A Step Back

It’s impossible to write about Machine Games’ Wolfenstein: The Old Blood without mentioning their other, far better game Wolfenstein: The New Order.  The New Order is a brilliant shooter that took genre conventions, put them in an interesting alternate reality, and then grounded that reality with characters and relationships that the player invested in.  Wolfenstein: The Old Blood attempts to flesh out that world with middling success, and loses a hell-of-a-lot of heart in the process.

The Old Blood is split into two distinct acts: “Rudi Jager and the Den of Wolves” and “The Dark Secrets of Helga von Schabbs.”  These acts are wildly different in tone, effectiveness, and fun factor, making me scratch my head wondering how they ended up in one package.  One thing that applies across both acts of The Old Blood is how perfect the shooting is.  The Old Blood’s fun arsenal of weapons and flexible avenues of sneaking through levels gives players the opportunity to stealthily sneak through an area, take out the captains that will radio in for support and get out of there, or have tense gun battles at every encounter.  This flexibility is welcomed, and gives players some incentive to try out every gun and pathway available.  That being said, picking up every item that you need is still a chore.

“Rudi Jager and the Den of Wolves” took me the better part of my time with The Old Blood, and it was disappointing.  The setup puts B.J. Blazkowicz in World War II Germany, before the events of The New Order.  B.J. is tasked with getting into a Nazi base to grab some intelligence.  The biggest problem that this first act has is its loss of the heart that made The New Order so good.  The first act is essentially one big gun battle from start to finish, with very little exposition or character development between fights.  This lack of exposition and character moments made finishing the first act of The Old Blood satisfying, but only so I could be finished with it.

“The Dark Secrets of Helga von Schabbs” does a lot for The Old Blood, but not in the way that you’d expect.  This second act takes the story into B-movie territory, with a (somewhat) grounded approach to Nazi zombies.  Helga von Schabbs is a Nazi researcher that is obsessed with the occult.  Nazi zombies are the product of her misadventures.  This at least feels grounded in the game’s world and real world history, where Nazi researchers actually did many experiments with the occult.  There are a few moments of tension between Schabbs and the player, and there’s some room for Blazkowicz to grow a little bit.  I had a lot more fun with the second act, and wish that I’d had more of it and less of the first.

The Verdict: 7.2 out of 10

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood never quite makes it out of the shadow of its predecessor, The New Order, but it’s a fun shooter if you want more Wolfenstein.

For more information about what the score means, check out our official review scale.

Landon Peterson is an associate writer for MONG.  He’s currently a bellhop at Castle Wolfenstein, putting in his dues until he can get into middle management.  Follow his ascent through the ranks on Twitter.