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(Due to the photo service I used for photo embed now charges for 3 party photo sharing, I’ll be unable to share any screenshots of my playtime at the moment. Hope to fix soon)

This year’s Top 5 Game titles for Octoberween took a bit longer to hammer out than prior years, something you’d think wouldn’t be hard given I’m only showcasing 5 games than in the past’s 11 games before it. I decided on this number not only so I could spend more time actually enjoying the season, but because I wanted to ensure I tried to give the best write up’s I could on these games when some might not consider them “top tier” game titles. I will admit up front that the games I’ve chosen in the past are not exactly triple AAA titles worth your time & money. They were mostly chosen for their budget minded pricing or they had a redeeming value to them that made the game worthy of an Octoberween game title. Some probably now forgotten gems but I wouldn’t be surprised if not many considered them such depending on the mindset of the gamer. I’m sure two out of the five titles chosen this year might fall under that category but before I get into them let’s focus on my Top 5 choice for this year’s Octoberween Game Title of 2017. That game is none other than the prequel to one of the surprise FPS’s to be released for its time that was Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood.

 

 Since the sequel to The New Order, Wolfestein: the New Colossus is due out by the end of this month, now seemed like a good time as any to talk about the digital expansion that came out after The New Order was released. I was positively THROBBING when I learned of this game expansion coming out. Wolfenstein: The New Order was one of the few games I actually went out and paid full price for and I instantly fell in love with the game. I played that game over and over, enjoying the alternative setting, slick gunplay, the branching story paths (albeit a bit weak) and the general overall theme that blended what I loved when it came to alternate history with production values that could stand toe-to-toe with other contemporaries of entertainment like Amazon’s: Man in the High Castle. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood even re-introduced an older organization from the series that I thought I’d have to say goodbye to given how little it played out in The New Order: The SS Paranormal Division. Since the beginning Wolfenstein has always had some form of occult research or supernatural tinge to it that had been married to the Nazis since conspiracy theorist came out about their involvement in such actions, along with to what was seen in current media at the time thanks in part to the franchises of Indiana Jones and Hellboy. Each game didn’t fail to disappoint when it came to what the Nazi SS Paranormal Division was will to do in gaining a supernatural advantage to see about winning the war. Be it with “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” with trying to resurrect King Heinrich I to the last generation title “Wolfenstein”, with them try to harness the power of “The Veil” to create superweapons (oddly much similar to what Red Skull did in the Marvel movie Captain America: The First Avenger) the SS Paranormal Division was an excellent secret enemy for the series to have. And an excellent reason to be able to include these games in any Octoberween Gaming list of mine.

Which is why I leapt at the chance to include Wolfenstein: The Old Blood to my gaming list this year given that I finally had a PS4 to play it on for the version of The New Order I played on was on the PS3. In The Old Blood you’re once again playing the role of B.J. Blazkowicz as he and his partner from the OSA, Agent One, are tasked with infiltrating Castle Wolfenstein so they can learn the location of General Deathshead secret compound that you’re to storm at the beginning of The New Order. You learn on the drive to the castle that the war hasn’t been going well for the Allies. The D-Day invasion was a failure and despite B.J.’s past missions in ending the Nazi’s attempts to gain an upper hand in the war technologically, they’ve mysteriously have been able to do just that, leaving this very mission you play as the last ditch effort to stop the Nazis before all is lost to their supposed unstoppable war machines. Given the game is an expansion of the gameplay and graphics of the first game it basically looks on par in what you’d expect from The New Order. If you’ve played the first game then The Old Blood will feel right at home as you play, straight down to the control design and gameplay mechanics like takedowns, perk upgrades, weapons wheel and smart enemy AI. And much like the New Order you’ll have a choice in how you tackle a location when it comes to dealing with area commanders. Stealth kill them to avoid enemy detection or go all out and face the Nazis hordes head on.

