On the contrary, I’m saying that this is what makes the series worthwhile and fun. However, as the series went on throughout its early PC days into the Return to Castle Wolfenstein and onto Wolfenstein, which released last year, the changes have become noticeable in the vilest kind of way. Where the combat was once fast, furious and fluid – allowing players to move from room to room, running and gunning – it felt like a clunky version of Call of Duty 2. Additionally, there has been a sudden shift away from levels players have come to know and love in favor of the ‘overworld’. For those unfamiliar, the overworld is essentially a locale in a game where you receive missions prior to actually going and doing them. Basically serving as the part of the game where you reload, rearm and get missions or quests. Sure, this works in an RPG style of game, but that isn’t what Wolfenstein ever was. Laudable as it is that id software tried something new, it still doesn’t excuse the terrible dialog that players were subjected to. I’m aware the main characters name is B.J. Blazkowicz, but when a character continuously says it aloud, by the time I hear “B.J.” called out for the fourth or fifth time, it either gets annoying or lascivious, I’m still not sure which. Finally, occult elements are fine in a game, especially Wolfenstein. After all, if a series doesn’t evolve, it risks stagnation. But by implementing interesting concepts in terrible ways just leaves the series faithful feeling betrayed. Sadly, Wolfenstein could rely on a bit of a free ride in the past for the sake of nostalgia. But there is no excuse for the latest iteration as it totally lets the more devoted fans down.
Speaking of letting fans down, Alone in the Dark was perhaps the biggest survival-horror disaster in recent memory. For those of you who do remember the original, it involved you being trapped in a large mansion with various terrifying creatures of the night, all viciously hungry for your soft squishy brains, amongst other things. Even today, despite all the advances that electronic games have experienced, the original is still the best. So, I’m sure you can guess how the latest Alone in the Dark fared. While the game did have scary qualities it became a case where so much time had passed and so many other survival-horror games had been done, it merely seemed apropos for the designers to snatch a few qualities here and there. The amalgamation that made it into the hands of the gaming community wasn’t the Alone in the Dark that anyone remembered, let alone could appreciate. Despite the ability to combine just about anything in your inventory, a lack of any instructions on what could and couldn’t be combined made it difficult and awkward for anyone short of MacGyver. Take into account that even when you were in said menu, scoping out your inventory, the game didn’t allow you to pause. While some would argue that this kept players on their toes, heightening the suspense, others would argue that this was seven flavors of stupid and created a gameplay environment that would only lead to frustration for gamers.
Never one to remain cynical, I’ll admit that there have been some modernized titles that have surfaced from gaming history to remain truly great. The updated version of Monkey Island is one prime of example of how a game can return from the proverbial dead and garner a following that had waited for it to come back while drawing in a new crowd that may never have even played it previously. The original Soul Calibur and Rez HD are both older titles that found homes on Xbox Live Arcade. While there is a vast difference between an evolved iteration and pushing so far from the source material that a game belongs in a franchise due to name only, it resolves a single, solid message. Gamers can appreciate nostalgia – this has been proven by Nintendo selling New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. But if you completely alter what we as gamers have come to appreciate – such as the form Golden Axe: Beast Rider took, which was leagues apart from the Sega original – developers are only going to piss the gaming community off. Ultimately, creators can attempt to repackage a single nostalgic game mechanic on the hope that it’ll sell, but like a terrible ex-girlfriend, the more things change, the more they stay the same and no one will want to continue betting on a one trick pony.
