When Bethesda announced Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, I was somewhat surprised.  It came out of nowhere and I had already accepted that we will not be getting an expansion to The New Order.  Well in fact; this isn’t an expansion, rather a standalone title that you can purchase both digitally and physically at retail.  But with its announcement, I was pleasantly surprised none the less, as I was eager for more of the awesome rebooted Wolfenstein that we saw from 2014.

 

The Old Blood is a prequel to The New Order and it see’s our long serving protagonist B.J Blazkowicz and his military companion Richard Wesley on a mission to infiltrate the infamous Castle Wolfenstein during the closing stages of World War II.  They are tasked with the mission to retrieve documents that will lead them to Deathshead’s Compound, where it is believed that terrifying Nazi technology is being researched and developed.  Needless to say, the mission doesn’t go as planned and now the mission soon becomes personal.  If the Nazi’s thought that they were the definition of terror during WWII, then wait until they get a load of a pissed off Blazkowicz hell-bent on turning the tide of the war and getting a clump of redemption against the world’s deadliest enemy.

 

If you go into The Old Blood expecting some revolutionary new gameplay features, you’ll be quickly disappointed.  It would actually be very unexpected if that was the case, because The New Order was as bare basic as you could get, but for me that was one of its most appealing features.  After all, it’s that simplistic gameplay that made it so easy to pick up and play.  The Old Blood does bring some new tools, more so with the ability to climb certain walls.  This is done by using a pipe that can be split into two, to be used as a blunt and sharp instrument; the split pipe is also then used to scale select walls, by using LT & RT respectively (L2/R2 for PS4).  When the two split pipes are combined, it also makes for a handy melee weapon to clobber over a Nazi’s head.

 

 

Other than that, it’s pretty much the same deal as before in terms of gameplay.  However there are some new enemy types worth mentioning.  The first type are two variants of the Supersoldaten, which are wired up to an electrical box and railing.  They are restricted to where they can travel, which does seem a little odd that they do not have free reign, but I guess that works to your favour.  If you are seen by this enemy, they will dispose of you very quickly if you’re in plain sight.  You can bring them down by going gung-ho and all guns blazing, but that wouldn’t be the best strategic approach.  The best way is to locate the electrical box that they are wired too, turn off the switch, giving you a short window of opportunity to kill the Supersoldaten.  There is also a new Marksman equipped with a sniper rifle and a new bullet-sponging heavy wielding a semi-automatic shotgun.

 

And of course, the other enemy type that we should all be aware of by now is the Nazi zombies (and a few unfortunate civilians thrown in for good measure).  I know some of you may roll your eyes at the prospect of more zombies, but Wolfenstein is worth the benefit of your doubt, while the series was by no means the first introduce zombies, they revolutionise their version of the Nazi zombie back in 2001 with Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was way before the likes of Call of Duty.  The zombies are dumb (because, well they’re zombies) and for some reason they are on fire, and with The Old Blood’s simplistic gameplay, it is immensely fun and satisfying to add them to your ever-growing body count total.

 

 

Similar to The New Order, the storyline can ever so slightly alter depending on if you save certain characters during the campaign.  I won’t tell you whom they are or when that will happen, because once again of spoilers.  However, in The New Order, even though it never changed the storyline dramatically in regards to whom you chose to save early in the campaign, it was a little interesting to see how events played out with a certain character.  Yet in The Old Blood, that choice is far less dramatic and of practically no consequence.  What has also made itself over from the main game is the ability to upgrade various weapons and skills, which is a welcomed return, especially when wanting to playthrough the campaign for at least a second time.

 

If that wasn’t enough, you can unlock challenge maps in The Old Blood.  This mode will throw you into a closed section taken from the campaign (or arena if you will) and you will be required to earn as many points as you can without dying, the more stylish ways you kill the enemy, the more points you will earn.  It’s certainly a fun mode to have when you feel you’ve already played enough of the main campaign.  All in all, you get 8 chapters split into two main segments of its campaign and for less than £15, that’s not too shabby.  During my first playthrough it took me seven hours to finish the campaign; obviously it would take far less then that when played through a second time (unless I take on the higher difficulties of course).  But when you also throw in all the hidden collectables to discover, The Old Blood offers great value for money.

 

To wrap this review up, The Old Blood is more of the same, but fans of The New Order will likely welcome that.  It gives us another reason and purpose to delve into Wolfenstein once more and this standalone game is a lot of brainless fun.  One of the great aspects of this being a prequel, it that it doesn’t matter where you start with this iconic rebooted series.  So if you’re after more of what you enjoyed with The New Order, then you’ll not need to think twice about picking this game up.  Or if you want a break from the usual competitive FPS, then The Old Blood is a great way to introduce you into the Nazi world of Wolfenstein.  It may not be revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination, but I can promise you that you’d struggle to find a game offering as much fun as this one.

 

Do you want reveal the Review Score?