Wolfenstein: The New Order Review

It's 1960, and the Nazis have taken over the world. Once-beautiful cities like Berlin and London have been transformed into oppressive urban landscapes. Propaganda posters are plastered over miles of depressing concrete, while loudspeakers echo the doctrine of the Nazis' totalitarian regime and the punishments that follow for breaking it. The streets are patrolled by technological terrors--Nazi mechs and robotic guard dogs, whose imposing grey forms against the drab grey concrete are broken only by the deep red of Nazi banners. This is the world of Wolfenstein: The New Order, a world where resistance seems futile. But there is one man who is up to the task: William "BJ" Blazkowicz--the same Blazkowicz who escaped Castle Wolfenstein, shot a lot of Nazis, and took down Mecha Hitler in 1992's Wolfenstein 3D.
But what is Wolfenstein's place today? The series spawned the first-person shooter genre, but like The New Order's alternate-history setting itself, times have changed. Can a Wolfenstein game in 2014 marry the bombastic action and narrative drive of today's shooters with the series' own simple pleasure of shooting Nazis in the face? With this fresh and interesting setting, powerful and satisfying weapons, and a new, robotics-focused take on the Nazi war machine, developer MachineGames, formed by ex-Starbreeze veterans, has figured out how to answer these questions.

The New Order's visual design captures the drab and depressing nature of life under Nazi control.

The first few hours of The New Order take place in 1946. Despite the Fuhrer's demise, the Allies are losing. Blazkowicz spearheads a last-ditch assault on the new, heavily fortified headquarters of the Third Reich. The operation goes awry, and Blazkowicz takes a piece of shrapnel in the head. He spends the next 14 years in a vegetative state, recovering in a Polish mental institution.

The Blazkowicz that emerges into this strange new world is still the same Blazkowicz of Wolfenstein 3D: a blunt instrument.

This isn't just a convenient plot device to bring the majority of the game's action into the Nazi-controlled world of 1960. You see, the Blazkowicz that emerges into this strange new world is still the same Blazkowicz of Wolfenstein 3D: a blunt instrument. He isn't tormented by a dark past like BioShock Infinite's Booker DeWitt; he does not suffer a deep-seated sense of loss like The Last Of Us' Joel; and he has no trouble reconciling his nature as a killing machine like Spec Ops: The Line's Martin Walker. He is a man who, as a side character excitedly exclaims, "was born to kill Nazis." Though Blazkowicz emerges from his vegetative state fully functional, he still doesn't know how to view the world unless it's down the twin barrels of assault rifles akimbo. If a switch needs a gentle press, Blazkowicz punches it. If a door needs opening, Blazkowicz kicks it down. For as much as The New Order's plot is about Blazkowicz rebelling against the Nazis' iron grip on the entire planet, it's also about the friction created when the original first-person shooter protagonist drops into a first-person shooter designed for 2014.