RTTP: Wolfenstein: The New Colossus [post-difficulty/hit notification patches]

Huey · Jul 26, 2018

When TNC launched, I was in love with the world and the characters, but really kind of off-put by the gameplay. A fast paced shooter like this lives and dies by the value of it's moment to moment combat and the ability to navigate it, and TNC really got it wrong at launch. I'm not an FPS master at all - I don't play an MP - but I can hold my own in an FPS campaign, and comfortably complete Doom 2016 on ultraviolence. What was here at launch had nothing to do with difficulty, it was just cheap shots coming from god knows where, and many scenes (one notorious one in particular) just became an exercise in frustration. So much so, that it got in the way of enjoying an outstanding story and set of characters, to say nothing of a wonderful fuck you to the the rise of neo-nazism and the alt-right. The OT for the game noted this repeatedly - everybody loved the game world, just not quite so much the game.

But a little while ago I saw patch 1.07 had downloaded with patch notes including:

Updated difficulty balancing
More prominent damage direction indicators

So I decided to fire it up again - and goddamn, this feels like a different experience. Scenes were I would get repeatedly nailed I'm now flying through, and as a result, really getting a chance to be more adventuresome with what I now realize is pretty great gunplay. Also the story is flying by at a faster clip, so the pacing seems better and the environments - because I'm not having to play them over and over and over again, are much less monotonous. It's just a waaaaay better experience overall - in addition to enjoying the gameplay more, you can really enjoy the narrative more as well.

I'm reminded just what a ballsy narrative and set of characters this is in 2017 too - huge props to MachineGames and to Bethesda for this. If you dropped it when it released on account of these issues, let this serve as a PSA to pick it back up. And if you didn't try it the first time around, grab it - it's frequently on sale and I can pretty much guarantee if you've ever enjoyed an FPS and are in the mood for some ridiculously excellent, over the top characters and some old school FPS action, it's a great experience.

Obligatory:

Deleted member 2791 · Jul 26, 2018

This probably explain why I got none of the often criticized difficulty and hit detection issues when I beat the game last week.

Funny Valentine · Jul 26, 2018

Too bad these balance changes came well after I beat the game on Call Me Terror Billy and sold it. I dunno if I'd go back even if I still had the game since the game has poor level design on the whole anyway.

Blue Ninja · Jul 26, 2018

The weird difficulty put me off a bit too, I remember getting my ass kicked occasionally, even on one of the lower difficulties. Finished it back around release, might just go back some time to see what this patch did.

DailyCalmSpirit · Jul 26, 2018

Man, this post almost makes me want to give it a second chance but I was so bummed with the gameplay, when I played it at launch. I don't know...

galv · Jul 26, 2018

Hmm, seems like a great time to replay one of my favorite games of 2017. I never really had any issues with the game anyway so it'll be interesting to see how different the game is now.

Rezsolution · Jul 26, 2018

Looks like they've used the balancing work Panic Button did on the Switch version on every other version. Very glad to hear it.

impingu1984 · Jul 26, 2018

The fucking

Courtroom

I had to drop the difficulty on launch for that.

Tempted to replay this cos it was a great story.

MauroNL · Jul 26, 2018

The difficulty almost ruined the game for me. I remember playing it on the medium equivalent iirc and up until that courthouse bit I could manage. But that section killed the game for me and I put it off for couple months. I like a challenge in general but this just seemed too unfairly hard. Like 'COD World at War on Veteran' hard for me.

I finished it later on one of the lower difficulties and had way more fun with it because of that. There were only a few areas where I died multiple times. Even finished the DLCs, which were very underwhelming to be honest.

Dreamboum · Jul 26, 2018

I said this was a incredible singleplayer FPS then and I'll say it even more now. When you get the gameplay, you *really* get it. Much more strategic, crowd-control centered gameplay than Doom.

It's just not the power fantasy everyone expected, and it is very much the point MachineGames was making.

GavinUK86 · Jul 26, 2018

Interesting. The only difficulty spike I noticed was in the "court room". Kinda breezed through most of it. It is indeed, one of the best games from 2017.

Did you play it on PC or console OP?

Elfotografoalocado · Jul 26, 2018

Rezsolution said:
Looks like they've used the balancing work Panic Button did on the Switch version on every other version. Very glad to hear it.

Panic Button didn't do any balancing work. This came out before the game came out on the Switch. All Panic Button did was port the thing. People act like they are Gods...

HellforLeather · Jul 26, 2018

impingu1984 said:
The fucking

Courtroom

I had to drop the difficulty on launch for that.

Tempted to replay this cos it was a great story.

This was by far the worst part of the game. Its absurd. Also the levels you can go back and replay are just piss boring and not well designed.

GenTask · Jul 26, 2018

I beat it near release on the hardest difficulty right off the bat and boy was that frustrating, but also my own fault for stubbornly wanting to complete it like that. That court room was killer. I think I had to replay it at least 30 times to get it absolutely right, avoiding damage perfectly, running to the best spots for weapon pickups, etc.

