Wolfenstien: The New Colossus first review

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

And considering I've yet to see the phrase "Wolf2 makes you consider that maybe the Nazis had a point", I'm thinking the story is going to be fine.

you either release copies into the wild with enough time for people to form opinions about it before launch (and time for any sort of Shadow of Mordor fuckery to get revealed), and you let those reviews and impressions go live before the game's release, or you don't get my money.

Wait, you actually thought Wolf2 MIGHT have anything to do with being "pro-Nazi" when the devs talked about how Nazis were like the biggest monsters in all of history and only made them more monstrous in Wolf2?

Hi, I've been gaming for decades, I've seen some epic screw ups.

Didn't Shadow of Mordor loot boxes get revealed before any review copies even went out? I bet in MGS2 happened during this time, people would legitimately complain about Kojima lying to them.

That's Shadow of War. Shadow of Mordor was the "we'll give youtube influencers advance copies of the game, but we get to see their videos before they go live, and they can't show off bugs or say negative things in them because contract".

Obviously, said contract got leaked almost immediately, because that's hot garbage.

The vocal minority in the gaming community has to have all the planets line up perfectly to buy a game nowadays, it's ridiculous. Whether it's boycotting a game over DLC, season passes, stupid ass GG/SJW political bullshit, killing Nazis is political now for some reason, loot boxes, microtransactions, and I'm sure there's even more to the list. The boycotts of such a small percentage don't matter because it really doesn't affect sales. If you see a game that you think will be fun, go and fucking play it, why miss out on the fun? If you applied these strict rules to everything else you purchase, guess what, there's almost nothing you'd be buying. There's far more corruption going on in just about every other industry to make what you're complaining about in gaming laughable.

I meant Shadow of War and that whole thing is pretty overblown. Batman Arkham Knight made you do all the bullshit sidequests to see the true ending that everyone just saw on Youtube. That's literally the same thing as Shadow of War but with the option to pay to fast-forward the grind a bit. As a company or just individual person, why not allow people to give you money for really no reason? I'll gladly take money for no reason. Either you're going to enjoy the game enough to do it on your own or just watch the Youtube video if you don't. From an article I read, just playing the game efficiently is the faster way to get the true ending than paying money for loot boxes anyway.

And I didn't give 2 shits about WB's "massaging" Youtubers over Shadow of Mordor because it doesn't matter, it was merely status quo really. Obviously if you run negative press/previews/reviews on a publisher's games, it's been known for a long time now that it's quite possible that you'll be blacklisted. That's been there for years, Shadow of Mordor just made it look that much worse, but it wasn't much of a change if any. The thing that made me not like Shadow of Mordor was that the Arkham combat system has been milked dry IMO (which you won't find in a review) and I'm so tired of it. That's why I have no interest in Shadow of War because it won't be fun for me and nothing else.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The game itself really highlights it, as you replay the intro scene for Deathshead where you have to choose between Fergus and Wyatt again from the last game, which was a well done psychological scene. Then in this game you get Frau Engel's similar scene, where

Spoiler

She cuts off Caroline Beckers head, proceeds to insinuate she and BJ were lovers by making said decapitated head kiss him. Then mocks her own daughter for being overweight and unloved before doing the same to her followed up by simulating fellatio with the decapitated head)

. Its so over-the-top thats its not even particularly offensive, just seeming overdone and desperate to inspire some sort of shock controversy or illustarte how boundary-defying the writer wanted to be.

You wanna know what oddly enough bothered me the most about that scene in The New Colossus... The fact that you could tell the mo-cap actor was holding nothing. There was absolutely no weight to her holding the head at all.

I've played up until the part where I'm sure most people where like, 'Really?! Oh come on.', and I have to say the story and characters really aren't doing it for me. There is already an air of GTA5-like banter to the performances, where there's a lot of incessant jabbering with overeager swearing added. Then there's the whole sideplot with B.J.'s family which felt completely unnessecary and stupid. I mean, couldn't B.J. just be? Couldn't he just be the guy from the previous game without daddy issues. I'm getting kinda sick of daddy/parental issues in general in games. *looks at Uncharted: The lost legacy*

And regarding B.J.'s family...

Spoiler

If his dad was such a super racist, why did he even marry and have a son with a jewish woman?

At this point I don't even really care anymore about avoiding spoilers for myself. The story in this game is kinda terrible.

 

[Dalisclock]

I bet in MGS2 happened during this time, people would legitimately complain about Kojima lying to them.

