Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Reviews

Shorter, more tonally cohesive, and outright better than its predecessor.

“A solid shooter standing atop fan service and nostalgia”

After the The New Order, Machine Games decided to continue their work on the Wolfenstein franchise by taking the series back to its roots with a shorter, action-packed prequel set before the Nazi takeover. But does this stand-alone expansion keep pace with it's retro-future predecessor? Or is it a step backwards in more ways than the time period?

The Old Blood is a nostalgic and brutally satisfying return to Castle Wolfenstein.

Simply put, if you liked The New Order, you'll like The Old Blood. The more than competent shooting, likable protagonist, writing, and gameplay choices make up for some small issues and a few static characters.

The violence in Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is what you’d expect from a shooter including limbs that can be severed or exploded by your bullets. That’s all well and good, I just didn’t find Wolfenstein: The Old Blood to really bring anything new to the genre. Sure, it’s a good game as far as first person shooters go, but I felt there could’ve been more cinematic set pieces. There was a pretty awesome scene in the middle of the game where you are riding a cable car down from the mountains where Castle Wolfenstein is located, and it falls to the icy waters below with B.J. still inside. This is a perfect example of what I would have liked to experienced more of, but this kind of material is a few and far between. Once you escape the castle, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood begins to get far more interesting, but by that time you’ve already played through half of the story.

Embrace the old blood.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is an incredibly fun standalone expansion to one of the Best games of 2014, and in plenty of places is tougher. Sometimes more frustrating, especially in places with respawning enemies, and the forced stealth section in the beginning is a bit of a misstep, but overall the Wolfenstein gameplay is just as great here. Nevertheless there are issues, most notably the Nazi Zombies finale being underwhelming and the load of technical problems this reviewer encountered (and...

MachineGames has made a much quicker than expected return to the Wolfenstein series that it helped to re-popularise. After a number of years outside of the limelight, Wolfenstein: The New Order marked an exciting and exceptionally well constructed return to form for the franchise. Gone was the overbearing emphasis on silliness, with a much tighter first-person shooter taking its place. Now, approximately a year after its predecessor's debut, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood attempts to mix the Swedish studio's take on the property with some pre-existing elements – including the infamous Castle itself.

There is something to be said about taking a no nonsense approach with a game’s DLC plans. When so many shooters pepper you with season pass offers, map packs and other downloadable add-ons all for a hefty charge, Machine Games and Bethesda have decided to take a more simplistic approach by releasing one standalone expansion pack nearly one year after the release of Wolfenstein: The New Order. With big shoes to fill The Old Blood comes along at a time when most of us have moved beyond The New Order and on to other shooters. Now The New Order wasn’t anything ground breaking and neither is The Old Blood yet it still does something that a lot of other games never manage to at all. It gives gamers an experience that is visually stunning, remarkably challenging and frantically entertaining. B.J. Blazkowicz is back folks and he’s still kicking ass and taking names!

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood places almost all its bets on the intense combat carried over from the game that came before it. The weapons feel great, and the arenas are interesting and filled with opportunity for some strategic creativity. But by doing this, The Old Blood misses out on some of the quieter moments that made The New Order so special. The Old Blood doubles down on blood and guts, but in doing so sacrifices some of its heart.

The Wolfenstein bloodline is one of the richest veins in the first-person shooter lineage. Only six games have appeared in the series since the hallowed 1992 3D release that kicked off the genre, and every entry (excluding the milquetoast 2009 release) has garnered some degree of praise. Machine Games has tapped this bloodline to create a standalone expansion to the New Order that serves as an homage to the past achievements of this storied franchise.

Old blood, new cuts. Here is our review of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood!

A bloody romp through Castle Wolfenstein and beyond that falters near the end, but is still worth the price of admission.

The Old Blood also works as something of an experiment, no matter how brief. I came away from this game wanting some more of a "Nazi zombies" kind of game with the New Order game mechanics, so it's too bad that this portion of the game was so short. For those that don't have the time to devote to The New Order, this abbreviated Old Blood experience should suffice.

Another Nazi-blasting triumph, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is the perfect companion piece to The New Order, and proof positive that MachineGames knows exactly what it's doing with the series. The Old Blood is more of the same, which is certainly no bad thing.

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MachineGames has done it again!

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood operates just like an old school PC expansion should, and if you liked New Order, this is a no-brainer. In fact, due to the pulp feel of the second half I even slightly prefer it to the original, and the two interconnected plots are incredibly easy to swallow in an afternoon.