3.5/5 ★ – CaramelKaiteki's review of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

So Wolfenstein: The New Order is genuinely on my "Favorite Games of All Time" list. It was that good. It came out in a time where shooters were just Call of Duty clones most of the time and had an incredible cast of characters that really made you care about them, had amazing set pieces, genius gameplay and for the time excellent graphics. Now, imagine my joy seeing Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus being a direct sequel. And at the end kinda being... disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it's NOT a bad game. It's a good game. But Wolfenstein: The New Order was a GREAT game. Wolfenstein II does have better graphics, and gameplay-wise some things definitely have been streamlined. The addition of the throwing hatchets is fun. But other things are less fun. The amount of enemies that can "knock you over" near the end of the game is insane to where your mostly on your ass. The new mechanics added to move around are kinda eh (the constrictor to get in small spaces or the high walkers to get up high or the shoulder pads to bash through doors/bad walls). They don't really add much except pad out the runtime. Now the biggest disappointment was story-wise and character-wise. It felt like they did more to just "shock" the player and then have some sort of mcguffin in place to get them out of it scott-free. Examples of a few of these issues (spoilers): - At the end Anya and Blaskowicz are on the enemy's ship and are working to take it over, and in a cutscene Anya (highly pregnant), throws 2 grenades at a group of enemies, dives on top of Blasko, undresses her top so she's fully nude from the waist up, and is drenched in blood while straddling Blasko... like... it just felt unnecessarily graphic. There was no real story purpose. In the first game their sexual encounter had purpose for their characters. They bonded through trauma. - At the end of Wolfenstein: The New Order, Blaskowicz basically is at death's door, and that's where Wolfenstein II starts. You start in a wheelchair while playing, and that's interesting and cool! But then they give you Carolina's suit and that just fixes that instantly. They even give you more armor to offset the lost 50 health. Making the whole "my body's broken" thing a thing that doesn't matter - Blaskowicz dies... literally gets his head cut off, yet the resistance was already ready with everything to save him and give him a new body. This instantly solves his being dead and it solves his "broken body" even more. It is hinted at through Chekov's gun, but still, it just kinda is a magic mcguffin that nullifies a shocking moment just to have that moment be shocking and not have lasting effects. Then the characters... they just fell flat. Grace was just a "girlboss" that was more concerned with "the message" that "racism bad" yet is racist herself against white people (understandably so in the universe, but just made her very unlikeable). Sigrun was so obvious, daughter to Frau Engel and gets berated constantly, so oooobviously turns coat. Even the existing characters felt like a downgrade. Set basically had a solution to everything, there was never any real struggle. Idk, I understand why this game hasn't gotten a proper sequel yet. I like it just fine but find it a weak entry compared to the first game.