...I mean...people did complain about Kojima lying to them. Alot of people were pissed at MGS2 for the Raiden switch which is a big part of why alot of people hate him (Raiden).

Reviewers also kept it a secret because it really isn't something that should be spoiled IMO. Not knowing the about Raiden beforehand definitely enhanced my experience of the game. You should really just know the most basic premise of the story going into anything, any story beats or twists should not be known.

Ideally, sure. Unfortunately, considering the internet likes to spoil stuff(kinda like how I found out a bunch of spoilers for Game of Thrones because people kept putting spoilers in article headlines the day after an episode aired), and then sequels openly talk about stuff that happened in previous installments, it becomes almost impossible to avoid learning vital plot points or spoilers if you have exposure at all, and it only gets worse if, say, you don't experience something until years or even decades release. Kinda like nobody even bothers pretending anymore that Raidan isn't the main player character in MGS2 because the game's been out for 15 years, or tries to hide the fact that Snake is a clone of Big Boss because MGS came out 20 years ago. The only sure way to avoid it is to play a game the day it drops, so no one can accidently spoil stuff for you. Unfortunately, that's not really feasible for a lot of people.

 

[sXeth]

The game itself really highlights it, as you replay the intro scene for Deathshead where you have to choose between Fergus and Wyatt again from the last game, which was a well done psychological scene. Then in this game you get Frau Engel's similar scene, where

Spoiler

She cuts off Caroline Beckers head, proceeds to insinuate she and BJ were lovers by making said decapitated head kiss him. Then mocks her own daughter for being overweight and unloved before doing the same to her followed up by simulating fellatio with the decapitated head)

. Its so over-the-top thats its not even particularly offensive, just seeming overdone and desperate to inspire some sort of shock controversy or illustarte how boundary-defying the writer wanted to be.

You wanna know what oddly enough bothered me the most about that scene in The New Colossus... The fact that you could tell the mo-cap actor was holding nothing. There was absolutely no weight to her holding the head at all.

I've played up until the part where I'm sure most people where like, 'Really?! Oh come on.', and I have to say the story and characters really aren't doing it for me. There is already an air of GTA5-like banter to the performances, where there's a lot of incessant jabbering with overeager swearing added. Then there's the whole sideplot with B.J.'s family which felt completely unnessecary and stupid. I mean, couldn't B.J. just be? Couldn't he just be the guy from the previous game without daddy issues. I'm getting kinda sick of daddy/parental issues in general in games. *looks at Uncharted: The lost legacy*

And regarding B.J.'s family...

Spoiler

If his dad was such a super racist, why did he even marry and have a son with a jewish woman?

Do the ID games even use mo-cap? I wouldn't call myself a conaisseur of these things, but both Wolfensteins, and Doom all seemed to be just animations (not that Doom spent too much time with human characters).

The flashback stuff is pretty bland, basically throwing every trope they could at it. Its effective in the sense that the tropes used are effective tropes. But yeah, the same sort of writing pops in. Can't just kick the dog, we have to throw the dog into a wall, taunt it with an empty food dish, then shoot the dog for good measure.

Its like they were going for Inglorious Basterds campy pseudo-revenge plot. And one of their writers decided he wanted Rob Zombie adapting Frank Miller instead.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Reviewers also kept it a secret because it really isn't something that should be spoiled IMO. Not knowing the about Raiden beforehand definitely enhanced my experience of the game. You should really just know the most basic premise of the story going into anything, any story beats or twists should not be known.

Ideally, sure. Unfortunately, considering the internet likes to spoil stuff(kinda like how I found out a bunch of spoilers for Game of Thrones because people kept putting spoilers in article headlines the day after an episode aired), and then sequels openly talk about stuff that happened in previous installments, it becomes almost impossible to avoid learning vital plot points or spoilers if you have exposure at all, and it only gets worse if, say, you don't experience something until years or even decades release. Kinda like nobody even bothers pretending anymore that Raidan isn't the main player character in MGS2 because the game's been out for 15 years, or tries to hide the fact that Snake is a clone of Big Boss because MGS came out 20 years ago. The only sure way to avoid it is to play a game the day it drops, so no one can accidently spoil stuff for you. Unfortunately, that's not really feasible for a lot of people.

