Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

Overview
Wolfenstein The Old Blood (WTOB) is a first-person shooter set in an alternate 1946 where Nazi forces, through superior technology, have overwhelmed the Allies and dominate a large portion of the world. In this prequel to The New Order players impersonate BJ Blasko, iconic protagonist of the series, and take on a dangerous infiltration mission in the town of Wolfburg. The Nazi paranormal division is rumored to have found relics of a bygone age, that could unleash a terrible power - BJ and his companion Agent One are sent to investigate. Needless to say, things will not go as planned.
🟩 The Good Side
Excellent and varied level design
WTOB features a variety of different locations in stark contrast between each other, beginning with the modernity, austerity of Nazi military installations, to then pass through ancient castles, crypts and contemporary mountain towns. Not only are these locations beautiful visually, but also functional and believable. Most levels have multiple paths one can take depending on approach, and decent verticality that can be used especially well for stealth approaches, either evading or silently killing foes.
Satisfying combat
This prequel brings along the excellent gunplay and combat style that made The New Order an acclaimed success. Weapons have very distinct feel, effectiveness against specific enemies, and behave realistically with appropriate kickback, weight of shots landed on foes. At the higher difficulties expect even the most common enemy to be a mortal danger, as both yours and others' weapons will hurt like hell. Each firefight is dynamic and promotes strafing, dodging around arenas to collect the often numerous health, armor and ammo pack scattered around.
Secrets, plenty of secrets
Each level boasts a high concentration of collectibles, lore documents, secret areas and even hidden levels altogether. For example you'll be able to find several stages from the original Wolfenstein and play them, if you look hard enough. Secret areas often contain useful supplies or Easter eggs, those who love exploring every nook and cranny will be amply rewarded.
Simple but engaging story
Even without being too complex or elaborate, WTOB delivers an action movie-like story without many frills to it, that is nonetheless capable of engaging the player from start to end by proposing several unexpected turns of events, that keep the pacing and involvement high. The lines BJ mumbles to himself, united with lore pieces give a more broad spectrum to the lore, these little nuances give a touch of depth to those willing to look into them.
🟥 The Bad Side
Poor enemy variety
Apart from the generic "cannon fodder" soldiers, there will only be two special units (Shotgunner and Supersoldat) along with flying drones a few times. For the whole game, this is definitely poor variety and the foes do get stale after a while. Moreover, there only is one real boss fight which is rather mediocre and cheap, spamming mobs left and right to create difficulty along with a bullet-sponge boss.
Stealth sections can be unfair
Apart from the mandatory stealth section in early game, if you do choose the stealth approach which is very encouraged in high difficulties, there will be some enemy types that cannot be silently taken down. Normal enemies (excluding Commanders) may take anywhere between 1-3 pistol headshots to kill depending on luck, these factors can jeopardize a stealth segment and be very annoying.
Rating: Very Good
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It took me around 8 hours to complete the game on Uber difficulty, throw in a couple more if you want to hunt 100% collectibles and complete all the secret levels (I only beat some). For the current price of 20€, and very good content quality, I can warrant buying at full price.
In-Depth Breakdown
🎮 Gameplay Analysis
Gameplay is divided into Exploration, Character Progression, Stealth and Combat.
Exploration
Is mainly done on foot, though there are some segments done with boats, robots or by swimming underwater. Between combat areas there will be "peaceful" sections to freely explore the environment, and find the many secrets lying therein. While some secrets are purely lore script or collectibles, others can very well change a dire situation into a good one, as they contain caches of munitions, armor and health. It is definitely worth it to keep an eye out for them, and the secret levels from the original Wolfenstein which are really damn cool. Maps of an area can be found eventually, and a specific perk will enable seeing collectibles and secrets on the map itself when unlocked.
Character Progression
Is done via the Perk menu, containing a series of challenges that once fulfilled will enable passive perks such as more max. health, extended magazines, faster reload and so on. Each challenge often considers a specific weapon or way to kill several enemies - most do come along with playing normally while some need a bit more effort.
Stealth
Is an entirely optional approach to some sections, which contain a number of enemies and Commanders among them. This special enemy type is weaker than normal soldiers, however when alarmed will call upon reinforcements as long as he lives. Stealthily passing through enemies to kill commanders, and then proceed to mopping up the rest, is a very rewarding approach on higher difficulties - other than a nice change of pacing. Going in guns blazing is possible but will definitely be more resource intensive.
Combat
Is the star of gameplay and plays out in first-person, with the possibility to dual-wield most guns for a more devastating effect. BJ will transport a whole arsenal on his shoulders, ranging from assault rifles, rocket launchers, sniper rifles and shotguns. The pacing is definitely fast, although it does have a cover system for those who want to take a more tactical approach and hole up in some corner - which is doable but dangerous due to grenades.
Generally the game encourages running around arenas collecting supplies to compensate the loss of ammo and health sustained, though this may not be the best approach in all situations. Enemies are competent and use cover, grenades and coordinated actions against you. At higher difficulties expect a few bursts to pummel you from full-everything to near-death, as it should be since enemies are generally not very resistant - unless they are special units.
Technical Breakdown
PC Specs: RTX2080Ti, Ryzen 3900X, 32GB RAM DDR4
Critical Problems
None
Optimization
Not very good. The game consumes a lot of GPU resources for being a 2015 title and not that stellar graphics. Definitely could be much better.
Performance
The game runs without issues in 1440p, 85hz with maxed out settings.
Bugs
None to report.
Other Issues
If alt-tabbed while loading, menu corruption may happen and this needs a game restart to be fixed. If possible do not alt-tab while playing.

