Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
This game was probably my favourite playthrough in the last year or two. It contrasted starkly with the brash and illogical uselessness of Call of Duty’s return to World War II with a well written & conceived story brimming with interesting characters and a plot that keeps you moving through the game. It was also fun. Something COD isn’t.
Wolfenstein starts with a bunch of plot that sets the tone for the rest of the game. No, the plot isn’t focused on the war, nazi’s or mechanical killer robot dogs. Instead it focuses on the protagonists life and motivations. His father is a racist prone to outbursts of domestic violence, and his mother is a compassionate woman who gives BJ Blazkowitz heart and motivation to heal the world from the ill of the nazis.
From his mother he got the desire to help the world and free the people from oppression, but from his father he got the courage and will to use violence (and big guns!) to get what he needs. The metaphor isn’t particularly subtle, but this is a game that includes mechanical killer robot nazi dogs.
And that’s the weird contradiction that comes throughout the game: BJ cares for his partner, Anya. But his only way to express himself is through hyper violence.
But at the beginning it addresses a really weird issue: he’s fatally injured at the end of the prior game, and is saved only by some nazi technology. But instead of the game turning him into a super human, it actually constantly reminds you that he’s weak and very close to dying. So much so that the first action scene is set from Blazkowitz in a wheelchair. Then, there’s a twist where the story effectively kills him off, but the team can save his head and, well, he becomes more machine than man.
The metaphor isn’t particularly subtle. As soon as he loses the soft, vulnerable shell of his body and becomes a superhuman robot… thing, he ends up being more emotionally capable. He even gets engaged to Anya only when he’s a robot, because we’re meant to believe he’s now stronger. In every way.
And the cast around BJ is absolutely brilliantly written. You want to spend time with them. There’s a great birthday party scene where nothing really happens, but it’s great fun to watch everyone interact. Again, because it’s so well written. And that’s also a bit of an issue, because it feels like Machine Games had two entirely different departments working on the story of the game and how that story is played out in the action sequences. There’s too stark a difference, and not enough humour to blend it all.
Because of that, the game isn’t all smart. It manipulates you with an emotional draw, but also ruins any emotional compassion you might have by constantly dumping you into brutalist architecture filled with nazi NPC’s that you feel justified in romping around blowing them up with new and interesting (and bigger) guns. There’s sincerity in this game, but as much as it’s very good and sincere it also has to pit itself against the violence and tonality around naziism.
And then there’s the gameplay. It’s fun. A lot of fun, but also just as contradictory as the story and tone. It still retains the franchises ideology that you can switch between guns-blazing action fun and stealth. But the arenas never really allow you to properly stealth your way around hunting officers. It almost always seems designed to ensure you have to get ammo and shoot everything in front of you.
It’s not stealth action in the way it pretends it could be. It always works as a run & gun scrap. You run out, shoot things, run into things and then go hide to hope you find some health to go back into the arena to continue. When the game forces you down narrow paths (like a train sequence), it ends up being quite frustrating because without health packs you’re going to constantly die until the game gives you a saving grace; or you simply run away from the problem, hoping not to get caught as you run to the next sequential area of the map. That’s because this feels like an arena shooter but your character was built to be as vulnerable as possible because he’s meant to be stealthy. And remember, the original Castle Wolfenstein was a stealth shooter first & foremost.
The game is also a commentary on modern America. The narrative (mostly expanded through diaries you can find around maps) tells a story of an America that bowled over to the nazi regime. There was no initial resistance. And people are too jaded after 15 years of the regime to give enough heed to go against the foreign rulers. People also get reward for playing ball. Including BJ’s own father who gets a ranch for being cozy with the nazis. There’s even a scene in a 1950’s style town where Americans walk around in KKK garb openly while happily greeting nazi troopers.
And the game leans into that theme throughout. In fact, the idea is that this rebel group brings in the tired, poor, huddled masses. Including nazi traitors, black panther style revolutionaries and other such groups. The game is literally named after the poem that coined the phrase “give me your tired, poor & huddled masses” by Emma Lazarus.
The New Colossus is an attempt to comment on American ideals of freedom being wrong. America isn’t good versus evil, it’s both and it’s torn by that duality. Of course, using nazi rule to tell a story and being a big fantastical shooter makes it too blunt a force to really draw conclusions. But this isn’t Doom. Doom is a better shooter, but a dumber story. Wolfenstein isn’t the best shooter because it’s not sure what it’s meant to be, but the story is great. The writing and cast is too good to pass up, and that almost forgives all of the thematic issues. But it is still a first-person shooter that tries to be a deep thinking comment on modern America. Not Trump’s America per se (the script is probably from a pre-Trump era), but the modern duality of being free and open as a society, but also having a swathe of that free society that’s outright racist and happy with the status quo.
And so there’s the micro-duality of a character dealing with relationships, death and a rough past powered by a harsh father. But then there’s the fact that the story brings you to the moon to kill Hitler in a huge scene that’s meant to remind you that this is a successor to Castle Wolfenstein.
Despite it’s obvious flaws, this was still an incredible game. And if the themes are even slightly interesting to you, it’s worthwhile.
