Am I the only one who thinks this game is a letdown?

[Zaxx]

After finishing the campaign I have to say that I'm not impressed. After TNO and Doom 2016 this game simply does not offer enough for it to be a fully satisfying experience.

Here's my short review with my reasons for that, also copy-pasted below:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/zaxerkutya/recommended/612880

Wolf TNC is a really good FPS, the only thing that holds it back is that it's simply worse than The New Order. Why? Because you get less when it comes to content and level / gameplay variety.

For example TNC is the first game in the series that has no bossfights. I was exctied to find out how MachineGames would top the fight against TNO's mecha-Deatshead so it was very disappointing to see that the last battle of the game is just about killing a few nazis and two giant robots while the villain of the game is not even present on the level.

The great secret rooms that were part of Wolfenstein since RtCW also seem to be completely gone: no secret switches behind paintings, no secret walls, just a bunch of dossiers, gold and so-called starcrads hidden on the levels. Audio diaries? Those are gone too, even if you pick up a recording you only get written text. But hey, at least the nazi spoof songs are still here. The side missions on the base are also minimalistic, uninteresting and accomplishing them doesn't reward you with small cutscenes and stuff.

The most interesting weapon of TNO, the Laserkraftwerk is gone. It's replaced with a generic sticky bomb launcher and the crazy sci-fi weaponry that was quite the extra in Wolfenstein games is missing too. The only thing resembling that is a "nazi BFG" but sadly MachineGames somehow managed to make such a weapon completely useless.

The level variety is not too great: you go from generic nazi bunkers to generic destroyed cities, only the last two levels manage to show something special.

The story is good and fun but even that manages to offer very little overall. The main problem with the game is that Frau Engel, the main villain is just one dimensional as hell: she's very cruel and enjoys being cruel + she really wants to get her hands on Blazko and that's all. What is she after? What is her big goal? Nothing, she's no "crazy nazi Dr. Frankenstein" like Deatshead was nor she has funny elements in her character like Rudi from The Old Blood when he wanted to get revenge for his stupid dog. You want nazi side villains and side characters? Forget about them, they don't exist here, you get only Engel and her faceless henchmen. Hitler turns up for a few seconds, he's used for laughs and that's all.

The other thing missing is the fantastic / mythological / occult elements that were always a huge part of Wolfenstein. In The New Order we had the Da'at Yichud storyline that seemed like an interesting one and something that would return here, in The Old Blood there was the good old occult elements etc. In New Colossus? Basically nothing, the very, very tiny bit about the Da'at Yichud only seems to be something that may or may not be used for a sequel.

The gameplay itself is largely the same as what you've seen the TNO with a few minor adjustments and a few extra options. New Colossus is better than TNO in this regard but not by much.

As I've said the game is very good so I wholeheartedly recommend it to every FPS and Wolfenstein fan, just keep in mind that if you've played TNO or last year's Doom you won't feel that enough is on offer here.

[Guydodge]

the real letdown here is DOOM hated it.most boring game of 2016.run in circles and shoot you cannot be serious comparing it to this game.

[Capt_Lycanthro]

I didn't think the level design was great, and there were times when I felt like I was spending more time looking for an exit than actually playing. I think it's fair to say that between TNO, DOOM and TNC, TNC is 3rd in terms of actual gameplay. The focus here is clearly on over-the-top story and less-than-subtle social commentary which I personally think is fantastic though I get that it's not what FPS fans tend to look for in an FPS, and I also Doom's wearing it's lack of story as a badge of honor was it's own kind of charm.

[Scrapper]

I have a few minor gripes with it but in general I really enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of the series and I'm already looking forward to the next game. I'm interested to see where they take the story from here.

TNO stands out as the best so far for me but I prefered this one to TOB. I quite enjoyed the hike in difficulty in this one vs the others and tbh I didn't miss the boss battles at all.

My minor gripes would be that there was a bit of bloat in the submarine and that area wasn't as engaging as the home base in TNO. Not being able to skip cutscenes on further playthroughs is annoying, the level design I didn't mind so much (Could use less magic locked doors though) but some of the scenes were just a bit dull vs. TNO. Felt the weapon upgrade paths were a bit ho-hum - c'mon a scope, really? I need to find a special upgrade kit just for that? Would've also liked to have a few choices in the game which affected the story as in TNO.

