TItle: Wolfenstein: The New Order Developer: Machine Games Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Director: Jens Matthies Music Composed by: Mick Gordon Release Date: May 20, 2014 IntroductionFor those of you who might be unaware, the Wolfenstein series has the auspicious honor of being the game that took the first-person shooter genre on its first tentative steps down the path that has made it what it is today. With its identity of wanton violence and semi-comedic tone, the franchise has always been one of the big staples of id Software, who would afterwards go on to produce numerous other shooters of equal or greater acclaim. Yet after over two decades and increasingly less-successful installments, things were looking less and less sunny for the Nazi-slaughtering saga. An unsuccessful soft-reboot in 2009 had yielded less-than-promising results, and it was starting to look like the unfortunately-named protagonist B. J. Blazkowicz might have to finally embrace retirement. Enter Machine Games, a relative newcomer to the scene of video game development, who took up development of a new installment in the franchise at the behest of Bethesda and ZeniMax Media. In 2014, they announced and released Wolfenstein: The New Order, a resurrection every bit as miraculous as most players had dreamed of. Now, with a standalone expansion to its name, and a sequel on the way, its hard to argue with the success of Machine Games' efforts. However, it's fair to ask: Is it still worth buying three years on? If you're interested in killing fascists regardless of the quality of the experience you can pick it up on Steam for $19.99. However, if you still harbor doubts and want to know a little more before spending that hard-earned cash, read on. StoryThe New Order, like the previous 2009 Wolfenstein game, is a soft reboot of the series, meaning that while the events of the numerous other installments may or may not have happened, for the most part they have little bearing on the plot of this newest title. The only returning characters from the prior game are Caroline Becker (plucky, now-paraplegic female side-kick), General Wilhelm 'Deathshead' Strasse (evil Nazi super-genius), and Blazkowicz himself. Everything else largely escapes mention, which is good, given the huge shift in tone the story takes in comparison to the previous games. The game opens on a sunrise raid against the castle fortress of General Deathshead. The year is 1946, and regardless of whether or not the fuhrer himself is actually still alive, the second world war is still going, a full year after it should've historically ended. The world is facing the very real specter of conquest at the hands of the increasingly-advanced Nazi war machine, who have achieved an unstoppable technological edge over the Allies. The raid is revealed to be a last-ditch effort to kill Deathshead, identified as the man responsible for this unchecked scientific advancement. It's a great setup that immediately establishes a sense of urgency and action, especially when Nazi jet-fighters begin attacking the propeller-powered transports of BJ and his comrade Fergus. The game opens at the end of the war, in the midst of a desperate final assault that predictably goes horribly, horribly wrong in the span of about ten seconds. It really sets the stage for the enormous 'what-if' scenario that follows. As things progress, The New Order does more and more to establish its own identity. The supernatural elements of previous Wolfenstein games bear no presence in this newer, darker world, which amazingly manages to take what has classically been a goofy, somewhat hare-brained excuse to shoot people wearing swastikas and turns it into a strong, clever and engrossing plot. The first hour or so of the game involves landing on the beaches of Deathshead's castle compound in a spectacularly explosive fashion to find the Allied forces being slaughtered wholesale by automated machine gun nests and gigantic robot dogs. Teaming up with his pilot Fergus Reid and a band of survivors led by Private Probst Wyatt III, Blazkowicz storms the castle, rappelling up its outer wall and into the main keep. What follows is a dark turn of events as the few that make it are captured by General Strasse himself, who forces BJ to make a horrible choice that goes on to affect both the story and the gameplay itself. It's an amazingly well-executed bit of drama thanks to a number of factors, not least of which is superb voice-acting on the part of all concerned. The prologue concludes with BJ escaping the castle, only to take a shrapnel wound to the head that leaves him in a vegetable. He is rescued by a Polish doctor and his family, and proceeds to spend fourteen years in an insane asylum, parked in a window-side wheelchair. From there, things start to take a very Man in the High Castle turn. With no one to stop them, the Nazis prevail, and within a couple years, the whole world is at their feet, and when Blazkowicz finally awakes in 1960, things have changed for the worse in a big way. All countries, even those that once thought the Nazis their allies, now pay homage to Hitler's grim vision of Germania, and the swastika flies from every flagpole. Freedom is a memory, and the shadow of the Reich looms over all in the form of massive, intimidating structures built on the ruins of the old world, crafted from super-concrete and lined with guards, guns and cameras. It's a terrifyingly