Review for Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 27/10/2017
It was back in 1981 when a young American soldier was looking for an escape from a Nazi castle during the Second World War: we are talking about Castle of Wolfenstein, the videogames that, together with the historic DOOM, laid the foundations of the FPS with stealth elements in the panorama videogame world. Only those who have had the pleasure of playing it know what we are talking about, but luckily even the youngest have been able to enjoy a long and profitable series that includes 10 chapters from 1981 to today, the year in which Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus also arrives on Nintendo Switch, after having received the honors of the public on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The choice of the MachineGames development team and the publisher who most of all believes in the newborn from Nintendo - Bethesda - to land on a hardware (which has the reputation of being calibrated for very young people), a Tarantine masterpiece such as Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is a joy for mature gamers with a little more splatter needs. Moreover, this small masterpiece has the peculiar characteristic and less and less present on the market, to take all that is good in the past of FPS to rejuvenate it thanks to high-performance graphics engines and innovative features. We therefore find ourselves on our hands a classic, bad, irreverent, ironic, splatter and decidedly satisfying First Person Shooter as we have not seen for a while, and what's more, now it's portable thanks to Nintendo Switch: simply fantastic.
The plot sees our protagonist, BJ Blazkowicz, dying from the previous chapter, miraculously rescued and equipped with cutting-edge technological features that will lead him to be a threat to the Nazi empire again. In a dystopian, surreal and irreverent scenario we will find a reality in which Nazism is winning, America is in a tight spot and it's up to our protagonist to remove the chestnuts from the fire. The setting exudes cyberpunk and pulp from every pore: bloody edged weapons and devastating firearms are just elements of a climax that sees robotic mecha launching fire or armored vehicles that more resemble bizarre fantastic creatures than elements of a world War.
Our protagonist will have his work cut out to fight the Nazi avant-gardes, which demonstrate a fair intelligence and above all an excellent characterization, consistent with the plot, full of irony, adrenaline and blood, a lot of blood. Here the villains are true villains, sarcastic, cruel and well defined: it is therefore easy for the player to take sides in a plot that, although it is decidedly over the top, maintains a thread of coherence that continues throughout the adventure, binding and justifying. expertly every twist, (and they will be different, you can believe it, Ed), however unlikely and excessive it may be. For a videogames like Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus that makes plot and gameplay its strengths, we can without a doubt say that the first target was a full center.
So let's move on without delay to evaluate the gameplay: simply fabulous. All the elements of the old FPS are respected and taken to excess. The splatter, the action, the frenzy are just some of the foreground elements that find excellence in Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. Like? Simple: thanks to some clever tricks, like a melee weapon capable of giving immediate satisfaction and two different weapons, one for each hand. The fight against hordes of Nazis will be the most satisfying for our sadistic streak ever tried on Nintendo Switch: not even DOOM has managed to do so much, probably thanks also to the plot factor that binds everything together.
Moreover, thanks to a range of weapons that is not infinite but very well characterized, (forget about dozens of rifles all the same and all of which have the same ammunition), we will have a lot available with which to satisfy the thirst for gratuitous violence. In addition, the initial expedient that has equipped us with an exoskeleton, will allow various upgrades capable of radically changing the approach to the game by seeing us pass from a type of attack in which we will literally load the enemies head down, to another that will allow phases stealth and surprise effect. Basically everything for all tastes. Do not think, however, that you can spend the entire adventure in jeopardy: you must always take into account your skills and above all health and ammunition, which exactly as it happened for Doom, are sipped along the progress of the adventure.
Also in Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus we will have the classic wheel for changing weapons and a skill tree able to enhance and unlock our skills. We will also find here a map developed to be partially explored also in 3D allowing our American soldier to face enemies from above, from below, and jumping. Here, too, the freedom of action for an FPS is truly admirable and very well done from a technical point of view. Unlike Doom, however, there is also an excellent stealth component as well as a series of trophies obtainable depending on our behavior on the field. The alternation of quick cutscenes in the right places, of final extermination animations and an excellent gameplay sector offer a complete and well-balanced gaming experience for all the minimum 12 hours to obtain the completion of the adventure.
And if you are turning up your nose because twelve hours seem short, remember that the scenarios can be approached and completed in different ways, offering the player both a quick way to be finished quickly and a variety of enemies in case your goal be the sheer massacre. Being a Nazi in videogames has never been a satisfying job, but never as in this case has it been so fatal.
From a technical point of view Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus has no problems whatsoever to take full advantage of the hardware of the newborn Nintendo, this thanks to a limitation to 30 FPS granitic. Among other things, Bethesda has always believed and continues to believe in the potential of Nintendo Switch, leading the way for third-party software, demonstrating that the laptop of the big N is capable of small miracles. Net of some initial loading that proves to be particularly long and the battery that of course is exploited to the maximum, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus has never wavered, whether we were playing on the small screen or if we were engaging the home television.
MachineGames and Bethesda then wisely made two important choices: the first concerns precisely focusing on a main campaign full of facets and presenting a complete, convincing, well-built and engaging storyline. In a landscape increasingly aimed at online multiplayer this turns out to be a brave choice and one more reason to buy the game. The second choice concerns the port on Nintendo Switch. Here the devs have decided not to implement new features with the risk of ridiculing the gameplay and have preferred to focus on maintaining the gaming experience and the graphic result at high levels, despite the adaptation for a lower hardware than the competitors even if of all respect. It is true that combat can now be tackled thanks to the motion sensors of the Joy-Con, but it is also true that there is no need for it.
The audio sector and the localization in Spanish are much more than enough, managing to easily recreate that Tarantino-like atmosphere that boasts strong elements of irony alternating them with surreal dialogues, unbridled splatter and important and sobering themes. The sound effects are adequate and the music accompany our adventure without ever being invasive or irrelevant. From the graphic point of view, there is nothing negative to say: well-characterized and well-designed scenarios, well-rendered and convincing polygonal models and a fluidity even on the small screen of all respect. In short, a great job.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is not just another porting of a title born for other hardware but it is the demonstration of how, once again, Nintendo has hit the target by offering a well-rounded console. The guys from Bethesda and MachineGames have packaged the second chapter of a successful series, taking the old school of FPS to the highest levels and actually packaging a small masterpiece of the genre. The port on Nintendo Switch convinced us completely without smudging of any kind and giving us a sadistic enjoyment.
► Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is a Shooter type game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 27/10/2017