Iconic type stuff just becomes common knowledge. It's pretty easy to avoid spoilers IMO for the most part. Why would you even say Google Game of Thrones unless you're actually searching for a recap or reactions? My main spoiler culprit was IMDBs horrid forums that would display on the homepage for each movie. Outside of that I never had issues with spoilers. For a movie, it's usually see trailer (which can spoil things), watch a review if I'm on the fence, and then see movie (at theater or wait for home video). Any decent reviewer won't spoil anything that's not in the trailer. With a game, I watch 15 or so minutes of unedited gameplay (like a dev walkthrough of a mission), that's all I really need. I'm late to the party with Danganronpa, haven't seen a single spoiler and don't know how I would unless someone replies to my post with a spoiler just to be an ass. The biggest spoiler issue are friends wanting to talk about certain things the whole group digs like my group is definitely going to be watching Stranger Things post haste and wanting to discuss it. But again, why would I even look at article headlines about Stranger Things until I finish the season? I don't even know the sites that put spoilers in headlines in fact.

 

[JemothSkarii]

To me the game feels like it's trying too hard.

Admittedly I never played the first one, maybe it was campy as shit. But it feels like it's trying too hard to be 80's action camp. Don't get me wrong, 80's action camp is great, especially stuff out of Italy.
This is based solely on preganant tiddy guns and the milkshake scene granted, but it feels like if Joss Whedon was asked to right Hell Boy meets Predator or something.
It's just really hard to look at.

.. But hell, it ain't for me, no skin off my back.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

And considering I've yet to see the phrase "Wolf2 makes you consider that maybe the Nazis had a point", I'm thinking the story is going to be fine.

you either release copies into the wild with enough time for people to form opinions about it before launch (and time for any sort of Shadow of Mordor fuckery to get revealed), and you let those reviews and impressions go live before the game's release, or you don't get my money.

Wait, you actually thought Wolf2 MIGHT have anything to do with being "pro-Nazi" when the devs talked about how Nazis were like the biggest monsters in all of history and only made them more monstrous in Wolf2?

Hi, I've been gaming for decades, I've seen some epic screw ups.

Didn't Shadow of Mordor loot boxes get revealed before any review copies even went out? I bet in MGS2 happened during this time, people would legitimately complain about Kojima lying to them.

That's Shadow of War. Shadow of Mordor was the "we'll give youtube influencers advance copies of the game, but we get to see their videos before they go live, and they can't show off bugs or say negative things in them because contract".

Obviously, said contract got leaked almost immediately, because that's hot garbage.

The vocal minority in the gaming community has to have all the planets line up perfectly to buy a game nowadays, it's ridiculous. Whether it's boycotting a game over DLC, season passes, stupid ass GG/SJW political bullshit, killing Nazis is political now for some reason, loot boxes, microtransactions, and I'm sure there's even more to the list. The boycotts of such a small percentage don't matter because it really doesn't affect sales. If you see a game that you think will be fun, go and fucking play it, why miss out on the fun? If you applied these strict rules to everything else you purchase, guess what, there's almost nothing you'd be buying. There's far more corruption going on in just about every other industry to make what you're complaining about in gaming laughable.

Only if you assume the same person is applying all of those rules all the time, super stringently. I've really only got the one, and while loot boxes and cut-out DLC are problems, if I'm interested in the game enough I just won't bother buying the extras. Hell, I've probably spent another $60 on Overwatch boxes, because just cosmetic and it was my birthday, and while I bought and play Destiny 2, Bungie can go eat a dick if they think they're getting a penny of mine for bright engrams. Bought a few in the original, but give me permanent shaders or give me death.

I meant Shadow of War and that whole thing is pretty overblown. Batman Arkham Knight made you do all the bullshit sidequests to see the true ending that everyone just saw on Youtube. That's literally the same thing as Shadow of War but with the option to pay to fast-forward the grind a bit. As a company or just individual person, why not allow people to give you money for really no reason? I'll gladly take money for no reason. Either you're going to enjoy the game enough to do it on your own or just watch the Youtube video if you don't. From an article I read, just playing the game efficiently is the faster way to get the true ending than paying money for loot boxes anyway.

And the industry loves you for it. Play your way.

And I didn't give 2 shits about WB's "massaging" Youtubers over Shadow of Mordor because it doesn't matter, it was merely status quo really. Obviously if you run negative press/previews/reviews on a publisher's games, it's been known for a long time now that it's quite possible that you'll be blacklisted. That's been there for years, Shadow of Mordor just made it look that much worse, but it wasn't much of a change if any. The thing that made me not like Shadow of Mordor was that the Arkham combat system has been milked dry IMO (which you won't find in a review) and I'm so tired of it. That's why I have no interest in Shadow of War because it won't be fun for me and nothing else.