accurate realization of real-world Nazi ambitions made manifest through their unchallenged technological power. Hitler's vision of Germania was one of power and intimidation. In the gray concrete nightmare of Nazi-occupied London, even the buildings are doing a sort of seig heil. It's undeniably creepy to look at. Fortunately, you get to blow it up not long after laying eyes on it. Of course, the craftsmanship doesn't stop there. Throughout the course of the game, various hidden cutscenes, character interactions and newspaper clippings provide lore of how this twisted vision of the future came to pass. It's a testament to the efforts of the writers in their goal to 'play it straight' with a classically goofy narrative that they have added so much detail to help establish more of a connection with the world. For example, many historical events and deeds recognizable from our own timeline are still present, but are now tainted by the Reich's involvement. The moon landing is credited to one Hans Armstahl, and the gulags of Russia now sit side by side with a training ground for the German army's most elite units. It's a testament as to how much time the writers spent building this world that you can even find a album from the German version of the Beatles during your playthrough. That being said, what's even more impressive is that despite this impressive and grim backdrop, things retain just enough of a tongue-in-cheek feeling to prevent an atmosphere of utter despair from settling in. It also compensates for the sheer lunacy of some elements of the world, such as the massive, robot panzerhunds like the ones you face in the prologue, which by 1960 have become more commonplace. It's a seriously dark future, but it's also a wacky retro-tech vision thereof, run by almost but not quite comically evil bad guys, and it's into this nightmare that BJ finds himself thrust when he is awakened from his comatose state by German troops arriving to 'decommission' the asylum and its patients. From there, the story follows his efforts to reunite with his former comrades wherever they might be, and finish the mission that he set out on back in 1946: to kill General Deathshead and every Nazi he can shoot, stab and strangle along the way. Frau Engel is the face of the modern Reich. BJ encounters her during a train ride to Berlin, during which there is a beautifully-executed and very tense moment of drama that does a lot to establish the insanely evil nature of her character and the world. Wolfenstein's story is impossible not to compare to Phillip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, given how both confront the problem of a Nazi-ruled 20th century. However, unlike the TV show, or even the book, the plot of Wolfenstein is very much action-oriented, and plays as such, with increasingly wild set-pieces being drawn in. It plays its hand as a one-two punch of crazy, fast-paced violence interspersed with short but meaningful bits of well-acted and -executed character development, mos of which focus around BJ coming to terms with living in a world where hope seems to have died a long time ago. This delicate balance is marvelously paced and played, though it's not without flaws. Some while find the crazy, almost disconnected scene-hopping of Blazkowicz's quest for revenge hard to keep up with, and others might argue that the story lacks a solid, over-arching villain. Certainly, General Strasse's stand-in Frau Engel has some excellent moments that establish her as a vicious and despicable psychopath, but she always seems second fiddle to Deathshead himself, who despite being so well-established with his opening appearance, only shows up again at the end of the game. There are also a couple instances where character who have obviously suffered mortal wounds seemingly shrug off their injuries to return. While it is true that the world of Wolfenstein is obviously unreal, this overt dismissal of physics, like seeing an ally take a burst from twin assault rifles straight to the torso, only to shrug it off with some bandages later on, is a hiccup in an otherwise smooth ride that could've been done without. GameplayThe New Order's gameplay stands astride the boundary between old and new, offering a mix stealth and action. It's not Deus Ex, and BJ is by no means made of glass, but thanks to the addition of knife-throwing, special take-downs and the ability to peek out from cover, there is a definite element of subterfuge to be found in what might have otherwise been a run-of-the-mill shooter. For those that prefer to run and gun however, the game has you covered with the ability to dual-wield virtually everything Blaskowicz lays hands on, giving you the opportunity to really stick it to the various breeds of Nazi pig you'll run up against. Add to that the fact that nearly every weapon has a secondary fire and you can really play some one-two punch maneuvers, dashing and sliding in and out of cover while spraying Nazi goons with a hail of lead and lasers. Exploration and scavenging are also encouraged, since ammunition can be a little scarce, and it's easy to run short, especially since the temptation to just spray some righteous death around wildly like a true action hero is hard to resist. Raiding boxes and discovering hidden side-routes is of critical importance, and when in doubt, you can fall back on your trusty Lazerkraftwerk, which is pretty much what it sounds like: a prototype Nazi laser gun that