Developer: MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platform: Playstation 3, Playstation 4,
Xbox 360,
Xbox One,
Microsoft Windows
Wolfenstein: The New Order – Review
A gaming franchise which dates from 1992, gets another installment, a follow up from the 2009: Wolfenstein. It does things completely different.
Story
You are B.J. Blazkowicz, born in the United States on August 15, 1911, and your are given a view on his lifetime from his 34th year of life, to his 49th year of life. You might think that’s a long span for a game, but you don’t see the day to day workings. It happened like this: B.J. and his crew lead an assault on Deathshead compound, the flight he is on, gets ambushed by Nazi air forces. The flight makes it to the compound, and B.J. immediately jumps in the fray and rescues his crew. They make their way into the building, but get ambushed by the General in the laboratories. They are captured and B.J. is forced to make a choice which will alter the game’s timeline. The decision made, you ungracefully make your way out the castle, during this exit, and shrapnel lodges itself into B.J.’s head. He is saved, but severely traumatized. A family which runs an insane asylum takes him in and nourishes him. 14 years pass, and the Nazis are no longer in need of the family’s services. During the years prior B.J. has grown fond of Anya, which gives him strength to move again, and oppose the Nazis. This is the start of the fight to take back the world from the Nazis. The story is a blend between the gloom of warfare and the hopefulness of the future.
Graphics
The game is dark and gritty, from the moment you start to the moment you finish the game.
During the prologue the first thing you see is prisoners hanging from metal devices with their back cut open hanging from metal hooks. After the prologue the gruesome acts continue. The Nazis kill people in cold blood, pushing pillows on the patient’s heads and shooting them, taking out the doctor and his wife for good measure. When you are about to get stabbed, you get a close up from the bloodshed. In high definition you see the blade entering the man’s neck and the blood gushing out. This game is gritty and dark pur sang. However it doesn’t grow stale. It’s not a constant barrage, where the game shows off its mastery of horror; it spaces out these moments far apart enough for you to be appalled by the acts.
Graphically we’ve come to an era where gameplay footage is on par with the cgi footage we see in movies and during cut scenes. Though this game is a mixed generation game, it looks beautiful. From the exploding limbs to the ragdolling enemies, it’s eye candy.
Sound
B.J.’s voice is consistent throughout the game. I noticed he has a soft voice, and this doesn’t really bode well when he’s whispering things during gameplay. There’s a lot to take in, and you have to strain your ears to hear what he says. You could argue that one should only up the volume, but with the loud gameplay this game provides, you’ll soon regret doing so.
Blazkowicz isn’t all hard as nails, he isn’t so much a macho as he’s depicted, sure he has the looks and size, 1,91m, of a burly brawler, but he is actually a musing sort of man. He is constantly thinking about his future with Anya and the dreams he has about her and the kids they could raise, the barbeques they are having and generally living a happy life together. He’s also not a stranger to humor. At one point you are infiltrating –read: blasting your way through- a submarine, and you have to raise the buoys.
To which he says: ‘Buoys, buoys, buoys, such a silly word.’ It’s funny because you’d think that with all that is on his mind he wouldn’t notice this.
Gameplay
This is a follow up from the 2009: Wolfenstein. It does things quite differently. For one, it doesn’t have the super powers and it doesn’t have a hub based city. The game gives you a constant way forward without you having to backtrack creating a closely knit together game.
One might argue that the loss of powers is a bad thing, but if you haven’t played the previous installment you won’t miss out. Wolfenstein: The New Order works with perks: as you play the way you like to play, being stealthy, blasting away at enemies or strategizing, you’ll unlock perks that’ll ease your way of playing: dual reloads, throwing knives, quick regenerating…
Wolfenstein: The New Order relies on solid gunplay to keep you amused. Before long you’ll be toting two guns and blasting away at Nazis with all sorts to exotic armaments. One slight annoyance was the exclusion of auto ammo pickups. During gunfights, there is a chance you might run out of ammo. With enemies still on the field you’d have to run around like a chicken without its head to look down and press square every single time you wanted to pick up ammunition. This sometimes creates panic situations, especially when you are out of ammo and there’s Supersoldaten blasting away at you.
The artificial intelligence might have been a little more polished, more than once did I just wait behind a corner for the enemy to walk into my line of fire, and more than once did I find an enemy just standing about, waiting for me to blast away at them.
There’s a strong stealth aspect in the game, where you are rewarded for not being noticed, by not having every soldier in the room knowing your exact position and having reinforcements home in on you. How does this work? There are officers in the game which call for backup, but only when they notice you. So you can sneak about and take out enemies when they are standing with their backs against you, on the top hand right corner there will be a sign showing just how far the officer is, giving you an approximate location. What gives this gameplay a slight kick in the nuts is the fact that you often go in areas blind, and are unaware of their patrolling. Causing you to err and walk straight into the line of sight and the line of fire. That’s also the moment where the game shows off its hybrid strength. It flows from stealthy and swiftly taking out enemies to blasting away and tearing up the room, in the blink of an eye without any difficulty.
There aren’t many boss fights, I could count two. That doesn’t mean the game will just hand itself over in a hurry. Wolfenstein will throw wave after wave of Nazis at you, some wearing no armour, some tank like, and some being donned in giant mechs, then there’s even robot dogs tear you a new one. So you’ll need all the gunpower and stealth to take down the German empire.
Wolfenstein: The New Order, is also an aficionado at breaking things up. It’s not just dark and grey castles you’ll be shooting up. There are different settings for you to explore. Take for instance, the bottom of the sea, a submarine, a prison during autumn and even the moon.
Conclusion
Wolfenstein: The New Order cuts up gritty scenes of gore and dreams of the future, with gun blasting, Nazi killing, pulse pounding action. Waves of enemies will become seas of blood. A game which will have you screen locked for days, right until the credits roll. No worries there’s always another timeline to explore!
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