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Click here for my completed LP ofWolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Latest Episode  What's A Freedom Chronicle? When Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus was announced Bethesda/Machine Games also announced there would be a DLC season pass. Cue faux outrage over single player DLC ("They won't even finish the gameeeeee!") before any further details were revealed. Instead of being a straight continuation of the main game, or even a side mission pack or anything what we got instead was the Freedom Chronicles: Three mini campaigns featuring all new protagonists taking the fight to the Nazis across America. Each of the new characters has the ability granted by one of the Contraptions introduced in the main game, Joe Stallion, for example, has the Ramshackle ability and can knock down walls and/or Nazis by sprinting at them. That said, besides the self contained, all new stories for each of the three characters, there's not much new here. A few unique textures and enemy types show up, but for the most part if you played or watched my LP of the main game you'll recognize most of the assets and even some segments of levels. The fun here is that it's more Nazi killing with different characters. The LP The reason this isn't just part of the Wolfenstein II LP is that the DLC is fairly long. Episode Zero is something like 40 minutes and you'll be lucky to get through a chapter of the DLC in less than half an hour and there are nine of them. There's also new readables and such so the DLC comes off more like a half-game than just a couple story missions. I'm doing this blind because I want to. Try not to spoil things for anyone if you can help it. We're going through this in order, so Episode Zero kicks things off, then we're hitting Gunslinger Joe, Agent Silent Death and the Captain America Wannabe guy in that order. Each chapter is an episode of the LP so this'll run ten episodes and then maybe a bonus or two to cover the collectibles and then maybe a virtual reality mission or two. Really, this should be pretty light and fun...for a game set in a world where Nazis took over. Table of Contents DLC 1: The Adventures of Gunslinger Joe     DLC 2: The Diaries of Agent Silent Death    DLC 3: The Deeds of Captain Wilkins  
Lazyfire fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Sep 21, 2018 |
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Aug 22, 2018 22:48
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Episode Zero went out to anyone who either prepurchased the season pass or pre-ordered the game. I thought that was an interesting choice, but it makes sense. People were kind of weirdly upset that the DLC existed in the first place/was announced when the game was and were sure it was just going to take away from the length/quality of the main game. I don't think that happened at all, but I think it's totally possible that the DLC consists of re-worked levels that didn't cut it for the main game. Episode Zero doesn't have a lot of it, but there are times in the actual DLC chapters where you will just straight notice you are walking through a slightly retooled area from the story. I guess on one hand, hey, it means that they used more of the stuff they made for the game, but on the other it makes the DLC feel like premium hot dogs: you end up paying for broken down bad cuts of meat. That said, I loving love hot dogs and the worst parts of Wolf II still tend to be pretty good, so I'm not going to be complaining too much.
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Aug 22, 2018 22:54
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I got to say, the reused setpieces and level designs are well incorporated and redesigned. Watch'd!
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Aug 23, 2018 01:28
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berryjon posted:I got to say, the reused setpieces and level designs are well incorporated and redesigned. Yeah, it took me by surprise the first time I saw a section of a level just straight transported into the DLC, but they use it well and do stuff at least slightly differently, so it isn 't like a complete carbon copy ever.
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Aug 23, 2018 22:08
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Let's dive into the DLC proper now. Joe Stallion is a former quarterback who can smash through walls for some reason. Would it have made more sense if he was former linebacker or running back? Yeah. Is this Wolfenstein, a game where Nazis took over earth, Venus and the Moon? Yeah it is. That's also why it's totally acceptable that Joe's throwing weapon of choice is a soup can. Joe's fun to play as partially because the Ramshackle charge becomes its own weapon with Joe. You can utterly destroy most enemies in one charge instead of it stunning enemies at full health like in the main game. The soup can isn't great for stealth as it won't really kill someone the way a hatchet would, but you can use it to set up a charge and not take dumb damage the way I will through the next few videos. One thing I don't know how to feel about for the Joe levels is how they subvert some of the main story stuff really hard in the first set of DLC chapters. Joe is capable of stealth, but the design of the levels and Joe's lack of a silenced weapon or one hit kill throwing weapon means you need to punch people to death if you want to stay silent, and the enemy patrols and the levels themselves are set up so the guards are often overlapping. You are going to see more combat as Joe, even if you are good at sneaking around. I don't have a problem with this per se, but it was only something I really figured out at the end of the DLC rather than early on, so I keep thinking I'm the one screwing up when it is actually the game throwing me a curveball.
