Early on in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, after a lengthy and engaging opening sequence, B.J. Blazkowicz is presented with a new weapon, and casually asks, “Does this end kill Nazis?” MachineGames’ take on the Wolfenstein IP has never strayed from the core principle of slaughtering hundreds of Nazis, but it’s done an exemplary job of complementing the outstanding shooting with an engaging narrative, relatable characters, and a healthy chunk of social commentary.

I said it in my impressions piece and I’ll say it again here, do not play The New Colossus if you’ve not played The New Order. The gunplay is fantastic, sure, but the narrative is laid on heavy and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you do not understand who the key characters are and what they’ve been through in the past. The opening recap just can’t come close to establishing these important connections.

The New Colossus picks up straight after the events at Deathhead’s fortress, with the resistance fleeing across the Atlantic, aiming to inspire an uprising in America while the Nazis are weakened. Blazkowicz, seriously injured once again, is dragged into the fight after Frau Irene Engel returns to hunt him down. After a chaotic and tragic opening sequence, the surviving resistance members arrive in the irradiated wastes of New York and the adventure kicks off in earnest.


Unsurprisingly, B.J. ends up causing a lot of damage.

Although most missions focus on undermining the Nazi's control and rekindling the resistance in America – they’ve been fighting for years already – a lot of screen time is devoted to B.J.’s past; the events he witnessed and how they defined his life choices. It establishes a lot of facts that have previously been left vague and the narrative is all the better for it. It gives B.J. a greater personal stake in the unfolding events and elevates him above a mindless soldier just taking orders (though he does that a lot anyway!). The resistance leaders that you encounter, and their interactions with a predominantly European crew, make for some great moments that enforce that alternate history narrative - American’s speak in horror of a nuclear attack on New York, using a lot of descriptions you may be familiar with from Hiroshima or Nagasaki survivor stories.

For those wondering just how hard The New Colossus pushes an agenda – your first encounter with the resistance is a smack-talking African-American women, openly breast-feeding a mixed race baby, letting B.J. know there’s little white resistance in America as they quickly normalised relations with the Nazis after selling out Jews, homosexuals, and people of colour. In contrast to years of dull vengeance-driven and male-dominated leads, it’s glorious.

The Nazis are clearly the bad guys – and I don’t think anyone is required to humour the opinion of those who can ethically or morally sympathise with their agenda – but the game still takes time to point out the dangers of a narrow-minded leftist attitude and gives insight into how normalised life has become in their violent, fascist regime without resistance.


The Nazi’s mechanised contraptions, such as the flame-spewing PanzerHund, are often used as minh-boss encounters.

Although the plot and set pieces didn’t quite grab me like The New Order, the supporting cast is as fleshed out and as likeable as ever. Between missions you get to explore your stolen submarine, Eva’s Hammer, and I’d take my time to listen to every crew member to get their opinions and watch their relationships evolve. General Engel is a suitably intimidating and brutal antagonist, still disfigured from her last encounter with B.J. and disturbingly loyal to the regime and its ideals, even at the expense of her family. She comes across as perhaps a bit too manic in some scenes but makes for an interesting change from the equally evil, yet far more calculating Dr. Wilhelm Strasse.

Without giving too much away, the story makes great use of the new setting and resistance leaders, even managing to one-up the moon mission from The New Order. Resistance leaders will be saved, Nazi headquarters destroyed, and more than one nuke detonated. There’s also a particularly ridiculous mid-game sequence that reminded me that the Wolfenstein universe is not all serious (and there was admittedly some foreshadowing).

At its core, The New Colossus is about a multi-ethnic and multicultural crew that slowly come together to drive back the Nazis, proving that only a united nation can stand up to external threats. Sure, it’s political commentary, but it’s also an uplifting narrative and a truth that more people could do with appreciating. History has shown time and time again what happens to nations that tear themselves apart from within.


If you’re looking for even more playtime, you can play “Wolfstone 3D” while aboard Eva’s Hammer. It has six lengthy episodes and its own save system.

If you were looking for another chance to gun down Nazis at a blistering 60FPS, with fluid character movement, responsive aiming, a myriad of destructive weapons and brutal melee attacks, The New Colossus over caters to your needs. It’s a mechanically familiar game, something that will be obvious to anyone who’s played the first game recently, but given the quality of the gunplay and a few new tweaks, that’s no bad thing.

