Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

 Xbox One
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 615 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 382 out of 615
  2. Mixed: 95 out of 615
  3. Negative: 138 out of 615
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  1. alex_the_a-hole
    Oct 31, 2017
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I buy only a few games each year because of financial constraints, and this was one of my three purchases of 2017. As such, you can understand that I was EXTREMELY excited for this game, but it was quite the let down at the end of the day. I'd give it a 3/10 overall, as the game play was a solid 7/10 (not quite as good as the last one, It really seems they went backwards) and the story was a 3/10, as it was ridiculously hamfisted in creating a world that had such potential.
    The gameplay was fine for the most part, however it was inferior to the first game in its encounters, and also had far too many long cut-scenes . As somebody who typically loves cut-scenes, I found them entirely game breaking in Wolf 2. the ratio of actual gameplay to cut-scenes would seem to be about 3:1, and the gameplay side of that may be exaggerated by the fact that I'm a completionist and was intent on finding every single object. The game is also remarkably short, only being slightly lengthened by assassination missions that take place on maps you've already played through.

    Now Entering Spoiler Territory:
    The plot begins in the most preachy manor possible: Your father is the worst human being possible. I mean truly the worst. We're talking Disney levels of puppy kicking evil here. Hitler, who appears in the game, is a useless, insane, old coot, yet still not portrayed as being as purely evil as Blazco, Sr. Blazco is Jewish (which may have been established in earlier games, but to my knowledge was a new addition to the plot line), the leader of the US resistance becomes the commander of Blazco's contingent for no real reason, Jews are smart (but black people are smarter), being crippled is hard, masculinity is fragile, white people are cowards and follow the Nazis, black people fight the good fight, pregnant women are just as capable of operating in a war zone, etc.
    I tried very hard to remove any political leanings I had from the view of this game, yet every few minutes I was confronted with some bit of social commentary. I was raised on WW2 shooters, so killing Nazis comes as easily to me as walking, but the game kept breaking my immersion by trying to draw parallels between the Nazi occupied US of the game and the US as it stands today. A line of dialogue that occurs early on in the game is "How can they promote violence toward us, just because we hold a different point of view?". I don't need my games, especially something like Wolfenstein, to get political. When I play Wolfenstein, I want to slaughter Nazis, hear a couple of witty jokes, and traverse my way through interesting and a number of vast and creative level designs. Get the damn politics out of my Nazi (and Klansman) killing simulator! And write a goddamn competent story!!!    … Expand
  2. Meepmeep
    Nov 5, 2017
    0
    After paying 60$ for this masterpiece (stress on the "piece") I feel violated. The move to appeal to casual gamers and political activists is apparent. Also there is this weird "Vault" thing that appears to be a DLC extravaganza in the making.... I cannot make it through the cringe to finish this one
  3. danishwonder
    Jan 20, 2023
    0
    Unskipable cutscenes: AUTOMATIC ZERO. Any game that forces me to watch a movie will get the lowest possible rating by me, including this one.
  4. mrelaxed
    Nov 13, 2017
    1
    Boring and derivative. After being a huge fan of other game's in the franchise this one disappoint's in a huge way. When I pick up a sequel I am looking for upgrades to established game play fundamentals and a reinvigorated story line. This game falls short in so many ways, but it's biggest failure to me is the story.
  5. VecchioLupo
    Dec 31, 2017
    2
    A truly awful game from all considered aspects. Hugely disappointing, as the previous two "new" iterations of the Wolfenstein franchise were incredibly good. However, I'm now beginning to wonder if my floor-level expectations for those games helped them appear to be better than they actually were, based on now bad the New Colossus is. I haven't experienced a dumber game that didn'tA truly awful game from all considered aspects. Hugely disappointing, as the previous two "new" iterations of the Wolfenstein franchise were incredibly good. However, I'm now beginning to wonder if my floor-level expectations for those games helped them appear to be better than they actually were, based on now bad the New Colossus is. I haven't experienced a dumber game that didn't prominently involve Harvey Smith since Far Cry 2.
    Terrible shooting mechanics (sloppy, slidey controls that feels like a resurrected PS3 Resistance game).
    Laughably absurd dialogue between other characters and with himself (feels like something I would have written in junior high with a stoner kid from my algebra class). Serious, it's so cringe inducing I've had to occasionally skip the videos because it's so painful (said in over the top, grunty southern voice: "Please Caroline, give me yo wings so I can fly one mo time to the sun before the winter captures ma soul" WTF did I just say to myself?)
    Boring, errand-centric tasks to hide that they've ran out of actual combat ideas...so they kill time by having you sprint around a sub acting a messenger.
    One of the annoyingly preachiest games you'll ever play...with the subtlety of your drunk uncle at Thanksgiving and the intelligence of a standard cable news show.
    If I had to guess...the original developers were just trying to make a fun experience on a low profile franchise that no one (including Betheseda) expected much from. The devs knocked it out of the park and then proved it wasn't a fluke with the follow-up. At that point, Bethesda realized this was a huge vehicle for them and imported a bunch of "talent" to improve the game and really create a meaningful story and experience. And it shows, it's indistinguishable now from any garbage you would watch from Hollywood. Only took three games for Wolfenstein to go from irrelevant to fantastic to awful...god awful. Congrats Bethesda...looking forward to your next step in converting this garbage into a VR experience to complete the crap cycle.    … Expand
  6. lpl4298
    Dec 10, 2017
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I was a huge fan of the first Wolfenstein relaunch, I preferred Doom but I was still a fan of Wolfenstein. This game got everything that the first one did right absolutely wrong. The gameplay became ridiculously more difficult (as did Dishonored 2 so maybe it is just a trend with Bethesda?) and for the moments where you would actually have fun, you keep getting the killed left and right. I was able to play the first one on every difficulty and I replayed that one 5 times because I loved the story, the action, and the world. That game had a massive replay value, this one sadly I just finished the story before I returned it as I spent 60 bucks on it. Before I even talk about how bat-sh*t awful the story is, I must hit the things that bothered me from the get go. Graphics, alright at best, slightly better than the first one but the dog that young BJ has is probably the ugliest f*cking dog I have seen in a modern video game it looks like they took a pile of wet sand to shape the dog out of. Other than the ugly dog, graphics are just a-okay nothing too bad. Secondly, the parts where you are actually playing and killing seemed to be much shorter in comparison to the long cut scenes. Thirdly, THE VAULT, they made it seem like this massive thing was coming to the game and its just a spot to show you the different DLCs for the game, not any additional content to make the game longer than a couple hours and actually give me a reason to keep playing or even owning the came. Fourth off, it was a 24GB download just for me to play the game, I had the space but damn maybe if you're taking up all the space add something to the game to make it worthwhile.