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Aug 24, 2018 21:26
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Hrm, it seems like the reused locations are better integrated with full levels around them. Not that it's a subject that's worth talking about. 
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Aug 26, 2018 04:29
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If there's one thing that never gets old it's killing KKK guys. It's interesting to draw a parallel between what happens at the start of this episode and BJ's courtroom battle. In both cases the player character is in a zonked out fantasy where they face off against an enemy they know all too well, only to wake up and find that there's still more work to do. BJ's fantasy obviously has a bit more of a serious tone considering the appearance of his mother at the end and him waking up to being sentenced to death, though. Joe gets off kind of easy in two regards. One: he doesn't have to actually completely destroy a platoon of his enemies to escape the dream. Two: instead of getting sentenced to death he gets to keep killing Nazis. That's a pretty solid set of upgrades. I really don't know how you are supposed to survive all that long in Joe's sequence, all told. There's extremely limited cover and enemies are goddamn deadly if you can't keep yourself at least somewhat protected. I was somewhat relieved that it ended so quickly all told, while I would have loved to hear more of the announcer and seen where the fight went as the enemies escalated I seriously doubt circling around the arena all day would have been fun to watch. Part of the fun of the combat in this game is how it can switch from being a toe to toe shooter to a cover based affair to a stealth game in the span of a minute. Any time they try to keep you locked into one of those modes for too long (think an overly long boss fight) something gets lost. BJ's dream sequence is a great example of how they designed the levels to give you a lot of different options on how to approach the combat (I like to take big weapons and gun down everyone, others rely more on moving from cover to cover and getting positioning on the enemy, etc.) so cutting the options in a sequence like Joe's dream is a bit weird, but this is a DLC and the scene is fun while it lasts rather than being a serious hurdle to move you to the next phase of the DLC. I guess I'm complaining a lot about something that's really inoffensive and still pretty fun for no good reason now.
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Aug 28, 2018 00:52
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"Played college ball, ya know." I haven't seen any of the Wolfenstein II playthrough but I like the way the guns interact around walls. I can't think or other games that do that.
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Aug 28, 2018 17:23
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So semi-hot take: I like that Venus makes a comeback in this episode. It's a cool aesthetic that was so different from the rest of the game it deserved another run. However, I think it is also one of the weaker areas of the DLC simply because the cooling station mechanic is not all that fun and in a segment of the DLC where you are expected to be in combat a good deal of the time you often have to decide if you want to risk burning or taking a shotgun/missile to the dome. That's not a good balance to have to strike and the AI and animations won't let you try to half-do either of those. You end up trying to power through stuff is the end result. So this'll do it for the first DLC story. Joe was a fun character to play as even if he was just a beefed up Ramshackle wearing BJ with fewer weapon upgrades and no stealth to speak of. Agent Silent Death is balanced a bit differently as well and I really like the parts of the DLC I've played there simply because they focus on the stealth aspects of the game, which are fairly strong and fun.
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Aug 29, 2018 21:48
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Gunslinger Joe can run through people because at the time, football cared less about protecting the QB... or anyone, really. And on smaller teams, I'm not sure how long players had roles on both offense and defense so it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case for him.
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Sep 3, 2018 07:17
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Yeah, it feels like the cans are less for stealth kills, and more to stun people so can sprint into them without getting shot. I really liked how the level layouts generally included a lot of long straight corridors and other similarly open paths to really let you go nuts with the ramshackle/unnecessary roughness. There were a few times when I was wondering why you were bothering with the machine pistol at all, really.
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Sep 4, 2018 14:59
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Crazy Achmed posted:Yeah, it feels like the cans are less for stealth kills, and more to stun people so can sprint into them without getting shot. I really liked how the level layouts generally included a lot of long straight corridors and other similarly open paths to really let you go nuts with the ramshackle/unnecessary roughness. There were a few times when I was wondering why you were bothering with the machine pistol at all, really. Can you use the cans like empty magazines from MGS to distract people? That might make the stealth a little easier.
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Sep 4, 2018 18:49
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Hooray! Looking forward to this.
