Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - a Casual Gamer's Honest Review [PC]

Kill Nazi's With Big F!@#$% Guns Akimbo Part II: The New Colossus

That pretty much describes my experience with this game, don't get me wrong though, I absolutely love killing Nazi's (or anything else that comes in my way) with big ass guns and the fact that it features a lot of gore is the icing on the cake. Trust me, games like this don't feel as satisfying without gore and blood, so stop crying for a bit of pixelated blood and guts and maybe a severed hand here and there, just enjoy it.

The gameplay feels very satisfying however there are some things that should be revised as to offer a greater challenge and better gameplay cohesion. For example: changing weapons is a bit of pain, something that you will find yourself doing often if you want to obliterate everything that comes in your way. 

The enemies are a bit dumb when it comes to sneaking past them, they can't see sh*t nor can they hear you, however, when it comes to fighting them head-on they are a bit of a challenge and if you lack the reflexes and the aim you will find yourself getting killed quite often on a cranked up difficulty. I myself played it on 2nd hardest difficulty "I am death incarnate" (that is the hardest available when you start a new game) and even though people are complaining it's hard / downright impossible I have to come in and tell you that the game become pretty easy and awesome instead of frustrating and rage inducing once you get the hang of it.

The key to surviving Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is simple, picking the most efficient upgrades and equipment, which by the way is this: Fully-upgraded Sturmgewehr's akimbo + Ram Shackles. Nothing can get past this. Keeping the Sturmgewehr's on semi-auto all the time is super overpowered if you have a bit of aim. I kinda feel sad that I found this crazy combination on my first playthrough because I didn't get to use the other weapons too much (poor Maschinenpistole, it didn't fire any more bullets after finding the Sturmgewehr).

Sneaking is fun and relaxing when you are not into adrenaline pumping gun fights since it's too easy to take out everyone with a silenced pistol and melee takedowns, but I prefer to sound the alarm and fight everything, Wolfenstein just feels much more rewarding when you do that.

This game also features quick-saves on PC (F5 to save / F9 to load) which can be used to your advantage or disadvantage if you decide to tackle the hardest difficulties. Quick-saving after destroying that robot brute that has been pumping lasers into you for the past few minutes is so gooood. Make sure you don't sabotage yourself with a bad save. I for one didn't experience a quick-save I couldn't get past, some have mad me real mad, true, but nothing to pin me down and to make me choose an auto-save.

The story is compelling and it also goes behind the curtains of the man known as " William J. Blazkowicz" or "Terror-Billy", one of the most bad-ass video-game protagonists ever. However the game is a bit short in my opinion (it is rumored they planned it to be a trilogy which would explain why it is so short, but still it's not an excuse). Just when you start enjoying it, that's when you find out it will ends, and I know they introduced side missions, but let's be honest here, who buys a first-person shooter so they can spend time doing side missions that use previous levels without introducing any new elements? The people who want 100% completion of course, but we don't want that, we are casual gamers, we want to have fun time while also enjoying an intriguing story. 

One sad thing I have to mention is that it doesn't feature any boss battles which is a shame, it would've been a thousand times better if it sticked to it's roots when it comes to bosses. P.S: some might consider a certain fight involving lots of enemies and 2 new robots dual-wielding the most powerful weapon in the whole game a boss battle, I however did not simply because they make it too easy for you.

All in all, it's a great action game but I must say it feels more like a modded Call of Duty made to look like Wolfenstein. It lacks some great things the first one did right, but it also changes some things the first one got wrong. In conclusion: it's worth a playthrough.