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The Treasures of Montezuma 4 is a fun and well-thought-out Match 3 game that's pleasing to the eye. I definitely recommend this game to players who like Match 3 games and I'd even recommend it to people who'd like to try a Match 3 game and see what the genre is all about. Although the general consensus is that Bejeweled 3 is the best Match 3 game out there, I think The Treasures of Montezuma 4 certainly holds its own with Bejeweled 3.



There is a story mode, which you'll want to play first, but the story is paper-thin and clichéd, so not worth talking about.



Match 3 games are games where you need to combine three or more of the same variety of tiles, usually by swapping two of those tiles. The Treasures of Montezuma 4 does that and it does it well, so it's a good Match 3 game.

The mechanics that set this Match 3 game apart are the totems, which make the constant objective of the game to combine subsequent combos of the same-colored tiles. Every time you combine 3 or more tiles of a certain color, its totem shows up in a corner of the screen. If you manage to combine 3 or more tiles of the same color, the totem will greatly help you advance e.g. by adding time to your counter or by shooting a fireball or a lightning bolt at the board, destroying a bunch of tiles.

Some of the tiles have a gem on them. The more gems you collect by including such tiles in your combos, the more points you score.

Combining four or more tiles of the same color adds a boon to one of the other tiles e.g. dynamite that explodes when it's included in a combo, destroying nearby tiles, lighting that destroys all the tiles that are on the same line as the tile with the lightning on it, or an hourglass that replenishes the timer a bit.

In theory, you can take all the time you want to finish each level. But when you start a level, a timer will start. For the first one or two minutes, it'll be gold-colored, then it'll turn silver for a minute or two and finally it'll be bronze for a minute or two. Finishing the level as quickly as possible yields more coins as your reward.

These coins can be used to buy upgrades to pretty much every element of the game I have mentioned: totems (e.g. enhancing the fire or lightning damage they cause), the maximum number of gems on the board, the yield of the dynamite explosions, the number of rows destroyed by the lightning, how much time an hourglass adds, etc.

The Treasures of Montezuma 4 offers are a couple of game modes. The story mode is the best place to start as it unlocks upgrades, so you'll be able to use your upgrades when playing the other modes.

Quest mode has you clearing levels on paths that each lead to a temple. You're to find the two temples that hold half of an artifact you need to complete the quest. During each of the quest levels, you have to fulfill some special conditions in order to finish the level. Some of these can be quite challenging.

Puzzle mode offers 8 types of 'puzzles' which means you'll have to fulfill special conditions while clearing tiles e.g. destroy frogs that continuously hop from one tile to the next, clear a path from one place on the board to another, make sure a number of lumps of gold reach the bottom of the board, etc. Some puzzle modes are more challenging than others.

These game modes are reminiscent of the game modes in the pinnacle of Match 3 games, Bejeweled 3, and some are just as fun while others are just as challenging (maybe even frustrating, depending on your taste), although I do feel Bejeweled 3 has more replayability in the long run than The Treasures of Montezuma 4.



I think The Treasures of Montezuma 4 is very pleasing to the eye: it looks nice, its colors are vibrant and effects like explosions or lightning look good. The only gripe I have is when a tile has an effect on it, causing it to glow, it's sometimes hard to see exactly which color of tile is below it. You can look closely at its shape, as each type of tile also has a different shape besides a different color, but even the shape of the tile is sometimes not clear due to the special effect.

Sound effects are adequate and clear, so no complaints there. The music fits the Aztec theme of the game well and I found it very pleasing, except for the music during one of the puzzles because it sounded like a techno remix of the other songs.



The Treasures of Montezuma 4 has 5 Steam Trading Cards. You'll get 3 while running the game.

The 32 Steam Achievements are varied. Some come naturally while playing the game e.g. destroy a number of tiles (of a certain color) or make a combo of a certain number of tiles. Other achievements are awarded for more completionist tasks such as complete the story mode, complete each quest in quest mode and gather all of the items you can get as a reward from puzzle mode. Finally, there are three or four achievements that require a lot of grinding. Although there is a workaround for one of these, which still requires a lot of times restarting the game until you get the prize you need, it will take completionists a while to 100% this game.

