Wolfenstein 2 is surprisingly bad shooter...

[resident_UA]

Don't get me wrong. I'm half way through and I LOVE what this game is doing with the story. But the gameplay so far has been pretty bad. I went with the default difficulty and judging by what I heard I stuck to dual wielding weapons. The game was easy enough at that point, but nothing could save level design. I don't think I ever seen so many dead ends in a videogame. And who thinks that it's a fun puzzle to try figuring out where to go?!

I played through half the game that way. And then at some point I realized that I'm not having any fun at all. It did start to feel like a challenge, but not a fun challenge...

I ended up going to easiest difficulty possible last night. And that made the gameplay way more enjoyable. But I still can't process that a game with such great direction ended up with subpar gameplay. Even Wolfenstein 1 felt more polished (aside from that opening level).

 

[Border]

Levels are hideous and gameplay is bog standard at best. The story and world are the only thing carrying it.

 

[EndlessNever]

What? It's a fantastic shooter. I can't even begin to understand how you can say it's gameplay is the weakest aspect of the package.

 

[tommy7154]

I was excited for this game then didnt buy it day one because I heard it was really linear. Is that true so far? Sounds like it with all the dead ends. Such a shame.

 

[foxdvd]

I don't think I ever seen so many dead ends in a videogame. ).

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I am actually surprised more people have not talked about this...I think level design was a huge step back. There is no instinctual flow like some of the great FPS games have...

 

[Deleted member 14002]

I get what you mean OP. I don't know why the game scores so high. I'd give it high 7xs low 8xs.

I also started on normal and turned it way down because it was difficult and I wasn't having fun with it.

The level design is bad, it's hard to tell where to go. The game feels like it wants you to stealth at time but then doesn't offer a suite of stealth mechanics.

All the set piece moments are in the latter half of the game. Feels like a trick to distract from how bland the first half is.

Also the execution animations aren't invincible, which is super dumb.

 

[VaporSnake]

Are you playing it on a controller?

 

[BadRabbit]

What gameplay differences does easy vs default give for those of us who have not started yet?

 

[Hubologist]

I'm a bit confused by the post. You criticize the level design, but how does decreasing the difficulty level help that?

I do find the game quite difficult at standard difficulty, but that's what difficulty levels are for.

 

[resident_UA]

What? It's a fantastic shooter. I can't even begin to understand how you can say it's gameplay is the weakest aspect of the package.

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I spent half an hour yesterday looking for an exit. How is that a good design in any way? :)

I'm a bit confused by the post. You criticize the level design, but how does decreasing the difficulty level help that?

I do find the game quite difficult at standard difficulty, but that's what difficulty levels are for.

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It was two different criticisms. Dual wielding weapons being beneficial was discussed pretty much in every review. And I agree with everything that was said. It does not make dying fun though. Level design is sort of connected to this. You get shot from multiple directions. Lowering difficulty helps me to find an exit. I just follow the body trail I create :)

 

[The Almighty Tria]

It's average and boring in the gameplay department, just like Wolfenstein 1.

So tried of every game feeling like a goddamn Call of Duty simulator. But this time, with futuristic Nazis!

 

[Deleted member 203]

The level design is ass. Presentation aside in many ways this game feels like it fell out of the late 90s/early 2000s. Hitscan everywhere with poor directional indication, bad level design, barebones barely-functional stealth, a reliance on quicksave/quickload gameplay... it's not good. I was really not enjoying myself in the back half, especially the final section.

 

[Mars People]

It's a game that's just too hard for it's own good somehow.

You lose health so fast, it feels like you can die in seconds.
And this is on regular difficulty.

 

[SoyUnPixel]

It's a step down from the previous game in some areas: level design, encounter design and combat pacing. It has too much focus on stealth mechanics that are not fun to use, you're too fragile and also have some pretty shitty damage feedback. But when the game channels its shooter roots and you're not restricted on killing commanders it's really, REALLY fun.

 

[TheWickedSoul]

Yeah, the gameplay is terrible. Bad hit detection, the hit or miss picking up ammo/health when walking over it. I put it on the easiest difficulty too it made the game way more fun and i played the 1st game on the hardest.

 

[Ravelle]

Yeah, it was kinda was a bummer compared to the first one.

I didn't think the guns were all that great, I had to constantly switch weapons because I was out of ammo, weapon switching was real confusing because the guns seemed to switch position every time, dual wielding felt awkward. I spent way too long in those ruined buildings.
The moment I realized I was getting murdered from the first first moments in the game, I dumped it down to "can I play daddy" and it felt great. I don't play games to get frustrated.

You spent more time waking and looking than shooting dudes I found, and the moment you get your super human contraptions, and get introduced in unlocking more by doing side missions for your crew, the game ends. I used my power like a handful of times.

 

[Deleted member 11370]

If they used a better way to let you know that you're being hit, my issues with the gameplay would go down by an 80%. That's how many times I died because I hadn't realized that I was on my last sliver of health.

