I still remember playing the original Wolfenstein on my piece of junk computer that had 4 megabytes of RAM and 33 MHZ of power. What a time to be a kid!
Throughout the years, Wolfenstein has made appearances on the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and finally makes it way to the PlayStation 4! There haven't been many big name titles released in the new year for the PS4, so it was a great feeling to wipe off the thick layer of dust from my console that has accumulated over the past several months.
You play the role of William "B. J." Blazkowicz, the same all-American hero that's been fighting the Nazis in previous iteration of the series. The game starts with an ill-fated operation at a German castle in 1946. Towards the end of the operation, Blazkowicz suffers a severe head injury and wakes up 14 years later to a World where the Allies have been defeated and Germany has won World War II. Outnumbered and outgunned, Blazkowicz joins a rag tag group of rebels who are waging an insurgency against the Germans. (The game even pays homage to the original Wolfenstein, as you can play the original game during a dream sequence where your character takes a nap.)
New Order has an engrossing and emotional narrative that you don't see in many other shooters these days. The focuses is on something that no other World War II game has done to date: show the brutality of the German warmachine. There are numerous disturbing and graphic scenes in the game that would be labeled as war crimes if it happened in today's wars and popped up on social media sites. You really get the sense that the Nazis elite were relentless and bloodthirsty in their pursuit of racial purity. While the atrocities the Nazi's committed are disgusting, the game really gives you a deep hatred of the enemy as you blast your way from level to level.
There's a good mix of large scale gunfights and stealth missions. The game even offers you the option to approach levels however you want. Travel through a duct and use stealth to sneak up and stab enemies or engage the guards in a large firefight and alert everybody? It's totally up to you!
The Environments you'll battle Nazi's in are pretty well varied from claustrophobic indoor environments to urban areas to fighting the Germans on the moon. (Yes, the moon!) Even the enemies you fight are pretty well varied. Aside from German infantrymen, you'll be battling robots, flying drones, and armored dogs. The game really tries to convey that the German's were experimenting with some truly frightening things and only reinforces why the Allies didn't stand a chance against the German military in this alternate reality.
There are some rather "interesting" design choices throughout the game. The first being that you simply can't run over collectibles and have them automatically picked up by character. You literally have to hit square everytime you come across ammo, health or collectables in the game's levels. Often times, you wouldn't even know there are collectibles in a level if it wasn't for the square button prompt popping up on the screen. This design choice feels like a giant step backwards after what we've become accocstumed to in other shooters. Also, there is no fully regenerating health. Instead, you're health regenerates for the first 20 percent, but after that, you're on your own.You'll have to comb levels looking for health and armor upgrades.
Another gripe I have with the game is swapping between weapons. While your character seems like he can carry an unlimited supply of weapons, the way in which the system is managed is a mess. You have one button that accesses your whole weapon inventory and you have a second button (triangle) that swaps between your two most recently used weapons. You always access your weapons in game. My main issue is that if one of your two most recently used weapons is out of ammo, the game doesn't switch to a gun that has ammo, it just goes back to the last gun you used.
This is the part of the review where I normally talk about multiplayer, but strangely enough The New Order has no multiplayer mode to speak of.
That being said, the campaign is of pretty good length and there are tons of collectibles worth going back for. While the game doesn't do anything that's particularly new or innovative, it's a fine example of what storytelling should be in a modern first person shooter: riveting and emotional.
- Siddharth Masand
Follow @jokeman23
The Good:
- Great engaging storyline with well paced gameplay
- First World War II Era Game that truly shows the atrocities of the Nazi.
- You can play the old wolfenstein!
The Bad:
- No multiplayer
- why do I Have to hit square to pick everything up?
- Health system feels too old school.
- Weapon switching and inventory system needs some work
