Lots of dying and reloading at check points. Having to scrounge for collectibles so you don't fall behind the power curve. Shutting down your abilities to make areas more challenging. Force fields (lowered by switches, naturally). A factory, a train station, a sort of castle. Occasionally the corridors split off into missions - corridors, really - stuffed with all the usual tropes. But you'll also have to fight your way back-and-forth across spawning enemies, obligingly following that "Call of Duty" golden-star waypoint caret as it guides you around corners, up stairs and down hallways, and generally helps you ignore the uncreative level design. You can explore the town maps - corridors, really - for collectibles that unlock weapon upgrades, which further stretch an eight-hour game into 10 hours. The terrible town-hub concept forces you to plod back-and-forth across bad town maps - corridors, really - to pick up missions, sit though poorly written superfluous dialogue, and occasionally buy upgrades for your weapons. It stretches a six-hour game into eight hours. I bring this up because the story in "Wolfenstein", forgettable and inconsequential as it is, literally has you running back and forth. Did I ask if you wanted some? Because do you? Have some tea." "You want tea? Can I tell you what kind of tea we have? Come over here and look at the tea. But the story in "Wolfenstein" is more like some overeager waiter who keeps bugging you. You do the shooting the story waits patiently, like English servants poised to pour you a cup of tea, unfazed if you wave them away because you don't want tea. In a quick 'n' dirty corridor shooter that knows you're just here for the shooting - the recent "Conduit" on the Nintendo Wii, for instance - you don't expect much from the story. It's a shame to see it sullied by such a stuffed bomber jacket as this zero of a hero.īut it's par for the course when it comes to "Wolfenstein" telling a story, or even having any sense of game flow or progression. It is perhaps the only bit of the original "Wolfenstein" to survive. Blazkowicz predated Raven, Activision, id and even 3-D technology. Blaskowitz? Blast o' Wits? Blagojevich? Of course, the name B.J. He is a disposable action hero whose only redeeming feature is that some kids who might play this game are too young to appreciate the delicious Schwarzenegger-era irony of an action hero with an unspellable ethnic name.
He's a mouthpiece for dialogue that you'll marvel someone was paid to write. The hero is an utter nonentity, as bland as could be, the star of cut scenes you'll wonder why you bothered to watch. It's no wonder Activision all but dumped it on the retail shelves and turned its back to announce the sales figures for the latest "Call of Duty" map pack and the song list for "Guitar Hero 5." This is as fire-and-forget as a game release can be. But the end result is grossly underdone, juvenile, prosaic and almost instantly forgettable. Raven even seems inclined to include a little more freedom and flexibility than your garden-variety corridor shooter. From "Hellboy" to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" to "Shock Waves," Nazis and the occult make for some of the pulpiest pulp. It has here a decent engine and a wonderfully cheesy premise. This is a classic example of a big-budget opportunity gone to waste, cranked out with all the care that goes into a mass-produced widget, mechanically stamped from an old mold and relying entirely on the publisher's marketing and a handful of generous 7.5 reviews. It is as lifeless and plodding as its Nazi zombies, which is saying a lot since it doesn't even really have Nazi zombies. "Wolfenstein" is the polar opposite, all execution and no inspiration, played safe and flat and without a hint of creativity. But this horror/war shooter had an inspired, fever-dream quality, just out of reach of the resources of its developers. Being a self-published game, it was rough-hewn, sloppy with features and endearingly eager to please.
"Necrovision" was created by an indie developer in Poland whose claim to fame was a couple of guys from the "Painkiller" team.
What's Not: Uninspired design Too much filler Poorly paced Flat storyĮarlier this year, I already played the game that "Wolfenstein" should have been. What's Hot: Good engine Havoc-enhanced gunplay Interesting spell powers
0 kommentar(er)
