Released: May 20th, 2014
Genre:
First Person Shooter
Developer:
MachineGames
Publisher:
Bethesda Softworks
Platform:
Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and PC
I played
on: Xbox One
Rated: M
Wolfenstein:
The New Order is the
most recent instalment in one of the worlds longest running video
game franchises. The New
Order takes place in an
alternate timeline where Nazi Germany used advanced technology to win
World War Two and conquer the planet. As B.J Blazkowicz, an American
war hero stranded in Europe following the Allied defeat, the player
undertakes a series of daring one-man missions for the Resistance in
hope of shaking loose the Nazi's iron grip over the world. Play
styles can alternate between stealthily taking down enemies one at a
time, tactically employing cover mechanics, or straight up mowing
down the bad guys with dual-wielded weapons. Wolfenstein:
The New Order
was released in 2014, with a standalone expansion pack, The
Old Blood,
released the following year.
After
nearly thirty years and eight games by several different developers,
the Wolfenstein series was handed over to MachineGames in 2009 when
their parent company Zenimax took over several intellectual
properties – including storied FPS franchises Doom, Quake, and
Wolfenstein – following their acquisition of ID Software. The game
was very well received, with many reviewers applauding the focus on
narrative in addition to the solid gameplay and level design. A
sequel, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus was announced
at the Bethesda Showcase at E3 2017.
I've
been vaguely aware of the Wolfenstein series ever since The
New Order's first gameplay
footage surfaced back at E3 2013, but unfortunately I didn’t
pay much attention to it at the time. It
seemed like just another generic shooter to me then, and in my mind
there were already too many of those. I was unaware of the history
behind the name Wolfenstein, and I didn’t share the excitement that
longtime fans were feeling. I wish I had spared it more thought,
because the setting and world building for this game is one of the
best things about it. When Wolfenstein
2 was
announced at E3 last month, the trailer really caught my eye with the
world and story it presented. This time I was paying attention.
During the recent Xbox Live summer sale The
New Order dropped to $12.00
and I decided to give it a shot. I'm very glad that I did.
The
New Order serves as a soft reboot to the series. Characters from
previous games make appearances and a loose continuity to older
stories is maintained, but it's clear that MachineGames wished to
make the franchise their own with a brand new story and direction.
Though previous games contained supernatural themes, the fantastical
elements in The New Order thus far all seem to be rooted in
science – video game science, at least.
The
game opens in 1946, as the Allies launch a last, desperate attack on
the Nazi's greatest stronghold. In this world the war is all but
lost, the Nazi war machine has beaten back the allied forces with
weapons and technology that would seem advanced even today. No one
knows where these innovations are coming from or how to stop them,
all they can do is band together and try to push back the tide.
Enter
B.J Blazkowicz. The protagonist of the series since 1992's
Wolfenstein 3D, he is not at all what I was expecting from
somebody named “B.J Blazkowicz”. Just by looking at him you might
come to the same conclusion. He's a big guy. Limbs like tree trunks,
a face that looks like it was cut from stone. You would expect him to
be the swaggering type. Happy-go-lucky, boisterous, a “Yee-haw!”
and a dumb joke for every dead Nazi he adds to the pile. The trailer
for Wolfenstein 2, which was the first real exposure I had to
the character and in which he spends a solid chunk of his screen time
yelling and firing off one-liners, didn’t help with that
perception. And make no mistake – when it comes to slaughtering
Nazi's B.J. is second to none. But while previous iterations of the
character may have been as one dimensional as I assumed him to be,
this version of Blazkowicz has more depth to him. He is soft spoken
and contemplative, even kind in his own way. He is haunted by the
things he's seen and done, and though he yearns for a life beyond the
war he is faced with, he makes it clear that he'll never stop
fighting as long as he draws breath.
