 Title: WolfensteinRelease Date: August 17, 2009
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Rating: M for Mature
Platform: XBox 360
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Raven Software and id Software
It's hard to believe that the Wolfenstein series has been going on for so long – since 1981, according to Wikipedia, with its first FPS game, Wolfenstein 3D, being released in 1992. Now the latest chapter in the Nazi-killing saga, Wolfenstein, is out on the XBox 360. However, while Wolfenstein is a decent game, a bit of repetitiveness goes a long way in keeping the game from perfection.
In the game, you take on the role of secret agent B.J. Blazkowicz. After discovering a mystical medallion during a mission, B.J. is sent undercover to investigate a dig site near the town of Isenstadt, where the Nazis are mining crystals that power the medallion. The dig site turns out to be more than a hunt for some pretty gems, however – the Nazis are attempting to access a mystical parallel dimension, called the Black Sun, in an attempt to harness its supernatural power in their scheme for world domination. Hooking up with the Kreisau Circle (a rebel group) and The Golden Dawn (a mystical order), B.J. sets out to foil the Nazi plot.
Given that this is a first-person shooter, it won't be too surprising to anyone that you get a lot of guns to shoot around in Wolfenstein. Most of them are real-life World War II weapons, but a few fictional weapons, like the Tesla Gun (a lightning gun) and a particle cannon (which looks and sounds like it would be more at home in Ghostbusters than a World War II game) help bring some sci-fi shooting action into the game. In addition, you can use that medallion I mentioned earlier to help you out, employing powers such as a mystical shield and the ability to slow down time. All of these things can be upgraded with money found throughout the game.
There's no doubt that Wolfenstein is quite a fun game. The campaign mode is nicely done, providing a fair variety of enemies to face off against. The levels are also very well-created, with both the normal areas (a European city) and the outlandish ones (the alternate dimension) feeling very real somehow. The online multiplayer mode provides even more fun, and playing death matches and objective missions never seems to get old, though the class-based system is somewhat restrictive.
The major flaw of the game, however, is that things tend to get somewhat repetitive in single-player mode. To borrow a line from Aldo Raine, Brad Pitt's character in Inglourious Basterds, for the most part, you do one thing and one thing only: killing Nazis. Don't get me wrong, that's a lot of fun, but when that's pretty much all you do, it gets a bit dull after a while. And while there are several different types of enemies to kill, they just don't have enough variety to keep you fully interested the whole way through. The multiplayer mode helps make up for this, though.
Ultimately, Wolfenstein isn't a perfect game, or even a great one, but it's a solid one that deserves a look from fans of the series and FPS fans in general.
October 31, 2009
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