecessors. 8/10