Other than that, I really like how "punchy" all weapons feel. Those double shotguns... delicious.

 

[Nephilim]

After the first five hours i had the same opinion with the shooting part of the game. But now, i'm near the end, my opinion is that is a truly great shooter. Gunplay is fantastic and i like dual wielding a lot.

 

[Transistor]

Killing a nazi with a hatchet in the shin from 50 yards is the best feeling ever

 

[Gunny T Highway]

The gun play is great as well as the story and characters. The bad level design is the worst part of the game. I hated finishing a fight then running around for a while figuring out what to do or go next. The so called hint system that you can trigger on the d-pad was always glitchy and worked very rarely. The difficulty is another issue entirely. The default normal difficulty should not be on the same level as the hardest difficulty of other shooters. I do not even remember the normal difficulty of The New Order being this hard.

 

[Kaiser Swayze]

I must admit I agree with OP here. It kills me because it's an otherwise highly polished, great-looking game that runs well and has a decent story. That and it's one of the very few shooters out there not built around multiplayer. I nearly sold it back, but I'm hoping I'll have a second wind and come back later with some renewed interest.

 

[resident_UA]

After the first five hours i had the same opinion with the shooting part of the game. But now, i'm near the end, my opinion is that is a truly great shooter. Gunplay is fantastic and i like dual wielding a lot.

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OK. If this was Final Fantasy and the game was 100 hours I maybe could process your argument. But you are basically saying that a third to a half of the game sucks. That's a problem. :)

 

[Dance Inferno]

Agree. I regret buying this game because the gameplay was not fun. Loved the story and atmosphere, but Machine Games needs to have a sit down with id to learn how to make a decent shooter.

 

[Deleted member 14002]

What gameplay differences does easy vs default give for those of us who have not started yet?

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Just how much damage you take/how much damage enemies take. Standard.

 

[Silky]

Combat pacing is the worst thing in the game. It encourages moving fast and pushing Dual Wield but you get choked out by crazy accurate shots from enemies. Starting at 50 health for the first half of the game doesn't do anyone any favors either.
The lack of hit detection from taking bullets makes it worse too.


I think it was near the end of the game where I said 'ffuck this' and reduced the difficulty from Do or Die to Let's do This.

Sadly I never felt 'lost' in Wolfenstein 2 like the OP. Knowing where to go is pretty well telegraphed especially considering the map tells you where to go.

 

[spam musubi]

Eh, I disagree. Played on PC and had a blast. Game really rewards movement and aggressive play. Playing it like a cover shooter would be miserable.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

It does have some glaring issues in the gameplay department

- Picking up ammo and armor is still a chore even with the auto pick-up which is so poor it might as well not exist half the time
- Levels are boring and many of them are very similar in design and aesthetic
- Feedback from getting hit needs to be improved. Not only do you take a lot of damage and quickly, the game does a poor job of indicating when you're getting hit, how hard and from where
- The encounters are bizarre at times. It's like the game doesn't know if it wants to be a cover shooter or a run and gun shooter

 

[CloseTalker]

Yeah, as a shooter it wasn't my fave.

• Bland level design, that takes away any option of stealth like the first one had
• Some great weapons to use, but no real standout set pieces in which to use them
• Game encourages moving at a rapid pace, but has little quirks like health and ammo drops that you won't pick up unless you stand on them juuuuust right, which got me killed more than once.

I ended up just dropping the difficulty down and plowing through it. Was a breeze, but fun enough, and got me to the stuff I cared about.

 

[GameZone]

It's a good shooter, but a terrible stealth game. Too bad almost every section wants you to stealth.

 

[Bat King]

Gotta agree with that, its gameplay is really mediocre

 

[Jadusable]

The narrative is interesting and enjoyable but I agree, it came across to me as an average shooter with a cool concept

 

[arcticice]

100% agreed. After hearing a lot of praise for it, i gave it a shot, but it's not as good as it's made out to be. the first Wolfenstein suferred from same issues.

 

[resident_UA]

Eh, I disagree. Played on PC and had a blast. Game really rewards movement and aggressive play. Playing it like a cover shooter would be miserable.

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I didn't play it as cover shooter at all! A great example of why gameplay actually makes this game worse is the "judge" scene (trying not to spoil). That moment should feel badass! but unless you are really good you will die in that level. That's bad game design.

 

[GalvoAg]

Been playing this in between my Orgins and Odysssey sessions and I have to echo those statements. Haven't bumped down the difficulty but thinking about it because the game is a slog. The time to kill is almost Call of Duty like.

 

[LavaBadger]

I just don't understand these complaints. Shooting never felt off to me. The only thing I don't like is how dual weilding feels. Otherwise, I never struggled with anything and always thought encounters were satisfying.

There's nothing wrong with being challenged a bit too. Playing in the middle difficulty, there were only a couple sequences I found myself having to repeat. I always felt like a deadly freight train.