But what makes this game different is the fact that the focus is back to what it used to be in the series: Stopping the SS Paranormal Division in their tracks. Not only are you tasked with trying to find the location of Deathshead secret compound but your also there to investigate the currently commander of the SS Paranormal Division and see what she’s been up to. You’ll eventually learn that their once again meddling with forces they couldn’t possibly comprehend and it’s up to you to stop them before they unleash supernatural hell on this earth. In all honestly if you’ve played “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” either on the PS2 or original Xbox, you’ll given a more condensed story of what was found there: Having to escape Castle Wolfenstein, trying to rescue your partner, infiltrate the local village and travel to a different city to find a dig site that the Nazis have learned about due to their occult research and investigations in possibly finding their supernatural edge to win the war quickly. Thankfully this game isn’t a a complete retcon of Wolfenstein lore given you see primitive versions of the Ubersoldats from Return that you’ll eventually see in action later on in The New Order. This game may have the skin of the current Wolfenstein title but its soul is pure old skool Wolfenstein. They even include the nightmare dream sequences that have you playing the original 3D Wolfenstein games on PC as a secret in each level.

What also helps to put this game apart from The New Order is its general mood and theme of the supernatural as you play. Castle Wolfenstein is just as spooky and foreboding as prior outings in the series, complete with dynamic lighting and decorations to make it stand out like what you’ve seen in titles like Resident Evil 4. I particularly liked how you had to end up crawling thru the castle’s catacombs during your escape despite seeing the glimpse of modern technology mixed into the setting. Even the dig site feels right at home for Octoberween with its fog, dark lighting and over fear of foreboding as you go deeper into the levels to stop whatever Standartenfuhererin Helga von Schabbs is trying to dig up. I only wish we could’ve seen more of the “defiled church” than the Wulfberg village as a whole but the trade of is worth it when you trigger the scene where the Nazi’s accidently open the inner chambers to cause the city’s inhabitants and Nazi SS Paranormal Division contingent of soldiers to turn into the flaming undead.

The game consists of 8 chapters that range from the various scenarios I mentioned earlier above from infiltration and escape of Castle Wolfenstein, the local town and Wulfberg respectively with each one of the levels having its own gothic feel to them, mixing the technological with the medieval. Thankfully it doesn’t go as far is prior ID titles with that theme, like Doom, but it does it enough to continue to give this game it’s past supernatural feel from prior Wolfenstein titles. It has it all as what you’d come to expect in any games for Octoberween leanings: spooky castles, foreboding dig sites, disturbed graveyards, undead Nazis, scientific abominations from Deathshead’s X-Labs, to a final boss that as usual takes out the main nazi menace due to their arrogance in thinking they could control what they could never understand. I had a blast being carried along in the story and Octoberween set pieces, despite it being somewhat similar to prior titles as well and despite the fact that I already knew what the general outcome would be since playing The New Order. Some considered The Old Blood” more of the same” when it came to the game itself and in comparison to The New Order and in most respects they are correct. But with that said that’s not exactly a bad thing. If you enjoyed what you got in The New Order then you’ll definitely enjoy what is offered in The Old Blood, especially if you were one that enjoy the prior games in the series that had the SS Paranormal Division front and center as the main antagonists in the game.

That reason alone is enough for me to add Wolfenstein: The Old Blood to this year’s Octoberween Games List of 2017. It gives me what I felt was lacking in The New Order and something we probably won’t be seeing again in the foreseeable future when it comes to future Wolfenstein titles. The series has fully embraced the alternative history theme and despite them incorporating the idea of Da’at Yichud into the mix, it doesn’t give it enough of a supernatural feel for it to be a worthy replacement for the SS Paranormal Division on its own. I don’t begrudge the choice to focus on the alternative history than the supernatural and I openly embrace. Yet at the same time I have to admit I will miss the supernatural leanings the series has been known for in the past. Which is why I’m more than happy to have Wolfenstein: The Old Blood as a proper send off to the supernatural themes that Wolfenstein has been known for in their stories. And in all honestly I couldn’t be any happier. I was able to get this game used physically for $20 but they’ve now being to sell this game bundled with The New Order new for $20. If you haven’t grabbed it up yet now would be a good time for Octoberween and before the coming that is The New Colossus.

My Top 5 Octoberween Game Titles for 2017

#5: Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – Price $20 used.