Wolfenstein: The New Order Review

There are two sides to the coin of Wolfenstein: The New Order. On one side, classic shooter mechanics imbued with a modern touch— leaning, sliding, and dual-wielding weapons. And on the other side, an experience that differs from your bog standard first person shooter, with a narrative that will blow your socks off. 

Wolfenstein plays like a classic shooter with modern sensibilities. A wide range of mechanics bring the action to life, making the player feel like they’re truly in control of game protagonist BJ Blazkowicz. The game offers a variety of strategies and ways to play through—you can use stealth to sneak by your enemies to stab them when they least expect it, pick them off from afar with a marksman rifle, or run in guns blazing with two guns akimbo. Make no mistake, you’ll be shooting people no matter how you spin it—but the game offers you with different ways to do it. 

Instead of shoehorning in an RPG leveling system like other shooters tend to do, the game rewards your play-style with a perk system that’s tied into the game’s achievements. For example, if you prefer to sneak, the perks you unlock will help you by providing bonuses to sneaking abilities. Likewise, if you enjoy running in guns a-blazin’, the perk system will provide you with more ammunition and faster reloading to ease your experience. 

Shooting is for the most part great, imbuing a sense of power with each realistic pull of the triggers. The exception is boss battles, which tend to be tedious. The monsters don’t always teleport where you’re supposed to shoot them, and at one point I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out what to do with a boss only to discover that I had to shoot it in the face, repeatedly, to kill it. Despite pumping him with bullet after bullet, he kept absorbing them like some kind of an immortal sponge. No wonder he wouldn’t die. I was looking for weak points to attack and couldn't find any. 

MachineGames chose to create an experience that transcends that of your basic FPS. It has good shooting mechanics, characters you care about, and a narrative that delves into the darkest places of human existence. Instead of reminding me of the older Wolfenstein games, The New Order is actually most reminiscent of Metro 2033, its sequel Last Light, and the BioShock series. It imagines an alternative history, a world where the Nazis won the Second World War and have been allowed to push forward their inhumane agenda onto the rest of the mankind.

Unlike many other games to feature Nazis, which minimize the cruelty of the Nazis in favor of light entertainment, The New Order does not gloss over their atrocities and instead puts them into the forefront of the game’s narrative. The Nazis aren’t simply bad guys for you to gun down with thoughtless glee. They’re the scariest bunch of fucks you’ll have ever encountered in a video game, and you’ll come to hate them as you progress. You’ll witness first hand the atrocities they commit and feel sick to your stomach. While illustrative of the evils of Nazism, in no way does this reimagining glorify or minimize the tragedies that actually occurred. 

That’s not to say that the game is as grimdark as all hell, though. There are lighter moments in the game where you get to know some of your fellow resistance fighters.

The one thing the Nazis do have going for them is their vast array of technological advancements, which are unsurprisingly cool to use. There are laser guns and a host of robots to blow up. They also have some impressive architecture—which I’d talk about at length if I knew anything about it but I don’t, so I’ll just say they bring to the game a sense of breadth and scope that many other shooters are lacking. I was actually a bit disappointed, because you don’t really get the chance to see what the buildings look like from the outside. I can’t help but imagine what the game would be like if it had an open world set-up for you to explore these locales. As it is, the game feels a little confining. Though perhaps I’m meant to feel that way because the Nazis are, after all, oppressive. 

Wolfenstein: The New Order is a game for facing your fears and gunning them down. Thanks to great shooting mechanics and characters you care about, you’ll want to do just that. The tightly scripted narrative works against replayability, and tedious boss battles bog down the action more so than any of the non-combat sections of the game, but otherwise the game is worth several run throughs. Wolfenstein: The New Order is a great game, and one of the best shooters I’ve played this year. 

Final Verdict

9 out of 10. 

Developed by MachineGames. Published by Bethesda. Released May 20, 2014. Available on PC, PS3, PS4 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Xbox One.