Wolfenstein The Old Blood - High Point of The Series

DLC Done Right - Dare I say, Wolfenstein Done Right?

Wolfenstein Old Blood in a nutshell

Developer Machine Games released the standalone expansion The Old Blood in 2015. This action-packed fps title followed the fairly successful 2014 reboot, Wolfenstein The New Colossus. While New Colossus was a narrative driven and slow-burning game at times, Old Blood dives deeper into what makes Wolfenstein games great; namely neck-stabbing Nazis and paranormal ghouls, usually shirtless.

I did play Wolfenstein New Colossus. My opinion on the 2014 game and it's design choices will ruffle some feathers, but hey, that's what blogs are for. The thick and dramatic plot interspersed with stealth and puzzles slowed down what could have been a bloody good romp. Say what you will in it's defense, New Order had a new agenda. Even our musclebound protagonist monologues to himself about his life experiences, profound wisdom from a guy who's great-grandson barely mouths more than "rip and tear" maybe Doomguy is frustrated at the lack of frenetic Reich-blitzing and skull shattering too. Shoving BJ into a band of loveable misfits and giving him a love interest was a great idea... for a movie, not for an action game. I can see the creative idea and recognize it's meant to be a narrative driven experience, I just plain don't like it.

What I do like is Wolfenstein The Old blood. Sure there's the stealth missions and Blazcowicz gets captured more times than a runaway chicken, but there's a refreshing lack of narrative. Old Blood grinds up all the gameplay elements and shoves them into a meaty little sausage that takes about 8 hours to play. The cast is smaller, the scope is smaller and the guns are just as big as before. From the very start, BJ is running amok through castle Wolfenstein and the nearby village of Paderborn to uncover an awkwardly fitted supernatural plot. This leads to a final battle too unbelievable for Blazcowicz to re-tell, so it never got mentioned in the New Colossus, don't want people thinking we have brain damage now do we?

Double your fun

Wolfenstein has always been a shooter to me, so blasting guys away with visceral gore and carnage is just a return to form. Dual-wielding returns alongside the beefy guns that justify some overdeveloped biceps. Here you'll see the shotguns, rifles and pistols that are standard fps fare, no need to reinvent the wheel, just perfect it with satisfying damage and sound effects. All but the toughest enemies in the game can be dropped with a single headshot, even from the basic assault rifle. It feels like skill plays a bigger role than simply finding the best guns, though that helps too. 

Fitting in between titles like Doom and Call of Duty, Wolfenstein the Old Blood is it's own beast. There's no safe way to strafe, hit-scanning enemies will tear BJ to shreds on higher difficulties, though cowering in a single position often had me overwhelmed with mobs of Nazis. Keep in mind, it was imperial Germany that literally invented the 'stormtrooper' military units in WW1, so good luck holding positions against them. What I find to be the core gameplay is combination of using cover to quickly ambush and blast before sprinting to another safe point, though this interrupts reloads. Hey, at least he doesn't fumble and drop his magazines. 

Once the guns start to run dry, it's time to take a page from Gordon Freeman's book and obliterate the crates. Inside there's usually more ammo, health, grenades and armor, if that weren't enough, there's usually a platoon worth of guns and armor strewn across the levels after each gunfight. Scarcity isn't really an issue, even on the I Am Death Incarnate difficulty. Though, if you're looking to save some ammo, there is a way.

Stealth-wise, Old Blood is a mixed bag. Blazcowicz can climb up a ledge with his two pipes and use some suppressed lugers to dispatch of unsuspecting SS. Every enemy killed with stealth is a plus, but as far as I know, there's no way to stealth-kill the lumbering Uber soldiers, so when stealth benefits the most, it's often impossible. Maybe chalk that up to balancing, besides, an entirely stealth run of The Old Blood would be an absolute sin considering the mind-boggling carnage possible. 

The only areas The Old Blood fell short, were the mandatory stealth sections that slow down the pace of the game, though they don't re-appear throughout the campaign. They weren't terrible, but slow down the action just enough to make me think twice about trying to speed-run it over the weekend. Story-wise, the supernatural element of Old Blood felt shoehorned into a fairly short story, it's not like I got tired of blasting SS, but with Wolfenstein its an homage at this point. The series has ditched the occult in favor of more diesel-punk themes, changing times I guess. Finally, I can't help but feel a little cheated that the resistance fighter Annette hasn't made any further appearances in the franchise, This maybe due to the fact that she can die depending on player choice, but if she simply written to survive, she'd be a compelling lead to further DLC's or spin-off titles, more so than Blazcowics's own two daughters, but take that with a grain of salt, I didn't play Young Blood. 

Minor complaints don't detract much from my overall opinion here. Wolfenstein the Old Blood is a well paced and enjoyable entry in the series. It isn't vital for setting up the plot to The New Order, but it backfills the story a little while providing the thrills and kills that fps games should provide. It's not likely I'll play The New World Order or Young Blood. But if there's going to be another brief, action packed standalone entry in the series, I may just give it a go. Until then, stay alert, Comrades!

Find it on Steam