Home is Where One Starts… is a very short, very basic walking simulator made with Unity. It's not bad as such, but impossible to recommend because a recommendation means "hey, people, you have to check this one out!", which wouldn't be appropriate in this case. Since the game is short (a good half hour of content; the game doesn't even have a save function) and just a basic walking simulator, I'll keep this review short and basic as well.

This is a pure walking simulator with a trite, paper-thin story. It offers nothing to do but walking from point A to point B and repeat that a couple of times until the credits roll. The only thing that adds some 'content' are the Steam Achievements, which require you to find some optional objects and pick up all of the interactable objects.

Graphics are nothing special but certainly okay for an indie game.

Sound is also just okay: nothing memorable but not annoying, either.

There is little voice acting, but the voice actress does a decent enough job.

I already mentioned the Steam Achievements which offer something to do besides walking. There are 8 of them. It's very easy to 100% this game.

Home is Where One Starts… has 5 Steam Trading Cards. You'll get 3 while running the game.

Silver Tale is a Match 3 game that takes the genre to another level. If you're looking for the best Match 3 game that offers nothing but pure Match 3 gaming, I recommend Bejeweled 3. If you'd like to play a Match 3 game that offers a bit more than just Match 3 gaming, Silver Tale is my personal new favorite I'd like to recommend to you.



There is a story: the king is sick and you set out to find a cure for him. That's it. You didn't expect a Match 3 game to be story-heavy, did you?



Match 3 games are games where you need to combine three or more of the same variety of tiles, usually by swapping two of those tiles. Silver Tale does that and it does it well, so it's a good Match 3 game.

But Silver Tale is a lot more than just a Match 3 game. You travel across an adventure map that marks 200 levels. Each of these levels is a match 3 challenge.

Basically, there are four types of tiles: stone, wood, food and alchemy bottles. Matching these, you acquire resources. Some of the tiles are colored red. To clear the level, you need to clear these red-colored tiles before your allotted number of moves runs down to zero.

If you don't manage to clear all of the red-colored tiles before running out of moves, you lose one of your five lives and have to restart the level. Your lives will slowly regenerate (one every 20 minutes).

Completing a level by clearing the red-colored tiles is fairly easy, but if you want the badge for clearing the level, you need to do away with every special thing on the board: tiles that hide resources, which can be proteced by ice or bars on the tile, resource veins that are enclosed by the surrounding tiles, silver and gold chests that require a silver or gold key to open, … After every 25 or so levels, you need a certain number of badges in order to continue. So if you've been rushing through the levels, you may have to replay a few to increase your badge count in order to progress.

Some match 3 levels's goal is a bit different: there are puzzle levels where you just need to clear the board, but if you want the badge you can only use a certain number of moves. Other levels require you to dig down to the bottom of a cave before you run out of moves. This variety in level design and level goals keeps the game (even more) interesting.

At the start of the game, you're given a horse that needs food and grooming so as to offer you more maximum moves. You can name your horse. I named mine Roach. Kudos points if you can guess where I got that name from ;-)

You can craft items at a blacksmith, mostly items to groom your horse but also items that provide you with special abilities on the 'battle field' (the Match 3 levels). These abilities are e.g. a bomb that blows up a number of tiles around the tile you place it on, an increase of maximum moves, a way to delete all tiles of one type from the board, a way to do away with part of the reinforced tiles on the board, …

From these chests and special tiles, you may acquire a crafting element or an artifact. Completing a set of artifacts yields a reward. The reward can be gold, which is used to buy things from the town's shop, or items like a feather that will replenish your 5 lives or rejuvenate your horse when it's near death.

You will see quests pop up on the world map. All of these quests require you to collect a number of crafting elements or resources. Their reward can be just some gold but also upgrades to the wood, stone, food or alchemy tiles, providing you with more resources while clearing match 3 levels.

If all of this sounds a bit confusing, that's because it is. At first, Silver Tale feels overwhelming in its compexity. But by the time you've completed the first 20 levels or so, you'll have the basics under your belt. By the time the game gets a bit challenging, i.e. as of the 50th level or so, you'll have grasped the game mechanics to the fullest.

Every day you start the game, you can spin a wheel to get a daily reward. These rewards get better every day. This motivates you to log in every day and play a few levels, prolonging the duration of this game which you may otherwise abandon after a few dozens of levels.

In the options menu, you can toggle 'relaxed mode'. When enabled, this mode gives you more moves each level, making the experience very doable, especially for new players.