Holy fuck. Fucking finally this game is available in Germany and its truly kicking ass. Fuck censorship!

This is the type of game that you can complete it 100% without reading a guide on steam, or watch a walkthrough video in youtube at less that's how i did it.
the storyline good enough, but the gameplay more than good because you can play either stealth or just shoot and kill, run xd, tbh the gameplay in both very good and you can enjoy it in any game style you want.
the game will take from you about 5-7h to finish it (not 100%)
when you finish the game there's 10 challenges you can play, they are fun to play :)
in the end this game worth your money .

TL;DR This is essentially Return to Castle Wolfenstein but re-imagined with the engine of Wolfenstein: The New Order and with a lot of plot missing. It's a good game but is very lacking in story or characters. Not as good as The New Order, but definitely not bad. 8/10
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is considered a prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order, and as others have said you should probably play The New Order first if you haven't played Wolfenstein as a series before. In all honesty though, I really think this game takes a lot after (and makes many references to) Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was the 2001 Wolfenstein title released by id Software. Both games take place in and around Castle Wolfenstein, the village of Paderborn, and involve Nazi occult practices. There are even some scenes (look up the cable car on google images) that are basically directly taken from RTCW.
RTCW is a pretty good game to emulate, at least. MachineGames did a good job of bringing the gameplay of The New Order (which is focused on 1960s with a bit of sci-fi) and grounding it more so in the alternate history World War II setting Wolfenstein is originally known for. While not all the modernization works (the pipe climbing sequences are cool at first but get really annoying after a few times), most of it sticks pretty well and makes the game fun to play, particularly if you like being stealthy.
The biggest drawback to The Old Blood is that it's very light on story, to the point where the original RTCW had a more cohesive narrative than this game does. This prequel is basically just like Wolfenstein 3-D in that the entire plot is "You can kill every Nazi you see, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?" and while killing Nazis is a truly American past time, it's a bit unfortunate that MachineGames didn't make more of a plot to follow, considering they did such a good job of story weaving in The New Order. Still a good game, just would've been nice to have more story.

This came out almost exactly a year after The New Order and serves as the prequel in the story. The Old Blood in weaponry and story is just as enjoyable as The New Order, if not more enjoyable with new guns and akimbo pipes to beat down enemies with across 8 chapters of Nazi slaying FPS gameplay.

Killing Nazis is my favorite hobby.

Much like Wolfenstein: The New Order (TNO), this game is a blast. It is a prequel to TNO and I recommend that you play that one first (it was also released first). The Old Blood (TOB) has a limited story and no real character arcs, and will really only make sense after playing TNO.
TOB knows what it is: a testosterone-fueled shooter, where the hero runs around almost naked for most of the game, flexing his considerable pecs. However, you can also choose to play it the way I did: primarily as a stealth game, aside from the end in which going loud was a requirement. This made for a very intense game, as sneaking around and killing people silently while mechanical supersoldiers are just waiting to obliterate you makes for great tension. There are even places where you can avoid killing entirely, and sneak into the next area without alerting anyone (although, where's the fun in that? I killed every Nazi I could).
Overall, this is a very solid shooter, but is lacking the story and pacing of TNO. However, it still works as this is only intended to show you the lead up to the story of TNO, and this game is clearly more about the combat than anything else. If you go in with that in mind, then this is an excellent game as it delivers exactly what it promises: tense stealth or fast-paced action (or both), depending on your preference.