In all though I really enjoyed it.

[Saltzpyre]

It is objectively worse than New Order across the board. Everything from visual design to story to system design, enemy types, weapons are some old stale versions. There was zero effort made to improve any of the systems other than a cheap low effort attempt to add game length with the enigma codes and commander assassination side missions.

Everything about New Collossus feels like someone just forced a studio to make another New Order as fast as possible but with no passion or desire to improve upon it. Basically just a low effort redo with slightly different story. No new actual weapons to speak of (heavies aren't kept weapons), no new significant mechanics to speak of (the suits halfway through are ok but nothing to write home about), weapons are same old stale stuff, enemies are boring, encounters are samey and lack mechanical depth or excitement.

Honestly the only noticable difference is that enemies do much more damage per bullet than in New Order, which doesn't really make the game more enjoyable. I played through New Order several times through the top 2 difficulties and enjoyed Uber Soldat quite a bit despite enemies being bullet sponges and two shotting you at that difficulty but this feels oddly different and less than that while artifificially being moe punishing but in a less fun way. Something about the balance just feels off. Like they didn't play test enough or the testers simply weren't familiar with how this genre of game is suppose to flow, ie, it's not COD or CSGO, it's an action arcade Wolfenstein/DOOM game which is a fast paced action murder ballet. But they got the flow wrong.

They seem to have gotten most of those things wrong and just gone off the track and made a passion-less sequel just for the sake of making a sequel...

[Zaxx]

Scrapper lähetti viestin:

TNO stands out as the best so far for me but I prefered this one to TOB.

Sure, me too but think about it: TOB was a half-priced standalone expansion and honestly even that game has a few points on New Colossus.

[вʟасқһзаʀт᛭]

Technically it's superior, but I thought TNO/OB did it alot better too. More on the dynamic side. Wolfenstein II is more a corridor shooter, but a much less satisfying one than DOOM 2016.

[cpt_ricard]

Yup it's just you.

[Scrapper]

Krangbot lähetti viestin:

It is objectively worse than New Order across the board. Everything from visual design to story to system design, enemy types, weapons are some old stale versions. There was zero effort made to improve any of the systems other than a cheap low effort attempt to add game length with the enigma codes and commander assassination side missions.

Everything about New Collossus feels like someone just forced a studio to make another New Order as fast as possible but with no passion or desire to improve upon it. Basically just a low effort redo with slightly different story. No new actual weapons to speak of (heavies aren't kept weapons), no new significant mechanics to speak of (the suits halfway through are ok but nothing to write home about), weapons are same old stale stuff, enemies are boring, encounters are samey and lack mechanical depth or excitement.

Honestly the only noticable difference is that enemies do much more damage per bullet than in New Order, which doesn't really make the game more enjoyable. I played through New Order several times through the top 2 difficulties and enjoyed Uber Soldat quite a bit despite enemies being bullet sponges and two shotting you at that difficulty but this feels oddly different and less than that while artifificially being moe punishing but in a less fun way. Something about the balance just feels off. Like they didn't play test enough or the testers simply weren't familiar with how this genre of game is suppose to flow, ie, it's not COD or CSGO, it's an action arcade Wolfenstein/DOOM game which is a fast paced action murder ballet. But they got the flow wrong.

They seem to have gotten most of those things wrong and just gone off the track and made a passion-less sequel just for the sake of making a sequel...

Dude you can't say something is 'objectively worse acorss the board' then spend a couple paragraphs banging on about how it's just the same. You contradict yourself.

They had established the universe in TNO and so anything 'new' is going to be an evolution on those things, they aren't going to suddenly make the game a 2D side-scrolling platformer. I don't know what new weapons you're after that you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about not being there, maybe say what those are rather than just moaning that there isn't a couple new textures there for some side-grade different assault rifle. I'm glad they keep the weapons etc relatively tight and minimize the bloat that you see in games like COD or BF - it's a single player game so those things are completely unecessary. I think the range of weapons in the game is fine, I'd just like to have seen there be a bit more preference in upgrades to suit folks playstyle (ie - are you hip shooter or an ADS type guy, do you prefer stealth or raw damage output) those things would've made for a little variety on repeat play-throughs. The weapons themselves though I think are fine. Arguably the Wolfenstein shotgun is the coolest gun in any game in the last 15 years, I love that thing.