The graphics are basic, of course, but they serve their purpose. I especially liked the way the stone, wood, food and alchemy tiles's icons change when you upgrade them through quests or crafting. The effects of the special skills are also okay for a simple game like this.

Voice acting is lackluster. Not bad, not good, just mediocre. Since you'll soon discover that the goal of each and every quest is to collect a certain amount of resources and/or crafting materials, I soon skipped all conversations and just had the game show me the goal to achieve.

The music consists of three melodies that alternate. I found the three melodies atmospeheric and they definitely were long and different enough to not get annoying, but I did seem to recognize one of the three melodies although I couldn't quite place it.



Silver Tale has no Steam Trading Cards and no Steam Achievements.

Hell Girls is a very basic tactical RPG with match 3 puzzling as its combat. Match 3 games can be fun if done well (e.g. Bejeweled 3). Tactical RPGs are usually a lot more complicated and fleshed out than Hell Girls, but the basics are here: classes, earning XP to level up, combat skills (offensive, defensive, buffs and debuffs) and even some equipment with stat bonuses and some dialogue choices. Last but not least, such RPGs have some form of tactical combat, usually turn-based, which Hell Girls has as well, albeit in the form of match 3 puzzling as stated before.

Hell Girls manages to combine both genres adequately. The match 3 puzzling is fun, even more so because it serves a purpose beyond just clearing gems from a board as it's a form of combat here. And the RPG elements, basic as they are, suffice to keep you interested. When you level up or get a better skill, you actually feel the difference and may be able to get through fights that were too difficult before.

If this description of Hell Girls seems like it may be up your alley, you can't go wrong for the low price of this game, especially when it's on sale. The only downside I have to mention is the developer felt the need to design the three 'Hell Girls' as sexy anime girls who love giggling more than anything. But this doesn't ruin the experience as you'll soon ignore the character models and you can adjust the volume of sound effects seperately from the music's volume.



Hell Girls tells a story but it's paper-thin and not the main focus of the game. Your party consists of three young women, referred to as maidens in this game, who each are skilled in a particular school of magic: fire, ice and electricity. They're off to save the world. That's pretty much it. This game doesn't pretend to be deep, as the narrative is just a means to weave the combat instances together.



You see a world map and can travel in several directions, but sooner or later your path will be blocked by monsters that are too difficult to beat, so you'll have to take your chances elsewhere, get stronger and then return.

Before each battle, you choose which of the three maidens you're going to put against the monsters. You can also check which monsters you'll be fighting and what their statistics and abilities are. You can slot 5 skills of the maiden's skill pool to use in combat. You can also select her outfit, which will give both boons and penalties to certain skills and abilities.

Combat occurs in the form of a match 3 puzzle board. It's turn-based and you always get to go first. There are five basic types of gems on the board: health, shield, mana, physical damage and magical damage. Conecting three or more of these gems replenishes your health, shield or mana pool, or deals physical or magical damage to your opponent. You'll want to connect at least four gems at all times, as this creates a special gem that will help you clear the board more easily. The more gems you connect, the greater the effect e.g. regenerate more health or deal more damage.

Almost all of the monsters have their own special gems which they'll place on the board to hinder you in some way. These debuffs are varied and make sure each fight poses a different challenge.

After each fight, you'll earn XP and gold. XP is used to level up, increasing your stats. Gold is used to buy new or improved skills. I strongly advise you to check out the stats and skills of each of the maidens and sticking with one of them for the first half of the game. You can level them up simultaneously but then you'll be grinding for XP for quite a while. There's no need for that because after the first continent, you'll be sent to a second continent where you're forced to fight with all three maidens, but you'll also get a ton of XP so as to level up the other two maidens enough to be (almost) as strong as your preferred maiden.



The match 3 puzzle board looks decent enough. All the gem types look very different from each other, and the monster's debuffs clearly stand out as well.

The monsters are rather crude 2D models with basic animations but they serve their purpose.

The maidens are your typical anime models. As I mentioned before, there are several outfits that give stat bonuses and penalties. Some of those outfits are short skirts and bikinis. Ah well, I'm not *that* old so I do understand why they did this, but as far as I'm concerned, the innuendo and semi-nudity is completely unnecessary and Hell Girls could have easily done without it. There are even a few cutscenes where the innuendo gets really ridiculous. To each his own, but in my opinion, a game like this doesn't need such things as a selling point and it brings down the level of seriousness with which people will regard the game, which is too bad as the gameplay is actually very enjoyable.