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Sep 4, 2018 19:00
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Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:Gunslinger Joe can run through people because at the time, football cared less about protecting the QB... or anyone, really. And on smaller teams, I'm not sure how long players had roles on both offense and defense so it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case for him. The 1940's and 1950's were the golden age of the ironman player, but usually the QB wasn't on both sides of the ball. Fun fact, if you ignore trick plays/gimmick players you really only get to the end of ironman football in the 1990's. There were a couple Defensive Backfield/Wide Receiver players kicking around the league. Technowolf posted:Can you use the cans like empty magazines from MGS to distract people? That might make the stealth a little easier. Yeah, they would work the same as if you fired a bullet past someone with a silenced gun. Thing is, the game actually tracks can toss kills, which tells me there is a specific idea on what they are supposed to be used for. Also, videos back up tomorrow, I fell asleep on the couch Friday because I was dead tired and wasn't home for most of the weekend to post at a later date. I actually uploaded the video on Thursday knowing that was a total possibility and still messed up.
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Sep 4, 2018 21:35
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Today we start on The Diaries of Agent Silent Death the second, and probably shortest of the three DLCs. Jessica Valiant comes equipped with the Constrictor Harness contraption, but can stay compressed indefinitely unlike BJ, who needed a fainting couch after about 30 seconds of having his organs mashed together. Without having to upgrade anything, Jessica can also walk silently instead of crouching for the same effect and also gets the "if you are spotted time slows down" buff. These are all really nice considering stealth is the name of the game for her, she can carry less armor and it really feels like she takes more damage per hit. When you do end up going loud you need to high tail it to the nearest hiding spot or you are going to get easily overwhelmed by the enemies. the pistol and SMG are the only common weapons in the DLC and while the AR and the shotgun do make appearances they are usually strapped for ammo and so are panic weapons over mainstays in the inventory. I liked how they designed this DLC overall, without spoiling it. While I sucked at it, the stealth aspects of Wolf II, especially with the constrictor harness buffs running, were super solid and enjoyable and it is nice to see them get additional play in the DLC. Like Joe's soup cans and non-silenced weapons sort of forced you to use brawn to solve your Nazi-related issues, the weapon selection and level layout are clearly intended to make you HAVE to sneak as much as possible if you want a chance to make it through. In a couple episodes you'll see just how ill equipped Jessica is for any other type of gameplay. Like I said, this DLC is short, the second episode can be done in less than 20 minutes and the third took me less than half an hour. Compared to Joe's kind of lengthy chapters it makes me feel like they couldn't toss enough interesting or different scenarios your way with stealth alone and instead of making it monotonous they just decided to move things along with short burst chapters. Whatever the reason, I had fun with this DLC.
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Sep 5, 2018 21:58
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Alright, so Paragon Film Studios is where the Episode Zero Silent Death segment took place, so you'll see that area here again. The interesting thing, to me at least, is that enemy placement and patrols were changed between Episode Zero and the actual DLC. I don't know if that's some internal tweaking while the levels were in production or if the episode zero stuff was kind of the internal demo for what they wanted to do with the DLC. I guess that's always kind of a question when you get something like Episode Zero which is, by all accounts, an odd bird as you do not see that much in the way of DLC previews ever. It's a nice concept, but it really fed the dumb narrative that the company cared more about bifurcating the game and selling it in two parts than they cared about providing a complete experience in the main game. I don't agree with those who believe that was the aim, as I've made clear several times, but I can see where they were coming from there.
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Sep 8, 2018 16:50
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Can I just say that "Agent Silent Death" is a mouthful? Seriously, it's like the most awkward spy codename ever.
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Sep 8, 2018 22:51
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Forget everything I said positive about this DLC, I guess. This last segment of the Diaries of Agent Silent Death is one big stealth section that I. Just. Couldn't. Stealth. I don't even think you can fully run this stealth anyway, there's too many people, not great direction on where to go and I'm almost 100 percent that at one point the game forces you to be caught. One of the things I love about MGS games is that if you do set off an alarm you can hide for a bit and the alarm will end and the guards go back to patrolling, but maybe in greater numbers or with better equipment. I can understand why Wolfenstein decided against that system at times, but with the Agent Silent Death chapters I wish they had just ripped it off wholesale and gave you a bunch of vents and tables and stuff to hide under. I think that would have played better than what I ended up seeing at the end of this segment of the game, though maybe I'm just terrible and should feel bad for not being good enough to stay hidden.
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Sep 10, 2018 21:19
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The third and final DLC chapter should be a bit more in line with what we expect from a Wolfenstein player character: An old guy who hates Nazis. I don't like the battlewalker. I feel like the developers were just really grasping for a third contraption and someone said "oh, let's let you be extra tall and slow!" and everyone in the room was tired and wanted to go home and said yes and here we are. I don't have a problem with Wilkins and his missions in general, but the battlewalker really needed to be improved or upgraded from the base game to make that aspect fun or different and they simply didn't do enough to make me think it was a good option. Maybe if you could walk on it silently or if there were more opportunities to kill a nazi with a hatchet from the walker it would be one thing, but there's never a point in the entire DLC where I feel like the walker isn't completely superfluous if you just changed the level design around a little.
