Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PC)

With extreme caution, you make your way silently down a dark corridor, your silenced pistol drawn and ready. From the radar device on the right side of the screen, you know that the enemy general you've come to eliminate can't be more than seven meters away, where he's turned his back to you, completely unaware of your presence. All that's left for you to do now is to place one well-aimed shot right in the back of his skull. Just as you're about to pull the trigger, however, you're noticed by a guard, who immediately alerts the general, and suddenly you're being hounded by soldiers from all sides, the bursts from their submachine guns forcing you to fall back and look for a good defensive position. Fortunately, you're able to rapidly switch out your pistol for a rifle of your own, and soon there's blood splattered all over the walls in huge splotches, and body parts strewn all over the ground – any new Wolfenstein game's gotta live up to the name, right?

The developers over at Bethesda were able to score points with players as well as critics last year with Wolfenstein: The New Order, which featured awesome graphics, an exciting storyline, and a certain scope and breadth that you just don't see in many modern FPS games. Now, with Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, prequel to The New Order, we're once again headed to that heavily guarded fortress in the Alps, Castle Wolfenstein. Keep reading to find out if it's a trip worth taking.

My life!

The single-player campaign consists of eight chapters, which should take most players anywhere from six to eight hours to complete.The plot itself is divided into two acts: In the first act, you're left to your own devices and have to rescue Agent One from the clutches of the sadistic Nazi officer Rudi Jäger, who gets off on feeding the prisoners of Castle Wolfenstein to his dogs. The second act has you doing everything in your power to sabotage the excavations of archaeologist Helga von Schabbs of the SS Paranormal Division, who is obsessed with finding ancient occult artifacts in order to unleash their dark power in service to the Nazi war machine.

The story takes you through a variety of settings, and contains a fair share of interesting plot twists. One particular incident in the second act even has the series delving into the horror genre. Maybe it's because they spent such a short time developing this game, but it seems like they really managed to refine certain elements of the plot and gameplay. Completely absent, for instance, are the "go-fetch" sequences that plagued The New Order, which really improves the flow of the game. And depending on how you choose to complete your objectives, you can influence how the game plays out; in lots of situations it's completely up to you whether you'd rather sneak through the level or just jump right in, guns blazing.

New blood, old ways

Apart from the fresh storyline, The Old Blood doesn't really push the boundaries, but then again it's an old-school shooter, and doesn't make any claims to the contrary. B.J.'s health doesn't really regenerate all that much, so you've got to be sure to collect enough health packs and body armor pieces. And of course you collect ammo by picking up weapons dropped by enemies, or by plundering gun closets and storage areas. If you're so inclined, you can also pick up scraps of paper and notes lying around that will shed some light on the characters and provide some context for their actions. You actually do have to press a button to pick things up, which works fine as far as the controls go, but it can get a little bit annoying after a while.

Forceful arguments

One new weapon in the mix is a rusty pipe that fulfills two functions: on the one hand, you can use it to do things like climb rock walls, break open doors, and get to objects that are too far to reach by hand. On the other hand, it's a melee weapon you can use to beat your enemies to a pulp, in macabre graphic sequences. The Old Blood isn't exactly squeamish when it comes to violence – you can shoot people's heads off, detach limbs, and with the help of grenades and other explosives, you can even shred whole bodies into little pieces of meat. Of course, while they don't seem to shrink from even the most graphic depictions of violence, some versions of the game have all the Nazi symbols and stuff blurred out – the German version in particular goes so far as to use geo-locking to prevent players from playing uncensored versions of the game. Given the context in such a violent game where the bad guys are obviously Nazis, this kind of censorship seems just a little bit ridiculous.

It doesn't seem like the AI has improved all that since The New Order, either. Enemies get stuck behind cover, storm ahead under a hail of bullets, and make a lot of noise when they change positions. Sometimes all you have to do is stay in one place for a while and let the bad guys run right into your fire like a bunch of lemmings. They don't really pose all that much of a threat except in large numbers, or when you have to face off against a heavily-armored elite soldier wielding a gatling gun or pounding you with grenades.

Could be better

The music also fits the game's dark and at times ominous atmosphere, and does a great job of underscoring dynamic fast-paced segments as well as slower, more stealth-oriented ones. Sometimes, though, after a heart-pounding action sequence, the music will abruptly change tempo after you've taken out the last bad guy. A smoother transition here would have been nice.

And while the sounds effects also help to create decent atmosphere, there are still some problems that haven't been dealt with since the last game: grenade explosions that nearly blow your speakers out could have been better matched with other weapons, and the machine gun in particular sounds a bit too tame. The voiceovers pretty great, though, and B.J.'s sarcastic commentary on the absurd events going on around him are pretty fun to listen to.

There's one more thing I've got to mention here that should warm the hearts of nostaligic PC gamers – in keeping with the whole old school FPS thing the recent Wolfentsein games have had going on, The Old Blood also contains some "hidden" retro levels. After a long day gunning down Nazis and zombies (or Nazi zombies), you can lie down on a mattress and enter into B.J.'s dreams, where you get to play a level in the pixellated style of the original Wolfenstein 3D. There are a total of eight retro missions in all, where you can relive the good old days of PC gaming collecting keys, looking for hidden chambers, and opening lots and lots of doors.