During combat, the girls giggle when they do something succesful, which is very often. I played most of the game using the Fire Maiden and her giggling wasn't too annoying; in fact, after a short while I hardly noticed it anymore. But when I played the other maidens for a while, I had a feeling their giggle sounded a bit more annoying. Of course, it's possible that was simply because I had become used to that one maiden's giggle.

Hell Girls's music is somewhat repetitive as you can probably imagine, but it's very good for basic MIDI-like music and there is enough variety to not get annoying at all.



Hell Girls has 6 Steam Trading Cards. You'll get 3 while running the game.

The 92 Steam Achievements are no-nonsense. They're basically awarded for playing the game well: win battles, collect outfits, learn skills, level up, connect as many gems as possible in one move and destroy as many gems as possible in one move.

Firewatch is a pure and simple walking simulator. You receive instructions to go to a certain point in the forest, so you navigate there using your map and compass, and repeat this process until the game ends.

There is no action involved like having to run away or hide from creatures who chase you, as is often the case with adventure games that are labeled walking simulators. And there are no puzzles to solve either, which is another element often added so as to create a game, meaning software that makes the player do something -anything- other than just walking from point A to point B and so on.

Firewatch doesn't offer any incentive to explore its game world. There are no collectibles to be found, not even in the form of Steam Achievements, and there is no reason whatsoever to deviate from the straight line between your current location and your goal. The only reason why you can't just walk in a straight line to your target location, is because your avatar can't jump or climb even the tiniest rock, so you have to take large detours around rocky hills that anybody's grandmother would swiftly hike straight over.

I have no idea why so many reviewers praise the quality of Firewatch's graphics. To each his own, of course, but I found the graphics crude and not pleasing at all.

So the only thing that's left is the story and the voice acting that narrates said story, which also gets a lot of praise. You'll understand that after discovering the true nature of this 'game', which I described above, I did not feel the need to persist and see if the story maybe makes up for the boredom Firewatch basically brings.

I've played quite a few 'walking simulators' and except for some of Tonguç Bodur's walking sims, they all brought something more to the table than just walking. And even the walking sims that added little or nothing interesting to the basic premise of walking around at least had an interesting or beautiful world to discover or to look at. Firewatch doesn't even manage to do that in my opinion, making it the worst walking simulator I've ever played.

Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn is one of those adventure games that's basically a walking simulator but it includes action sequences that consist of having to get away from creatures chasing you with less-than-good intentions. I've played about a dozen of these games and qualitywise Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn falls somewhere in the middle.

It's difficult to decide whether to click 'yes' or 'no' in reply to the question 'Do you recommend this game?'. Generally speaking? No, definitely not. But for its target audience i.e. people who really like games in the genre I just described, it's a bit harder to decide.

Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn is above average when it comes to atmosphere and execution, but only slightly so. In addition, graphics are mediocre and animations are bad. There is no way to change the standard WASD key bindings, which may put some people off. Last but not least, the full price of €15 is ridiculous for the quality and the actual play time you get out of Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn, which is 3 hours at best and could even be closer to one hour if you don't bother with collectibles and achievements. So for those reasons, I decided to give Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn a thumbs down, even though it does have a few redeeming qualities which may charm afficionadoes of the genre.



The story of Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn is practically nonexistent. Moreover, what little story there is makes no sense at all. And I'm not talking about the fantasy setting and creatures, I'm talking about what the protagonist chooses to do throughout this game, which had me facepalming from the very start (well, when you find out a minute later who she does the very first thing she does in the game to) and every time she makes a decision in the game, including what she does at the very end. The only possible explanation for the choices the girl you're playing as makes would be that she's severely mentally disabled. But then it doesn't make sense that she doesn't sound like it at all and that she manages to do what's necessary to escape from the dangers the game throws at her.

In other words, Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn gets no points at all for story and its characters. But what about the lore, dealing with creatures from Swedish legends, which the developer and a lot of reviewers talk about? Well, that's paper-thin, too. You find a couple of dozens of books in the game describing the lore to the player, but each of the books' texts is limited to one or two short sentences.



Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn is half walking simulator and half action game, although the action is limited to getting away from creatures that are chasing you. You can run faster than any of the creatures, although barely, which can cause tense and exciting moments when you don't know an area very well yet or if you make a mistake by taking a wrong turn. Alternatively, as soon as you're out of sight of a creature, you can go into sneak mode and try to get away from it that way.

There is a puzzle element in Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn but it's so small and such a light version of solving puzzles, I won't even get into it.

As is often the case for games in this genre, Steam Achievements add much-needed challenges to Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn, as they're pretty much the only thing that sets 'quests' or at least other targets besides running from the starting point of the game to its end point. I'd even go so far as to say that this game needs the content that the Steam achievements add by making you explore every nook and cranny of the game world, which you'd otherwise just run through with very little to experience along the way.



The graphics don't look very good. Sure, this is an indie game but still, I've seen a lot better-looking Unity-based games by indie developers. The animations are just plain awful. So Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn is nothing to look at.

The soundtrack fares a lot better. The score isn't exactly memorable, but the creepy ambient sounds that are pretty much always present do manage to create a tense atmosphere, which is exactly what you need in a game that has a go at being a 'horror game', although I wouldn't use that particular word to describe Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn. Unnerving, maybe, at best.

There's only a bit of voice acting in the game and it's so-so. For the most part the voice actors perform their task adequately but they definitely won't win any prizes for it, whereas some voice acting is sub par. I saw some videos on YouTube where I could hear the Swedish voice track, which is an option in the game's menu if you're looking for that sort of immersion, but it didn't sound any better to me.



Unforgiving - A Northern Hymn has 7 Steam Trading Cards. You'll get 4 while running the game.

Only two of the 16 Steam Achievements are story-related and unmissable. A handful of achievements each require finding a series of collectibles in the game. About half of the achievements are awarded for optional actions which require reading through the list of achievements carefully. The remaining achievements are more challenging as they're unlocked by getting through several chapters of the game in a row without dying.

(Arvostelun teksti on piilotettu)

Among the Sleep (Enhanced Edition) is a short walking simulator played from the perspective of a 2-year-old. It only includes ultra-light puzzling elements and nearly no story at all. Graphics and animations are nothing to write home about, especially for an enhanced edition that supposedly includes 'improved visuals'. More importantly, some bugs remain in this enhanced edition, most notably clipping issues which force you to restart the chapter because you're hopelessly stuck.

All things considered, Among the Sleep isn't a bad walking simulator, but if you're not a megafan of the genre or if you have plenty of good walking sims in your backlog, you're good and can safely skip this one. This conlusion, coupled with the fact that the regular price for this game is just plain ridiculous for such a short experience, made me decide to not recommend Among the Sleep.



Since I want to avoid spoilers, I can't talk about the story, as the entire story can be perfectly written out in one short sentence.

Suffice it to say the developers have created a world for you to explore, which they believe may represent how a 2-year-old would interpret certain actions by his parents that don't make any sense to a toddler.



Gameplaywise, Among the Sleep is a run-of-the-mill walking simulator, although maybe I should say crawling simulator because the toddler's walking speed is very slow, whereas his crawling speed is an acceptable speed to not get annoyed by slow movement speed, which some short walking simulators use as a way to artificially increase playtime.

You have to find your way through the game, which is divided into four chapters. Each chapter has a slightly different type of setting, with everyday objects sometimes looking eerie from the perspective of a 2-year-old.

The puzzling aspect of the game is limited to finding your way in the (mostly dark) game world or finding a keylike object needed to continue. So I don't have a clue what the promise of 'enhanced puzzles' in the developers' description of the enhanced edition means.

Often, you're required to interact with objects by clicking and dragging, for example to open doors or move a chair to a cupboard so you can climb the chair and then climb onto the cupboard. The game handles these interactions in a very clunky way and therefore they often get frustrating to perform. Sometimes I saw an object I thought I should climb onto but my gurgling avatar refused. After looking around for a while and finding no alternatives, I went back to the same object and found out I was supposed to climb it, but it only works when I face the object from a certain angle.

In the second half of the game, you'll sometimes encounter a ghost/wraith/spectre that you need to avoid or it's game over. This is a mechanic that a lot of walking simulators use to add a horror element to the game. While I've come to hate games that only revolve around avoiding a 'game over monster', its sporadic use in the case of Among the Sleep didn't bother me at all. The only time the creep actually caught me was when I got stuck due to a clipping issue. I got stuck several times while playing Among the Sleep, even when I was two minutes in, and the only way to solve that situation is by reloading, which means restarting the chapter or a large part of it.

