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Wolfenstein II: It's a Blastkowicz

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America, 1961. Your assassination of Nazi General Deathshead was a short-lived victory. Despite the setback, the Nazis maintain their stranglehold on the world. You are BJ Blazkowicz, aka “Blowjob,” member of the Resistance, scourge of the Nazi empire, and humanity’s last hope for liberty. Only you have the guts, guns, and gumption to return stateside, kill every Nazi in sight, and spark the second American Revolution.

 

I've been playing through this and enjoying it a ton. I am a huge fan of the first game and this is basically more of the same. The tone is a little broader - there's a bit more humor, and the pacing is very slightly slowed down from the insane kineticism of the first game, which gives things more time to spread out, metaphorically speaking. The shooting is still excellent and it's almost scary how cathartic it is to be killing Nazis in America in today's political climate. My favorite character is still Set, who throws even more Yiddish into his lines this time and who gets to shoulder a lot of the humor.

 

For a while I was sort of making the game less fun for myself because I was playing in ways to specifically unlock those perks, but now I've basically unlocked them all so I just play how I want, which is what I should've done all along. I usually go around stealthily until getting revealed at which point it's dual wielded weapons and lots of booms until nobody is moving anymore.

 

If your game is crashing, turn off Async Computing. Mine was crash-central until I did that and now it's rock solid.

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I bought Wolfenstein II because I was swayed by Bethesda's Nazi-punching marketing campaign. It was a political purchase, but I'm really glad I did it. I have finished the game and I think it is excellent. It is absolutely cathartic to kill Nazis, but the game has a lot more things to say and discuss politically beyond what it is on its face.

 

The light stealth mechanics are a bit wonky, but the feeling of escalation in each encounter works well. You plink away at the Nazis, doing a stealth takedown, throwing a hatchet, headshotting an officer with an upgraded silenced pistol. And then when you get caught, you pull up a triple-barrelled shotgun in each hand and turn the place into viscera and smashed concrete.

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I'm finding this OK, I think as a sequel I'm disappointed they haven't learned anything. The stealth as mentioned is still wonky and there's times where it feels like total luck if you'll walk around a corner into full view of an enemy, it's really not designed with much ability to work out patrol routes etc. There's still horrible difficulty spikes and deaths that come out of nowhere because the hit feedback is a bit tame so you don't notice your health is draining very fast. I think there's way too many cut scenes so far, I don't give a damn about most of what's happening because it's so slow and drawn out I just want to go shoot Nazis! It's like the anti-Doom 2016 in that regard, it's everything it poked fun at.

 

The guns still feel nice, the graphics are sublime and the level design is quite nice even if the enemy encounters a bit hit and miss. Gameplay wise though it feels more like a mission pack than a sequel interested in moving things on, they've probably played it too safe.

 

An example of the absurd difficulty spikes:

 

I'm at the top of the State building and I have to fend off some Nazis. I've died maybe three times up to this point in the game and now I can barely survive 20 seconds. I start with my health at 50 and no health packs nearby to boost it and I've very little armour. I've got 2 light machine guns equipped which are totally inadequate so at the start I have to mash 3 to equip dual machine guns, but the enemies start streaming in as soon as it loads so there's nearly no time to. There's loads of explosive canisters around which the enemies make use of, but you need to move around to get into cover etc. so it's really easy to be near one and have it explode which is an instant death. Just awful.

 

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Every now and then, I get an itch to play an "old-school"* FPS, but after a while, I realize that they might not be for me. I'm really interested in the setting and the story of Wolfenstein II, though, so I think I will get this eventually and just turn the difficulty to easy, if I'm starting to get frustrated. 

 

 

* Not a great term. One with health pick-ups, a ton of enemies and minimal cover mechanics. 

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Bought it.. Only on second mission, but I'm enjoying it so far. Looks great, and runs pretty well. The laser weapons, especially, feel very satisfying. It's a shame that the developers forgot to implement any damage indicators apart from the health and shield readings because fuck if I'm going to move my gaze towards the bottom of the screen during a hectic gewehrfight.

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So I am intent on playing this before I listen to any GotY stuff because from everything I've heard it will probably be in at least a few conversations and I don't want to be spoiled. That said: I played the first game and saved the salty Scottish man. I hear that saying you saved the kid may actually lead to cooler shit in both the first and second games. The first is a wash, but when I load up 2 for the first time and am asked: should I lie?

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I've only played through the second game once, but I picked the salty Scottish man and I very much liked what I got. I've also heard one or two others say he's the better choice, so it sounds like they did a good enough job that everyone has different opinions about who is the neater choice. I've played through the original game both ways and nothing much changes when you pick one or the other. I think a lot must change in the second game, though, because there were way more story cutscenes featuring my Scottish dude, and presumably those are different with the kid.

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Giant Bomb's enthusiasm for the game has made me cave and buy this. I'll admit that Austin Walker's endorsement pushed me over the edge. However, if this turns out to be another Far Cry 3, then I will refuse to get wrapped up in their enthusiasm, ever again.

