B.J. Blazkowicz has returned in his great form. Wolfenstein: The New Order is neither new nor flawless, but the core of the game; killing anything that moves without thinking is sheer joy. Despite this, Machine Games’ new endeavor is not your standard modern shooter. They are related to the notion of cinematography, but the gameplay is more akin to genre classics. Of course, the old-school recipe has been significantly modified, which is typically in the production’s advantage.
The battle against the Nazi dictatorship is the game’s leitmotif, as is customary for the series. This time, though, the battle takes place after the war, in the 1960s. We’re working with a different timeline. The Germans won the war and gained control of nearly the whole planet. The hero, together with his guerilla friends, must defeat the tyrannical regime. The premise isn’t really engaging; it’s a fairly standard story about defeating the “bad guys.” The side characters, on the other hand, are pretty engaging. Even people with whom we only have a dozen or so minutes of contact have intriguing and well-drawn personalities. The romantic narrative is wonderfully surprise, especially since the intimate sequences are not forced into the game and appear natural.
When discussing the storyline, you must emphasize that there is only one obviously relevant decision. At the end of the first chapter, we must make a decision that, according to the game, will lead us down one of two pathways. This implies that we can expect large differences. They turn out to be minor, however. The cutscenes are wonderfully done, albeit there are moments when there are too many of them. The same is true for the game’s interactive segments. Character control is often reduced in order to make the game more like a movie, but thankfully, the new Wolfenstein is still far from the standards of the Call of Duty series in this regard. The majority of our time is spent shooting, stabbing, and blowing up Nazis. This is a fantastic feature. Shooting is just enjoyable, regardless of the weapon used. Effective action, polished animations of adversaries being struck, noises highlighting the arsenal’s might, and the vision of the Nazis collapsing all contribute to the mood of a thrilling, horrible spectacle. There’s even a tinge of Tarantino’s brutal poetry in the opponent’s bursting skull. Blazkowicz is not your average soldier; he resembles Superman. He can use two machine guns or two shotguns at the same time, and he can withstand contact with a sequence of bullets – at least on the regular difficulty level, and there are five of them in all.
The most crucial aspect is that we experience the sensation of inhabiting a powerful figure. The hero is a one-man army, and a regular Nazi is a fly ready to be crushed. Only the Nazi robots provide a greater challenge. It’s a shame the creators didn’t opt to include additional bosses. We only come across two opponents of this sort on our journey. We also come across some really stupid Nazis. Surprisingly, this only applies to people who use combat weapons, primarily clubs. They’re just in two places, yet they act as if the creators failed to give them a basic level of intellect. We may stab them in the forehead, and instead of reacting correctly, they drift slowly towards the hero like stupefied zombies. It’s a good thing that troops with rifles are a little smarter. The combination of a welding machine and a laser cannon is an intriguing addition to the armory. This is used to both throw blue, lethal beams at foes and to cut through chains or bars. across the quest, we improve all weapons by collecting extras dispersed across the game universe. A nod to classic shooters may also be found in the abundance of things lying on the ground. We’re talking about first-aid kits and metal fragments, which we use to restore our health and armor on a regular basis, as well as various collections. They’re plentiful in The New Order. Every room is worth investigating. Although it is totally automated, the authors developed a character development mechanism. We don’t choose talents or assign skill points. We acquire and improve particular characteristics through engaging in specialized activities. For example, if we kill an adversary several times with a knife, we will be allowed to carry additional blades.
Importantly, we can frequently – but not always – forego “Rambo”-style gameplay in favor of silently eliminating opponents. It’s great that players have this option in a game whose foundation is loud and violent bashing. The game takes little more than ten hours to complete. The stages were nicely matched to the game’s nature. Sometimes we find ourselves in small corridors, but most of the time we have the option of choosing the road that leads to our destination. We also frequently visit wide areas, which allow us to meticulously plan all maneuvers and attack foes from any angle. The PlayStation 4 version looks and operates quite well. It’s a shame there wasn’t a more exciting way to use the touch screen or speakers. The PC version, on the other hand, has decent optimization, at least when it comes to the Nvidia GTX 560Ti card utilized in our tests. Only the decision to limit the amount of frames per second proved to be rather perplexing. Even the most powerful computer will not be able to breach the 60 FPS barrier, however knowing life, a fan modification will most likely be available shortly to eliminate this peculiar impediment.
New Wolfenstein is a punishing, grueling, and gratifying experience. It is exactly what it was intended to be. We got a good dose of arcade shooting, as well as a game in which you may feel the spirit of great forefathers.