Within the past few years, video games have seen a remarkable evolution in terms of its nature as a medium of expression. Milestones such as the BioShock franchise and The Last of Us have changed the way people looked at video games, and have subsequently changed the approach of developers who want to advance the medium. Machinegames, a Swedish development company, has tried to use this approach with Wolfenstein: The New Order, the highly anticipated new entry into the popular Wolfenstein franchise. The storytelling seen here is superb, with believable characters and a fully realized world through which the story plays out, but the storytelling and the highly kinetic shootouts through which you blast your way using one gun or two don’t really mix all the time, and the moments involving small fetch quests really bring down the game as a whole.
The game puts you in the boots of William “B.J.” Blazkowicz (I think I spelled that right…right?), an American soldier who is still on the front lines of World War II in 1946. Yep, this is an alternate timeline in which the Nazis acquired technology based on a mysterious power source, allowing them to jump miles ahead of Allied technology and win the Second World War. Blazkowicz ends up in a vegetative state following a mission to a Nazi stronghold, and for 14 years, he sits in a Polish insane asylum, witnessing the goings-on around him until he comes back to Nazi-killing life following the “purge” of the asylum’s staff and patients.
He discovers that the year is 1960, and the Nazis now reign across the planet. The U.S. has surrendered following the nuclear bombing of New York City, and small pockets of resistance exist across the world, fighting against the expanding Nazi regime. Blazkowicz and Anya Oliwa, the nurse who took care of him in the asylum, eventually meet up with resistance fighters with a home base in Berlin, where they spend the game being flies in the ointment of the Nazi war machine.
Overall, Wolfenstein: The New Order is not a bad game, but it’s not great. As I mentioned earlier, Machinegames deserves a lot of kudos for their storytelling, which makes for fully realized, fleshed-out characters as well as the realistic consequences of a world dominated by Nazi Germany. It’s the first World War II-based game I’ve played in which the horrors of a concentration camp are on full display, ranging from filthy, fly-infested barracks to cremation areas for dead prisoners. Something else that has received a great deal of praise from other reviewers is the game’s depiction of sexuality. Rather than mold it into a tasteless display of eye candy as many venues of entertainment are wont to do, it is shown as a loving connection between two people.
That being said, Wolfenstein: The New Order suffers from mismatched gameplay on occasion. The kind of story that Machinegames is trying to tell – that is, a more introspective, character-driven drama of people trying to survive in this hellish, Nazi-dominated world – doesn’t really fit with the run-and-gun gameplay, which employs dual-wielding and a health meter that regenerates to the closest multiple of 20. It’s old-school shooter gameplay that also includes having to pick up ammo, weapons, and health through the touch of a button rather than simply walking over it and collecting it. Many others have had a problem with this sort of throwback to old-school shooters, but I liked it. It made me more aware of my surroundings and what I needed in order to get through the level in one piece.
Wolfenstein: The New Order ultimately tries marry gameplay and storytelling, but it doesn’t quite get to where it aspires to go. This doesn’t make it a bad game, but it does make me hope that Machinegames will improve upon this formula in future games.
The Eclectic Post-Dispatch 