Wolfenstein Hands-On Preview

March 31, 2009 by admin
Filed under: PSP News

The first-person shooter genre has grown pretty formulaic. Due mostly to the outstanding sales success of the Call of Duty franchise, most FPS games follow the same rote formula without any innovation, clinging to the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But that also means as soon as a game’s announced, you can already predict exactly how the game will look and feel. Though, after watching a demonstration and playing a short bit of Wolfenstein, I have five reasons why you shouldn’t file Wolfenstein away as just “more of the same.”

1) It feels like Wolfenstein

Ok, Wolfenstein does bring back some of the same, but it’s returning with the good stuff. This is a direct sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein after all. Heck, it takes place almost immediately after the end of that game (when hero BJ Blazkowicz killed the recently-resurrected-via-dark-magic Heinrich); Blazkowitz then zips over to the fictional town of Eisenstadt to take on more Nazi goons. The first mission — which takes place at a train depot guarded ferociously by Nazis — plays like pretty much every other Wolfenstein (or World War II) shooter: scripted events, claustrophobic corridors, loud Nazis — the works. Familiar weapons, such as the MP40, the Kar98k, and the ubiquitous grenade, are all present and useable. The controls feel like the expected variation of most every post-Halo console shooter.