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I have played TNO and TOC on both the Fergus and Wyatt timelines. I like Fergus and his scenes sooooooo much more than Wyatt.

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Those acid trip scenes are pretty cool (I finished the game this morning).

 

I feel I made the right choice to play this on the second easiest difficulty. I died maybe twice.

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TL:DR, you should all play it soon and dodge the spoilers, the game does some really interesting things.

 

  • The levels are interesting and varied, it is possible to lose track of where you are in some of them, which is nice in contrast to the last couple where I found them pretty linear

  • The range of locales are pretty good and it puts the game through its paces – burnt out New York, decaying New Orleans, Brightly lit Dallas, etc. It felt more varied in terms of light and mood than the previous game

  • The shooting is still a bit meh, after DOOM and how good DOOM was, this game never quite has the same punch and fluidity of that game. I did like how Wolfenstein played on the second easiest difficulty but I can imagine that a lot of the things I complained about The New Order being present on harder difficulties.

  • Blaskowiecz now picks up some content when he walks past it but not all, I can understand the design decision for this  but it just slows down the game in a way that detracts

  • Blowing pieces of armour, and limbs, off of steampunk Nazis is very aesthetically pleasing

 

Mildly spoilery section:

  • Spoiler

     

    • You can feed a pig

    • The choice you made in The New Order can be adjusted in the sequel, so I chose Wyatt. He ends up taking loads of LSD that was given to him by Jay Hendrix and some pretty hilariously weird things happen, I would be curious to see how the other choice plays out

    • There are some very cool women in this game, really solid voice acting. Grace, Anya and Sigrun all have story-arcs and all of them are interesting.

    • The nudity feels like an interesting artistic choice rather than typical exploitative video game trash

    • There is some jarring pacing in a scene between a Commie and Blaskowiecz but it mostly works

    • The Gone Home tribute is earnt, and is extremely effective, it manages to build up a monster and then introduce the right amount of doubt in the viewer

    • I have had some major plot points spoilt for me, but it didn’t prepare me for some of the stuff that wasn’t, holy shit, this game manages to have its meat-head action cake, add a slither of pathos laden icing, and then eat the whole thing

     

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I got to the point where I have to fend off enemies in a penthouse, and turned the difficulty to the easiest. I could probably have made it through without that, if I had tried enough times, but I just wasn't having fun, especially with damage indication being as bad as it is. I'm immediately enjoying the combat more. It feels perhaps a bit too easy now, but I'm mostly here for the story and badassery anyway.

 

I found the semi-automatic armor and ammo pickups really confusing at first. When I see a prompt for picking up armor during combat, I tend to back up and try find it again, only to realize moments later that it was probably picked up automatically. I also scour the entire play area for pieces of armor after every gunfight, and so far there has almost always been enough for full armor, so the same result could be obtained by having armor regenerate once all enemies are dead, only quicker. I would still comb the entire arena, though, because I want to find those collectibles. The health "overcharge" is mostly useless to me because I either move so slowly that the excess health has drained before the enemy encounter starts or I move so fast during combat that I miss all the health pickups. 

 

On a more positive note, I installed a silencer to my pistol and now I'm enjoying the stealth a lot more. I also assume I will never get tired of the sound that the lasergewehr makes. In fact, all of the weapons have felt good so far.

 

I like the story and the cast of characters quite a bit, which is something I had not expected from a Wolfenstein game (I did not play The New Order).

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On 11/20/2017 at 8:00 PM, twmac said:
  • Blaskowiecz now picks up some content when he walks past it but not all, I can understand the design decision for this  but it just slows down the game in a way that detracts

 

I still can't, I just don't get it at all. It's not fun and just needlessly makes me mash pickup as I walk around.

 

@Nappi That was the absurd difficulty spike I mentioned earlier, that section was just rubbish.

 

I'll probably get back to this at the weekend, I haven't played it in a few weeks because it just wasn't grabbing me.

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Yeah, the best way to enjoy this game is to keep it nice and easy. I blasted through the whole game in a weekend and I am glad I did as I will now be able to enjoy Giant Bomb's end of year discussion where they will undoubtedly talk about a lot of the story content.

 

I did almost no stealth in this game and just dual wielded my way through every encounter - it was hilarious.

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Played the story from start to finish yesterday. Holy crap what a game! Goodness I thought some other games had a moment or two. This game had a moment or two per level. Whoever did the cinematography for some of those cutscenes deserves a lot of awards.

 

Played on whatever the default setting was, did not experience the difficulty spikes I've seen a lot about.

 

Bring on every spoiler cast.

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12 hours ago, Badfinger said:

Played the story from start to finish yesterday. Holy crap what a game! Goodness I thought some other games had a moment or two. This game had a moment or two per level. Whoever did the cinematography for some of those cutscenes deserves a lot of awards.

 

Played on whatever the default setting was, did not experience the difficulty spikes I've seen a lot about.

 

Bring on every spoiler cast.

