There is something refreshing about comfort food; you know, that food that you can go to in almost any restaurant and order it knowing that it should taste good. I mean how hard is it to grill a burger? Comfort food - yeah, that's the ticket. Well, like comfort food, there is a well recognized but under-used phrase (that I am currently making up) called comfort gaming. Games that make a buyer and player comfortable because they know exactly what they are getting themselves into. The Madden series is a good example of this; there is nothing so forward thinking in a Madden game that should surprise anyone (dude, you can actually throw in the latest Madden). So I think you can tell where I am going with this - the Wolfenstein series of games (cause there have been so many) fall into this category.

The last time we saw our man , B.J. Blaskowitz, he had just completed a successful campaign on the original Xbox and PC> He has since become a standing member of the bureau of special shenanigans (not really) and it seems is regularly called upon to deal with anything that has to do with the occult. True fact: Hitler was an avid fan of the occult and because of this fact, we get to experience games featuring undead Nazi zombies and other other-worldly oddities that would like to turn our man B.J. into a hat.

"Ya know, I think that tanning pass you bought is starting to have some odd side effects Bill..."

Ok, so here's the deal, once again, the Nazis and Hitler's Germany have unearthed some nasty magical items. Naturally they possess an other-worldly power that could turn the tide of the war so it's up to you to stop them. And by you, I mean B.J. again. Being smuggled into Germany, you begin working with a resistance group that intends on making things as difficult as possible for the Nazis and hey, it may just help out the war effort as well. The game plays out as a pseudo open-ended adventure. I say that because while the illusion is that you can roam around town and collect missions they are, in fact, really linear and all pretty much need to be completed. Speaking with NPCs helps drive the story forward, but when it comes down to it, you get these games to shoot all sorts of stuff. And in this game you will shoot all sorts of bad guys and monsters and other weird stuff.

And that is where the game actually disappoints. While a good looking first-person shooter, the game never really takes any chances and moves the genre forward. We expect that the game will play well and will be entertaining, but there are certain titles that make gamers stand up and take notice. If it has Doom, Half-life, Quake or Wolfenstein in the title, I believe there is a certain expectation that the genre will be moved forward. And that really never happens. Again, the game makes you think initially that you will have free rein to take on missions as you see fit in an almost RPG way, but it never is fully realized. What's worse is that they actually went as far as to introduce a upgrading system to the weapons you collect and give you mystical powers with which to do battle with the other supernatural oddities you face.

 
"Reinhart, quickly, the dogs are getting into the garbage again!" 

Now controlling this monster is exactly what you expect; you will need to reconfigure the controls to your liking and while the game isn't a problem for modern systems, if you have been waiting for a good reason to buy some additional memory or get a new video card then this isn't a bad game to do it for. Yes, I know one paragraph up it would seem that I was beating this title up. But in reality, it is a decent title with good graphics, but more on that in a moment. It is a big game coming in at 8 gigabytes, so get yourself a snack as you wait for it to load. Interestingly enough, the game comes with the "Punk Blocker" software that helps online player detect those players using cheats and other unfair tactics. There is also an updated patch for online gaming as well. Not that this is any real surprise, but I thought you should be aware. 

It's a treat when your system gets a game that has been lovingly created by programmers who know what they are doing. Wolfenstein is a very smart, very well-put-together game graphically. The level designs look like they should: burnt-out Nazi-occupied hell holes full of destruction and recent warfare. The cut scenes run smoothly and  I appreciate how the game's story unfolds within them. Lighting effects, physics and the real destruction that weaponry produces all look good. I really liked how some of the monsters came out and scared the crap out of me (yeah there are a couple of creepy moments) and their design, while somewhat expected, looked really cool. To me, games like this really need to get the bad guys and monsters just right, and they do.

The game actually has you select one of two icons to play either the single-player game or the multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode currently has a healthy amount of players doing battle on it but, as of this writing, the game seems to lack the same spit and polish that the single-player campaign has. Instead, going for a grittier, last-generation look to it. Also, the multiplayer mode seems to be lacking in actual modes. Deathmatch is there as well as a mode called "stopwatch," which pits teams against one another in a series of who can complete the objectives the fastest in a timed winner-take-all format. And then there is a mode simply called objective where one team needs to complete tasks and the other team has to prevent them from doing so. It's a decidely light multiplayer selection and I was left wondering where the alway-popular capture-the-flag mode was as well as anything that allowed players to play as the actual baddies in the game. People are playing right now, but they won't be for long as there really isn't anything that will drive them to keep playing online.    

 
"Call the Super, the heat's gone out again!"

Voice acting throughout the game is also above board. You can make your system's speakers hum with all the action you are put through in this title. Personally, having characters actually speaking with German accents is a good thing. It is also one of the best games in terms of sound effects that I have heard in recent months. Good voice work and good sound effects equals a good sounding game. The hum of weird weaponry powering up, the sound of something with evil intentions making guttural noises add to the ambience, which is a big part of any game, and the musical score helps make this one even better.

You can probably beat this title in about seven or so hours and you may or may not want to go back and look for all those things you missed.

Gameplay: 8.0
While the game controls just fine and is fully customizable, there are certain expectations that are met and others that were not. The game fails to move the bar higher.

Graphics: 8.6
Sharp looking, dressed to kill, the game makes no bones about it, it is fun to look at.

Sound: 8.0
Good musical score gives the game some gravitas as well as good sound effects and voice work.

Difficulty: Medium
A challenge for those new to the genre; not much of a challenge for those of us who have already saved the world multiple times.

Concept: 6.0
This is where I was most disappointed. The game never moves the series forward and actually takes a step backward in the multiplayer mode. Expectations were running high on this one and I felt a bit robbed.

Multiplayer: 6.0
Very disappointing, especially when the last Wolfenstein multiplayer game is way better than this one.

Overall: 7.5
I am back and forth on this one; while it is an entertaining and good-looking game, there isn't anything new or ground breaking, and the multiplayer stinks.