David Nicholson: 'Wolfenstein: The New Order' PS4 Review

Developer: Machine Games

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Release Date: May 20, 2014

Platform:*PS4 (Reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Genre: Action, Shooter

MSRP: $59.99

Blazko’s Back

Wolfenstein: The New Order is chaos incarnate, and it heralds the triumphant return of the classic tough-as-nails franchise to modern day gaming. Machine Games has resurrected the FPS titan to deliver one of the most challenging shooters of our era, wrapped in unapologetic visceral action and a surprisingly moving storyline.

Capturing the heart of a war that saw the entire world riven, Machine Games threads a dramatic, captivating plot full of human strife with the relentless FPS mayhem we’ve come to expect from the Wolfenstein series.

The union of diabolical fascist themes and the eerie alternate history help mold an unforgettable story, all of which highlights the desperate struggle of a rogue underground rebellion against the iron reign of the Fourth Reich. Crafted in a terrifying dystopia where totalitarian domination runs rampant, the game touches upon authentic history while delivering a frightening look at what could have been.

With some of the best shooter mechanics in recent years and sadistically hard gameplay,*The New Order takes players on a wild joyride through the heart of a Nazi-controlled world with the aim of singlehandedly tearing down an empire.

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A Reign of Blood and Tyranny: Story

What if the Nationalsozialist Party was never defeated? What if they won World War II and conquered the entire known world, heralding a new age of absolute tyranny?

Wolfenstein: The New Order explores these possibilities in a truly eerie demonstration of an alternate timeline–one where the Nazis reign supreme over all countries, over all cultures, over everyone and everything. There is peace, but the cost of it is ever-present in the iron-grasp of the Nazi’s Reign.

The swastika is emblazoned in blood-red scarlet and ichor, a symbol*that has replaced the stars and stripes*and the Union Jack. The Secret Police*scours the streets, and friends and neighbors turn on one another, and the techno-industrial might of the new Reich towers over all things.

Zeppelins bearing the iconic hate-symbol soar through the skies, and terrible mechanical automatons hulk through the streets. With the help of General Deathshead’s wicked experiments, the Nazi ranks have been augmented with armored bio-mechanical abominations known as Supersoldaten–a horrid mesh between man and machine.

After being rendered catatonic from a desperate last-stand gone awry, Captain BJ Blazkowicz, our beloved Nazi-slaughtering hero, is transferred to a mental asylum in Poland. There he stays for fourteen years, trapped in his own immobile body, under the care of Anya Oliwa, daughter of Dr. Franciszek Oliwa who runs the asylum.

Our American hero soon falls for Anya. The merciful caregiver soon comes to represent a measure of peace and salvation for his ruthless efforts, making her a bastion of hope, making her what he continues to fight for.

When the Nazis come to shut down the asylum, bent on wiping out all the patients and staff, Blazkowicz “wakes up” and starts doing what he does best: killing Nazis. Blazkowicz soon reunites with Anya after blasting his way through a troop of baddies, who informs him of the current state of the world.

Imagine being an Allied soldier at this time, nearly dying for your country in the war, and waking up to find that your homeland–and every other land for that matter–is in the hands of your hated enemy. The Nazis dropped an atomic bomb on Manhattan, forcing the United States to surrender, and their invasions across England and Russia were never thwarted.

Dead-set on annihilating the Nazi regime, Blazkowicz seeks out the last remaining resistance cell in Berlin. Joining up with a dynamic rank of personable rebels like the fallen Nazi Klaus to the defiant Caroline Becker, as well as the eccentric yet brilliant Tekla, our hero sets out on crumbling the tyrannical empire.

Together the resistance searches for the ancient Dat Yichud–an ancient and secret technology created by a sect of wisdom-venerating Jews–that can ultimately give them an edge over the militant might of the fascists. With Blazkowicz as their one-man-army and the derring-do of their desperation, the rebellion continues onward, fully knowing that their victory will assuredly come at the cost of their lives.

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Taking Down the Reich: Game Mechanics and More

Wolfenstein: The New Order*celebrates old-school FPS mechanics and keeps true to the core franchise. The game doesn’t pamper you*with auto-aim, HUD mini-maps, or helpful additions: you’re on your own, armed with your wits and your guns against wave after wave of SS troopers. This is where the game shines, by taking away a lot of frills and pomp and giving players a gritty, in-your-face experience that breaks the current FPS mold.

Gameplay is blisteringly tough and in many ways sadistic, especially on the harder levels. The heightened difficulty is a big part of the game’s overall charm, and fully fits in line with the themes and the overall feel of what Wolfenstein should be: bloodthirsty FPS chaos.

The Heads Up Display is very basic and keeps true to the franchise’s roots. Players are treated to the minimal basics: numeric health and armor readouts along with a ammo counter and a dynamic crosshair that varies on a gun-to-gun basis. Health upgrades can be found to push Blazko’s vitality past 100, and health kits stack up beyond max for an overcharge that steadily declines. Armor is maxed at 100, and often can be replenished by enemy drops.

That being said, players are given some powerful tools to survive the near-constant onslaught of bullet-hell that awaits them. Blazkowicz is a hardened veteran of gunplay, and he’s learned some tricks during those frenetic firefights. These include run-sliding to quickly get to cover, and leaning, which is quite honestly one of the most useful features in any FPS.

Cover is essential to survival in Wolfenstein, and all too often you’ll need to cower behind steel railing or a metal box for those precious seconds of reload time. Run-sliding ensures that Blazkowicz takes as little damage possible and evades some shots, and can also be useful when coming straight-on at an enemy with guns-a-blazing.

