<\/div>So now it’s time for our character to surrender. The writer has a lot of things they need to accomplish in this scene:<\/p>\n
- \n
- BJ surrenders.\n
- Introduce the character of Sigrun Engel and establish her as the daughter of our main villain.\n
- Establish the conflict between the two, showing how General Engel humiliates and abuses her daughter, setting up her betrayal.\n
- Have Engel decapitate Caroline with a fire axe, and then wave the head around and use it to further humiliate her daughter.\n
- Have Sigrun betray the Nazis.\n
- Have Engel disfigure Wyatt without killing him.\n
- Get BJ into Caroline’s suit.\n
- Somehow resolve this standoff in a way that doesn’t kill our villain or any additional characters.<\/ul>\n
That’s a lot to do. Like I said earlier, this sequence takes 11 minutes. That’s a reasonable span of time to accomplish all of these story beats, but it’s still a really long time in terms of first person shooters. And like I keep saying, this one doesn’t break up its cutscenes with little bits of gameplay. Even worse, this sequence breaks the rules the writer previously adhered to. Instead of sticking to BJ’s viewpoint, the director cuts over to do a “Meanwhile, at the enemy base” scene for a conversation that BJ couldn’t possibly be privy to. <\/p>\n
<\/div>Could this scene possibly take place in a more boring, nondescript room?<\/div><\/p>\nLonger cutscenes. Less immersive cutscenes. Less interactive cutscenes. We’re making a lot of concessions here in service of the story, and we’re not really getting anything out of it. The most concise description I can give of this scene is “self-indulgent”. The graphics are nice and they certainly spent a lot of money on motion capture and voice actors to make them look good, but none of this pays off in terms of making a better videogame for the player. It also doesn’t make for a smarter or more enjoyable story.<\/p>\n
The cutscene doesn’t even make a lot of sense. When Sigrun betrays her Nazi friends, she gives her pistol to Wyatt. Then – despite his massive woundIf you’re got Fergus instead of Wyatt, then Fergus is missing an arm, making his aimbot behavior even more implausible.<\/span> he spins around in a circle, perfectly headshotting all three of the heavily armored soldiers. For their part, the guards stand by and do absolutely nothing as Sigrun gives her weapon and Wyatt performs his miraculous shooting. <\/p>\n
Wyatt then gets pinned by a soldier in a huge suit of armor that probably weighs as much as a Volkswagen. Volkswagen Guy and Wyatt are then somehow in a stalemate (as are Sigrun and General Engel) while BJ puts on Caroline’s power armor. Engel and Volkwagen then flee the scene, even though Volkswagen should be able to end the fight in two seconds by pulverizing Wyatt and then killing the still-unarmed BJ. The writer put our characters in an impossible situation, broke all rules of physics and common sense to enable them to escape, and depicted it using a camera position that highlights just how implausible the whole thing is. <\/p>\n
<\/div>You're doing great, Wyatt! Somehow.<\/div><\/p>\nYou could probably make these scene work in a movie where you can use camera cuts to hide your cheating from the audience. If you point the camera at Sigrun and Engel and then at BJ, then the audience might not think too hard about what Wyatt and Volkswagen are up to. Or they might think the events are all happening at the same time and the entire sequence only lasted a couple of seconds. But we’re in a videogame where every single character is visible at the same time, and the whole thing looks absurd. The Nazis became suddenly and inexplicably impotent and then quit the battle so the plot could happen. <\/p>\n
You might expect some heroic cheating like this at the end of a story, but here at the start? It feels like the writer is openly saying that the rules don’t matter and anything can happen in the cutscenes. Yes, this is a big dumb shooter and they’re known for big dumb action scenes. But I feel like if you’re going to spend all this time and deprive us of any interactivity, then you need to do better than this. If you’re not up to the job then just keep the cutscenes short and simple out of respect for the player’s time.<\/p>\n
Funeral<\/h3>\n
<\/div>I like the psychedelic paint job they use to personalize their stolen Nazi equipment. Nice touch.<\/div><\/p>\nOnce BJ is wearing the suit, the game can begin for real. Your max health is reduced to 50 to reflect BJ’s compromised physical condition, while his max armor is raised to 200 to reflect his increased durability due to the power armor. <\/p>\n
BJ fights his way through the airship, releases the submarine, and flees back to the sub with Wyatt and Sigrun. He also has to run around the sub and clear out a few dozen extra Nazis who’ve been hiding in the secret areas of the boat. Once it’s over he delivers the following po-faced monologue for Caroline’s funeral: <\/p>\n
INTERIOR – SUBMARINE<\/p>\n
The resistance has gathered in the torpedo room. The body of Caroline Becker has been loaded into a torpedo, which Max Hass has painted with vibrant psychedelic patterns. A candle burns beside a portrait of Caroline. The crew is grieving. Some are sobbing.<\/p>\n
BJ Blazkowicz: (Voice over)
\nLike that. A life. All they’ve known. All they’ve felt. All the shit they’ve gone through. <\/p>\nAll of it gone. In one moment.<\/p>\n
BJ punches the button to fire the torpedo, and Caroline speeds off into the darkness.<\/i><\/p>\n
BJ Blazkowicz: (Voice over)
\nLike water.<\/p>\nLike it never was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You know, his speech might be a little less hilariously dissonant if he hadn’t just gunned down a couple hundred dudes. But it’s fine. I think BJ’s overwrought monologues are actually part of the charm of the series. The absurd juxtaposition might even be intentional. <\/p>\n
After escaping the airship, our main characters meet and set up the plot for our game. The good guys are going to America to ignite a revolution, hoping to liberate the United States and use that as a base for fighting the Nazis around the world. <\/p>\n
Normally I’d gripe about having a focus on the US in such a global conflict, but this actually works for me. So far the series has spent all of its time in Europe. Plus, the US is located in one of those annoying hard-to-reach areas for European conquerors, forcing them to cross an inconvenient ocean before they can do any conquering. The US originally surrendered after NY was nuked. Which means a lot of the US infrastructure is probably in decent shape. Which means the US is a strong country that can’t be easily re-conquered. Our heroes don’t seem to have a way to prevent more atomic bomb attacks, but assuming they come up with something then the US seems like a good place to start.<\/p>\n
Having said that, I’m kind of curious about the Pacific Theater. I’d love if one of these games showed us what’s going on in the Philippines, Japan, China, and Australia in this alternate timelineMaybe some of the found lore objects in the game explore this. I sort of stopped reading the lore items after I got the impression they were all about explaining the events of the previous game or providing context for our current adventures.<\/span>. <\/p>\n
Empire State<\/h3>\n
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div>