Ray Willmott reviews Wolfenstein: The New Order…
The original First Person Shooter, Wolfenstein 3D, certainly offered its fair share of controversy way back in the 80’s. It was one of the first games to set you down a path of killing Nazis using all manner of guns and weapons. But despite its themes and messages, the game kickstarted a revolution in game design, the first person shooter. Since then, we’ve had DOOM, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Unreal, Prey, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Halo and Battlefield. But now we’ve come full-circle all over again, as Bethesda bring us back to where it all began, only this time under slightly different circumstances.
It’s 1940 and B.J Blazkowicz is still at the forefront of Wolfenstein-themed action. Blazkowicz blacks out after pieces of shrapnel pierce his skull and is dragged into a German mental asylum. Fortunately, the doctors have no way of identifying him as an American, but he is left to rot under the constant supervision of German doctors and nurses, no idea where he is or who he is.
Years later, in 1960, the American marine abruptly wakes from a coma when a group of Nazis storm the mental asylum to permanently shut it down. Blazkowicz’s warrior-like instincts kick in just as he is about to be executed, grabs a nearby knife and takes out a Nazi infiltrator. The adrenaline snaps him awake after years of hibernation. Rebuilding and redeveloping himself, Blazkowicz learns of a grave horror: the Alliance surrendered, the Nazi’s won World War II, and they now govern and control the world with mad-cap machinations and machines. In true lone gun-man fashion, Blazkowicz spits in the face of reason, intends to fight-back and places himself as the sole-face of the resistance, hoping to bring balance back to a fractured world.
The New Order is hardcore, FPS action that reminds us how easy we’ve had it over the last decade. No more recharging shields that regenerate when we switch to cover to protect ourselves from the onslaught of bullets. Paced weapon placement, no overpowered gun-power from the off and really tough, challenging AI that is resilient and resourceful.
Sure, the story isn’t exceptional and there is a disappointing lack of multiplayer, but Wolfenstein: The New Order is, unquestionably, one of the best attempts at creating a switch-off, action-focused FPS shooter from a bygone era and keeping it relevant in 2014.
This is the kind of re-imagining that Duke Nukem Forever should have been. Machine Games clearly care about their source material, the game benefits from high production values, the heavy-metal, gritty music really sets the tone for a Nazi-themed future, and the graphics look genuinely elegant on new-generation consoles.
Wolfenstein: The New Order defies expectation and rejuvinates this aging franchise in a destructively divine way for fans old and new.
Rating – 8/10
Ray Willmott is a games critic for a variety of websites and even runs his own. He also finds time to write novels – Follow me on Twitter
Originally published June 4, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
