Is anyone else strangely excited for the new Wolfenstein game?

[Golden Calf]

Ok seriously what the fuck is with the snuff film cut scenes in this?

 

I'm not a squeamish person. I have held a human brain in my hands. I have decapitated and made neuronal cultures from newborn rats. But this game glories in intense human suffering and forces you to watch a good amount of it. It's as if the cut scene department was given the instruction "make a game Ted Bundy would love."

 

If you think I'm exaggerating skip to 2:09 in this:

 

It was somebody's (several somebodies) job to painstakingly animate this stuff. Seriously despicable. Who thought this was a good idea?

[Twig]

I like that the specific scene you called out in that video involves removing the brain from that dude and your avatar is a brain falling out of Calvin's head.

Anyway it doesn't really bother me in the slightest because I am super desensitized I guess but I agree that it's pretty over the top and probably unnecessary. (I haven't played the game, hence "probably".)

[coaxmetal]

Ok seriously what the fuck is with the snuff film cut scenes in this?

 

I'm not a squeamish person. I have held a human brain in my hands. I have decapitated and made neuronal cultures from newborn rats. But this game glories in intense human suffering and forces you to watch a good amount of it. It's as if the cut scene department was given the instruction "make a game Ted Bundy would love."

 

If you think I'm exaggerating skip to 2:09 in this:

 

It was somebody's (several somebodies) job to painstakingly animate this stuff. Seriously despicable. Who thought this was a good idea?

 

some stuff in this game is pretty gory, but it didn't stand out, other than that specfic scene you called out in the video. That particular scene, though is

the antagonist inflicting that on an ally of the protagonist, in a scene that is supposed to be incredibly horrific (earlier in the game, there are parts of that scene shown but without showing that, such as BJ's reaction to seeing it and his inner monologue, or the lead up to it.

In that particular case, I think the graphic nature is valid in the context of the game, it appropriately characterizes Death's Head has a monster, and it is very effective at doing so.

 

Anyway. I quite like this game. There was a lot more to it than I expected. As mentioned on the cast, it is exactly what it set out to be, with no grander ambitions, but it does what it does well, and it's fun.

[Sno]

Context is everything, and when the context is that it's an event that needs to believably traumatize our hardened soldier protagonist and establish the main villain as a horrible, irredeemable monster, i'd say it's pretty effective on both counts.

In the opening level where it occurs, the cinematic cuts away from showing you what happens, but Blaskowicz experiences several flashbacks over the course of the game, each revealing a little more about what went on. When you finally corner Death's Head at the very end of the game, another flashback comes and reveals the full grisly truth of what happened. It's absolutely meant to be horrific, because if it isn't, their story doesn't work.

I think New Order definitely has narrative problems, but i'm not sure i'd buy that this is one of them.

[Golden Calf]

Ya, I understand it might not have bothered everybody. I don't know why, but playing through this it felt way gorier than anything I played in a long time. I don't play shooters very often, the most recent one being Bioshock Infinite, and that felt super cartoony, whereas this was going for a much more realistic feel.

 

I don't really buy that all this stuff is effective storytelling though. I didn't come away from it with a deeper understanding of Nazis, or suffering generally (not that I necessarily should have, but still), or feel any deep engagement with the story, I just sort of think "that was gross". Which is fair enough. I don't think the team had any serious aspirations to tell a particularly moving story. But then the gore just felt extra gratuitous.

 

Not that I think I can convince you that my experience is the right one or anything, I just wanted to express it. I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[Sno]

You had a subjective response to a piece of media, same as everybody else. I don't think you're necessarily wrong, i just don't necessarily agree.

I actually found their handling of concentration camps to be the part of the game that made me feel a little uncomfortable. Inside of a half hour, you can go from crawling out of an incinerator filled with emaciated corpses to stomping around in a nazi robot while heavy metal blares. I found that particular hard swing kind of gross, it feels tone deaf in a way the ending didn't.

[Architecture]

Honestly, Bioshock's near-pornographic revelry of its violence really put me on edge. The first time you mangle the cop's face with the skyhook was just more grotesque than I wanted or needed.