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Sep 13, 2018 03:01
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Stop being such a panzergiraffe on the battle harness, Lazyfire.
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Sep 13, 2018 04:28
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Technowolf posted:Stop being such a panzergiraffe on the battle harness, Lazyfire. Everyone's entitled to their opinions. Because I'm right on the battle walker it makes me extra entitled to that opinion. Frankly, it's just not that good as a tool unless the level is specifically designed completely around it, and even then because it is clunkier and less likely to deploy correctly vs. the other contraptions you are often better off doing things without the walker if you can just because you could get caught or killed using it. Here's the other thing: it required a double press of the jump to use. I know that's weird to complain about, but the other two things happen more or less automatically. If you sprint the Ramshackle will knock people over. If you crouch and look down the constrictor harness will fit you into a space. Double tapping jump adds a button press that you could hit by mistake or in a panic that could get you killed. The other thing is that the walker's perks aren't great either. Especially compared to the time slowing and explosion immunity on the other contraptions being able to slow time when you open the weapon wheel is...underwhelming. I really wish Agent Silent Death showed up in this DLC. Considering the Sun Gun was a thing from Joe's campaign (and was in a few articles in the New Order and was a real proposed superweapon at one point) it feels like this DLC missed out on a chance to tie things off and either didn't take it or couldn't make it work. That's fine and all, but it feels awkward to call back to one DLC and not the other in the final DLC. It'll be interesting to see what they do with these characters in the future Wolfenstein games. They are fictional fictional characters so they won't be hanging out with BJ or his daughters in Young Blood and Wolf III is a while away it seems, so who knows if they'll be one offs or if maybe the next DLC stuff will be a continuation of each of their stories, considering each has a sequel hook built in.
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Sep 17, 2018 21:12
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Well, thanks for sticking with me on this short, kind of forgettable trip through the Freedom Chronicles DLC. I can't say it was overly impressive by any means, but it was fun and a decent extension of The New Colossus. I kind of wish it was more tied into the story in some way, like each member was part of the BJ/Anya/Grace led resistance instead of totally different stories. It would at least make some sense if you could launch the missions from the side mission board and maybe you could have BJ or Set or someone handing off the contraptions for the person going out on the missions. Cutting these away from the main story totally probably helped cut down on the number and volume of people claiming the developers were shorting the main game to sell it to you as DLC, though. I also appreciate the changes to the level design ideas that the developers could make knowing exactly which contraption the player was using. In the main game you needed to take only one, and didn't need to grab the other two at all so while they could design simple puzzles around all three contraptions at choke points, you couldn't design for just one in the main story at all, and only in the mission that gives you the contraption you are earning could they design anything around the specific items. I hope in the next game they cut it down to just one contraption or give them to you through the course of the game similar to the laser gun and its upgrades from the first game. At least then they know exactly what to work to when designing the levels like in the DLC.
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Sep 21, 2018 21:43
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I'm like a video and a half behind, but yeah, I've got to say that I'm pretty disappointed by the Wolfenstein 2 DLC. I only just finished playing the main game a few weeks ago since I waited until a decent sale to buy it, and after seeing the Freedom Chronicles here, I'm glad I didn't buy it as well. What's there in the DLC seems fine; it's just that there's not much there. Three quite short missions per DLC - all of them straightforward "kill everything" affairs with a bare-bones story and comic-book-style cut-scenes to string them together. Just not much going on. They remind me of the "District" missions from the main game.
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Sep 22, 2018 05:58
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They should have at least had an epilogue mission where all three characters come together to destroy the Sun Gun.
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Sep 22, 2018 21:06
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I'm sad that the thread has garnered so little comment, but in a way that's kind of indicative of the paucity of interesting things in the DLC. It's basically more of the same, but lacking the character and weirdness of the base game. You take those two things away and you have... very little left. I get that they weren't going to release a full blown game for this, but the comic book style looks to be an ironic attempt at cutting corners that fails because the comic book stuff only exists in the interstitial animatics, and are kind of heavy handed and cliche. Not in a Venture Bros taking the piss kind of way, but in a way of someone trying for that feeling and ultimately failing, because the gameplay itself in no way supports/enhances it.
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Sep 23, 2018 00:09
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