If you're finding it too hard turn the difficulty down. Don't wail "imba" because you can't just walk through the game. Some of us enjoyed completing it on a harder difficulty where enemies were more lethal without necessarily being harder to kill.

[Abyssrocker]

I am enjoying the game for what it is, but I do feel like it's more of a Wolfenstein 1.5 rather than a full, proper sequel and it is a tad disappointing nonetheless.

My biggest letdown is just that they didn't really do much with the settting, while focusing so much on Blasko's depression and health for half of the game that it makes said half a pain to get through. The New Order had a grander sense of scale outside of Blaskowicz, and his own mental state only seemed to complement the story rather than get in its way.

The New California actually allows this to get into the gameplay's way as well, what with the 50hp limit, and it frankly doesn't feel like neither a necessary addition (or subtraction, really), nor does it pay off for the story.

After playing it on the Do or Die and Terror-Billy difficulties, while currently on Death Incarnate, I find that TB was more enjoyable because of the extra leeway, but there is a level of artificial difficulty across the board that holds the game back.

Other than very little warning of being hit or time do much about it, the gameplay suffers particularly because of the level design. Take the ausmerzer, which has ample space for taking cover and maneuvering around enemies. Shortly after you're in Manhattan, which is awful - especially the harbor in the beginning. Try playing that area and getting spotted by the dock, and you'll be fighting off waves of enemies for 5-10 minutes sitting behind rubble trying not to get shot out in the open.

Furthermore, the overuse of fog makes fighting at long range a literal eyesore, with enemies able to snipe you while you're still squinting to make out a target.

The best spots really do seem to be the closed in, well lit bunkers, and yet they're not exciting or original locations, either.


Melee executions are simultaneously incredible and infuriating, as they seem to take varying lengths of time to finish, leaving you open to enemy fire more often than not. I wish they took a cue from Doom and at least had them give you a bit of extra health or temporary invincibility - something to compensate for the time taken.

Lastly are the weapons, which are satisfactory overall, but a few really feel lackluster. The kampfpistol is an awkward, low ammo, slow loading, slow swapping slot-occupier that can be good on the rare occasions, but I would have preferred something more original and dynamic. The dieselkraftwerk could have replaced it, and that might have been better if that meant making it more than a fiery laserkraftwerk.

I've said it before, and the more I play the more that I feel like the even more disappointing fact is that this is it;the DLC is not even with Blaskowicz, so we're pretty much stuck with a cliffhanger and a game that could definitely use some patching up.

A new game plus would have been a terrific addition, but it seems like they dropped and ran to push out the DLC that I have to genuinely question as even being what anyone wants; we spend *so* much time and focus on Blaskowicz's story and personal life that suddenly switch gears to three nobody's with next to zero characterization feels like a cop-out.

[DeadSlash]

This game was a massive step back from TNO, and you are not alone.

[xeromynd]

No, despite what other "it's just you" non-contributing posts say, you are NOT the only one. I think this game is decent, but a step below TNO in almost every aspect. It absolutely feels like a game that was rushed out the door. (Speculation would say "to take advantage of the current political climate in the US" but I have zero proof.)

THE GOOD:
-Music, mmmmmmmmm. Mick Gordon always delivers.
-The Cutscenes. Holy mother of god, they're amazing. Are they over the top? Yes. But that's ok in my book.
-The "walking simulator" and QTE levels are fantastic.
-The design of the Kreisau's HQ inside the Eva's Hammer is on point, Max coloring everything in and the Helicopters being named after him is great.
-BJ's physical character progression wheelchair -> supersuit -> *spoiler* was pretty neat.
-You're killing Nazi's, always great.
-Plenty of delicious collectibles. Come to me.