    STORY SPOILERS

    The story to this game just sucks, like the story usually isn't even important to a run and gun game but when you have these long cutscenes, it forces you to pay attention to just an awfully written story. Now I am not complaining about political stuff because you are killing Nazis, you would be completely stupid to believe there would be no political commentary, but I am talking about the actual story of the game. First point of bad story telling, BJ's backstory like my god was that awful I could really care about the back story of the murder machine who just run and guns a bunch of Nazis, why is his backstory even a thing? Doom did it right, no backstory and no character you're just a badass who kills everything in his path. But this whole evil dad who beats his Jewish wife and son and forces you to watch (or kill) your dog and then he ends up selling out BJ's mom and BJ to the Nazis like why does this need to be in the game it is so distracting and honestly just stupid. Everyone should already hate the Nazis that is the whole point of playing a game where you kill them because they're f*cking awful people. We do not need another person that we are supposed to have a forced hatred for because we already hate the villains of the game (the Nazis as you could have guessed). Secondly, I did not care about ANY of the characters, so much forced characterization and completely unnecessary characters or moments none of the characters in this game are likable and I felt nothing when one of them gets killed right in front of you because I hated 95% of the characters. Thirdly, the head replacement. Why are you going to even bother killing the main character just to bring him back in the most ridiculous way ever?? They surgically re-attach his brain to a bionic body that Caroline just magically stole from the Nazi's like oh wow what a big convince to the story because no one has every killed a main character of the story; and if BJ's body is dying earlier in the game and he needed the suit to keep him alive why didn't they just oh I don't know fix his damn body because if they can surgically attach his head to a new body how come they couldn't fix his old one?? And I understand the game is a somewhat sci-fi story set in a world where the Nazis win so it has weird future tech that is a bit fantastical and that is perfectly fine when handled the way they did the first one. The first one knew how to handle it's wacky premise perfectly by knowing when to ease up on the seriousness and when to really hit you hard. As in the first one when you make the choice for either Wyatt or Fergus, it is absolutely gut-wrenching. When they do basically the same thing in this one cutting off Caroline's head, it lost its effect. Also in the first one when you go to the moon, it isn't taken fully serious but it is still made to seem 100% serious and it is handled perfectly. But instead of going back to the moon in Wolf 2 you go to, wait for it, JUPITER for a damn ACTING AUDITION to steal launch codes like who the f*ck thought that was a good idea. And this game does not have an ending, you want a satisfying ending where you get to kill the enemy, nope, an awfully lame and short cut scene is all you get.