[Twig]

I don't know what you're talking about. When I watch porn, I want floods of blood everywhere

[elmuerte]

Stealth is really stupidly executed in this game. In the cement factory I clear a whole floor with stealth kills. Then I went to the ground floor and missed 2 daggers, a dog noticed me a charged me, and to kill it with my vare hands. Two guard alos got alerted. But when I killed the dog I could stealth kill 2 guards who were just looking at me on the stairs. More guards approached the stairs so I pulled back. These guards were just walking around... not noticing the 10 bodies scattered all over the place.

 

An other example, in the mission with the heli hanger. I stealth kill the commanders and soldiers. And then suddenly the alarm goes off. Guess this wasn't mean to be a stealth area.

 

I'm a bit disappointed with what I've seen of the world so far. It's all small rooms and corridors. They're not using the large area functionality the engine supports.

[elmuerte]

This morning the AI did notice bodies and became agro. That was kind of lame, but it;s better. Shame you cannot drag away bodies.

 

So in the u-boot mission I was 100% stealth. And then when you go down a floor they are suddenly on to you. Wtf!?

[Architecture]

Theoretically, I'll be able to play this in six hours after it finishes downloading.

[kaputt]

This game is just surprisingly good. After that terrible first level, which ran awfully on my PC, I thought I wasted my money on this. But I decided to give it another shot this week and well, it's flawed, but still a good game, which was totally unexpected considering the beginning of it.

I think that the story is well written and the cutscenes are specially well directed, they are brief and tell the message. It also has subtlety with the characters and emotions, you actually care with what's going on, even if the game never feels actually serious or dramatic. It's a good story. The main problem is that it is already stretching, as with most games, because the game needs to be longer. Even with some non-sense, it's already way better than most triple A narratives, would be happy if every action game had this level of writing and directing.

Well, the game itself plays good, but there are some weird decisions on it. The one that bothers me more is the need to include a mini-mission every time you need to get an item, it really troubles the pacing of the game. I like the stealth sections though, they're super easy and I'm not in the mood to play a super stealthy game. I also like that those sections add some variety to all the shooting. But yeah, of course they could have done a better work on this, I think it would be better if they just added some huge sections of traversal instead of adding enemies that barely offer any challenge.

But yeah, despite all the performance issues I'm having - should have spent more and got an i7 -, I'm really enjoying this game.

[elmuerte]

It's probably your videocard.

[Architecture]

I'm about a third of the way through a second playthrough (maybe less, actually)--trying my hand at the other timeline on Hard instead of Normal difficulty. This is a good B+ shooter, though some of the sadism of the violence turns me off. I think I mentioned this in the BF: Hardline thread, but the fact that Blaskowicz spins most of the game wearing another person's skin really, really bothers me.

[twmac]

I am hoping that is a reference to the dissonance and not a literal thing - if it is literal I completely missed that part.

[Architecture]

I would say it's all but explicitly stated.

 

While escaping with Anya from the hospital, Blaskowicz subdues and kidnaps a Nazi officer. In the following sequence, Blaskowicz dons an apron and protective eyewear and interrogates the Nazi under thread of decapitation by chainsaw. In the end, he saws the man's head off anyway and the game jump-cuts to Anya's grandfather inspecting Blasko's brand new (presumably human) leather jacket.

[kaputt]

I would say it's all but explicitly stated.

While escaping with Anya from the hospital, Blaskowicz subdues and kidnaps a Nazi officer. In the following sequence, Blaskowicz dons an apron and protective eyewear and interrogates the Nazi under thread of decapitation by chainsaw. In the end, he saws the man's head off anyway and the game jump-cuts to Anya's grandfather inspecting Blasko's brand new (presumably human) leather jacket.

Wat?

I mean, does that really happen, is there any real suggestion that the jacket is made by human skin?

Damn, if that's truth, than it's really fucked up, it makes no sense for all the sensibility and morals that Blazckowicz is supposedly fighting for in the game.

Please not be true, I'm liking you, Wolfie. You're a good game, that gets even better by the fact that 2014 is such a lackluster year for AAA video games.

