Wolfenstein: The New Order was one of the best games of last year, and had one of the strongest stories. It’s not something anyone expected from a reboot of a game that ended with you fighting Mecha-Hitler, but there it was. Even less expected was news of a prequel, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, which has hit as a completely standalone, downloadable experience. The title is appropriate, because though the game may be new it's doing something old.
In my review of Wolfenstein: The New Order I remarked on how that game eschewed the supernatural theme of 2001’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein for a more sci-fi feel, but here the occult has returned. Whether that’s good or not depends on how sick you are of gothic castles, catacombs, and the undead. It’s certainly familiar territory, but it still has the lived-in flavor of the most recent game, which sees you playing as a more tired, introspective BJ Blazkowicz.
Since the game is set during World War II (instead of 20 years later) the tech feels a bit older, as the Nazis don’t have a complete stranglehold on the world yet, although D-day was apparently a failure for the Allies and things aren't looking good. We’re back to the story of occultist Nazis messing around with old relics and rituals they should have left well enough alone.
The eight chapters of the game are ostensibly broken down the middle into two parts, but it flows seamlessly from one to the next. Each part does have a different feel, as the first is more straightforward (as straightforward as Nazis in giant electric-powered mech suits can get) but in the second all hell breaks loose, quite literally. They both tell a story that’s doomed to failure, and occasionally melancholic because of it, but is still as thrilling as any other shooter out there. The combat is still utterly satisfying, the gunplay still perfect. The new weapons feel mostly the same, even though the bolt-action rifle with a scope is nifty.
The best new weapon is actually the pipe you get at the very beginning, which proves to be one helluva multi-tool. BJ uses it to open doors, pull down ladders, climb up cliffs (by breaking it in half and sticking each piece in one by one), and, of course, murdering Nazis. The pointy ends of the pipe will get stabbed into more than a couple Nazi necks over the course of the game.
It’s an entertaining experience but the flow isn’t quite as strong. New Order featured just one tremendous moment after the other, but here you are saddled with an extended stealth section for most of the beginning before it opens up a bit. The battles seem tougher, but perhaps that’s just because you just have many more armored enemies being thrown at you, and it all culminates in an unfortunate boss battle that should be used in the future alongside Bioshock and Batman: Arkham City as recent examples of why some games shouldn’t utilize that tired trope.
But if this were a full retail release it would be still be worth it. The 6-hour campaign is the perfect length, and the game has oodles of secrets levels and collectibles to find, as well as ten challenge levels that let you play through some of the game’s greatest firefights and gauge your skills against those of the world via leaderboards. That's an incredible feature for anyone who wants to get their combat fix without being sidetracked by characters and story, although like in New Order you'll feel like immediately diving back into the campaign, so captivating it is.
Is Wolfenstein: The Old Blood better than the original? No, but it’s almost as good, and considering how great New Order was, that’s certainly enough. A worthy prequel in every way.
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Wolfenstein : The Old Blood was reviewed from a PS4 code provided by Bethesda. It’s also available on Xbox One and PC for $19.99- you can buy it from Amazon here. Now where’s our DOOM 4 news?
