October 4th, 2017 - Wolfenstein: The Old Blood and the impact of level one
One of my favorite games in recent history was Wolfenstein: The New Order. While plenty gory and action heavy as the previous attempts at reviving the franchise, this one was the only one to take the source material just serious enough and to blend in a heavy dose of action movie. In my mind, this game is what we owe the revival of the fast paced arena shooter that we are experiencing now to. This game showed that hardcore action and over the top movement and guns were still all the rage in the post-cover shooter era. On top of the excellent fast paced gameplay was an intriguing story taken place of if BJ Blazowitz had not stopped Deathshead in the war, and it sought to fill the many holes of it's predecessors.
That's partially what this game continues to do. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, which will be known as TOB for the rest of this peace, is sort of a glorified expansion pack to The New Order. Too big and disconnected to be DLC, but not large enough to standalone. TOB plays prequel to The New Order, which will be known as TNO from here on out, and gives players background on to what BJ had been up to before the assault on Deathshead keep.
Moving to gameplay, I instantly felt myself leaning more towards stealth in TOB. Unlike the first game, the setting of this game always made me want to sneak around, silently popping heads with my pistol, and getting frustrated with myself when a firefight erupted. As it felt more encouraged in the first to go in guns blazing, I never moved through the game stealthily, save for a few parts where it is nearly forced. Recently, I watched a Twitch streamer play through the games with TOB coming before TNO, and I noticed in TNO he was constantly trying to sneak around and felt baffled at points where he had all out firefights. I think this is the biggest gameplay difference, in a game that really has very little in the way of systematic differences. While the guns are different between games as they represent different eras, they perform large in part the same as their counterparts, save for the explosive pistol. What this means to me is that the sheer prevalence of stealth options in TOB and that the setting first given to the player in TOB entirely shapes their perception of how to play.
To elaborate on this point, take the beginning of TNO. Players are tossed into a literal war going on, and are told to fight for their life with an assault rifle. The beginning part of TOB starts trying to secretly break into a castle, and then out of a prison with a piece of broken pipe, while giant mechanical monstrosities block their path. Because of the set up, players are conditioned to behave in a specific way, regardless of the level in the game. The only part where this starts to deviate is in the final act where players are taking on hordes of zombies, which pale in comparison to the types of enemies players face in TNO's final act. The experience of players up to this point has had such an impact that they are less equipped to deal with the level of difficulty achieved in TOB.
This is not to harp on TOB. By all means, I enjoyed my time with the game, and the systems still feel as great as ever. The takeaway is this, though: the first level of your game intensely matters, not only for the hook, but for how players will play through the game for the rest of their experience. If Splinter Cell started out by putting you in a DOOM style arena with a shotgun, and then transitioned into a stealth map, players likely won't approach it the same as they would have with a stealthy first level.
If you haven't had the chance to play either of these games, I highly recommend each, as they showcase exemplary shooting and gun systems with engaging level designs.