Wolfenstein: The New Order is a First-Person Shooter developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game was released in May 2014 on Playstation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and One, and on PC. Wolfenstein is a series that goes all the way back to 1981. In fact, while it wasn't the first First-Person Shooter, Wolfenstein 3D (1992) is credited by many as the game that popularized the genre and brought it into the mainstream. The New Order is a bit of a reboot of the Wolfenstein series. Previous games had become more and more focused on the Nazis' obsession with the occult, and often featured multiple supernatural monsters. The New Order focuses more on realism, using science to explain the monstrous soldiers that you face.
Wolfenstein: The New Order's story follows William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an experienced war veteran (I mean jeez, this guy has been fighting the Nazis since 1992) as he attempts to take out General Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse, head of the SS Special Projects Division (AKA, really messed up weapons and human research). The game starts out with Blazkowicz taking part in a massive raid on Deathshead's research fortress in 1946. The allies have thrown everything they have into this raid, as World War II is weeks away from seeing a Nazi victory. Events during the raid lead to Blaskowicz receiving a wound which decommissions him for quite some time. Eventually, Blaskowicz's consciousness returns. To his horror, B.J. finds himself 14 years in a future in which the Nazi's have won.
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| "Don't worry son, I've fought through like 5 games already. Nothing bad is going to happen!" |
I honestly had no idea what I was in for story-wise when I started The New Order. I played the intro and thought "yep, looks like the last Wolfenstein game I played on Xbox 360, I thought this one was supposed to be kind of different." Next thing I knew, I was in a whole new timeline and I was like "oooh, alternative history, I see!" I thought it was really cool how the game shows you the changes brought by the Nazi's rule, rather than telling you about it, by having you experience both time periods.
Blazkowicz immediately starts to search for a way to do what he does best - fight Nazis. The locals explain to him that there is no resistance, that those who had resisted Nazi rule were all crushed or incarcerated. After getting some more information about those who had been captured, B.J. sets off to rescue them and to restart the resistance against Nazi oppression.
One of the biggest surprises in The New Order - for me anyway - was that the game features a full cast of characters. The resistance becomes your family, and each member has his or her own strong personality that you grow to care about. I'm so used to Wolfenstein games being mindless "shoot anything that moves with your 5000 guns" type games that the introduction of deeper, more meaningful relationships and stories blew me away. Sometimes between missions players are able to explore the resistance's headquarters and speak to the different members. During these interactions, each character's story is slowly revealed, giving a glimpse at who each person truly is. I really grew to care about many of my fellow resistance members, which I never expected from a Wolfenstein game.
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| The dirty half-dozen? |
Similarly, I was pleasantly surprised by Wolfenstein: The New Order's general feel and storytelling. The game expertly uses its musical score to invoke a cinematic quality to cut scenes and gameplay in a way that makes events feel even more powerful. Sure, you have your normal blaring metal background music accompanying you while you spray down hallways with your bullet hoses, but the game also uses dramatic music to punctuate other non-battle moments which made me feel real emotion about what was happening.
On the other hand, I often couldn't figure out what sort of feeling The New Order was trying to convey overall. By that, I mean that often the game felt very serious and dramatic, while at other times it felt very silly and "arcadey". Blazkowicz would go from fighting his way through multiple enemies, carefully taking as little damage as possible, to being jumped by an enemy in a scripted event and receiving what would amount to extremely fatal wounds multiple times over. Each time this happened, I was thinking "Oh man, how am I going to complete the mission now!?" only to have B.J. stand up no worse for wear other than a slightly blurry screen for a few moments. It's as if the game couldn't decide if it was extremely fatal, or cartoony (don't look at the wounds, and they won't be there?)
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| Ugh, here we go again. When are the Nazis going to learn that Blazkowicz cannot be stopped by lacerated organs alone? |
The New Order plays quite similarly to other console FPSs. Players navigate 3D environments, acquire weapons, and use said weapons on enemies. One difference from modern FPSs, however, is the fact that The New Order does not give players regenerating health. Instead, the game spreads health and armor pickups throughout the levels that must be picked up to heal. Sure, if you're injured down to say 66% health, it will regenerate up to 70%, but that's all the regen that the game offers. There are PLENTY of pickups in every level though, so the game never becomes impossible due to health being too scarce. Similarly, ammunition and weapons are spread throughout the levels, and also dropped by defeated enemies. Interestingly, the game developers chose to force players to walk up to a pickup or weapon and press a button to collect the item, rather than the now common "auto-pickup" feature in most games. This choice can lead to some stressful occasions in which players with low health struggle to look directly at an item and press a button to collect it while under fire, and was definitely a source of frustration for me.