They were disguising advertising and honest play-throughs. If your whole argument is "why not just watch an hour of Let's Plays instead of reading reviews", and the Let's Plays are lying to you by contract, what is even the point of that? Hell, it only wasn't illegal at the time because they hid disclosure under the "show more" tab in the description (which you can't read on devices like the PS4). And by "wasn't illegal", I mean, "wasn't specifically called out as illegal in the FAQ even though it actually was due t the format, so the FTC gave them a stern look and a warning instead of suing a billion dollar conglomerate".

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

Sometimes I wonder if people on these forums even enjoys playing video games.

Not really that surprising, the pseudo-intellectuals on these forums forget the the basic concept of enjoying a game long ago, I'm afraid.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yeah, that's what I meant when I said the story that I read on Wikipedia is bad. It's so strange to read that and then go back to the review on page 1 of this thread. Then again, the review is pretty shallow in its praise. "So many plot twists." "Colorful characters."

It's picked up a bit since the "head" twist though. Now that that's over, along with the dumb family sideplot, it feels like we've got the B.J. from the previous game back -- The one who felt like a monolith of good-natured proactivity. The one who felt like a perfect balance between blunt force and gentle soft-spokeness.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Sometimes I wonder if people on these forums even enjoys playing video games.

Not really that surprising, the pseudo-intellectuals on these forums forget the the basic concept of enjoying a game long ago, I'm afraid.

My man, just how I feel.

Sometimes I wonder if people on these forums even enjoys playing video games.

Not really that surprising, the pseudo-intellectuals on these forums forget the the basic concept of enjoying a game long ago, I'm afraid.

It's probably more that some of us have played so many games that we don't need to play every average AAA that comes out anymore. I can spot the problems present in the flavor of the month and decide, NO. I don't get people who still buy multiple first person shooters every year. They're so similar when you think about it. You've played this game a few dozen times before. It doesn't have amazing gunplay or levels, and the story is bad.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Sometimes I wonder if people on these forums even enjoys playing video games.

Not really that surprising, the pseudo-intellectuals on these forums forget the the basic concept of enjoying a game long ago, I'm afraid.

My man, just how I feel.

Sometimes I wonder if people on these forums even enjoys playing video games.

Not really that surprising, the pseudo-intellectuals on these forums forget the the basic concept of enjoying a game long ago, I'm afraid.

It's probably more that some of us have played so many games that we don't need to play every average AAA that comes out anymore. I can spot the problems present in the flavor of the month and decide, NO. I don't get people who still buy multiple first person shooters every year. They're so similar when you think about it. You've played this game a few dozen times before. It doesn't have amazing gunplay or levels, and the story is bad.

You're right about one thing. You just don't get it.

I think that's what you had written before you edited this post.

Anyway, you're right, it's obvious, they have ADD and are uncultured. That's why they still buy multiple first person shooters every year. Wow, thanks. All it took for me to figure it out and stereotype you people was a smug frog and a snide remark.

Yeah I realized I don't want to get in to an argument with you so I removed it.

You didn't need to say all that, it's pretty obvious that's what you think by just reading your pretentious and extremely cynical comments about pretty much every game that comes out these days. It was pretty funny that you acted all surprised when someone asked you if you actually liked anything. Also I don't know how you read that face as smug.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Yeah I realized I don't want to get in to an argument with you so I removed it.

You didn't need to say all that, it's pretty obvious that's what you think by just reading your pretentious and extremely cynical comments about pretty much every game that comes out these days. It was pretty funny that you acted all surprised when someone asked you if you actually liked anything. Also I don't know how you read that face as smug.

It's not worth your sanity. People don't realise the axe their grinding has levels they're unwilling to unravel and confront. Not enough introspection at all.

 

[Erttheking]

An over the top game about killing Nazis comes out and people are insulting each other over it? I just...why? How is it worth it? I don't...I don't GET it.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

And the industry loves you for it. Play your way.

They were disguising advertising and honest play-throughs. If your whole argument is "why not just watch an hour of Let's Plays instead of reading reviews", and the Let's Plays are lying to you by contract, what is even the point of that? Hell, it only wasn't illegal at the time because they hid disclosure under the "show more" tab in the description (which you can't read on devices like the PS4). And by "wasn't illegal", I mean, "wasn't specifically called out as illegal in the FAQ even though it actually was due t the format, so the FTC gave them a stern look and a warning instead of suing a billion dollar conglomerate".

The industry loves me for watching the Batman ending on Youtube?

