Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Digital Deluxe Edition

Wolfenstein: The New Colossus is a fantastic mix of great action gameplay combining modern and traditional shooter mechanics, a strong cast of fun characters, and a story actually daring to put the still ongoing threat of fascism front and center for the audience to behold. Yes, it's "alternative history", but one deliberately evoking the bygone era of late 50's/early 60's America and showcasing how disturbingly comfortable many people would be Nazism prevailing. It's best encapsulated with the main character's father, who whines about the coloreds and the Jews and the queers keeping him down while abusing his own family. He's not a Nazi, but happily supports them after they conquer America, as do many other bigots and cowards who don't fall into one of the groups marked for extermination. Rank and file Nazi soldiers are humanized in a way that does NOT detract from their atrocities and instead serve as a stark reminder that "normal" people are capable of heinous acts when what's "normal" is so horrible. It's true to history as a common defense of concentration camp guards was they were "only doing their job". By bringing the focus closer to home, in an "alternate" America with dashes of the modern world slipped in, it unnerves those who prefer to remain willfully ignorant and only see the threat of Nazism as something far away and defeated long ago. It's also just a fun game in its own right, with a wide variety of fun, upgradable weapons and new abilities to slaughter Nazis with. It's not perfect by any means. There's issues with pacing out your new abilities, I'm not a fan of the "perk" system, and stealth is very wiggy compared to previous games. But I'm hard pressed to think of a better way to get catharsis after being forced to glimpse the horrors of Nazism then dual-wielding triple-barreled shotguns and turning them into a fine red paste! Also the standard edition is likely a better value. The DLC episodes are just too thin to justify the price for most.

I have played The Old Blood, The New Order and The New Colossus. And I can tell you, without any hesitation, that The New Colossus is my favorite by far. I really enjoyed every minute of it, with its great shooting and fun story. Spoiler alert: there is also a cutscene, that for me is one of the top cutscenes of videogames ever (you are saved by your naked-breasted pregnant woman who bathes with the blood of your nazi enemies).

The Good + Killing nazi scum never gets old + The wheelchair level is cool + Great graphics + Excellent soundtrack + Good voice acting + Satisfying gunplay + Dual wield different weapons + Weapon upgrades + Lean around corners + Manual/Quicksave + Auto pickups + Secrets The Bad - Terrible story with one of the worst twists ever - Child and spousal abuse - Animal cruelty - Eye rolling (toilet) humor - BJ is a Negative Nancy all the time - More cutscenes than gameplay - Character models look worse - Every action still requires pressing 'E' - All enemies are bullet sponges - Stealth is ridiculously hard - Still can't carry or hide bodies - The game relies too much on Nazi commanders - Headshots aren't a one-hit kill anymore - Having only 50 hp for half the game - Extreme difficulty spikes - Terrible hit detection - Can't climb down ladders - Confusing level design - Easy to get lost in Eva's Hammer - The Courtroom level - Grace The Ugly - Texture pop-in because of Megatextures - The sound mixing is all effed up - I just didn't have much fun

It's a game with guns, and with those guns you murder tons of Nazis. Anyone crying about propaganda or culture war or depth is missing the point of the game: killing Nazis in a fun and family friendly manner. Unless they somehow think murdering Nazis is a bad thing, which if they do, oof.

Awful. TNO was such a great game because it was more or less a remake of Half Life 2. It focused on mechanics and fun gameplay. Those were clearly the lowest priorities of the developers this time around, with a focus on a terribly written story instead of actual fun gameplay. Avoid at all costs, in my book at least.