can be used to cut through certain walls and the flesh of fascists with equal ease. It can be recharged at various handily-placed power stations scattered throughout the environment, and it gets progressively cooler the more you upgrade it. They say quantity has a quality all its own, and you know what? They're right. If you need more proof that two is always better than one, look no further than these akimbo assault rifles with under-barrel rocket launchers; guaranteed fun for the whole platoon. Speaking of upgrades, the game includes unlockable perks for BJ that help improve his fighting style depending on how you approach situations. Do you like throwing knives into unsuspecting Krauts? The stealth tree allows you to carry more shivs, and dampens the sounds of your movement. Prefer blowing them to kingdom come? The demolitions skills will be your friend. It's not enormously game-changing or influential, but it does add a measure of customization based on the player's preferred methods of combat. Ultimately, The New Order doesn't bring anything wild to the table beyond BJ's bizarre ability to ignore the effects of recoil when one-handing a two-handed weapon, but it does produce a good blend of old and new, enough so that the majority of fans and newcomers will find something to enjoy. Like most FPS games, its charm lies in giving you something to kill, and then offering as many ways as possible to do that, in as many different settings as it can justifiably cram into its plot. Anything else is icing on the blood-soaked cake. Sound and DesignUnfortunately, The New Order has some serious technical difficulties to own up to when it comes to actually playing. On the PC version, low framerates are a frequent issue thanks to the frustrating failings of the id Tech 5 engine, ironically the same software used to make id's other, far less successful title Rage. Pop-in textures are a persistent issue, and while forcing the game to run in 32-bit mode does clear up some of the problems, many others persist. Also, the bugs are significantly greater with systems using ATI video cards, given that Wolfenstein is an OpenGL game, meaning it uses certain software components that Radeon cards are simply not prepared to handle. Sadly there doesn't appear to be a full solution for these problems for anyone not prepared to do some serious research and tinkering, which places the blame more on Bethesda's shoulders for not taking better care to ensure legacy support for their product. Yes, you get to go to the moon. No, you don't get to play golf on the surface. Yes, you get to shoot Nazis in the name of freedom. No, there aren't any aliens...unless the Nazis have taken that too. Apart from these glaring failings, everything else is quite good. The world created by the conceptual artists and modelers is darkly beautiful, and if you can ignore the visual bugs, the game itself plays like a dream. Granted, some segments are better than others, with the level featuring a destroyed bridge as a major set piece standing out lovely to look at, but hell to play through. Also, higher difficulties tend to offer little in the way of replayability. The only extra challenge you'll encounter on 'Insane' and 'Uber' is finding ways to deal with enemies that are little more than highly-superior bullet-sponges. It's also worth noting they can sneak up on you far too easily, especially for people known for wearing jackboots at all times. More than once you'll probably find yourself wondering who's shooting at you, only to discover you've been flanked without any auditory warning. This might make sense in a game where motion is more important, but Wolfenstein is enough of a cover-shooter that sound cues should've been given more thought. It's also important to recognize that the music is a product of the mind of Mick Gordon, the composer and producer of the earth-shatteringly awesome soundtrack for the 2016 reboot of DOOM. While not quite as badass as his later work, The New Order's songs are still a force to be reckoned with, blending his special brand of techno-metal with a variety of other styles to produce an auditory experience that does a great deal to add to the action and tension of your situation. Final VerdictWolfenstein: The New Order is a fresh take on a very old franchise, and one that succeeds remarkably well. Yes, it's story is derivative, but it's fun and told in a heart-felt fashion, amidst the goofy over-the-top set pieces and moments of cavity-searching Krauts with a pair of retro-tech laser guns. The combat is quick, violent and engaging, standing somewhere between a cover-shooting stealth game and a classic run-and-gun title, and pulling it off amazingly well. Of course, replayability is limited since there's no multiplayer component, and while the unlockable special 'secret' difficulties are interesting, they aren't enough to hold the attention of anyone but a really hardcore gamer who wants to test themselves. That being said, it's easy to see why this game is getting a sequel, and why it deserves one. And really, shooting Nazis is an American pastime, whatever the alt-right might claim. It doesn't get more patriotic than knifing a jackbooted Jerry in the back, then drowning him in the bowl of the toilet he just relieved himself into. So what're you waiting for? The world needs heroes! Join up today, and take back your future! Final Score: 8.8
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