Deleted member 2809 · Jul 26, 2018

Need to replay it again. Maybe I'll replay TNO and DOOM before for the 5th time though..
Man that backlog ain't moving an inch when I'm replaying these great games so often

waffleman · Jul 26, 2018

I really wanted to play this game but it refused to work on my RX480, with constant stuttering that completely ruined the experience. I even played about an hour and a half of the game suffering through the problems until I couldn't take it anymore, when I uninstalled it. I spent at least two hours trying to fix it to no avail. I'll probably pick it up on PS4 someday but I'm still salty about how bad it performs on my card.

Becks' · Jul 26, 2018

Maybe I should play the game again. I finished it on launch and I had hell in Courtroom and in last mission.

KORNdog · Jul 26, 2018

it's still fucking ridiculously hard on the hardest difficulty. more so than the first game and it's dlc ever were. but the patch certainly made those opening stages less annoying.

D65 · Jul 26, 2018

I don't believe you. The level design is still shit.

Skyrim · Jul 26, 2018

That explains so much! I started it last week and wasn't having very much trouble with it, but someone else kept telling me how hard it was supposed to be!

Huey · Jul 26, 2018

DailyCalmSpirit said:
Man, this post almost makes me want to give it a second chance but I was so bummed with the gameplay, when I played it at launch. I don't know...

Definitely recommend - I felt the exact same way

impingu1984 said:
The fucking

Courtroom

I had to drop the difficulty on launch for that.

Tempted to replay this cos it was a great story.

That's exactly the scene I'm referencing in the OP - it was absurd at launch, just a complete slog and a difficulty spike in an already unbalanced game

GavinUK86 said:
Interesting. The only difficulty spike I noticed was in the "court room". Kinda breezed through most of it. It is indeed, one of the best games from 2017.

Did you play it on PC or console OP?

Console - but it runs amazingly. You thinking M/K would make a difference?

D65 said:
I don't believe you. The level design is still shit.

I really thought the same thing at launch, but I don't feel that way now. Part of what I hated about the levels was the enemy placement, but I think that was more of a hit notification issue. Obvs mileage will vary but this was something I expected to notice more on 2nd playthrough, and am actually surprised how much i'm appreciating the levels

Samuel Tolbert · Jul 26, 2018

So does this mean Mein Leben has gone from "essentially impossible" to "merely nightmarish"?

Raptomex · Jul 26, 2018

I honestly don't remember having any issues with the difficulty. There were some challenging sections, sure, but nothing that made me town the difficulty down. Granted, I didn't play on the hardest but not the easiest, either.

GavinUK86 · Jul 26, 2018

HueyFreeman said:
Console - but it runs amazingly. You thinking M/K would make a difference?

Eh... not necessarily. I was just wondering because I played it on PC with m+k.

Ensoul · Jul 26, 2018

Wish this was around a few weeks ago when I beat this game! I played on the normal difficulty it was a challenge. The courtroom sucked I was getting frustrated at dying from getting shot from God knows where half the time.

scitek · Jul 26, 2018

Elfotografoalocado said:
Panic Button didn't do any balancing work. This came out before the game came out on the Switch. All Panic Button did was port the thing. People act like they are Gods...

I think people noticed the game was easier on Switch and didn't realize it was because of a patch released on the other versions prior.

Ensoul said:
Wish this was around a few weeks ago when I beat this game! I played on the normal difficulty it was a challenge. The courtroom sucked I was getting frustrated at dying from getting shot from God knows where half the time.

This patch apparently came out at the end of January of 2018. To be fair, that is well after most people, including myself, had played through the campaign. I didn't even know it had been done until now.

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/01/30/read-the-wolfenstein-2-update-1-07-patch-notes/

Duxxy3 · Jul 26, 2018

Did they fix the stupid constrictor section on

Venus

?

edit: NVM, it's not that new.

Deleted member 1003 · Jul 26, 2018

Awesome, now do it on Mein Leben.

Rezsolution · Jul 26, 2018

Elfotografoalocado said:
Panic Button didn't do any balancing work. This came out before the game came out on the Switch. All Panic Button did was port the thing. People act like they are Gods...

I've no idea about god worship, but considering there was absolute no reporting on a balance patch for the game I think I can be forgiven that Panic Button did it.

Huey · Jul 26, 2018

InsaneTiger said:
Awesome, now do it on Mein Leben.

I really think that would probably break me as a human. Given how i felt about the game pre-patch, it would also probably break my newfound affection for the game

hank_tree · Jul 26, 2018

Man I made that game much harder for myself by not realising you could save at any time (on console).

Potato_Control · Jul 26, 2018

Man I love this gif so much.