There's plenty more that's decent, I'm really trying to balance the good out with everything that will follow in my review, but I'll probably fall short. I do have a great many criticisms for this game, but only because I love this franchise, want it to be the best it can, and desperately wanted it to deliver more than TNO. Admittedly, maybe I was too unrealistically hyped for this game, and that's where some of my dissappointment is coming from, I dunno. Anyway, here goes, now I nitpick:

LEVEL DESIGN:

Level design feels lazy and uninspiring compared to TNO.
-Bland washed out color pallates for most missions (which flavor would you like? grey and chrome generic nazi building interiors, brown and green washed out muddy dilapidated buildings, or just plain darkness (where all you can see is the tip of your gun and enemy headlamps.)
-TNO had levels that weren't afraid to actually have some lighting. (Belica, Nautica, Eisenwald, Moon, etc...)
-The most interesting levels are the walking-simulator ones (Roswell, Mesquite, TV Show).
-Levels feel like "move to this big area, now crawl through some pipes to this big area, ok now go ot the final big area.
-Just about every big fight constantly uses the "kill the commander" mechanic, which gets annoying.
-The backtracking on the last mission felt incredibly lazy. The Ausmerzer is a HUGE flying fortress, presumably with room upon room of stuff inside, but you're telling me the place we need to go is exactly where I was before?

GUNPLAY:

Gunplay is....just ok. Nothing new or improved from TNO or TOB. Just your standard set of weapons.
-Mixing weapons is useless. When have you ever needed the LKW and Shockhammer together?
-The coolest weapons are the "heavy" weapons that you can't carry with you, despite being in a super suit and genetically engineered supersoldier body all the time.
-The weapon wheel is incredibly clunky to use mid-fight.
-The LaserKraftwerk (havent played Wyatt timeline) is incredibly OP and dumbed down from its TNO counterpart, it can twoshot even the largest bosses (Zitadelle).
-The Uubergehwer, while cool, just feels like they wanted a BFG type gun for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles. And again, you can't even add it to your inventory.

DIFFICULTY:

-Difficulty is all over the place for different sequences, there are two in particular that are markedly harder than the rest of the game. IMO, the top 2 difficulty levels just yield tedium and repetition that severely hampers the flow of the story, not even worth playing.
-Damage feedback is pretty bad, only activating when you have 20 health left, which usually means you're one bullet away from death.
-On higher difficulty levels, Kampfhounds combined with the overall darkness of maps is insanely annoying. Unlike TNO there is no mechanic to lessen damage while a dog or crocodile is biting you.

STEALTH:

-You bought this game to kick the ever-loving ♥♥♥♥ out of some Nazi's right? To run face first into a group of 20 Nazis while dual weilding rotating shotguns, right? Me too. Why then, does the game seem like it's setup for almost every scenario to be stealth-run.
-You'll finish a huge battle in one area, move through some pipes, up a ladder, and then boom...you're in the next area, the little "signal detected" graphic pops up and you're right back to everything being quiet again. Apparently none of the Nazis in THIS room heard what was going on in THAT room.
- While it was difficult as hell, I wanted MORE fights like the courthouse, where you there is absolutely no option to stealth your way through. You just have to gun through countless nazis.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:

VILLAINS are bland, boring, and few.
-TNO had a good handful of nicely developed side-villains, unique bosses, and enemy types (Engel, Deathshead, MachineMan, The Knife, Herr Faust, London Monitor, Bubi, Keller). New Colossus pretty much has...Engel and the ALPHA, that's it.
-Engel just seems like your generic Nazi with some creepy sexual behavior thrown in. She was much cooler in TNO when her face was broken, dual wielding assault rifles shooting up your friends. Deathshead was more of a compelling, creepy, threatening villain than Engel ever was.