The leaning mechanic can be used with any gun and is an incredible asset that affords both stealth-based and chaotic shoot-em-up styles of play. Basically you can scout any given area and see where enemies are, but the best part of this asset is that it allows you to lean in and outside of cover at any given time, not only making for mini-sanctuaries but also for those perfect headshots that dispatch foes.

The New Order features a bevy of destructible environments, though, so the reprieves offered by cover will often be short-lived. Using what you’re given in any level is a must, and adapting to the chaos around you is important for survival in this game.

Guns have always been a huge part of Wolfenstein, and Machine Games has crafted an arsenal that introduces a plethora of new toys along with some memorable favorites. Dual-wielding is available for every weapon in the game, making for some truly memorable havoc-wreaking action that’s decidedly macho in scope. Dual-wielding is a must when taking on huge armored Supersoldaten, Panzerhunds and other ultra-powerful Reich machinations.

Many of the guns will have alternate modes of fire as well; the assault rifle, for example, can shoot rockets, whereas shotguns blast shrapnel rounds. Additionally certain weapons will have an advantage over specific foes–the Laserkraftwerk, which gets some pretty formidable upgrades, will eat through armored baddies more efficiently than standard fire.

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Just because you’re given a number of death-cannons doesn’t mean you have to always blow things up. Players can use stealth to their advantage in just about every level, and really the silenced pistol is just as accurate and deadly as a scoped-in marksman rifle. Throwing knives net a one-hit kill as well, and Blazko can sneak in for a silent takedown a la Ezio of Assassin’s Creed.

Perks offer a sense of RPG-like upgrades, and are unlocked as players do certain in-game feats such as getting 10 dual-wield kills or taking out commanders with a Tesla grenade. There are four tiers of perks that are broken up into different styles of play: Stealth, Tactical, Assault and Demolition.

Subsequent unlocks move on to a master perk that gives substantial benefits like upping reload speed, lowering damage taken from grenades, and staying hidden more easily in stealth mode. Unlocking abilities that stick true to your play style are key, and can often be the difference between life and death.

A Wolfenstein game without secrets wouldn’t be a Wolfenstein game at all, and in this respect Machine Games stays true to the series with a smattering of hidden collectibles, unlockables, and loot scattered across the levels. It pays to pay attention to your surroundings and search well across your map screen, as sometimes you’ll find an upgrade for the Lazercraftwerk or maybe a HP boost to boot. There’s even one area where you can play a level of the PC classic in the homebase.

The New Order‘s campaign is colorful and varied, featuring a wealth of memorable locations and characters. In his adventures to take down the Nazi war machine, Blazko is taken from the modern industrialized streets of Berlin to the depths of the ocean floor and even to the cold craters of the moon’s surface.

Every mission brings a deeper expression of the human drama that Blazko and the rest of the resistance faces, and reveals the rigors of their struggle.

As you’d expect, the game gets harder and harder as you progress, with some levels being relentless with their near-endless waves of soldiers. You’ll die, and die, and die again–but only in dying can you become stronger and get revenge. In a way the dying motivates you, fuels your headshot skills and grenade-throwing prowess.

I’m delighted to report that The New Order has bosses. Some end-level bosses are just mini-bosses, but the first time you encounter them you’ll be surprised (and most likely killed). But taking on General Deathshead at the end on the hardest setting was a true challenge, and really set the bar for the game’s old-school parallels.

While the gameplay is pretty much linear like every other shooter, the game sets itself apart with the emotional strife and ever-present stylish themes of the story. Its flawless execution in the “doomed World War II” motif is in no small part due to the overwhelming visual symbols (the swastika-toting zeppelins) and creative newspaper clippings that paint a daunting image of the world’s fall.

The clippings chronicle major turning points in the war including how Germany made America submit by dropping an atomic bomb on Manhattan, or how the Nazis were the first to land on the moon. The terrifying mechanical monstrosities like the fearsome London Monitor boss or the common Supersoldaten reinforce these themes with eerie grace, solidifying a tyrannical dystopia.

Many of the environments and actions of the Nationalsozialist Party reflect on their harrowing and terrible nature throughout history. General Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strauss has a few laboratories that highlight the horrors of his creations, which include the half German Shepard half machine Panzerhunds and the hulking Super Guards, which contain actual human brains.

This measure of horror adds in a wave of realism that’s striking to behold, and its a bold reflection of our timeline that really underlines the cruelty of Strauss which us undoubtedly based on Josef Mengele. The characters in general are amazingly portrayed, and other notables include Frau Engel, the fierce golden-haired Nazi harpy, and Fergus, a grizzled Scottish resistance fighter with a sharp wit and even sharper mouth.

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Conclusion: A Worthy Successor to the FPS Titan

Wolfenstein: The New Order is a refreshingly original addition to the FPS genre simply because it’s not afraid to embrace old-school mechanics. Longtime fans of the genre will be delighted in its delightfully brutal action, and will find themselves immersed in a truly memorable universe where tyranny reigns supreme.

The New Order resurrects the unapologetic visceral brutality that the franchise is known for, hitting its mark dead on with graceful precision. The advent of dual-wielding chaos brings a new breed of shooter, one that’s explosive in its gleeful–if not extremely challenging–execution.

Melded with an expansive story arc that encompasses a truly remarkable cast of characters and a terrifying alternate timeline, The New Order delivers stylish gameplay that explores the*possibilities of one of the darkest periods in history.

The entire experience is memorable from start to finish and blends ruthless, challenging shoot-em-up anarchy with a decisively unique alternate dystopia. Machine Games has taken all of the best elements from the classic series and thrown them in with unforgettable motifs, themes and symbolism to craft a worthy successor to the definitive franchise.

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