E3 ‘09: Wolfenstein impressions

So often in describing games, we get caught up in technical terminology like frame rate and resolution and number of characters on-screen at one time… and we forget about the most important question of all: is the game any fun?

Wolfenstein seems to be primed to bring all the fun players could want in a first-person-shooter with a finely-tuned pleasure factor that other FPS’s could stand to learn from. Sure, the game looks fantastic, right on par with all triple-A titles of this generation. And sure, the trademark Wolfenstein bits and pieces are all there, with hero BJ Blazkowicz waging a one-man-war against Nazis who are trying to weaponize dark powers from the Occult world. You know, the usual.

But the real news is that Wolfenstein just looks crazy fun.

This time out, the Nazis have discovered an infinite power source called “Black Sun,” but in order to reach it, one must pass through “the Veil” — another plane of existence layered overtop of our own. Early in the game, BJ comes into possession of an amulet, which gives him the ability to enter the Veil. Yes, for the first time in any Wolfenstein game, BJ has gotten himself some bona fide superpowers.

Not that they’re identified as such, but they might as well be. The amulet lets BJ do some pretty cool stuff like slow down time, create a shield to protect himself from enemy fire, and see far beyond the normal spectrum. Those crafty Nazis have learned of BJ’s special bauble, and create devices throughout the game that prevent the use of the amulet, so BJ must sometimes hunt down these devices and destroy them before the game can progress.

The other big difference you’ll notice this time out is that BJ gets his hands on some wildly creative new weapons, like the particle cannon, which looks kind of like the output of a Ghostbuster’s Proton Pack, but in this case it completely disintegrates enemies. There’s a wicked flame torch, and some other cool weaponry as well that go beyond the usual bullet-based guns, and when used in conjunction with the amulet’s Veil powers, it suddenly becomes very believable that BJ could indeed be an army of one.

The demo I saw treated us to a look at the game’s opening cinematic, which was brilliantly animated in CGI, with fast-paced thrills and wow-inducing twists. Wolfenstein arrives August 4th of this year, and if it can live up to the preview I saw, it definitely looks like a must-have.

Check out the trailer and more screenshots below.

Images: Copyright 2009 ©Activision.