 

Go listen to the Waypoint 101 podcast about Wolfenstein The New Order. You can start with pt.2 if you only want to hear the spoilers for The New Colossus. Hearing Rob Zacny explain that moment in more detail - fucking blew my mind.

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I finished this this morning, I was actually surprised I was finished so soon, only 8 hours according to Steam and it really didn't feel like the story had hit any sort of stride. The combat was enjoyable, more of the same as the last one with similar problems but at no point did I feel invested in any of what was going on, it never felt like there was a clear plan of what was going to be done.

 

We were just picking up random militia leaders who served no purpose come the end of the game, nothing that happened required these people, it all felt very pointless and not a lot got developed. I get that they're starting a revolution and all but you don't get to see any of it, I thought that might be the final act but nope, we kill Engel and that's it. I also sound it incredibly cut scene heavy in a bad way where I felt like I was playing a MGS game at times, sitting at my desk waiting to be given some scraps of gameplay for sitting through flashy but hollow cut scenes. The tone was all over the place as well, the new characters were all these sort of sterotypical American rights activists but in an overly comedic way, while BJ's story was generally played seriously(similar to the first game). I think they went much too far in a comedic direction at times and I don't think it works.

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I just started playing the demo for II and I can't get this out of my head: The narrative experience in Wolfenstein is the quality, clarity, and inventiveness that Kojima always seems to think he's producing, right?

 

It's surreal, politically charged, enjoyable, tender, and so well-made and pulpy. I loved the bizarre audacity of the systems in Phantom Pain, but the straight narrative in Kojima's games always feels like an overly ambitious ten year old, in whose head all the dots connect. 

 

Wolfenstein is really good, though! I'll be picking up the full game to play through the rest :D

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I finished the game yesterday. I ended up loving the characters a lot. Even Blazkowicz managed to be quite interesting, with windows to his childhood and his constant yearning for Caroline. While the general structure of the story was felt pretty typical for this type of game, on a microscopic level, the plot was super fun and goofy. And oh boy, there were some bizarre moments towards the end!

 

I don't know if I liked the gunplay a lot. At best, the gunfights felt hectic and badass, but then you make the mistake of trying to pick up a heavy weapon and the prompt simply keeps eluding you. Or else you get stuck in a doorway or a small step or something for no apparent reason.

 

I felt that some of the gameplay mechanics were serving opposite goals. The commander/alert system for example pushes you forward if (when) you fail at stealth, keeping the momentum going. But once you have plowed through all the enemies, you are low on armor and need health, so you should probably comb through the areas you just covered in blood. Oh, and while you are at it, pick up all the collectibles and upgrade kits. Scouring through the areas took longer than the gunfights, which did not always feel right. The perk system is a really nice system, and I kinda hope they had taken a similar route for weapon upgrades.

 

Overall, I'm really happy that I saw the story through, but also that I turned the difficulty down, because some of the stuff would probably driven me nuts.

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I played through the demo in Spanish (my computer is in Spanish so it's the default if available) with a Steam controller. I just didn't see what the fuss was about, seems like a competent shooter, but I don't think I saw anything really special. So I'm wondering if me not enjoying as much as I expected could be because of

 

  • demo not being representative of full game
  • Spanish voices are not as good as the English ones
  • the added processing required from me to understand Spanish does a disservice to the experience
  • the Steam controller (or any controller besides KB & Mouse) is still not great for first person shooters

 

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Going bullet by bullet

 

* Not sure what part of the game the demo is, but it's possible

* Very possible, the English voice acting is genuinely excellent. I'd be curious about your impressions of the Spanish.

* If you're thinking about it it might be true

* Almost definite. I know people are into the steam controller but it's no substitute for a first person shooter.

 

I have to imagine they aren't dropping a lot of cutscene bombs on you if you're playing a 20 minute demo, and the cutscenes are the heart and soul of the game.

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Did you play the first one, Erkki? Basically everything Wolfenstein II does, the original does, and people are pretty evenly split on whether the first is better, the second is better, or they're equal. In any case, most of what people enjoy is the tone/plot/character of the game, and the shooting. I for one know I've never enjoyed shooting with anything other than a mouse and keyboard, and you might not really be getting the tone/plot/character from the thin Spanish slice you got served. So chances are you're missing out on the good stuff because it wasn't in the demo.

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I have only played Wolfenstein 3D (1992) and the one from 2001, but I assume you mean the ones since reboot. So no, haven't played them. I think I will give the English demo another try with mouse & keyboard, there definitely were some cutscenes that looked fun but maybe not so much in Spanish. Is knowledge of the previous games required to get some of the humor?

 

[edit] basically the demo begins with a lot of characters and on-going activities I don't know about, so maybe it's not the best introduction to the series.

 

First interaction is to choose between two random people which of them lives or dies. There is no context for this, so it's a really weird choice to put as the first interaction of a demo. Then I'm operated on and see moments of my childhood, and then I'm in a wheelchair shooting nazis. After this there is a somewhat more understandable cutscene but also with a lot of characters I've not been introduced to, and as a fat woman is about to swing an axe the demo ends.

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