Wolfenstein Review - Xbox Gaming in South Africa

To paraphrase a popular saying, there are three things you can be sure of in life: death, taxes and shooting Nazis in WW2 themed FPS games. So it should come as no surprise that Wolfenstein from Raven Software comes filled to the brim with Death and Nazis, and maybe even taxes.

If you're a gamer of old then the name Wolfenstein will conjure fond memories of pixelated Germans shouting “Mein lieben!” every time your stoic character pumped them full of lead. It was one of the first true FPS games that kick started the genre on PC all those years back, so this modern day Wolfenstein has a lot to live up to.

You play as William "B.J." Blazkowicz, the same character from the previous Wolfenstein games, and this time you're called upon to thwart Himmler's SS as they attempt to master an occult power known as the Black Sun to help them conquer all who stand in their way. Luckily for B.J. he's managed to grab hold of the Thule Medallion which allows him to shift to an alternate dimension known as the Veil, and in turn, giving him access to supernatural abilities. The most basic powers include the ability to pass through hidden doors and see enemies more clearly, but additional powers can be unlocked with powerful crystals. Once you've collected them all, you can switch between Shield (stops bullets), Mire (slows time) and Empower (enhanced damage) to help you in your fight against those pesky Nazis. These powers are extremely useful but can only be used for small periods of time.

Wolfenstein 2009 does away with the linear approach to missions, and rather opts for an open world setting in the form of the fictional town of Isenstadt. Scattered through out the town are members of the local resistance and black-market dealers, who will provide you with objectives, weapons and upgrades. Wolfenstein's upgrade system allows you to customise your weapons to your liking, and as expected, there's a good few experimental weapons to find and use on the enemy. In order to afford the upgrades you need to search out money and gold hidden through out the town and in mission levels.

And herein lies the first of Wolfenstein's flaws. As with all open world settings, there's going to be obstacles that prevent you just wondering around. And Isenstadt employs this dutifully with constantly re-spawning Nazi patrols around every corner. Whether you're looking to upgrade your weapons, or find a new mission, you will need to fight through a host of enemies, which quickly becomes a chore.

The missions themselves are bland and uninspiring; in both level design and environments. If I had to hazard a guess as to how they were designed I'd imagine that at a team meeting they threw darts at a random selection of FPS stereotypes and put them all into the mixer. The unfortunate part is that every now and then a level manages to break out of the mould, providing an arresting experience, but they are too few and far between.

Graphically the game doesn't improve much over the older id Tech 4 powered games such as Doom 3 and Quake 4, which is disappointing seeing that id Software co-developed the game and are well known for pushing the bar in this department.

After a rather average single player campaign, there's Wolfenstein's multiplayer component to jump into. The multiplayer portion of Wolfenstein holds much potential but doesn't deliver with games that will either boot you out randomly or lag that is so bad as to make the game unplayable. The problem isn't helped by the fact that Endrant Studios, who were responsible for the multiplayer side of the game, laid off a large portion of their staff after completion, leaving Raven Software with the task of (hopefully) fixing the lag problems with a patch.

You almost get the feeling that Activision just tossed Wolfenstein out to release without giving it enough time to mature into a better game with a bit more time in development. It's definitely not a terrible game and if you're looking for an FPS to tide you over until the arrival of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it will do the job. Wolfenstein epitomises the 7/10 game by being a bit of every other FPS game out there without bringing anything new to the genre. So as long as you can forgive it for that, you should get a good few hours out of it.

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