 

[Silky]

Hey who thought it was a fucking brilliant idea to make health pickups require a button press instead of walking over it like shield pieces

Why can't I walk over full shield sets like shield pieces and add it on to my armor count

Like why do this? Why slow down the pace with this shit? You have Blazko with a ridiculous sprint speed and some dope add on abilities later in the game but you gotta stop yourself to get ammo, get health

Fucking nonsense design

 

[PanzerKraken]

The gameplay feels odd on consoles, it's much better on PC with a mouse and keyboard. Think the hit boxes and auto aim (aim correction) is not forgiving at all on consoles so the game feels really awkward on them, while DOOM felt like the total opposite and played great at fast speeds on console.

The encounter design is what bothered me, using commanders everywhere to set off alarms to create a sense of "you can play stealthy if you want!", when the game wasn't designed well for stealth. So you basically start a fight and get swarmed by near endless waves of enemies until you kill commanders. I prefer the preset layouts and encounters of the first wolfenstein, and the game just felt more fair. The enemies kill you super fast in 2 and they swarm you from all directions.

As for being linear, the first game was very linear as well, not much has changed in that regard.

The whole items/health/armor pickup system is garbage, it's a fast paced shooter but then whats the point of run and gunning if you got to stop and point at health/items to press a button to pick them up? Player should be able to just run around picking up the ammo and items as they need them like in DOOM.

 

[New Fang]

The hype around how crazy this story gets has really had me curious, but I also keep hearing negatives about the gameplay. I generally have a rule about not buying games that don't deliver on the gameplay front. dammit

 

[BGA]

It's definitely a noticeable step down from Wolf 1. The story was my favorite part and one of the best.

 

[bbq of doom]

I've kind of done 180 on this in the past 2 days. I think gunplay is OK, level design is bad, but story, atmosphere, and "detail" are pretty fantastic. It also looks great.

 

[VaporSnake]

Eh, I disagree. Played on PC and had a blast. Game really rewards movement and aggressive play. Playing it like a cover shooter would be miserable.

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I definitely find that console players tend to be saying these kinds of things more than PC players, they probably need to add a more aggressive aim assist or something in the future.

This section of Superbunnyhops Wolf TNC review kinda demonstrates just how different one encounter is on keyboard vs a controller: https://youtu.be/vqLE1Bh190g?t=3m18s

 

[Deleted member 21]

The game is at its best when you play it super action-focused, but outside of that it has a lot of issues in terms of level design (which leads to stealth being really cumbersome in a lot of parts) and the fact that the Sturmgewehr is the most effective weapon against machine enemies and most of the later enemies are machine enemies led to me using that weapon almost exclusively if it wasn't for its rather low max ammo

The other thing that really annoyed me was weapon switching because not only is the UI kinda bad but it controls weird and the game speed doesn't really change which leads to a lot of frantic weapon switching.

In general, I think they should look at Doom 2016 and learn from them (when it comes to gameplay)

Thankfully tho as OP already mentioned the story and world design make up for it

 

[SRV]

I picked it up yesterday and didn't enjoy the couple of hours I played of it, and I really liked the first one.

I'm by no means an expert, but I usually finish most FPS games on expert, but I got wrecked on normal on this. It really didn't help that the game doesn't have the best indicator of where you're been hurt from.

I'll go back to it eventually, as I was enjoying the story, just some of the mechanics let it down.

 

[Seep]

Never understood the praise TNO and Old Blood got. Seems I was right to skip this.

 

[spam musubi]

Also, I think the title of the thread could stand to be a little less inflammatory. Framing it that way will make people either more inclined to post harsh negativity or aggressively defensive opinions.

 

[Zojirushi]

I haven't played it yet but I'm a little surprised by the reactions in this thread. Seems like the game got mad praise in reviews. Was it all because of the story? I mean TNO was surprisingly strong in that department as well but it wasn't revolutionary or anything.

 

[criesofthepast]

The most average to almost bad FPS I have played in a while. I bought it off the hype of the first game and yea I wish I didn't at full price. It was borderline bad - I did have some fun with it. I would give it a 6 out of 10 max. Completely skippable game.

 

[Silky]

I didn't play it as cover shooter at all! A great example of why gameplay actually makes this game worse is the "judge" scene (trying not to spoil). That moment should feel badass! but unless you are really good you will die in that level. That's bad game design.

Click to shrink...

Spoilers regarding that mission below.

You need to reply to this thread in order to see this content.

 

[spam musubi]

I definitely find that console players tend to be saying these kinds of things more than PC players, they probably need to add a more aggressive aim assist or something in the future.

This section of Superbunnyhops Wolf TNC review kinda demonstrates just how different one encounter is on keyboard vs a controller: https://youtu.be/vqLE1Bh190g?t=3m18s

Click to shrink...

Agreed. Playing Doom on switch and it's significantly less fun than on PC and I can't fathom how I could play it on the hardest difficulty there like I did on PC. And going to Destiny 2 on PC after finishing it on PS4 I was shocked by how different and how much easier it feels.

 

[ozfunghi]

Hopefully all these issues will be ironed out in time for the Switch Definitive 600p version!