You can once again haul around an entire armoury, dual-wield weapons, or lug around heavy weapons to wreak havoc while you have the ammunition. The environments are a little more open this time, encouraging you to keep moving to flank enemies or avoid damage, with later upgrades adding an element of verticality to combat that was absent in The New Order. With commanders patrolling many locations, who are able to summon (not quite) endless reinforcements, stealthy players can sneak about and knock them off quietly before going in guns blazing. Regardless of how you play, you’ll inevitably be thrown in a mass brawl or one-on-one against a giant mechanized Nazi contraption. These are thrilling moments of near constant movement and gunfire. They are also the moments that might leaving you cursing MachineGames' decision to make you manually pick up health and armour pieces.

Weapon upgrades are hidden in the levels, allowing you to silence a few weapons for a stealthy approach or upgrade the shotgun with ricocheting pellets to redecorate interiors with Nazi entrails. The perk system also returns and is as intuitive and impactful as ever. If you enjoy tearing off heavy weapons for maximum firepower, kills with those weapons will up your perk level and provide more ammunition per clip. If you enjoy getting in close and butchering Nazis with your new hatchet melee attack (you can throw them too), the game will reward you with faster regenerating health segments. Stealthy players can expect delayed alarms and, a personal favourite, a brief moment of slowdown when an enemy spots you.

After the aforementioned mid-game sequence, B.J. gets the options to invest in one of three “contraptions”, augmentations to his move-set that allow for new combat moves and alternate paths through some levels, and these come with their own upgradable perks. Between the major scripted missions, you can undertake side-missions that eventually unlock all the contraptions and turn B.J. into an even more efficient Nazi-slayer.

These side-missions, which take place on Eva’s Hammer or in regions you’ve visited during the main missions, provide 10ish hours of unique missions (some with brand new environments), the opportunity to hunt down Nazi commanders (discovered by decrypting Enigma cards through a mini-game), and a chance to find one of the many, many collectibles. They’re great for short gaming sessions and you can work on upping your perks, but they feel mostly unnecessary given the main missions lasted me 15 hours on “Do or die!” difficulty (a notch above “normal”).

There are a myriad of difficulties (that you can change any time) but no new game plus options. On “Do or die!”, I had to keep my head down when faced with tough enemies but I could still play fast and aggressive with run-of-the-mill Nazis and come out the other side with a scrap of health left over. As someone who played The New Order twice for the Fergus/Wyatt timeline split, that decision returns in The New Colossus but the overall impact remains minimal. Both are great characters in their own right but their overall screen time is reduced.


The first game looked fantastic but the new lighting effects delivered by id Tech 6 really enhance the atmosphere in the sequel.

Although the mechanics may have remained relatively unchanged, the new id Tech 6 engine powering the game makes an impact. There is no massive overhaul in visuals, MachineGames have stuck to their original style, but the new engine introduces volumetric lighting and real-time shadows that do an incredible job of building atmosphere. Shafts of light piercing the murky haze of a bombed out New York looks incredible, while emergency lighting in Nazi compounds generate pulsing real-time shadows that streak across the environment. As with their previous engines, there are some low quality textures found in the corners of environments but it’s a small price to pay for the excellent performance. The game targets 60FPS and, on a base PS4, I never encountered a drop that was perceptible by eye or controller response.

Mick Gordon returns to create an amazing soundtrack that feels right at home when tearing through Nazis in industrial settings. It’s not quite as good as DOOM 2016 but perfectly supplements the booming sounds of gunfire and screaming Nazis during a protracted firefight. Voice acting remains as good as the original game, with distinct-sounding characters matching their in-game appearance, even if they’re shamelessly hamming up stereotypes. B.J.’s internal monologues remain as insightful as ever and he’s not afraid the crack the occasional bad joke at a Nazi’s expense. I did encounter some sound balancing issues that left me with muted gunshots, muffled enemy sounds and completely silent attack dogs; hopefully fixed soon with a patch.

Overall, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a great sequel that once again demonstrates MachineGames' mastery of combining fun, fast-played gunplay with a serious narrative and complex characters. Is it as good as The New Order? In terms of mechanics and visuals, even better. In terms of narrative and setting, the pacing is less consistent and you inevitably end up in samey looking Nazi bunkers the more you play (especially if you tackle the side-missions). If you’re looking to spend another dozen or more hours in B.J.’s boots, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus offers up excellent gunplay and an engaging narrative that strings you along towards a spectacular conclusion and the promise of an even wilder sequel.