The “Wolfenstein” series is one of the grandfathers of the first person shooter genre, because it’s one of the first and best shooters to hit the market with its blend of shooting action, exploration, puzzle solving and story. The “Wolfenstein” series has had a lot of ups and downs over the years in terms of quality until very recently. One of the best games of last year was “Wolfenstein: The New Order” which was basically a reboot of the series and it was awesome. The new DLC “Wolfenstein: The Old Blood” is a stand alone game you can play even if you don’t have the base game. “The Old Blood” is a prequel shedding some light on the what caused the events of last year’s game.
The concept of the last game was: What if the Nazis won World War II and the events of “The Old Blood” take place during the lead up to the war in 1946. Just like the rest of the series the world is now in need of a hero B.J Blazkowicz who must infiltrate castle Wolfenstein and aid the allies to win this war.
“Wolfenstein: The Old Blood” contains two pretty huge missions and a lot of content to explore.
The first of the two missions is the “Rudi Jäger and the Den of Wolves” and BJ must break into the original Castle Wolfenstein from the 2001 version. It should feel very familiar because it is basically the same map and there are even some sections where you get to play parts of the SNES version of the game in unlockable nightmare sequences. BJ must infiltrate” Castle Wolfenstein” to find documents that will reveal the location of “Deathshead’s” hidden base.
The second mission is called “The Dark Secrets of Helga Von Schabbs” where BJ must travel to the city of Wulfburg to take down an evil archaeologist who is about to unleash a dark power artifact hidden deep in the ground. The archaeologist is a evil SS officer and he is an interesting new villain.
The gameplay in the “Wolfenstein: The Old Blood” and graphics are very similar to “The New Order.” The shooting action is very good, and there are a ton of guns to choose from. One of the highlights of the game is the ability to choose whether you want to use a stealth approach or go in guns blazing. Both options are a lot of fun and feel very satisfying. The new expansion does introduce a few new weapons which spice up the action.
The first is a new bolt action rifle and, my favorite, the new pistols that shoot out explosive projectiles. The new guns don’t really change the game in drastic ways but they do make things a bit easier so you might want to ramp up the difficulty.
Overall I enjoyed my time with “Wolfenstein: The Old Blood” it doesn’t really change the overall Wolfenstein experience but it continues the story in a lot of fun ways. “Wolfenstein: The Old Blood” is a great edition to the series. It has a couple of really long missions and it is a great download at a reduced price. If you are a fan of the series you will want to play “The Old Blood” to learn about the events that led up to the war. If you are new to the series you will be treated to some great first person shooting action, either way it’s worth a download.