I don't even watch Let's Plays, I watch dev walkthroughs that they do to preview the game like how the 1st hour of say Prey was shown months before release, same thing with Wolf2 or Watch Dogs. Of course, the walkthroughs will show the game in a better light (than just a normal playthrough) as the player is told to complete missions or do things in a certain fashion to highlight what is possible in the game. Even Watch Dogs showed completely unedited playthroughs of missions that were in the final product. How people thought Watch Dogs was going to be something different than shown is beyond me, I got the exact game I expected to get. Sure there was a graphical downgrade (which like every open world game has because of the nature of developing that type of game), but the gameplay was exactly as shown. Hell, I don't get why every marketing department doesn't get someone like StealthGamerBR to do official gameplay marketing videos because he's far better at showing off the game than any dev walkthrough or "massaged" Let's Play. How are you being lied to when you straight gameplay footage is shown?

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

An over the top game about killing Nazis comes out and people are insulting each other over it? I just...why? How is it worth it? I don't...I don't GET it.

Welcome to the new culture. Barf bags located under your seat.

 

[sXeth]

For some gameplay related commentary.

The run and gun nature is sadly held back by the need to manually collect the health/armor pickups. While this facilitates a theoretical tactical usage of the health overcharge mechanic, theres no reason to not pick up armor ever. That limited tactical option isn't a particularly impressive one, since you'd need foreknowledge of an upcoming enemy anyways.

This design choice becomes even more obnoxious because they picking up the packs and reload is bound to the same control. So while you're running through dual wielding shotguns and mowing down Nazis, trying to pick up a spat of health ends up stopping your shooting (fortunately not you entirely, BJ can reload while running), and requiring extra presses just to get the pickup.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Sometimes I wonder if people on these forums even enjoys playing video games.

I still do, but I gotta be careful about what I enjoy. SJW's and (more often) our subculture's Gatekeepers don't want me enjoying certain titles.

 

[Casual Shinji]

For some gameplay related commentary.

The run and gun nature is sadly held back by the need to manually collect the health/armor pickups. While this facilitates a theoretical tactical usage of the health overcharge mechanic, theres no reason to not pick up armor ever. That limited tactical option isn't a particularly impressive one, since you'd need foreknowledge of an upcoming enemy anyways.

This design choice becomes even more obnoxious because they picking up the packs and reload is bound to the same control. So while you're running through dual wielding shotguns and mowing down Nazis, trying to pick up a spat of health ends up stopping your shooting (fortunately not you entirely, BJ can reload while running), and requiring extra presses just to get the pickup.

The prompts are also often hard to trigger with how fast B.J. moves. Sometimes I can't even see the highlights and I just move around back and forth until the prompt appears.

Also, is it me or is this game significantly harder than the previous one? I was getting my ass absolutely blasted on Normal mode. Dudes'd be taking off 25 points in one shot seemingly. A lot of times I was dead before I could even see someone's gun going off.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

An over the top game about killing Nazis comes out and people are insulting each other over it? I just...why? How is it worth it? I don't...I don't GET it.

Welcome to the new culture. Barf bags located under your seat.

Whats really hilarious is that Bethesda is owned by Zenimax, on which Robert Trump has a seat on the Board Of Directors. By buying the game to kill nazis you make Trump money.

4D chess indeed.

 

[PapaGreg096]

For some gameplay related commentary.

The run and gun nature is sadly held back by the need to manually collect the health/armor pickups. While this facilitates a theoretical tactical usage of the health overcharge mechanic, theres no reason to not pick up armor ever. That limited tactical option isn't a particularly impressive one, since you'd need foreknowledge of an upcoming enemy anyways.

This design choice becomes even more obnoxious because they picking up the packs and reload is bound to the same control. So while you're running through dual wielding shotguns and mowing down Nazis, trying to pick up a spat of health ends up stopping your shooting (fortunately not you entirely, BJ can reload while running), and requiring extra presses just to get the pickup.

Actually in some aspects you can auto pick up armor, me personally I'm okay with picking up health and armor because its makes the game a little more interesting for me and adds a bit of backtracking found in earlier shooters.

Also, is it me or is this game significantly harder than the previous one? I was getting my ass absolutely blasted on Normal mode. Dudes'd be taking off 25 points in one shot seemingly. A lot of times I was dead before I could even see someone's gun going off.

Yeah I notice that too which is funny because when I saw the demo I notice that BJ could take more punishment but here, he's basically a glass cannon. Then again its not TNO BJ could take that much damage