2014's Wolfenstein: The New Order was the best re-boot developerMachine Games could have hoped for. It was fun, frantic and full oflaughs (and Nazi's). It provided the Wolfenstein series with a maturestoryline that didn't interfere with the frivolous Nazi slaughterspree of the gameplay, with inventive environments and top of theline shooting mechanics. A year on and we have a prequel to The NewOrder, not that it really needed one but after such a romp last timewho would turn it down...unfortunately the saying 'too much of a goodthing is bad for you' most certainly applied to Wolfenstein: The OldBlood.
B.J Blazkowicz is on a mission to retrieve information regarding tothe location of General Deathshead, which are under the possession ofCastle Wolfentein's commander, Nazi archaeologist Helga Von Schabbs.However upon entering the castle they find no such materials and aremet with Nazi resistance led by Helga's lieutenant, Rudi Jäger.As such Blazkowicz must do his duty and kill every Nazi standingbetween him and Helga in order to obtain the location of Deathshead.
The Old Blood's story is, unlike The New Order's, very dull andextremely boring. There are no clever plot twists, the characters aremerely stereotypes with no depth and even Blazkowicz comes off as dryin this. Trust me when I say this is not what what I expected from aprequel to a game with a story so critically acclaimed it went on tobe nominated and win Game of the Year awards for it! The campaign isof a good length, around 8 hours, so take that as you will. But forthose 8 hours you are delivered an underwhelming story that fails todeliver to it's bigger brothers standards.
The gameplay to The New Order was a refreshing step in the rightdirection for shooters, after years of dull military shooters itfinally delivered the most fun in an FPS since Bulletstorm. However,much like the gameplay, The Old Blood also fails to live up to theexpectations set by The New Order. Instead of varying level designand challenging enemies. You are presented corridors filled to thebrim with heavily armoured gun toting Nazi's.
The New Order was not a challenging game, even in the most difficultof situations on Normal difficulty it was merely something thatrequired you to empty as much ammo into the enemy as possible whilstmoving to avoid fire, much like shooters of the golden age. However,The Old Blood instead puts you into situations where ammo is notgoing to help you and straying from cover will only get you killed.Gameplay is slowed down to a crawl and it does not sit well in aWolfenstein game. The only point in many of these difficult sectionsis to give you access to a challenge mode in that area once you passit in the story, almost like a teaser for the real thing. Now whilstI have no problem with the challenge mode being designed like this,it greatly disrupts the flow of the campaign and are more a nuisancethan a blessing.
Encountering a heavily armoured foe with a minigun as a mini-boss isall well and good in my books, but put three of them into the samearea with only a single alert required to notify all of them to yourexact whereabouts and you are crossing the line into a territorywhere the game is no longer fun to play and instead a chore to getpast a meaningless bottleneck.
Visually The Old Blood is spectacular...simply because nothing haschanged from The New Order. The approach to Castle Wolfenstein is aparticularly memorable one from The Old Blood, gorgeous blue sky andan excellently lit as well as highly detailed Swastika decoratedmonolith creeps closer and closer to you with mountains surroundingyou either side.
Wolfenstein looks good no matter the lighting but it's favourable indaylight, however those moments are few and far between in The OldBlood with most of the game taking place either at night or insidegloomy lit corridors. This doesn't make the game look bad, but italmost feels like it's neglecting the chance to show off it'sprettier side.
On the audio side of things The Old Blood has some top of the linevoice talent as well as some brilliant sound effects for weapons andexplosions, however the soundtrack is rather forgettable (besides thecredits song which was absolutely brilliant).
For £15 The Old Blood is a good length return to the world ofWolfenstein. Allowing us to dip back into it's alternate WWIIenhanced with Sci-Fi and the supernatural. However this comes at aprice of a less than spectacular story with some irritating gameplaychoices. It's certainly not something a fan of The New Order shouldavoid, but then again I wouldn't be in a rush to buy this standaloneexpansion.
Wolfenstein:The Old Blood – 7/10
+ReturningTo Wolfenstein
+MoreOf The New Order's Great Gameplay
+VisuallyImpressive
-StoryFalls Well Below Expectation
-SlowerGameplay In Overpopulated Bottlenecks
