With Wolfenstein jumping straight in on the number 2 spot of the UK Games Chart, we wondered, will this game disappoint its fans?

We had to have a play to find out!

The opening sequence sets you up with a bit of a glimpse of what is ahead, with movie style animation your thrown right into the game. A meeting with a couple of top guys then sets you on your way. For you who have played the likes of Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny and even Doom, your thrown straight into the game and all you have to do is work your way through, killing everything you find! This new Wolfenstein is not quite that sort of game, you have to keep heading towards way points (fare enough!), but then you’re presented with a character that you have to then follow to another way point (who usually gets killed the moment you turn the first corner and your back to following your compass!).

The AI on the “good side” doesn’t seem to be all that, “intelligent”, the AI on the “enemy side”, is getting towards perfect. What I mean but this is, the AI will hide behind objects and take cover as soon as they realise you are there, they will make your life difficult. The only flaws I found with the AI are that, they shout at you every time they are about to fire, they can see you even though you’re in the shadows and have the attachment to your weapon so you can hide in the dark! They don’t seem to try and flank you either, if you wake/activate them and run through a door, even though there are 3 doors to the room, they will only come through the door you went in!

Once you’re into the game and taking in the beautiful surrounding, which there is limited time to do as you always seem to end up in fire fights, there comes the “Vail” to keep you company. The Vail gets it energy from the dark parallel universe, which you get a glimpse of every now and again, this gives you the chance to highlight the enemy and secrets, slow down time, produce a shield around yourself and even upgrade your fire power for s short period of time. Energy leaks into the current universe allowing you to power back up the Vail powers and glowing blue pods left around the place.

The first level takes place in a train yard and give you a fantastic effect with the physics engine running overtime, as the train explodes and sends everything spinning into the air as it reverses gravity, allowing you to fight as you float. This effect is not used heavily in the game, except in a couple of automated sequences, which is a really big shame, but the glowing blue pods and be picked up and thrown, sending the objects around the explosion into the air, fantastic for groups of enemy!

The weapons are well thought out, not too many of them, but as you go through the levels, collecting gold, you are able to purchase upgrades to all weapon and to your Vail powers at the market traders. Giving the extra firepower, scopes and the ability to “freeze” nearby enemies when activating your time slowing power.

They could have used the Vail to greater effect throughout the game as well as the physics engine, a game that springs to mind when talking about the Vail is Soul Reaver, where going between the realms allowed the surroundings and landscape to change. This could of had more of an effects for puzzles and secrets, but was sadly missed.

Trying to play the multiplayer side was, to say the least, horrendous! After about 10 minutes of trying to connect to game, I was about to give up. Then I managed to connect to a game and jump in with 4 other players. Slow paced and quite a lot of lag, did not make the experience enjoyable, may be this was down to the connection speeds of the other players, but I managed to play two games online and didn’t enjoy the experience at all. A real shame as I was looking forward to trying the Vail powers online, but I think I’ll stick to other games for that.

The overall impression of the game is that it is, ok(ish). I think from playing the older Wolfenstein games, I was expecting more from this, and it just doesn’t arrive. There are a few moments in the game that make you go “Now that’s cool!”, but they are few and far between. Most of the time you are just plodding through the game, doing what is required, only so you can get to the bosses to find out what they are like. Once you find their weakness, the rest is easy!

Due to the ending video (the one after the credits!), it looks like we are in for another instalment, hopefully this time, they will do something to stun us.

Graphics: 7
Game Play: 6
Controls: 6
Multiplayer: 4

Overall: 6