Developer: Machine Games
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Rrp: £34.99
Released: 19th May 2014
Available on Steam and Amazon
Played using: Mouse & Keyboard
Ever wonder what the world would have been like if Hitlers War machine hadn’t been stopped in World War 2? What if they’d somehow acquired advanced technology which made them unstoppable? I know, it’s a trite idea, in fact I believe the Justice League cartoon had a two part episode with a similar plotline.
Wolfenstein: The New Order does indeed share that same premise but that’s where the similarities end. You play as Captain William Blazkowicz and you are here to save the day, get the girl and stop the Nazi’s, oorah! Except… that’s not quite true, but I can’t say anything more without spoiling the story.
Unsurprisingly it’s a FPS, as are all of the Wolfenstein lineage, and it uses the standard controls for a FPS, WASD moves, space jumps, CTRL crouches etc. It does have a few functions that are unusual for the genre though such as changing ammo type/secondary fire on certain weapons (assigned to C) and leaning around corners (Alt plus a movement key).
You also have a journal (J) where you can check on your current objective, what perks you have or need to work on, the collectibles you’ve found and the tutorials section.
The perks are earned by performing certain actions, for example; performing 5 silent takedowns unlocks the ability to throw knives. These perks can make a big difference to how you play the game as well as reward your style of play.
When you pick up a weapon you can find a brief description on it, as well instructions on how to use it in the Tutorials section of your journal. The weapons description will get updated as you collect upgrades for it that are scattered around the game.
As was mentioned earlier most weapons have a secondary fire or ammo type you can switch two, some of these are situational or utilitarian in nature and not immediately useful.
There are a number of ways to acquire a weapon, sometimes you’ll find them in weapons lockers or on the floor but more often you take them from the lifeless remains of your enemies (using the E button). Sometimes your enemies will drop armour to which is picked up through the same method.
Scrolling he mouse wheel (assuming yours has one) brings up a radial menu of all weapons available to you. That isn’t the only method though, as you can also select them using the numbered keys (again typical FPS fare).
Of course killing enemies means you likely have also sustained damage, the good news is Blazkowicz can regenerate a small amount of his health, the bad news is he will only regenerate to the nearest ten hit points (or twenty if your near death). Luckily the game has items to boost your health back up (I say items because sometimes it’s a medikit other times it’s dog food). If you’re already at full health (or are very near it) you can choose to ‘overcharge!’. Doing this will boost your health to above its normal amount for a limited time.
Now the fighting… Good god, the fighting! When it comes to the combat this game is unparalleled, it’s over the top and completely bombastic and I loved every minute of it!
The weapons have a real feeling of bite and recoil, as well as giving some of the most satisfying sounds I’ve heard. Of course the games combat depends entirely on what difficulty you’ve chosen to play, the easiest is extremely easy hardly providing a challenge unless you get blindsided. But the hardest setting… Ow, that was a tough slog, even on the easiest setting the enemies make use of cover and do it well but play it on any setting after that and this game becomes a real challenge.
Thankfully you don’t always have to take the most obvious and direct route, often the game will give you a few options, you just have to keep your eyes open for them as they aren’t always readily apparent.
One of the aforementioned options often involves being stealthy. Now, the stealth in this game is a curious beast, sometimes you can take down a soldier and every other soldier that passes simply ignores the body, other times they see it and immediately call for the alarm (which is what’s supposed to happen). It seems like this has something to do with the difficulty level the player set the game to as when you play on the easiest setting (called ‘can I play, daddy?’) the guards mostly ignore dead bodies and react to them on harder modes.
While I’m on the subject of stealth, this game does reward you for occasionally taking the stealthy option. If you kill a Commander stealthily (or just quickly if you run in guns blazing) then they can’t call in reinforcements. This in turn gives you the reward of being able to see where items of interest are hidden on the map screen.
Wolfenstein’s greatest strength is the way it embraces the silliness of classic FPS like Doom while showing that doing so doesn’t mean a game has to be stupid. Little things like the exclamation point used in ‘overcharge’ act as a small nod to the past without spoiling the atmosphere.
Of course, the game also shows it big ways… Duel wield assault rifles, anyone?
I feel I would be remiss of my duty if I didn’t mention this, but graphically this game is beautiful. It would have been easy for Machine Games to have kept the colour palette to the typical greys and browns that we’ve grown used to seeing in shooters. But they didn’t. Even on medium graphical settings (it’s all my poor little rig could handle) the visuals were gorgeous to look at, I only hope the screenshots I made capture it well.
The game has two timelines to playthrough, whichever you pick the game will essentially play out the same way but with some notable exceptions such as cutscenes, certain mechanics (sorry I don’t want to spoil it) and what upgrades you can pick up. This split in timeline comes from a decision you make early on, not only will this determine what upgrades and skills you get but also means that you must play the entire game from the beginning to experience the alternate timeline.
You can choose to go back and replay a chapter, perhaps to find some of the collectibles, any and all upgrades to your weapons and yourself follow. Meaning that some of those beginning chapters can suddenly become a hell of a lot easier to do on the second playthrough.
I just mentioned collectibles. Well, throughout this game you will find various types of them. Now anyone who has read a few of my reviews will know that I hate pointless collectible hunting… But this game rewards you when you find the full set of these collectibles. Enigma codes unlock bonus modes, letters give you some interesting backstory (along side the various none collectible letters and articles that I found interesting to read). Oh I should mention, those enigma code pieces? Yeah, you have to actually crack the code. While this puzzle isn’t that hard to break I think it’s such a unique concept, not only do you have to find the pieces but also solve a puzzle before you get you additional modes.
You should also bear in mind that some of these collectibles will require you to take the alternate timeline to collect as you’ll need skills that exist in one but not the other
Here’s something I never thought I’d find in a FPS with Wolfenstein in the title… believable and relatable characters. Not one of the characters I encountered across felt like a cardboard cutout, not even the main one (who is anything but silent, although he does need to speak a bit louder). Most of them were very endearing and their interactions reminded me of how my friends and I are with each other.
Sadly this game does suffer from… id-isms. What I mean is pretty much any modern property that id has worked on seems to share a few common faults, one of which is a pet peeve.
Invisible walls! This game is absolutely chock with them, ordinarily they wouldn’t impede my gameplay or break the immersion but some of them just don’t make sense. There are plenty of areas that look completely accessible and yet, inexplicably, are impossible to get to, after this long in the game I would have thought id would have finally stopped that! COME ON GUYS, YOU KINDA INVENTED THE GENRE! STOP IT ALREADY!
It seems that Machine Games (along with id) have finally done what seemed impossible…. They made a smart and yet incredibly over the top Wolfenstein game. I never thought I’d see the day.So incase you haven’t already guessed, this is a strong recommendation from me. The campaign is long (especially if you play both timelines) and the story is interesting and quite often a bit loopy. If you want multiplayer you aren’t going to find that with this title and there doesn’t seem to be any plans for DLC in the works.So yes, Wolfenstein: The New Order, it’s worth every penny.