FRENDLIES are criminally underdeveloped.
-Characters carried over from TNO receive almost no additional development (Bombate, Max, Anya, Fergus, Wyatt).
-Grace is decent but replaces **spoiler** way too fast.
-Horton and his gang are underused and come into the story way too late.
-Exploration of BJ's past is a nice touch, but ended too soon, imo. It didn't seem like his father aged...at all? (Odd)

STORY:

It feels like they developed a whole string of INCREDIBLY cool cutscenes (seriously, they're all fantastic) and then were left scratching their heads, desperately rushing to pump out levels that do a bad job of stringing them all together. Too often I felt myself playing just to get to the next awesome cutscene.
-Both TNO and TNC have some pretty jarring transitions from cutscene to gameplay.
-The choice to have you playing as a debilitated, dying BJ for almost 2/3 of the game is...odd. Uninspiring. BJ whines and is depressed through the first 2/3, then miraculously is totally fine after a **certain** event. No trauma whatsoever, no regrets, no nothing, just "ok I'm back to normal, nevermind the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ incredible things I just endured, next mission."

MUSIC:

Look, I love Mick Gordon's work. Everything he does is fantastic, and the music here is pretty damn good too. But like everything else I mentioned, it isn't as great as TNO, imo.
-The music/cue system feels less "complex" than TNO, with less cues and dynamic audio. if you unpack TNO's audio assets, you'll see that the entire game is composed of hundreds of looping 10-30 second pieces, all of which string together seamlessly based on a variety of in-game events or actions.
-The music itself also feels less complex, but more organic, which isn't a bad thing.
-There are quite a handful of themes rehashed from TNO (Gibralter Bridge, The Kreisau Circle, Ransacked, to name a few). This could either be a great thing, or a sign of how this game was rushed out the door (presumably rushing Mick to compose the OST), depending how you look at it.
-Escape from New Orleans, Riding Panzerhund, Ausmerzer Combat, Sub Combat, Mein Lieben (Courthouse), and Penthouse Fight (NY) are some of my favorites, absolutely fantastic. But quantity wise, I think TNO had many more memorable themes.


CONTINUITY WITH TNO (Nitpicking):

I understand we're in a different part of the world now, which might explain some of these points but:
- What happened to your laser rifles? (AR Marksman)
- What heppened to parts of the Eva's Hammer that you specifically infiltrated in TNO? I thought you already explored the helm of the ship? The torpedo loading bay? All the other locations?
- What happened to the Guard Robots and Heavy Robots and their telekenetic energy-bust cannon things, their design was very cool.
- Why is the pistol back to being one shot? In TNO it was burst-fire.
- Why does Frau Engel not once mention her face reconstruction, or how you killed Bubi?
- Why is Deathshead (or any of the events of the first game), not mentioned outside of readables, or two-second interactions with tertiary characters.


It isn't a BAD game, imo. It just doesn't live up to the previous game. I wholeheartedly want to believe it was rushed through development, and that's why it falls short in so many categories. It feels like Bethesda pushed HARD for this game to come out fast, to take advantage of the current political climate and viral marketing. Most all of the trailer footage during E3 was of the "coolest" gameplay and cutscene moments in the game. Felt like they knew they were overselling Wolfenstein II. I do hope it wasn't rushed just to Bethesda could have a stopgap inbetween their other larger game releases (Wolf: TNC was just about the only interesting thing announced at E3 this past year)

Wolfenstein: The New Order was 10/10 in my book
Wolfenstein: The New Colossus is a 6.5/10.


I realize I basically just wrote my whole review in this post, oh well. haha.

[t850terminator]

No.Its a sequel.
There will always be people who think the sequel isn't as good as its predecessor.

[Cxjey2025]

I have a question. What that's about the god key??!!

[Zaxx]

Nick_SkyWonder lähetti viestin:

I have a question. What that's about the god key??!!

We'll find out in Wolfenstein 3 I guess.

[Zaxx]

Anyway I managed to find one thing that TNC does a lot better than TNO: "post game content". Hunting ubercommanders is fun because the devs really reconfigured the original levels, they made the "walking simulator" segments of the campaign into maps with actual shooting (lol, you gotta love the movie set version of Blazko's childhood home) and at the end you get a brand new level even if it feels like it was thrown together after spending an afternoon in Doom's SnapMap. Basically you can replay most of the levels in a different way and without cutscenes so it has an old school, arcade Wolf feel to it.

Also: new collectables, a bit of new "lore" and story. I'm very impressed, finally, something.