Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Reviews
The Old Blood's madcap attitude shines throughout its campaign, but the game fumbles when it strays from its Nazi-filled levels.
Even the zombie material, which is still painfully boring and overdone conceptually, manages a few surprises.
If you're looking for a Wolfenstein experience that has stark differences from The New Order, you're going to be heavily disappointed. But just look at the cover art that both Bethesda and Machine Games have designed for The Old Blood and you'll see exactly what you should expect.
The Old Blood doesn't bring much new to Wolfenstein in terms of gameplay, but it's a brilliant old-school shooter with a reasonably lengthy, fast-paced campaign at a budget price. If you played and loved The New Order than it's damn near essential, but even if you didn't it's well worth a blast. Killing Nazis and slaying zombies doesn't get much more entertaining.
The New Blood is a highly enjoyable old-school expansion that is slightly brought down by a weaker second half and some minor technical issues.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood still retains all the satisfying gameplay that made The New Order one of the best shooters of 2014. It's not as long as the original; lasting around 4-5 hours, but it does include a decent challenge mode to increase longevity. For £14.99 digitally it's worth it for a nice afternoon of killing some Nazis.
A lovely, bloody and bullet-riddled trip down memory lane is soured somewhat after reaching the weaker second act that serves to remind how much nostalgia is too much. Thankfully, The Old Blood is still an ultimately satisfying addition to the Wolfenstein family.
Never boring and often exhilarating, The Old Blood is another polished love letter to an older breed of shooter. While not as deep or interesting as The New Order, this standalone expansion provides enough visceral entertainment and interesting story beats to keep players more than engaged for its 6-8 hour running time.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is a fantastic follow-up to last year's rebirth of the series. I hope a full-fledged sequel is in the works, but for now this definitely satisfies my hunger for more Blazkowicz. The campaign will run a little over five hours to complete, and for $20 that is certainly worth the price of admission.
The New Order's returning gameplay carries the day here. The Old Blood's story spends too much time trying to be a tribute to an old game instead of its own adventure—and prevents this standalone expansion from being as deep or enjoyable as the main game.
Like Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon before it, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood sets a new standard for standalone, downloadable content. At $19.99 (or your regional equivalent), it represents one of the best values in current games. Between the 8-10 hour campaign full of fantastic moments and scenarios, the challenge maps, and the nightmare levels there's a lot to love for the money. While the massive file size (over 37 GB!) may cause some internet connections to cry, it is well worth the space in your Xbox One's hard drive. The New Order was one of the underground hits of 2014, and The Old Blood has taken that torch and ran with it. Get psyched and consider it a must play.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood boasts a ton of content for a rather tiny price tag, but ends up suffering from some of the same design issues that held its predecessor back. Still, there's a solid and enjoyable game here, and it's one that first-person shooter fans will want to add to their collections.
A robust, entirely worthwhile release that gives you plenty of bang for the buck and expands upon one of last year's best games in a purposeful way.
What gives the MachineGames' Wolfenstein titles their own mojo is the casual way they pair generic gameplay with silver-tongued characters who reflect on their faults, speculate on their fates, and enjoy mundane occurrences like going to a pub and cadging free drinks. In this way the game's B-movie vibe is evocative of the work of those skilled filmmakers who embrace the silly or even the self-consciously stupid.
The biggest element that feels missing is the incredible character interaction from New Order. There are some memorable people in Old Blood, but no strong attachments, despite the game clearly attempting to toy with our emotions. The pace of the adventure grows too fast to develop the type of relationships we remember from New Order, but when the whole thing is over it's clear that's not the point. This is constructed as a fun trip through the best parts of prior Wolfenstein games, and it mostly succeeds in that mission. We wish it had crazier weapons and more complex personalities but it's still fun.
If you're craving a great shooter and you've already played Wolfenstein: The New Order, then Wolfenstein: The Old Blood might scratch your itch. If you're looking for the story and characters that made the former stand out, though, you'll find yourself wanting for something more.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is Tarantino-esque in its ambitions. It's messy, loud, kitschy and outright violent but a joy to experience despite the rough edges. Sure, it's not a sequel by any stretch but for a $19.99 expansion, it's length feels just right.
Wolfenstein: The New Order established a new life into the Wolfenstein series. While that life has not been squashed with The Old Blood's release, it has taken a slight hit. Many of the key aspects that made The New Order so enjoyable have not been carried over into The Old Blood. Of course, the enjoyable combat is still available to all, and is still a blast to partake in with the new weapons being absolutely brilliant additions. But, in the end, you cannot help but think, "this could and should have been so much more."
MachineGames' latest take on Wolfenstein is a very good shooter that is only a few missteps away from being, like its predecessor, a truly great one.