    In conclusion Wolf 2 is the less fun shark jump of Wolf 1    … Expand
  7. Madremia
    Aug 28, 2018
    0
    I'd like to enjoy this game but frankly the bad performance, sheer lack of decent level design, and unfun gameplay just make it impossible to play. It's a shame because it has potential (Who in this modern day doesn't want to kill nazis and klansmen?) but they seriously need to hire at least one person who actually knows anything about game design and engine design before it could possiblyI'd like to enjoy this game but frankly the bad performance, sheer lack of decent level design, and unfun gameplay just make it impossible to play. It's a shame because it has potential (Who in this modern day doesn't want to kill nazis and klansmen?) but they seriously need to hire at least one person who actually knows anything about game design and engine design before it could possibly get there.… Expand
  8. toha5160
    Apr 21, 2020
    0
    After great new order and exellent old blood this is trash. Few maps, poor level desighn, stupid side quests, lot of bugs, nothing new at gameplay. You guys ruining wolfenstein. What can I say about young blood? Its not even zero, its below it.
  9. Jstanley
    Nov 23, 2017
    0
    Couldnt bring myself to finish the game, it got way to political, I like killing nazi's as much as the next guy, but I feel it was too cringey at times, and was obviously talking about the "nazi's" present in America right now. I tried my best to ignore the political message, but it was too hard at times.
  10. vincentvanhal
    Dec 12, 2017
    2
    Left wing propaganda. I rly loved the first and the expansion.
    Why did thy have to take HUGE **** on all that made the first game great.

    Sigh, for the love of god stop destroying good titles.
  11. DestinyLord1134
    Dec 10, 2017
    0
    This game is social justice warrior: the sequel. If you love terrible dialogue and cringe story line, then go ahead and get it. Also, prepare for a cliffhanger ending.
  12. Hawkie
    Dec 1, 2017
    4
    It seemed like a good story from the little that I played. I can't really say much more about it because the amount of head bobbing when your character moves even in the slightest is so nauseating it made the game unplayable. I really hope they patch to give players a toggle switch so I can maybe finish it in the future.
  13. SIPPIO
    Jan 5, 2018
    4
    4 Because it's HONEST!
    ~The story is a JOKE.
    Think of Darth Maul surviving! Maul surviving offended me sooo much that I refused to watch the SW cartoon anymore.. ~story 2.0~ Hitler~ They made him a idiot..Why? I understand 'WE' all hate him..But he wasn't a moron.. how does a moron go from failed artist to WW1 Medal of honor TWICE! To Chancellor to EMPEROR if he's an idiot? one    4 Because it's HONEST!
    ~The story is a JOKE.
    Think of Darth Maul surviving!
    Maul surviving offended me sooo much that I refused to watch the SW cartoon anymore..

    ~story 2.0~ Hitler~ They made him a idiot..Why?
    I understand 'WE' all hate him..But he wasn't a moron..
    how does a moron go from failed artist to WW1 Medal of honor TWICE!
    To Chancellor to EMPEROR if he's an idiot? one doesn't..
    it's a cheesy way to show a disliked character and insulting to any person who cares about story..

    ~Gameplay. I struggled to finish the game due to how boring gameplay..
    I understand the STealth isn't MetalGearSolid or SplinterCell but it's just bad stealth..
    ok so guns a blazing,,ok except gun control isn't even close to any example I can think of..
    Then again this isn't a 100million dollar development like a CallDuty or Destiny/Halo, but even a B grade game can have solid gun mechanics like EDF or KillZone/Gears etc..

    *I don't believe in a Zero unless the game is broken. and a 1 -3 is lame..
    I went 4 because I struggled to complete it on 'Hard' setting..
    (struggled w/ enjoyment not difficulty)
    I would opinion to avoid renting it unless you are stuck with no other options for a weekend..
    But prepare to be instantly offended with what main character and retarded Hitler..    … Expand
  14. sniperzach
    Nov 3, 2017
    0
    this game is really a sequel it just follows the same things that happen form the last one and there nothing new here. its somewhat buggy and i had a very hard time following the story. the game doesn't even have a ending just a set up for a sequel. DO NOT BUY.
  15. cmartin1959
    Dec 10, 2017
    0
    This game is offensive on so many levels, If you want your kid to hear a old southern white guy refer to his son's girlfriend as (The N Word) then watch him slap his wife down and make the son kill his dog with a shotgun,this is the game for you. What that had to do with anything is beyond me.
  16. labtoy
    Jan 15, 2018
    4
    The gfx is good and core gamplay os solid, but the maps are crap and the storytelling is... I don't even know what to say. Don't waste your money on this.

