Some will insist that good writing relies upon shades of grey, and that complex character motivations are a must. Wolfenstein II doesn’t really have that. Instead, it makes the player realize that they are dealing with the biggest piles of garbage imaginable. The first hour of the game does an incredible job of making the player truly hate two people: B.J. Blazkowicz’s father and the returning Frau Engel from The New Order. There’s no wiggle room to be had. These characters are pure evil, and they unequivocally deserve to die. It turns out that sometimes it’s nice to have a villain that players can just purely hate.
This hatred is fully earned by some increasingly disturbing imagery that defines the opening moments of The New Colossus. These moments, which are so grotesque that I wound up looking away from my television screen at several points, are why the game’s brutal acts of violence become so satisfying shortly thereafter. Wolfenstein II features melee kills that would make DOOM blush, as B.J. chops off limbs and slits throats with a hatchet. Not once did I ever feel bad about the pure pain I was inflicting because I knew that deep down they deserved every single ounce of suffering they received. In one of the least shocking developments of 2017, it winds up that violently killing Nazi scum is actually a very good thing. From a pure gameplay perspective, those who played The New Order will feel right at home in Wolfenstein II. It&#...