[/QUOTE]

kaishek · Jul 26, 2018

How did you feel about the 'stealth' crap? Did you typically go with it or did you blow cover and still found you could recover and shoot your way through a level?

galv · Jul 26, 2018

kaishek said:
How did you feel about the 'stealth' crap? Did you typically go with it or did you blow cover and still found you could recover and shoot your way through a level?

I didn't bother with stealth the first time through and just murdered the entire levels, alarms and all blaring underneath the fantastic music. Stealth is not necessary at all and I really think that you should be playing a Wolfenstein game as LOUD as possible.

Honey Bunches of Oats · Jul 26, 2018

As someone who's never played the game, what difficulty setting do you recommend I start at, taking these patches into consideration? I'm probably a bit above average in terms of video game skill, but just a bit.

Dreamboum · Jul 26, 2018

Honey Bunches of Oats said:
As someone who's never played the game, what difficulty setting do you recommend I start at, taking these patches into consideration? I'm probably a bit above average in terms of video game skill, but just a bit.

I did it on Do or Die day one and it was a good challenge if you're not against dying a few times

emilioasis · Jul 26, 2018

Man, I had to drop the difficulty numerous times in order to finish it... I ended up selling the game a couple of months ago. Would like to try it again to see the changes first hand. Guess I´ll have to wait till it´s on sale or something.

StrikeFirst117 · Jul 26, 2018

I remember dropping this because of the goddamn courthouse and its huge difficulty spike, guess I'll be reinstalling it to see what's changed.

Dremorak · Jul 26, 2018

I finished it on switch a recently and had no idea about any of this. I was playing on the highest difficulty I could at the start as well.
(I'm also not some super fps player either OP)

Huey · Jul 26, 2018

kaishek said:
How did you feel about the 'stealth' crap? Did you typically go with it or did you blow cover and still found you could recover and shoot your way through a level?

Yeah that doesn't really work so well - the melee kills are great, but more often than not, you end up getting noticed. A few times though you could make it through a section without an alert, but they were relatively few and far between. Game doesn't seem built for that tbh

Honey Bunches of Oats said:
As someone who's never played the game, what difficulty setting do you recommend I start at, taking these patches into consideration? I'm probably a bit above average in terms of video game skill, but just a bit.

I'd definitely start at the default, which is Bring 'em on. I'm 95% certain the game has adjustable difficulty during a playthrough so worst case scenario is you end up upping or dropping it partway through.

Kevin Shields · Aug 22, 2018

Thanks for this thread OP, was getting discouraged on picking this up after I beat The New Order for the first time, but glad to hear some of the issues have been cleared up... I may actually like the broken stealth system as its kind of annoying how piss easy the stealth is in New Order.

Kevin Shields · Aug 22, 2018

Potato_Control said:
Man I love this gif so much.

[/QUOTE]

Man compared to The New Order this is a major step up in graphics. I'm hoping everyone is wrong about the game cause I'm pretty excited to get to it...

Khrol · Aug 31, 2018

Late here but this makes me want to go back. I cursed this game to infinity when I played through it last December. A borderline amazing experience ruined by bullshit difficulty spikes and lack of balance in general. I swore off Machine Games games going forward but if I like what they've done here I'll probably pick up that new game.

MauroNL said:
I like a challenge in general but this just seemed too unfairly hard. Like 'COD World at War on Veteran' hard for me.

Perfect way to describe it. Certain parts on the "easier" difficulties were infuriating.

scitek · Aug 31, 2018

I still found the hit detection to be pretty bad when I played it about a month ago. I beat the game at launch, and guess I don't really remember how much worse it was.

Khrol · Aug 31, 2018

scitek said:
I still found the hit detection to be pretty bad when I played it about a month ago. I beat the game at launch, and guess I don't really remember how much worse it was.

Did the enemies still shred you like you were made of paper?

thefro · Aug 31, 2018

I'm playing through it now and there's still some huge difficulty spikes with a lot of the big set-pieces. It does feel like the first game in that regards.

I'd like an option to have a better idea of where the commander is in each area, since sometimes they run off to a level or two above/below where you are and you have to deal with the whole wave of spawning enemies.

I'd probably enjoy the difficulty more if I didn't have to wait through a loading screen each time I died. It's quite thrilling to finally get a run right.

scitek · Aug 31, 2018

Khrol said:
Did the enemies still shred you like you were made of paper?

I didn't die in a couple of shots, no, but I thought it still did a poor job of letting me know how close I was to death -- it still seemed like the "Restart From Checkpoint" screen came out of nowhere. And also at letting me know where enemies were shooting me from. Some of the levels, like New York City are extremely cluttered and they can blend into the environment pretty easily.

EDIT: I will say, I found it much more enjoyable on the easiest difficulty, but I feel like a loser playing it on that for some reason. It's a mental thing I have a hard time getting past.

Transistor · Aug 31, 2018

You know, I had the same issues when I played it at launch. I might fire it up again and maybe I'll enjoy it more this time.

RTTP: Wolfenstein: The New Colossus [post-difficulty/hit notification patches]

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