It's
through Blazkowicz that the story finds its heart. The underlying
narrative of The New Order isn’t complicated or deep. Nazi's
have taken over the world, and it's our job to take it back. But the
people we meet through Blazkowicz and the stories they share with him
make the world feel real. These are people in pain, doing their best
to survive and fight back against a regime that will hunt them down
and crush them just for being alive. Some believe that the day can
still be won. Others have given up, and only want to take as many
Nazi's with them as they can. Through ambient dialogue and
collectable letters and newspaper clippings MachineGames does a fine
job of further fleshing out the world without overloading you with
information. If you want to delve into the lore behind the Nazi's
rise to power and what the world at large is like under their rule,
it's there for you to find. If all you want is a solidly built FPS
thrill ride, look no further.
Mechanically
The New Order has
a lot going for it. Going in I knew next to nothing about the
gameplay and was expecting a
primarily on-rails experience. While the chapters are unmistakeably
linear I was surprised by how open a lot of the level design was and
how much freedom you are given
in traversing it. Most areas
contain side paths which you can use to bypass enemy patrols and set
up ambushes. The stealth
mechanics – another thing I
hadn’t expected to see included – are one of the pillars of
combat in The New Order.
Whittling down enemies
silently can be a great help when faced with large numbers, and
eliminating enemy officers before they see you will not only prevent
them from calling reinforcements (which they will continue to do with
maddening persistence until you finally end them) but will reveal the
locations
of collectables on your map.
The stealth system has it's problems, but I found this mostly to be
due to the inconsistent enemy AI. Sometimes when in stealth enemies
will seem to notice
you immediately, even if they don't have a
direct line of sight, while
other times you can leave a trail of bodies laying
around and sit basically out in the open and the AI still won't seem
to spot you. These are extreme examples and only happened
a few times during my play through, but I think these occurrences led
me to be more cautious than I needed to be while trying to remain
hidden, since I was never able to fully
grasp what behaviour leads
the AI to register you.
On
the other hand, one could eschew the cloak and dagger approach
entirely and rely on the tried and true guns blazing method. Stealth
certainly has it's advantages, but there are few things as satisfying
as turning a room full of Nazi's into your own personal kill zone.
Weapons can be found in the world or collected from the enemies you
dispatch, and most guns can be dual wielded once you acquire two of
them. This mechanic is a lot of fun and very useful when you need
some extra firepower to help take out stronger foes, but
it doesn’t mesh very well with the cover system and slows down your
movement speed, so I only used it when things were looking especially
dicey. The weapons themselves
are your baseline shooter options; pistols, shotguns, rifles, etc.
Grenades and throwing knives also appear, letting you go loud or
quiet from a distance, as well as a fun laser weapon which packs a
huge punch when fully upgraded but needs to be recharged at power
junctions in order to use it reliably.
The
New Order's campaign lasts
roughly fifteen hours, but
replay options abound for those looking for them. A
choice you are given at the end of the first chapter splits the story
into two possible timelines, and
depending on which version of
the story you go with different characters and dialogue will appear.
It's a neat feature, and gives
added incentive to play through the story again to see what you
missed. Additionally, gluttons
for punishment can unlock new challenge modes such as Hardcore which
removes all health and armour pickups, or Ironman which gives you
only one life for the whole campaign, starting
the game over if you die. These types of challenges have never really
appealed to me, but for those who want to really test themselves the
options are there.
Wolfenstein:
The New Order was
a great experience all around. Technical hiccups were few and far
between, and the game still looks holds up graphically
three years after release. Though the sound and visual design is
striking and the gameplay is solid, my favourite
part of Wolfenstein
remains
the story and world it presents. I regret that I failed to take
notice of this game for so long, and when Wolfenstein
2: The New Colossus
launches
on October
27 this year, I'll be ready and waiting to take on the Nazi's again.
Thanks
for reading “What am I Playing”. If you're on the fence about
Wolfenstein like I was you might want to check out The
New Order's 2013
E3 trailer, and if you want to get hyped about Wolfenstein 2 you
can watch the full eight minute reveal
trailer from this years E3.
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