The following reviews are from the 360 version of the game.

Adam:

This is a fun Dual Review to do with my older brother Chad. We did a lot of PC gaming back in the day especially Wolfenstein 3D. Now, FPS’s can be considered generic if it isn’t for some gameplay variant to spice things up. Although, fighting Nazis doesn’t really get old, especially throwing in the whole sci-fi steam-punk atmosphere to it. Wolfenstein is really that: Nazis, Sci-Fi, with a little twist on gameplay.

I don’t know how long it took me to complete the game, but I did get an achievement for completing it for under 12 hours. I also started on Hard, as I tend to do this to try and get the most out of a game. Sometimes it can be so hard that it’s not worth it, but we’ll get back to that later. The basic gameplay of Wolf revolves around your normal FPS’s action, but set in a hub-world filled with various levels to complete. A usual level is completed by going through it, then back to the city. It’s pretty neat to travel through a level like that, as most FPS’s don’t do it, and it requires the gameplay to be fun even in the other direction. It also screams co-op, but that’s another point I’ll get to later.

Along with the level design, which is great by the way, is the added veil gameplay. You get a medallion that allows you to activate a veil, which then allows you to view another dimension (doorways, secrets, etc). This medallion also allows the player to enable greater damage, a shield, or time manipulation, which I found to be useful the whole way through. You can also upgrade your weapons in the black market, which is a fun way to keep weapons fresh. Although, I didn’t come across too many during my first play-through, and when I needed to get back, I came across many difficult enemies in the hub world.

Back to the level design; each level is unique in look and gameplay. It keeps things interesting, especially when most require you to trek back to the beginning to get to the city. This is where co-op would be excellent. Flanking of enemies could certainly be achieved, as well as each player using certain weapons/abilities to get tasks done much more efficiently. Also there are many hidden items in the game, and splitting up to find this would be fun. I guess I can’t knock the game for not including it, but it would be a real co-op experience rather than what most people consider fun ‘co-op’ – point A to B; boring in my opinion.

Also, playing on Hard, the difficulty ramped up quite a bit. Especially at the end, the last boss was a pain. I did change to normal in order to beat him, although it warned me I wouldn’t get the Hard/Uber achievement. But fortunately for me, after dying again, I never switched back to Normal, so I did complete the last boss on Hard. While I said it was a pain, the last boss was fun as hell! I really don’t want to spoil too much about it, but there’s a lot to it and you take advantage of all gameplay elements.

A favorite part of the game I want to share was when I entered a room that was filled with many, many enemies. I pulled out my fully upgraded tesla gun, and just ran around shocking the heck out of everyone. Now, if I didn’t fully upgrade my tesla gun, how would I have done it then? That’s what is cool about this game, as upgrading paths can lead to different gameplay experiences.

As for graphics, they were decent. Nothing incredible at all, but oddly, I played the PC version at QuakeCon and found the graphics to be awesome. So I’m guessing the more recent hardware capabilities combined with higher resolutions really show how this game looks on PC.

As for multiplayer deathmatch, I didn’t try it. I really don’t care. I played Wolfenstein for the singleplayer, and really enjoyed it. I can say this game is worth buying. If you’re on a budget, rent it or borrow it now. If on GameFly, put it at the top of your GameQ. Even though Raven did a great job, it’s interesting to see how the next title will fare being developed internally at id Software.

Chad:

Hello everyone. This is my first official review for Blue Gamer. I will be reviewing Wolfenstein, and I will add I’m writing this review, just hours after receiving an email from raptr.com saying my brother Adam now has more achievement points than me for this game. At this point I wish there was a medal or award saying “I beat it first….nanananana boo boo”. Besides that I’m happy to let everyone know my thoughts on this Nazi killing frenzy of a game.

First and foremost, thank you for making this game! I loved killing Nazis since the first Wolfenstein and I’m glad to do it again. I’m not sure but I don’t think any gamers encountered a Wolfenstein game since Return to Castle Wolfestein on the original XBOX. Someone tell me if I’m wrong. Although I played that game I have no recollection of it what so ever. So I was super excited for this new adventure. I must say my first impressions were not so good. I didn’t like my slow clunky gun I started with and I was even unsure of the look of the game. Lucky for me these impressions took a complete 180 about the second or so level. What was good about the game was when I finished that first beginners’ level I got to the main city, which sort of becomes your hub or base. In this city you meet people with a similar cause and they end up selling you upgrades for your weapons and giving you missions to complete. Once I started upgrading my weapons I learned why my gun seemed a little slow and clunky. My machine guns quickly became the perfect weapons to turn these Hitler hungry doo dahs into swiss cheese.

Now besides all the weapons you are armed to the teeth with (including rocket launchers and some sort of futuristic kill everything in the area weapons), you have something called the Veil. This is an artifact the Nazi’s and your allies are either after or already have. Now you slowly upgrade this four function device into a little helper that you will sometimes rely on to beat the game. One function slows down time, another helps you find secrets, one gives you a shield, and the other makes your weapons pierce shields and other cover/armor. Now although this artifact kind of follows along with the story, I found it to be rather pointless and wished they would have thought of something else to twist up the game play.

As far as cons, besides the artifact, the awesome little central hub of a city can be quite torturous at times. I had a problem locating all of the black market upgrade areas. I was forced to return to the first one I discovered, which was sometimes a painful task to complete. One reason is this city does have baddies scattered about, and as you progress through the game, the enemies here become bigger badder and tougher. I found myself dying sometimes in the supposed home base of operations. Also I wished to play the multiplayer, but since I reside in South Korea and the times are opposite here, I never found any games. Note that I only tried it once and I was impatient. The only first person shooter Koreans play, are games like Sudden Attack on the PC.

My final thoughts are if you either enjoy FPS or you are a fan of the Wolfenstein series…PLAY THIS GAME. You could buy it, Game Fly it, borrow it, but whatever you do you should play through it. Me personally…I would buy it. And I would have if I wasn’t magically blessed by the gaming gods already. You will enjoy the level design, guns, Nazi screams, boss battles and if you enjoy 2nd playthroughs there are tons of things hidden throughout the game. My score out of 10, 10 being the highest is……just forget numbers and PLAY IT!