Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

I should've bought Wolfenstein: The Old Blood with The New Order. If I recall correctly, it was shortly after that when Bethesda started limiting the discounts their games get during sales on Steam (and Humble Bundle). Neither do they do those "complete your collection" bundles that give an extra discount for already owning something. 50% off doesn't feel good enough for me and so I waited. And even now, I didn't buy the game directly off Steam.

Not worth 20€

I think waiting for a cheaper price was the correct decision particularly with this game as it didn't turn out to be the most exciting experience. The Old Blood was originally intended to be DLC for The New Order but was then combined with challenge maps into a standalone title.

The game doesn't offer gameplay improvements from The New Order and even lacks things, like advanced tech special weaponry. At one point I found a scope for the "Bombenschuss" bolt-action rifle which was helpful but it then disappeared on the next level. A weird anomaly for sure. I would have liked weapon accessories and modifications to make the pretty standard selection of weapons more interesting.

After playing DOOM (2016), enemies having hitscan weapons and there being no good way to heal in the middle of combat is annoying. Planning an escape route to find more health and armor is tricky too as the game spawns enemies based on where you can (can't) see.

I wonder if the many wall climbing parts were hidden loading screens. If not, I think it was a highly unnecessary addition with the weird manual climbing controls. You have to in turns hold and release left and right mouse buttons to go up with the pipe halves your character is using as improvised ice axes. A much better solution would've been just to make the walls like ladders.

The Old Blood is a prequel to The New Order, leading right to the latter's beginning. B.J. Blazkowicz is again the protagonist and Brian Bloom delivers his lines convincingly. There are some cutscenes but narrative and dialogue aren't even nearly as much in the focus as they were in the previous title. The game's shorter length is likely one reason (or that it was meant to be bonus content) but as it is, there's nothing really special in The Old Blood. It has an usually high completion percentage on Steam, though: 55.3% have beaten the game. You don't see that very often.

The Old Blood probably uses the same id Tech 5 engine as The New Order. It seems to have the same issues as well as some extra ones. Sometimes I got a green screen when a chapter ending movie was supposed to play and sometimes the game just crashed at those points. One of the retro levels also managed to mute the game, which required a restart to fix. Otherwise performance was fine.