    And I used to ove this series :(
  17. MediaMan
    May 7, 2019
    2
    This is one of those games that I felt compelled to write a review for, where to begin. Visually I think a lot is to be said about the Engine, it looks nice on Xbox One X and has a smooth frame rate with some impressive design. While the characters are a bit goofy, it is more the context of the narrative that is completely vile. I grew up paying the franchise, Return to the Castle was theThis is one of those games that I felt compelled to write a review for, where to begin. Visually I think a lot is to be said about the Engine, it looks nice on Xbox One X and has a smooth frame rate with some impressive design. While the characters are a bit goofy, it is more the context of the narrative that is completely vile. I grew up paying the franchise, Return to the Castle was the tone most die hard fans would come to recognize when they think of the franchise. This game is disgusting, and its attempt to be edgy in today's political climate only escalates my distaste for progressive politics. Liberals have lost their minds and honestly I wouldn't even consider that a factor for a review if they didn't JAM IT DOWN OUR THROATS! Its truly a shame because their are some things to like about this game i guess, but it certainly isn't for me.… Expand
  18. Kyle911
    May 29, 2021
    1
    I've always liked the Wolfenstein game series and I've always had a fun time with it but this game has left me wanting. Beside the usual Nazi killing fun the creators felt it was necessary to pump as much social justice, racism, and communism into this game as possible which makes it very hard to play. I play games for fun - not to be dosed up with toxic partisan agenda or virtueI've always liked the Wolfenstein game series and I've always had a fun time with it but this game has left me wanting. Beside the usual Nazi killing fun the creators felt it was necessary to pump as much social justice, racism, and communism into this game as possible which makes it very hard to play. I play games for fun - not to be dosed up with toxic partisan agenda or virtue signaling. That for me killed this game.… Expand
  19. jlittrell03
    Mar 3, 2022
    4
    I really wanted to like this game. I really did. The concept is off the wall and I can definitely tell that there is a great story to be had somewhere in there, but after roughly 4 hours of opening gameplay, I just could not get into any of it at all. On console, this game handles terribly. Very clunky controls, poor level design and subpar mechanics that can cost you dearly in a playI really wanted to like this game. I really did. The concept is off the wall and I can definitely tell that there is a great story to be had somewhere in there, but after roughly 4 hours of opening gameplay, I just could not get into any of it at all. On console, this game handles terribly. Very clunky controls, poor level design and subpar mechanics that can cost you dearly in a play through hold this game back severely. It seems like all the budget went into the cutscenes and the gameplay was just kind of an afterthought. A lot of standard Bethesda **** keeps this promising game from being a decent one and instead makes it a huge miss of potential. If you want a game that offers a similar experience but is miles better, Doom is right up your alley. Everything that this game tries to do (minus the story), Doom did so much better in every conceivable way. If you have played both games, you know that Doom is just the fun version of this. Considering both are published by Bethesda, it really makes you question how they can put out such a great game a year before this one is released and then a year later release something with a similar concept that’s so frustrating to play.… Expand
  20. 00mikhael
    Jul 22, 2023
    0
    bad
    The game does not miss a step from the New order. It's a direct continuatio

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best Xbox One Game of 2017
12
#12 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2017
18
#18 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. XboxEra
    Oct 28, 2022
    70
    Wolfenstein II: The New Order is almost great but is held back by a number of issues. A few design choices Machine Games made far too often took me out of the game and frustrated me to no end. For such a great feeling game, the lack of damage indicators to and from enemies made the game feel off far too many times. An outdated health system forced me to play the game differently than I wanted to. Instead of the clear intent at fast paced chaotic action the game does so well, I was too often hiding behind cover, scouring for health packs, and dying in seconds due to frequent difficulty spikes. Even with these issues, I still had an overall positive experience with the game due to strong story beats and chaotic moment to moment action. Wolfenstein II is a game I would recommend to anyone but is a game that may leave you feeling a bit frustrated in the end.
    Read full review
  2. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Dec 12, 2017
    90
    Smart, satisfying, brutal: Undoubtedly one of the best shooters of the generation.
  3. XboxAddict
    Nov 15, 2017
    90
    Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus brings gamers around the world and single player, first person shooter that delivers a fantastic storyline, beautiful graphics, and an experience that is hard to surpass on any platform. Bethesda and MachineGames have done a tremendous job in showcasing evil exists in the world, the fight that good people have to go through to prevent this evil from taking hold, and what happens when good people do absolutely nothing. This game is easily a contender for game of the year, with only a few shortcomings, and I expect to see Wolfenstein II make a serious case for why they deserve the crown.
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