I expected to hate this game going in. GAAS? Health Bars? BULLET SPONGE ENEMIES?? WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO MY WOLFIE???
Took a risk, bought it just because I love Wolf 1&2 and....It's the "worst" in the Machine Games series, no doubt...But I kinda like it.
This is obviously a spin off and an atttempt by Bethesda to tide us over until the next mainline game comes out.
Arkane's influence is clearly visible in the level design and "world building" but it sure is no Prey or Dishonored. It is great and elegant windowdressing though, and fits with what this game aims to achieve. Calling this a GAAS product is accurate, but it's more limited than say a Destiny or a Division. It's got levelling, skill trees, raids, an endgame, upgrades, etc... It takes a while for those gun upgrades to make sense and to have a discernible pay-off during gameplay. The same goes for the skill trees. When it does, that's where the fun started kicking in for me. Sure, enemies take more bullets before they go down, but when taking into account the upgrades and ammo types and using them efficiently it's not an issue to me. They go down fast and satisfyingly enough. I can see the game getting understandably repetitive for a lot of people, but the feel of the gunplay and the drip feed of new locations and upgrades alleviate the grind here.
There are certain contrivances such as only being able to dual wield one handed weapons while you could dual wield almost everything in Wolf II. Environments get repetitive, especially the underground/sewer levels. There's loads of stuff to find, but it's pretty meaningless (text, music, etc...). You can check it out if you want, but it adds very little to the core experience (a criticism that can also be levelled at Wolf I & II). Co-op is functional but basic.
tl;dr:
+ Excellent, satisfying gunplay
+ The GAAS stuff is way less off-putting and intrusive than initially expected and works well
+ Looks the tits and runs great
+ Solo AI is basic but competent
+ Interesting story set up
+ Arkane's influence is visible...
- ...but limited
- Audio glitch galore
- Underground levels are tedious
- Can get repetitive
- Co-op interaction is too limited
- Too little story stuff
This is a fun, little romp for only 30 shmackers. It get the impression this game does not get a fair shake because it's not what most people expected it to be. To me it was pretty clear from the get go this was to be something different from previous entries. I'd say, try it out for yourself because it's not for everybody. Maybe by using the buddy pass system? It turned out way better than expected and despite some issues and inconsistencies, I'm having a ton of fun.