4/5 ★ – stephenhill777's review of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

There’s a good chance you are reading this to get an answer to the question “Is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus a better game than Wolfenstein: The New Order”. The answer is no, it isn’t better. Is it worse? Well, not as such, but because it doesn’t do anything drastically new, it feels worse. This is more or less the same game you played before, fans of the original will find plenty to enjoy here. And if you manage expectations, you might even stave off the slight sense of deflation. Colossus picks up almost immediately where the first game left off, with BJ Blazkowicz having just offed Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse with extreme prejudice. He’s holding onto his guts in one hand and his life in the other. The resistance group, BJ’s treehouse group of friends, manage to patch him back up, but not before they are attacked by the sequel’s primary antagonist, the show-stealing Frau Engel. The train section in the New Order, in which Blazkowicz tries to pass for a Nazi right under Engel’s nose, was one of the original games’ best. It was reminiscent of a certain Tarantino movie, in all the best ways. Engel remains an enjoyably detestable baddie, but, as with the game as a whole, she doesn’t have quite the same impact she had before. We know she’s a sadistic hag with a penchant to shock, and she never develops from that in any meaningful way. To which some people might say, she’s a Nazi, what more do you need to know? And it’s true, the game does revel in that air of “Fuck the Nazis with extreme prejudice!” that makes it a lot of fun to play. A lot of this comes down to the cast, who are more memorable and rounded out than in the first game. Grace, a Foxy Brown-esque strategist, is the MVP, but there are plenty of other enjoyable asides to be discovered on the stolen Nazi sub that acts as your base. If it weren’t for the gratuitous swearing, violence and even nudity, this would have all the trappings of a Saturday morning cartoon. It certainly comes across as light-hearted enough to be one, which is something one rarely expects from a title that features Adolph Hitler. The gameplay itself is improved from New Order, but only slightly. There are fewer bullet sponge enemies, and the weapons have a very satisfying weight to them. Like New Order, each section can be approached via stealth or brute force, and both are viable options. Like I imagine most people would, I often opted for stealth, because it feels very satisfying to clear out a room without raising the alarm and then search for armor and ammo when you’re done. However, on occasion I would lose patience and decide to just sprint through a base, murder whoever got in my way, and lock the door behind me. I did this in the penultimate area of the game and, while I did feel like I might have missed a few collectibles, it was a hell of a rush before taking on the final confrontation. Almost every weapon feels useful and lend themselves well to different scenarios. This is one of the rare games wherein I didn’t really have a favorite or go-to gun, because they all get swapped out so often. The only gripe I have is that, like in New Order, dual-wielding feels unnecessary. The increased damage is balanced by worse aiming, but it also requires two separate button pushes to fire both guns. On top of that, switching to dual-wielding is fiddly, requiring you to maneuver through a weapon wheel for far too long to get a specific load-out. Considering it only really makes sense to do this after you’ve been spotted and stealth goes out the window, it’s hardly worth the effort. That said, because dual-wielding is entirely optional, it doesn’t hurt the main game at all. For the most part, New Colossus chugs along at a pretty brisk rate, and the moments in which it dragged were rare. The pacing isn’t quite as good as New Order (a frustrating dream sequence almost killed it for me), but the sequel makes up for that by being a little more culturally relevant. How the Nazi regime might subvert America culture is a thought-provoking theme that was sadly reflective of real life back in 2017. A section that takes place in Roswell is an excellent exploration of this idea, and really encourages the player to slow down and take the world in. The game's epilogue, which I won’t spoil, is surreal, and only becomes more so the longer you allow it to play out. It isn’t as explosive as the New Order’s finale, but one could argue that that is in service to the bevy of post-game content. Just in case your thirst for chaos wasn't quenched, Colossus allows you to go on side missions, most of which involve, you guessed it, murdering Nazis. Like duel wielding, this optional content doesn’t really affect the main game, unless you want to include the ending's tone. For those who want more gameplay, it satisfies, while for those who don’t, they don’t have to engage with it if they don’t want to. It’s a worthy inclusion, and while I tried one extra mission just to see how it played, I was happy enough to turn the game off once I realized it was more of the same. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is pretty much what you would expect from a sequel to the New Order. It doesn’t take any big swings that weren’t already taken by the first title, and it’s neither significantly better or worse than that game either. Preferences will probably be determined entirely by the story and writing. And while I like the characters more in the sequel, I would personally opt for New Order just because its pacing is a little better. In the end though, this is still a very fun time blasting through 1960s Nazi-occupied America with futuristic technology. #ElonMusk