I'm glad Among the Sleep allows the player to rebind the controls. You can also adjust mouse look speed, which definitely is a welcome option because I found the standard mouse look speed ridiculously fast, something which a lot of players have written in reviews and on the forums. I'm glad I didn't need to fiddle around with my mouse's dpi settings, which would have discouraged me and maybe I wouldn't have bothered to play the game at all.



Since the developers boast that the enhanced edition of their game has 'improved graphics', I would not have wanted to play the previous edition of Among the Sleep. I definitely don't consider wonderous graphics one of the main requirements to enjoy a game, but Among the Sleep's graphics are basic and often even crude. Animations aren't very smooth either.

The soundtrack is a much better aspect of Among the Sleep. I don't remember hearing any music, so either it was forgettable or there wasn't any, but the constant eerie ambient sounds and creepy sound effects are great and they add a lot of atmosphere to an otherwise mediocre experience, which is probably the main reason why this game doesn't completely feel like it deserves a 'not worth playing' tag. Though I do understand that some people have an issue with the game constantly playing eerie ambient sounds, even when there is no danger at all.



Among the Sleep has 6 Steam Trading Cards. You'll get 3 while running the game.

For me, the Steam Achievements turned out to be a necessary addition to Among the Sleep. Six of them require you to find a collection of drawings that are scattered throughout each chapter. This meant I had some sort of goal the whole time besides simply crawling and climbing towards the finish line. I don't think I would have finished this game without its Steam Achievements, which is something I don't think I've ever felt before. I'll also add here that this game has zero replayability as far as I'm concerned, especially after having unlocked all of the achievements.

Besides the collectibles, there are three achievements that require you to perform some completely optional tasks in the game and one final achievement is awarded for completing the game, bringing the total to 10 achievements.

This game is unplayable for me with keyboard and mouse because I live in a backward country that has decided to adopt the French azerty keyboard layout, even though we don't even speak French in Flanders. Because of this, the movement keys are all over the place. There is no option to change the key bindings, so it's impossible to play the game.

What I can tell you about this game are the following things, which aren't positive either:

- First, you see an intro scene with typical horror game surroundings (think asylum and dungeon in one) but then cue the jolly intro music that sounds like you're about to watch a 1990's sitcom.

- You can change the spoken language to English and enable English subtitles, but I don't understand the Japanese person trying to speakl English, and what he says sure as hell doesn't match the subtitles. I had noticed a lack of decent English translation in the game menu, too. E.g. in the settings you read 'Midium' instead of 'Medium'. So localization is terrible.

- One of the 10 achievements unlocks at the very start of the game. So even if you can't run the game (like me) or if you decide first impressions are too bad to even start the game, the game already counts towards your total completion rate on Steam.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a worthy sequel to 2014's terrific first-person shooter (FPS) Wolfenstein: The New Order. Once more, we're presented with a story-heavy FPS that doesn't just consist of a string of shooting sequences like 2015's prequel Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, but with heart, charm and character to enrich the experience.

As far as the action is concerned, a lot of people have said it and it's hard to explain why exactly, but it genuinely feels very satisfying to kill nazis and their robotic constructions in these games. If you're into FPS at all, you owe it to yourself to play The New Colossus, but I strongly advise you play The New Order first because story-wise, The New Colossus is a true sequel.

Note: this game requires almost 50GB of disk space! This is just for the base game, without the DLC. I'm not interested in the DLC as people agree it adds nothing of value to the experience, and all of the DLC have 'mostly negative' reviews.



The modern Wolfenstein games are set in an alternate history related to World War 2 in which the nazis weren't defeated by the allied forces in 1944. The nazis won the conflict due to their amazing technological advancements. Although the nazis have been dealt a serious blow during the events of Wolfenstein: The New Order, they are far from conquered.

On the contrary, they have established a firm grip on the USA. The secondary antagonist of the first game, Irene Engel, is the main antagonist this time. The protagonist is again B.J. Blazkowicz, prominent member of the Resistance. Your task this time, besides killing a thousand or so nazis who'll stand in your way to achieve your goals, is to stop general Engel and to start the second American Revolution. Yet again, this Wolfenstein game will take you to a variety of locations. If you thought the moon base in Wolfenstein: The New Order would be pretty much as far as a Wolfenstein game would ever take you, you're in for a surprise…



This is one of those games that gets it right, although it's hard to describe what 'it' is.

