Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus review: A brilliant shooter

£39.99 - Bethesda - Playstation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, PC

Wolfenstein 2 picks up after the events of the first game, quite literally joining BJ Blazkowitcz seconds after his final boss fight. He’s broken and battered, and you start the game in a pretty wrecked state, reflected in your health, which is set at a maximum of 50% in the early game. This means that the frantic enemy encounters are no joke for the first half, especially on harder difficulties. And so, the game pitches itself as an old school shooter from the off.

BJ’s efforts have made a dent in the Nazi’s regime, but there’s still a lot more to do, and you must team up with the resistance to try and overthrow the occupiers once and for all.

Not everyone in America has risen up against Nazi occupation. In fact, some of them are doing very well out of it indeed, and others praise and fawn over their captors, thanking them for rounding up and dispatching immigrants and generally making their own privileged lives more comfortable. The writing isn’t subtle; the marketing has made no bones about the parallels between the rise of the right in the fabricated world of Wolfenstein and that of our own.

Wolfenstein games have always been campy and ridiculous. This is a series which had you fighting a mecha-Hitler in the first entry, and its spiraled more and more into absurdity ever since. It has no right to be positioned as a serious satire on modern life, and yet, here we are, in 2017, with a Wolfenstein game as one of the most political titles to be released this year.

The game isn’t afraid to hit the player with a full dose of dumb video game fun, and then temper it with a more serious edge at regular intervals. Part of the reason it gets away with it is the excellent character building, cultivating well-developed personas for its cast list and ensuring that the player feels compassion when things go south (which they have a habit of doing). BJ, a character who originally was nothing more than a meat-headed vessel for players to shoot pixelated Nazis, feels like a fully formed man, as we learn about his upbringing, his family, his thoughts on his failing body, and impending fatherhood. His partner Anya, heavily pregnant and trying her best to keep it together as the world falls apart and BJ with it, is arguably a stronger character than the hero in this instalment, and has one scene in particular that will have you punching the air in support of her unstoppable badassery.

The supporting cast pulls its weight too, with a diverse range of characters, old and new, fleshing out the story. There’s Grace, the hardened resistance leader, Super Spesh, who as well as taking down Nazi’s is also convinced that there are alien forces at work, and Sigrun, a reformed Nazi who finds herself helping the crew. All have their own voices, personalities, and comic relief between the darker moments.

For a pure shooter (you won’t find any puzzles here), the game isn’t afraid to slow the action down in spots, take your guns away and give you some time alone with BJ. Don’t get me wrong, the body count by the end is absurd, but these small moments of calm are a good way to absorb the wedge of story that has been created. There are also oodles of cutscenes, but thanks to the excellent writing these don’t feel like unnecessary filler.

Mechanically, little has changed since the last game. A few concessions have been made here and there, such as the ability to save on the fly, meaning you’re not so reliant on checkpoints this time around, but the actual gameplay remains untouched. Wolfenstein 2 is a pure shooter, through and through, stripped of fluff and concentrating on the basics.

As with the last game, there’s no multiplayer component, and while you can gain perks to boost your arsenal and abilities, these are unlocked by carrying out certain actions, such as getting X amount of headshots. There’s no loot boxes or additional purchases that need to be made either. It’s refreshing for a modern game to not attempt to nickel and dime you at every turn.

There’s more collectables than an entire season of the Antiques Roadshow, and you’ll be able to dip back into previous environments to carry out optional missions, so there’s plenty of replayability here for those looking to extend their time with the game. You could make the game last even longer by taking on the hardest difficulty, which requires you to finish it with no saves and no deaths. No mean feat.

The gunplay is as brutal as it ever was, with an arsenal of weapons at BJ’s disposal which reduce Nazis to a fine paste in seconds. Limbs fly and blood soaks the walls at every turn as you carve your way through the enemy hordes, and it’s damn satisfying. There’s still the potential to go stealth, picking off soldiers and taking out the commanders before they get a chance to sound the alarm, but the game is at its best when you’re flying by the seat of your pants, shooting in every direction as enemies pour into the room.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is a game that many expected to be decent, based on the excellent first game. This time around it’s had a bit more polish, and a whole load more narrative thrown in, which oddly, for a series that has traditionally been primarily about wall to wall action, shouldn’t really work, but absolutely does. The characters will stick with you long after you’ve emptied your last magazine, and it’s this that elevates a good shooter to a brilliant one. No doubt one of 2017’s best games, this is a must-have for those who want a pure, single-player experience.