A Rant About Wolfenstein

Let’s talk about Wolfenstein, a once-glorious franchise that has gone completely off the rails. I remember the days when Wolfenstein 3D was the king of first-person shooters, a trailblazer that set the foundation for games like Doom and Quake. It was simple: You were B.J. Blazkowicz, a badass Nazi-killer, blasting your way through a fortress of evil. No fluff, no nonsense, just pure, adrenaline-pumping action. Fast forward to today, and what do we have? A franchise that has been absolutely butchered by misguided storytelling, forced mechanics, and a complete betrayal of what made it fun in the first place.

Let’s start with the most egregious offender: Wolfenstein: Youngblood. I don’t know what Bethesda and MachineGames were thinking when they decided to turn Wolfenstein into a half-baked, co-op, RPG-lite mess. The combat was watered-down, The characters were some of the most annoying I've ever encountered while playing a game and The progression system? A soulless grind that turns Nazi-killing into a chore. Why on earth would I want to grind levels and unlock arbitrary abilities in a Wolfenstein game? This is supposed to be a run-and-gun shooter, not Destiny with a retro skin.

The New Order and The New Colossus were at least engaging, despite their flaws. I really like the way that they told the story and the world building that they did, but at its core, Wolfenstein is supposed to be a run and gun shooter and i wish that there had been more of that included. It's like the developers forgot that people play Wolfenstein to shoot Nazis, not to sit through endless expository dialogue and overwrought character moments.

Wolfenstein used to be about power fantasy, about feeling like an unstoppable force of vengeance against one of history’s greatest evils. Now, it feels like an identity crisis wrapped in a game. MachineGames needs to go back to basics—ditch the RPG mechanics or at least tone it down, focus on fast, fluid gameplay, and stop trying to make Wolfenstein something it was never meant to be. Give me big guns, big explosions, and an army of enemies to mow down. That’s all I ask.

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