The shooting mechanics are pure, genuine fun. You'll be able to use a small arsenal of weapons, including suppressed pistols for silent kills (so as not to alert all of the surrounding nazis), shotguns for your short-range killing needs, scoped rifles for long-distance precision killing, grenade-launching pistols (yes, really) and even laser cannons.

Most weapons can be dual-wielded, which makes you feel like an even more radical killing machine but it burns through ammo faster. Also, most weapons can be upgraded by finding upgrade kits scattered throughout the game world. I like the fact that you can freely choose which weapon to upgrade and what upgrade to apply every time you find a kit, as opposed to having to wait until you reach the place where that one upgrade you'd like is finally found.

Going in guns blazing is not always the best idea, especially on higher difficulties. You'll want to sneak your way towards the nazi commanders first and kill them silently so they can't sound the alarm and call for reinforcements. You may also want to silently eliminate as much nazis as you can, by using silent weapons like a throwing axe or a suppressed pistol, or by performing a melee takedown on them. Playing like this creates a satisfying tension and a rush when things go right. And if things go wrong, you reload and try again, using the knowledge you gathered from previous attempts.

Like in the other modern Wolfenstein games, B.J. has a list of perks to unlock, which make him an even more efficient killing machine. For example, killing a certain number of enemies while dual-wielding increases your ammo capacity, or sneakily killing nazi commanders increases the time it takes them to sound the alarm when they see you. Each of the 18 perks really add value to your character's abilities, so they're definitely something to go for. You can actually 'farm' these perks because their count carries over if you reload a saved game.

In between hostile areas where action is key, you return to your base, which is a submarine this time. Here, you can interact with NPCs who may give you a side quest or just offer a bit of banter. In the helm of the submarine, you'll find an Enigma machine. By means of a minigame, the Enigma machine allows you to unlock the position of nazi commanders who've moved into areas you've cleared before. You can then return to these areas and you'll find them full of new enemies and collectibles. This is a nice way to add optional content to the game.

After finishing the main quest, you're returned to your base and you can wrap up sidequests and complete the collectibles and perks for their respective achievements.



Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus's graphics are fine. They aren't the most photorealistic but they're definitely nice enough to make you want to take some screenshots from time to time, if that's your thing. Color banding was often noticeable to the point of annoying, but that issue may be due to my hardware or settings.

The music is simply fantastic. While exploring or sneaking around, the score is very atmospheric and it adds palpable tension. During combat or other action sequences, you're treated to raw industrial metal beats that get your adrenaline pumping.

As for the voice acting, I can't be too generous with my wording. This game has top-notch voice acting, both for the main characters and for the nameless nazis who shout battle cries and instructions in German while you're laying waste to them.



Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus has no Steam Trading Cards.

Of the 80 Steam Achievements, only 50 are related to the main game. The DLC isn't worth buying (it has a 'mostly negative' rating), which means 37.5% of the achievements will remain incomplete forever if you only buy the main game. I'm not an obsessive completionist, but still I think that's a bit of a shame. Achievements for DLC should only be set as a target if you actually own the DLC.

Achieving even 62.5% completion, the maximum for the main game, is not an easy feat because of two reasons. First and foremost, there is an achievement for each of the difficulty modes. The 'very hard' and 'ultra hard' modes are very challenging, but the special 'Mein Leben' difficulty means going through the game without saving and with only one life, so perma-death if you will. Nothing is impossible, but not being allowed to make a single mistake is a very unforgiving requirement for a long and challenging game like this, so hats off to anyone who legitimately achieved this one!

Secondly, there's a very grindy achievement i.e. collect 1,000 nazi helmets in one game. As there's no tracker for this achievement, it's impossible to say how many helmets you have collected by playing through the game but people estimate it at 250 to 350. So you need to find a place where there are a couple of helmets lying around, save, pick up the helmets, reload, and repeat that a couple of hundreds of times. Not my idea of a fun or challenging achievement.

Apart from 11 story-related achievements, there is a nice variety of achievements awarded for performing optional tasks, for maxing all of the perks, for finding all of the collectibles, and stuff like that. This bunch of achievements is fun to do, and they add some additional optional challenges to the game.