It shocks, awes, and left me wanting more in the best ways possible. The strength of this narrative is further helped by its sheer confidence. This is powerful and thought-provoking stuff conveyed by BJ’s internal monologue and it’s something a lesser game would not include at all. And he fears that if he does, it will be the end. The following escapades happen so quickly, he doesn’t have time to take the suit off. In his weakened state, BJ spends the opening of the game in a wheelchair and is only later granted movement through a suit of power armor.
This narrative thread is, surprisingly, brought into the gameplay. Adding to this ticking clock of drama and uncertainty is that his love interest, Anya is pregnant with his children and he doesn’t think he’ll live long enough to help raise them. The ragtag resistance group helping BJ try their best to keep him alive and continue taking down the Nazis World Order, taking the fight to a German-occupied United States, but he’s a shell of his former self.
The main hook is that after blowing up the headquarters of General Deathshead at the end of the first game, the hero, William “B.J.” Blazkowicz, is on death’s doorstep. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus picks up exactly where the first game left off and even includes a thorough recap for new players. Even better, the game is an excellent sequel with one of the best shooter campaigns in years. Marketing and current events aside, it’s great to see a AAA single-player FPS with no tacked-on multiplayer or microtransations. The comments section on the trailers alone are enough to warrant groans. Receiving backlash from various special interest groups for “pushing a political agenda” and getting a lot of players angry and butthurt…over a game about killing Nazis. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus picked quite the year to release its sequel.