Gameplay (Continued)

The AI in Wolfenstein is pretty decent, effectively hiding behind objects and tossing grenades to flush you out of your own cover. You can toss them right back, which is a plus, and they make an effort to escape the blast. Enemies will often try to flank you, so sticking to the same spot for too long is not a good idea.

The only glaringly problematic thing I’ve noticed is that nearly every bad guy tends to run straight toward you. This makes it a piece of cake to defeat them, especially the melee and flamer types. The first stealth assassin you encounter is terrifying until the scripted sequence of events is finished and he simply rushes at you, usually not even cloaked.

Many spawn points are placed wrong or awkwardly triggered, resulting in a highly vulnerable procession of Nazis running right past you, perhaps toward some pre-designated area. Sufficient play-testing would have easily pinpointed these areas. Some generic scripted events are over-used.

Throughout the game you can search out a few types of semi-hidden collectibles: gold, intel, and tomes. The first is money, obviously, which supplements your income from mission rewards and can be spent at the Black Market vendors throughout Isenstadt. Intel provides insight into the back story and sometimes unlocks something like a weapon upgrade, in the case of a schematic. Tomes are rare relics that exist solely to unlock upgrades for the Thule Medallion and the Veil Sight power, such as increased energy storage.

Each of the weapons in Wolfenstein can be improved with various enhancements, like larger ammo capacity, less recoil, scopes, and more firepower. More than kicking the weapon’s function up a notch, it also receives a visual upgrade, such as on the barrel or magazine. According to a loading screen tip, the value of all the upgrades exceeds the maximum amount of money you can accumulate, so don’t go crazy. On the bright side, upgrades can be sold back just as easily as they’re bought, albeit for half of what you paid.

There are eight weapons in all; however I think that many of them are superfluous. That is, some are a lot less practical than others. You start out with an MP40, which on its own could probably last through the entire game. You quickly gain access to the Kar98 rifle and then, no more than an hour later, you get the MP43, which soon became my most-used weapon. I fully upgraded the two of them and used the rest of the more “exotic” weapons only rarely… I simply didn’t need them. The vast majority of the enemies you fight carry the standard firearms and so drop ammo for them, but you would find yourself spending a lot of money at the Black Market for ion cells or battery packs if you decided to be unconventional.


One feature that I’ve never seen in a game before is the enhanced compass. Rather than pointing in the absolute direction of your objective, it will dynamically guide you to your destination like a GPS navigator, indicating which back alley to go down or which set of stairs to climb. The obvious advantage of this is that it’s pretty difficult to get lost when you can blindly follow whichever direction it’s pointing. Those of you that prefer to explore and find your own way will be disappointed to know that the compass cannot be disabled nor turned into one of the simpler variety you are used to seeing.


The thing that bothers me most about this game is the completely underwhelming boss encounters. Huge caches of weapons and ammo tip you off that you’re nearing one, but they’re so simple and straightforward, there’s no possible way you should require such supplies. If you really need the help, turn on Veil Sight and you’ll see the things you’re supposed to shoot glowing in red. I’m not sure, but I think sometimes it explicitly tells you what to do in the objective display of your journal, too. Some bosses can be beaten in less than 30 seconds whether or not it’s your first time playing – Others are so monotonous and drawn out that you wish they could be beaten that swiftly.