Editorial | Wolfenstein The New Order: A series that matured.

 

By Sam Coles:

There are certain franchises in the video game industry that lie within dormancy; this has been the case for the Wolfenstein series for the past two decades. Since its big success in 1992 with Wolfenstein 3D where it basically invented the first person shooter genre, it often struggled within the shadow of its younger brother Doom. It got constant reboots throughout the decades with the excellent Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the lukewarm 2009 title Wolfenstein from Raven Software and the topic of this article Wolfenstein The New Order.

First announced in 2013 with a teaser featuring Jimi Hendrix’s Watchtower, it was a surprise as no one was asking for a new Wolfenstein game. At this time id Software and their properties were in a bit of a slump and were at risk of falling into obscurity, this was mostly due to the release of Rage back in 2011 which was a fine game but didn’t really resonate with audiences. The reaction to Wolfenstein: The New Order was a resounding shoulder shrug, but when more gameplay and story elements were revealed people began to warm up to the game. When it finally released on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3 and PC in mid-2014, it quickly became the best game of that year.

The narrative was a real surprise when this game first came out because when you think of B.J. Blazkowicz you don’t think of a deep character, the most characterisation we got were various gurns at the bottom of the screen. However he is fleshed out in this game where he comes across as sympathetic and tired, after a final push in 1946 he ends up in a coma for 14 years and wakes up in 1960 where the Nazis won World War 2. Struggling to take this in he wonders if it is worth fighting against a huge super power, there is this constant sense of weariness from B.J’s dialogue with his internal monologues during gameplay. The story was a complete surprise as most were expecting another meathead shooter, and yes it does deliver that in the gameplay but the story makes you really care about B.J’s struggles.

Gameplay was something of a revival of old school design, however it mixed it with modern design principles. You had the ability to aim down sights to do precise shooting, but it wasn’t required to get through the game as the guns didn’t really have bloom or spread which encourages you to go nuts in firefights. Health regenerated to a certain extent, but they reintroduced health packs to help you get back to peak physical condition.

It aimed to pleasure two audiences, fans of old school shooting design and those who are used to modern gameplay elements and it worked. Not only that levels were not linear by nature, I mean there were still linear set pieces but it balances it out with stealth and sprawling level design with multiple routes that housed secrets. Speaking of stealth this was a nice call back to the original Wolfenstein released in 1981, it was possible to get through sections without raising alarms.

Now one would say that it goes against the nature of Wolfenstein, but given the nature of world within context it makes to take a more quiet and guerrilla warfare approach with combat. How this works that there will be two Nazi captains for you to shoot with a silenced pistol, throw a knife into their back or whatever body part you feel like that day or stab them in the throat. If they spot you they raise an alarm with tougher reinforcements for you to take down. It gives you multiple options in each scenario, which ultimately makes the game re-playable.

Now visually the game didn’t look amazing even for its time, but you have to realise that A. they were compensating for Xbox 360 and PS3 and B. They prioritised high framerates over visuals. Not to say it doesn’t look good especially on PS4, but it suffered and still does with bits of pop in with its textures as it uses a modified id Tech 5 which ran Rage which had similar issues. Not to say there are not plus points about the presentation, the gore effects as you blow a Nazi’s head, leg or arm off is extremely satisfying especially when you are duel wielding automatic shotguns. The visuals were never a deal breaker to me as the art design really shines, with big oppressive sky scrapers that dominate the world as the monotones of concrete of the Nazis rid the world of colour and saturation it really sells the world.

Overall Wolfenstein The New Order is a game that shows a series that can mature as time goes on, it wouldn’t be the only series within this time frame that would go in this direction. It shows that games grow up alongside the gamers, and it was a great move by Machine Games to take.