Beyond Wolfenstein

You'll literally fall off your chair when you see what's happened to Wolfenstein. Instead of the comfortable Nazi-blasting in locked rooms, you're splashing around a scientific station full of aliens and robots. It's something like a sequel to the cult classic, except not at all what anyone would expect.

Beyond Wolfenstein is a sci-fi first-person shooter that's distanced itself from the original game pretty drastically. Instead of Wolfenstein Castle, you're moving through metal corridors of some futuristic base. The core stays the same — you move forward, shoot enemies, collect ammo and health, find the exit. But everything else has changed. Instead of a genius of a man escaping from a fortress, there are new weapons and enemies that look more like an '80s video game than anything logical.

The problem is that the game ties in so loosely that it's not worth anything. It doesn't even know if it wants to be a sequel, a reimagining, or a fever dream. The controls work, the graphics are dated even in the original release, but that's exactly what you'd expect from games from 2001 by so-called developers — solid technique without any attempt at something particularly engaging. The level design bores, the shooting falls flat, and overall you feel like someone got bored with the classic, took it, and surprisingly messed it up.

What's it worth playing for? Mainly if you're interested in how one legend can get confused in a sequel. It's like seeing robotic Schwarzenegger in a cheap remake of his own film — an interesting picture of a mistake, nothing more. Today's gamer won't get normal enjoyment out of it, and nostalgia lovers will appreciate the original Wolfenstein more. But if you know what to expect, you can watch the rules break that meant everything to its creator.