Posted on: December 16, 2020
JGrayDingler
Games: 415 Reviews: 11
Great Ideas Not Given the Budget Needed
Wolfenstein: The New Colossus is one of my all time favorite games, and yet I very rarely think about the "Freedom Chronicles" that make up the entirety of its DLC. On the surface, this is a great idea. Branching out to new characters in new locations with new stories combatting the massive threat of this alternative history Third Reich. It creates so many opportunities to show us new fronts of the resistance, focus on aspects of the main game's story that didn't get a lot of attention, and just open up a lot of new gameplay opportunities. Sadly, that's not really what happens, and it comes down to mostly one thing: budget. Clearly Freedom Chronicles wasn't given much of a budget. Most of the locations are recycled from the main game. Some are dressed up decently so it's not so obvious, but many aren't. The cutscenes use the that trademark of low-budgeted games with playing dialogue over effectively concept art. You'll fight the same enemies as the main game, although you'll get to gut a decent bit more Klansmen in Joe's campaign (still less than I would have expected). To top it off, the stories are decent but very undeveloped, and they're framed as IN-UNIVERSE fiction POSSIBLY based on real events? Not sure why as nothing is more outlandish than the main game, but it further dilutes the experience since these are possibly not even actual fights in the same war you've been fighting in the main game, just... books based on it? One thing I do like is each character gets one of the three contraptions you can get in the main game, and this means the levels are designed with JUST that one in mind and so you get to use them more thoroughly than you would vs. levels that can't be locked to any single ability, but even that isn't used nearly as much as I would have liked. Again, the Freedom Chronicles aren't bad but severely over-priced for what you get. Had they been given the budget needed they could have a great set of add-ons, but as is they're not worth the cost.
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