The modern Wolfenstein games are known for their vivid cast of characters. These include the thrown-together family of resistance fighters that B.J. Blazkowicz surrounds himself with, as well as the villains who populate intimate first-person cutscenes that recall the knife-edge tension of Inglourious Basterds.

Well, not Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. Its first act is to jettison almost all of the above. Yes, there’s an intro that pairs you briefly with Richard Wesley—the Welsh answer to James Bond—and finds B.J. practicing his German ahead of an undercover infiltration, repeating “goo-ten more-gan, goo-ten more-gan.” But you're quickly separated, forced to face Castle Wolfenstein alone. Stripped of showy setpieces, The Old Blood is a showcase for this Wolfenstein’s fundamental mechanics: the hardcore spatial stealth puzzles that devolve inevitably and happily into chunky shootouts in which you gradually disassemble your enemies two shotgun shells at a time. Or, later, four Schockhammer slugs at a time.

The year is 1946, and the war’s still on—your first sign that things aren’t going particularly well. Mecha-monsters have poured onto the global battlefield, turning the tide in favor of the Nazis, and the Allies are preparing a desperate and doomed assault on a compound that's known to be the source of the enemy’s secret weapons. But first, they need to determine the compound’s location, which is known only to the steward of Castle Wolfenstein, the occult treasure hunter Helga von Schabbs.

The formidable fortress is The Old Blood’s central character. It looms in the foreground as you and Wesley drive up to its gates, and it always seems to be watching as you travel in its orbit, dipping in and out of the pubs and boathouses of the neighboring village of Paderborn, as well as poking around Helga’s digsites. 

Of course, no matter how much B.J. monologues, the castle doesn’t talk back—and The Old Blood leans into this loneliness, evoking the eerie quiet and unbroken perspective of early PC shooters like Half-Life. The cinematics that connect its levels don’t sweep around the castle to take in the wide mountain vistas of the Austrian border, or show off motion-captured performances from gurning actors. Instead, they keep you behind B.J.’s eyes, looking on as he operates elevators and manhandles stubbornly locked doors. It’s a choice that grounds you further in the oversized body and square head of America’s favorite cowboy.

The Old Blood even has its own echo of Half-Life’s iconic crowbar: a length of pipe that B.J. repurposes to sweep out the legs from under Nazi officers, before driving the pointy end through their ear. Elsewhere it becomes a lever to pry open the exosuit hatches of the Supersoldaten. The pipe also doubles as climbing equipment, with B.J. pulling it into two pieces to scale buildings. It’s unlikely to join System Shock 2’s wrench or Doom’s chainsaw in the pantheon of repurposed DIY tools, but here’s a specialist tip: If you’re low on armor, you can always use your pipe to thwack the helmet off a downed enemy and pick it up for yourself. Gordon Freeman didn’t learn that at MIT, did he?