[Lu]

I'm sorry, but that is reaching quite a bit. The implication is that he got the jacket and clothes from the old man's wardrobe. That he kills the dude anyway, no doubt, but a jacket made of human skin? Really?

[Architecture]

The implication is that he got the jacket and clothes from the old man's wardrobe.

No, this is your inference. And it's a valid one, but I will say that my immediate reaction was one of, "wait, is he wearing that Nazi?" And after playing through the scene a second time, I still had that response.

 

The way the scene is constructed, it smash cuts (or Gilligan cuts, if you prefer) from the act of decapitation to the act of being dressed in leather. The juxtaposition of these two scenes is not an accident, even if the intention is murky. If it is implied that he's wearing human skin, that's disgusting on an ethical level. If it's not meant to be implied, then it's a horrible stylistic choice from the story department of Machine Games.

 

Wolfenstein has been dogged in the press due to its tonal inconsistency, and its general sadism makes it hard for me to outright discount the instinctual response this specific scene elicited.

 

Here's the scene in question, skip to 13:30:

 

[coaxmetal]

No, this is your inference. And it's a valid one, but I will say that my immediate reaction was one of, "wait, is he wearing that Nazi?" And after playing through the scene a second time, I still had that response.

 

The way the scene is constructed, it smash cuts (or Gilligan cuts, if you prefer) from the act of decapitation to the act of being dressed in leather. The juxtaposition of these two scenes is not an accident, even if the intention is murky. If it is implied that he's wearing human skin, that's disgusting on an ethical level. If it's not meant to be implied, then it's a horrible stylistic choice from the story department of Machine Games.

 

Wolfenstein has been dogged in the press due to its tonal inconsistency, and its general sadism makes it hard for me to outright discount the instinctual response this specific scene elicited.

 

Here's the scene in question, skip to 13:30:

 

 

 

whoa whoa whoa. I don't see that at all in that scene. He just cuts his head off. There is even a mention later (I forget where) of a nazi commander found decapitated, referring to that guy. I think they probably would have mentioned skinless too. Also I don't think he could have tailored it that well.

 

 

In Baldur's Gate 2 theres a murder who skins people, and when you find his house there is a suit of leather armor made out of human skin. I think you need to be evil to wear it or something though, I forget.

[Lu]

I'm honestly a bit flummoxed by your interpretation, Architecture. I think you're reading something into that transition (which I wouldn't call a smash or gilligan cut) that just isn't there.

[Bjorn]

In Baldur's Gate 2 theres a murder who skins people, and when you find his house there is a suit of leather armor made out of human skin. I think you need to be evil to wear it or something though, I forget.

 

I had completely forgotten about that.  I think it was a pretty stellar piece of light armor for evil characters as well.

 

 

Human Flesh +5

 

Properties:

• Armor Class: 3.
• Saving Throws: +4 Bonus.
• Magic Resistance: 20% Bonus.
• Weight: 5.
• Requires: 3 Strength.
• Not usable by: Mages and Non-Evil Characters.

[Gormongous]

In Baldur's Gate 2 theres a murder who skins people, and when you find his house there is a suit of leather armor made out of human skin. I think you need to be evil to wear it or something though, I forget.

 

I know this! You find a shirt of human skin in the basement of a crazed tanner, but you need to be evil to wear it, and for it to be made into armor, you need the blood of a silver dragon, one of the most unequivocally good creatures in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. It's a huge pain of a quest, because you have to actually read a few of the in-universe texts to know what to say to the tanner's contact, plus the silver dragon fight is one of the hardest in the game, and then the contact attacks you after giving you the armor. The developers really didn't want that piece of content to be seen as viable for serious play.

[toblix]

Wait, is there a theory that Blazkowitz skinned the nazi, tanned his skin and then artisinally designed and created a fine leather jacket complete with zippers, pockets and a fur lining?

[Nappi]

Yeah, I'm not seeing it either. Maybe if the jacket had some peculiar feature that was also visible on the nazi's skin, I would have believed that, but as it is, I find it very hard to believe this was the developer's intention.