Wolfenstein: The New Order - Review
Wolfenstein, it’s the game that started the most popular genre and its back with a new entry. But is this granddaddy of games to old to play with the new kids?
It's World War 2 and you are William J Blakowicz, a Captain in the US Army. Along side a bevy of troops you attack the strong hold of Deathshead, a German scientist known for his evil experiments and strange creation. Its this very strong starting point that launches you into full fight against the Nazi War machine. During the course of this mission though you will be asked to make a choice, who lives and who dies, this does change the story you are presented with.
Along side fellow resistance members Caroline, Fergus, Klaus and Anya you will take the fight to Deathshead and his fellow Nazi's in a variety of ways. Each of the characters that you interact with, be they good or evil are all well developed. You can sense the sense of hopelessness coming from Fergus or the excitement that Caroline shows once you are back into the fight. Even the villains, as twisted as they are, all show a level of character that shows off how right they believe themselves to be. Over the course of the 9-10 hour story you will lose companions in your fight and while some provide the ok cool, moving on mindset, there are some that do bring home a sense of loss and bewilderment.
As you play through the story you will learn a little more about Blakowicz and what drives him to keep running into the fight time after time. Each little nugget of information shows that this man is troubled with what he has seen and done, but he does not revel in that fact he is a one man killing machine, but accepts its something he needs to do in order to have peace.
Being the creating series of a genre, this is one area that the game could not fail at all and it did not fail here at all. As you progress through the story you will be given the chance to flex your own gameplay choices. Will you go in guns blazing, or will you take a more tactical approach and sneak around the world.
If you take the first option, you will learn very quickly that shooting mechanics in this game are near perfect. Each of the weapons you collect can be dual wielded for even more mayhem, but as you make your way through the levels you can also find these gold gun crates that will unlock new additions to your guns. Find these and you can add things like a rocket launcher to the bottom of your assault rifle. These are all pre-decided but they do encourage you to roam around all the areas that you can find just to see what you will find. Weapon upgrades are not all you will find, there are also Gold items, letters, enigma codes and such. While they do nothing to the game you are currently playing they do unlock new game modes and bonuses on the main menu.
As you play through the story you will encounter various levels of Nazi soldiers, starting at the basic rank and file through to commanders and even ending up at robots. While the rank and file are basic cannon fodder, they do have some variants you will encounter in the later stages that will present you with more of a challenge. As you encounter rocket soldiers or chain gun soldiers you will have to adjust your tactics, of course the main problem with each encounter are the commanders. When a commander is in the area you will be shown a signal bar in the corner of the screen, finding them and taking them out is your main objective when that appears because if you don’t they will summon reinforcements that can seriously own you.
Of course its not all about running and gunning, in fact you can take a more stealth based approach if you wanted to. Doing so will slow the game down and extend it a little it, however it also showcases one of the few flaws the game has. When you are crouched and are sneaking about, even when some guards see you, they wont take you on at full speed. They just casually walk towards you and wait until you kill them. Not all guards do that, some will in fact just start shooting. If you stealth kill the enemy you will earn different perks than if you just run and gun. In fact the perk system is something that should not have worked with the game, but it does.
As you progress through the game you can unlock perks by completing little challenges. If you manage to kill enemies by throwing your knife you can unlock the perk that lets you carry more. Of killing more than 2 bad guys with a single grenade will allow you to throw back grenades at your attacker. Its this little thought that could go ignored by the masses, adds another level of interest to an already exciting game.
Thankfully, this latest version of the Wolfenstein series drops the paranormal elements that have been a main stay in the last few versions for a more grounded approach. The Nazi's have found a secret group that have technology above the rest, which explains why they have giant robot dogs or things such as the London Monitor. Adding these different creatures to the game mixes things up from the standard shooting fare and adding in underwater segments, moon walks and fetch quests increases the variety even more so.
In this altered timeline, where Nazi's have taken control and constructed giant buildings and such to assert their authority could have ended up with a really strange look, akin to what people of the early 1900's thought the world would look like by now. But the team at MachineGames have taken the less is more approach. And it works great, each area has a look that suits the city that its in, but expands on what the Nazi's were doing. If they were working at 10 in their design during the War, then in this world the design has been ramped up to 40. When you first see the London Nautica the sense of scale is impressive. In fact each element of the design has been though out with what must be an almost OCD level of detail. Each of the weapons have a look that shows off their function in the most basic level possible, but not a simple one. The vehicles, robots and even enemies have a style that is cohesive through out the game. There is not one element that jars against what the story is telling you.
The characters that you are dealing with are detailed, with subtle eye and mouth movements helping to define each of them from each other. As you storm the beach with Fergus in the first mission you are presented with lots to take in from a visual stand point, that if you take a moment to stop and look around you will be impressed. In fact stopping and listen to the battle raging around you will result in a sense of scale that defies logic. Each sound bounces around and sounds just right, and then when you get into the larger battles against some of the more fantastical bad guys, the sounds work just as well.
The sound team have taken what could be a very generic shooter and added a twist to each of the sounds to present the player with a whole new level of scale and immersion that clicks in just the right way.
The New Order is the latest attempt at making the founder of a genre relevant again and succeeds in the most spectacular way possible. You would be doing yourself a disservice if you passed this game by.
The Score
9.5
Review code provided by Bethesda
The Pros
+Fantastic story
+Solid mechanics and gameplay
The Cons
-The AI can go dumb at random times, which is wierd
-A lack of multiplayer may dissuade some players