There are 7 weapons in the game including grenades and your trusty knife, though most of them have a secondary fire mode that can be unlocked and are different enough that it might count as a completely different weapon. Additionally, every weapon (except grenades) can be dual-wielded to greatly increase your firepower. One of the weapons, a piece of experimental Nazi laser technology, is used in a creative way in that it can be utilized to cut through some materials in the game allowing access to otherwise unreachable potions of levels. Unfortunately this idea wasn't fully fleshed out, as players are limited to cutting only two specific types of materials when I can think of multiple other amazing uses for such a weapon.
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| When all else fails, shoot it. If that doesn't work, you aren't using enough guns. |
Gunfights in Wolfenstein: The New Order feel quite solid. I can't really explain how it happens, but I've found that I hate games with guns that don't feel powerful. I don't know if it's the sound effects, the kick animation of the weapon, the muzzle flash, or what that gives this feeling, but Wolfenstein does it very well. Every weapon in the game feels like it has a real punch. The New Order features a basic cover system as well, which is nice since enemies guns are just as powerful as yours are. When crouching or standing at the edge of a wall or other piece of cover, you can aim to lean out partially and pick off bad guys without exposing your non-regenerating health to too much risk. I found that this aim-and-lean feature was very helpful, but didn't work quite right all the time. Even if the auto peek doesn't work, you can hold down a button and move an analog stick to lean out manually, though this gets extremely awkward when wielding two weapons at the same time (I need more fingers for buttons!).
While The New Order offers lots of firepower with which to dispatch the Nazi legions, the game also gives the option of sneaking through many parts of the game rather than going in guns blazing. Blazkowicz can utilize his knife by throwing at or the more obvious stabbing of enemies, as well as a silencer for his pistol to silently remove the opposition from his way. Some areas of the game have commanders as well as normal soldiers patrolling them. When alerted, these commanders set off an alarm which continuously calls for backup as long as they live. By silently taking these commanders out, B.J. can avoid wave after wave of enemies running headlong into his bullets. While most enemies can be silently taken out, some heavier Nazi units are immune thanks to their armor. In these situations, Blazkowicz must either sneak past them or make some noise with the big guns.
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| Knives aren't going to hurt this guy. Anybody have a can-opener? |
Unfortunately, Bethesda Softworks has a bad reputation for glitches and bugs in games that have their name on it, and The New Order only perpetuates this idea. In addition to the cover system being picky and not working sometimes, I experienced a lot of other glitches and bugs. There was the time that I jumped heroically from one air plane to another only to narrowly avoid falling off the wing thanks to a helping hand given by a friend. I was pretty pumped until Blazkowicz literally fell through the airplane's floor and into the ocean below. Ah, I still remember watching helplessly as the planes flew away from me and I sunk slowly into the depths below. There was also the hair-pullingly, cursing-filled time that a checkpoint spawned me into a room full of enemies when I had only a few pistol bullets and no other weapons with absolutely no items in the room to help me out. I repeatedly tried different strategies and eventually made it to the next checkpoint, but I definitely grew a few gray hairs in the process. This might sound like an unlucky save rather than a glitch, but I actually reloaded my previous checkpoint and then walked back into that room only to find HOARDS of guns, ammo, health, and armor now magically in the room. Not cool game, not cool. Other bugs and glitches such as enemies not falling once defeated, falling through solid floors, and enemy spawns becoming...well..weird (I was in a closed-off, empty room and a guy appeared right behind me) plague the game as well.
The New Order felt surprisingly long for a modern FPS. The game features LOTS of collectibles to find in each level, some of which unlock new game modes that can add replay value. There is also a minor branching-path in the game depending on a decision that you make in the first level. I did not play the second path, but I can only assume it affects the game in minor ways - though it still might be worth another playthrough to see what exactly changes. Additionally, there are perks which unlock based on your in-game performance and give bonuses to Blazkowicz. For example, maybe for getting x silent kills using throwing knives, B.J. will unlock the ability to carry more throwing knives. These perks are usually pretty insignificant gameplay-wise, but can be quite fun to work toward. There are also multiple difficulty levels that can be attempted. I fully completed the game with all collectibles and perks unlocked on the hardest difficulty and the game lasted me 23 hours. Compare that with the usual 6-8 hours of other modern shooters, and you'll see why I was surprised at this game's length. There is only the single-player story mode though, so it would seem that MachineGames actually wanted to give gamers something worth their money.
Wolfenstein: The New Order was a very refreshing surprise to me. The game's excellent story-telling, emotional content, characters, and interesting setting kept me wanting to push farther and farther into Nazi territory, wreaking havoc as I went. While I was definitely frustrated with the game's glitches and apparent identity crisis, the core gameplay was enjoyable to the very end. I went from having no interest in this generation's Wolfenstein games to looking forward to playing the next one. I'd say that MachineGames and Bethesda Softworks definitely did a great job in rebooting a series that was becoming stale!
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