While it won't set the world on fire, Raven's tale of magic and Nazis constantly entertains.
Cons: Almost laughable story and execution; Pre-rendered cutscenes; Short and fairly repetitive game; Lack of online community
Sometimes I wonder if society even remembers that Nazis were humans. Sure what they did to Europe was awful (and I in no way condone their activities), but many of them were simply humans pressured into awful roles. And yet year after year there are several WWII games that make them a simple faceless villain for your character to kill repeatedly. This new Wolfenstein takes this a step further by turning the Nazis into ridiculous comic book villains.
In one of the most refreshing creative directions this reviewer has personally seen in a while, Wolfenstein has the Nazis attempting to use ancient crystals to give them supernatural powers to take over the world. Yes, you read that right, supernatural Nazi soldiers. This absurd idea is capitalized at every point of the game, getting weirder and weirder as you proceed. It's blissfully surreal and definitely one of the most fun things about the game.
It manages to do this despite a pretty poor storyline. Wolfenstein follows the least subtle spy in the world, B. J. Blaskowicz (hereon referred to simply as BJ because I can't remember for my life how to spell that last name), on his quest to infiltrate the Nazi HQ in Istendast and put an end to their evil schemes. The story is pretty basic, the twists are few (and completely unremarkable), characters deliver lines in overly expository speeches, and the cutscenes are pre-rendered. Yawn.
Still, the mix of supernatural abilities and Nazis make for an unforgettable combination, and it's felt in the gameplay. Early on you gain the ability to travel to the Veil, which is a dimension-between-dimensions sort of an area, filled with creatures called geists. As long as you have some energy, you can reap the rewards of this world, which include slowing time, shielding yourself, and increasing weapon damage.
The enemies also have similar abilities, and as the game continually introduces new (but well executed) enemy varieties, you have to learn how to counter their tactics. When you start switching powers on the fly to get the perfect combination (in tandem with some awesome weaponry) to defeat a myriad of different foes, the game really shines. Occasionally the game also throws a boss fight at you, which is a welcome change from the genre norm.
But otherwise, the game is perfectly content being a simple unremarkable run-and-gun shooter. You typically move from point A to point B, destroying something, killing something, or stealing something, and occasionally you have to return. The game tries to instill some depth with a hub world and some side quests, but neither addition dramatically change the game as they follow the same repetitive trend. Furthermore, these additions, which were no doubt also proposed for the sake of length, don't really do much to lengthen a roughly 8 hour experience.
For better or worse the multiplayer then plays like Call of Duty. The good news of this is that the action is solid and the customization is there. It's good fun, even though there are only a few matches going at any time. The bad news only applies to those expecting another Enemy Territories style game (and all of you can give a collective aw, right about now), as there is nothing quite as deep or unique here. Still, those who put up with lack of people can find a nice experience here.
Being completely honest, however, it's clear that Wolfenstein was a low-budget effort. It rarely innovates, the cutscenes, again, are pre-rendered (though at least gameplay graphics look pretty good), voice acting and story are dull, and multiplayer is ripped from Call of Duty. In spite of this, the game is actually pretty fun. Even though the game plays like most other shooters on the market, whoever plays (read: rents) the game should have a good time.
And, besides who doesn't smile at the idea of a game about defeating supernaturally-enhanced Nazis?