NB: Microsoft, which owns Bethesda, is at time of writing under boycott by the BDS movement due to its role in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I had already begun playing this game when that announcement was made, and as it’s not one of their big live-service games I didn’t feel continuing to play it was meaningfully supporting the company. That being said, if you have not already purchased this game please don’t.
I’ve been having a hard time with games lately.
I started Baldur’s Gate 3 in July of last year and I just finished the Steel Foundry, aka the worst encounter design in the game that has fully made me stop caring and now I just want to get this thing done; my save file says I’ve played for 87 hours, but the PS5 says I’ve played for 101, because that’s how much I’ve had to save scum when hours of work didn’t pan out because some NPC got themselves killed or I found out actually I have to do this other mission first.
I used to break out Tony Hawk’s Underground and play through it in a day, on Sick Mode. This last play-through started several weeks ago and has had me feeling stumped multiple times, and I think “Combo the City” may have fully defeated me (besides which even if I beat it that just means I’ll eventually have to do the final “Beat Eric’s Best Line,” which is just the same thing but harder.)
And don’t even get me started on Bloodborne (seriously, don’t, I’ve got a 3-part essay planned for that if I ever actually finish it.)
But Wolfenstein II, I thought, would be different. The first game was a fun romp, a fast-paced action power fantasy about killin’ Nazis with your pals, and boy could I use some of that. Well, turns out Wolfenstein II is actually kinda hard. Like, way harder than the first game. There were times when I simply did not understand how I was supposed to progress through a seemingly impossible scenario. I remember liking the stealth sections in the first game, but here there are always so many moving parts I think I maybe did two or three of them successfully, the rest inevitably devolving into a near-death bloodbath or just me running through to the next checkpoint because I’d hit my limit on how many times I was willing to try the same fight over and over. And to be clear, this is on standard “Bring ’em on!” difficulty.
Eventually I’m at what I don’t realize is the last fight of the campaign. And it’s hard. And I die. And I die again. And I die some more. And I change my strategy. And I die some more. And I change my strategy again. And I die some more. And I find out that right behind where my save was starting me are armor and health pickups and the giant laserball weapon and I’m like “Ooooh, that’s what I was supposed to do” so I grab those and overwrite my save and go back in and die again and again and again and then I do the unthinkable and I turn down the difficulty. And then I die again and then I think one more time and then I finally beat it. And then cleaning up after the battle I find out there was a whole tunnel system underneath the arena that I didn’t know about and that probably would’ve been really helpful and I’M JUST SO FUCKING DONE.
I am 31 years old, I have chronic pain in my hands, I have very little free time during which I actually have the energy to play a game (and like, there are other things I want to do with my time as well), I have a long list of games I want to play and that list will never get substantially shorter because there will always be more and at some point, or rather, at this precise point, I really have to ask myself, “What do I get from the game being hard?”
Yes, there is the satisfaction of solving a particularly tricky puzzle, or beating a boss not because you leveled up enough but because you actually learned their moves and developed an effective strategy, or just the immersion of a character whose supposed to be good at getting out of a tough situation getting out of a tough situation.
But that’s never been the primary thing I want from a game. I want novel mechanics, evocative music and visuals, fascinating worldbuilding, engaging characters, a story I actually care about, and, ideally, I’d like to have fun. And I can get all of that on easy mode. There is a solid argument to be made that, as my patience and physical capabilities dwindle, all a game being hard does for me is make me spend more time with it and enjoy that time less. I wanted to enjoy Wolfenstein II. And I could have. So why didn’t I do that for myself?
Anyway thanks for coming to my gaming midlife crisis, Wolfenstein II‘s a pretty good game if you like starting a revolution against Nazis, though I can’t imagine that would be relevant any time soon.
p.s. The War Map missions are an interesting idea but the game gives very little incentive to engage with them unless you just really want more game. It would’ve been nice if they interacted with the campaign more, or had interesting narratives of their own.
p.p.s. Not gonna talk about Sigrun. I’m just not. I refuse.
p.p.p.s. I think what really started me tilting on this game was when I had a really good run going in the Wolfenstein 3D arcade cabinet and then I got the elevator room and I opened it and didn’t see anyone and I even like peered around the corner but clearly I didn’t peer far enough because I walk in and get murked by a Russian and I didn’t know you could actually save your game in the arcade cabinet so it starts me all the way back at the beginning of the level with no weapons and I was like well I might as well be dead then.
p.p.p.p.s. I feel sorry for everyone who played this with Wyatt instead of Fergus.
p.p.p.p.p.s. Is most of this game a dream? I mean, that doesn’t seem like something they would do but…I feel like there are reasons to believe that may be the case.
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. The U-boat is way too easy to get lost in, I shouldn’t have to fill in the minimap all over again every time I come back there but even then it’s just a maze and it’s so hard to like go through it systemically and make sure you’re talking to everyone to get their little side missions.
Certain of Eventual Failure 