Firstly, let's start with a bit of history, because this game has a very long one. If I can recall correctly, Wolfenstein was probably one of the first games I ever played, back when computers only ran MS-Dos or Windows 3.1. Yes, a very long time ago.
The original game was called Castle Wolfenstein, released in 1981, then it's successor, Wolfenstein 3D came out in 1992, which was my first introduction to PC gaming. I remember it like it was yesterday, you had to install the game using about five or ten floppy discs. These discs could store a monstrous 1.44MB, which at the time was a marvel of what science had achieved. A first-person shooter using the most rudimentary 3D graphics, and is regarded as having helped popularize the first-person shooter genre.
The plot of all the original Wolfenstein games and the rest, since the beginning has pretty much stayed the same, you take on the role of William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an American soldier who has been captured by the Nazi's during World War 2, and your mission is to escape from the prison bunker you are being held in. The only way of escaping, is by killing Nazi's.
"If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." - Adolf Hitler
Fast forward to 2014, about 33 years after the original, Wolfenstein is back and this time it's looking seriously awesome. Yes, it's about 4 years old, but a very fun game nonetheless. I bought this on the Playstation Store for about $6 USD, 75% off the original price as part of their Exclusive Discounts deals for Playstation Plus subscribers. I'm not the biggest fan of first-person shooter, but tend to really enjoy them from time to time, and The New Order is turning out to be loads of fun.
As you can see from the trailer above, the game's story line takes on an alternate reality, one where the Nazi's have won World War 2 and then subsequently took over America and dominates the rest of the world. It's a very refreshing and creative take on the story in the series, a well deserved upgrade from your stock standard WW1 or WW2 shooters.
In The New Order, you start out, at what looks to be near the end of the Second World War, 1945, on a massive Allied air raid to take out a Nazi fortress and weapons laboratory. This lengthy prologue mission gets you acclimatised with the game dynamics as well as laying the fundamental of the back story, and ends with a very hard moral choice your character needs to make.
I won't spoil it, but the choice determines one of two story line paths you'll get to get to go down, so a double play through is definitely suggested.
Once you get past the first chapter the game actually only starts, your character B.J. is terribly injured during the escape from the fortress and ends up in a psychiatric asylum, in a vegetative state, unable to awake.
He is stuck there for 14 years, his awakening was quite something special, so I'd rather not spoil it for you.
I found this really great character progression picture above, illustrating how the graphics has developed over the years, as well as gameplay trailer below. I have a massive problem with buying any game when I haven't seen a bit of the in game play. Wolfenstein is available on the standard gaming consoles Playstation 4, X-Box One and as well as PC, seeing as the game is a few years old, you can also find it for the previous generation consoles.
This game was developed by Bethesda Softworks, and you can almost feel it was made by them, they have a very unique art direction style across all their games, like Dishonored and The Elder Scrolls. Both of which I will be reviewing pretty soon.
The New Order runs and plays pretty well with a few tiny texture and audio sync glitches here and there, but hardly noticeable. All round it's your stock standard shooter, but with a heavy optional emphasis on stealth, which does bring in a great balance to the guns blazing, shoot-first-ask-questions-later combat style.
The steampunk feel the game has is also not overdone, and the dark metal machines tech fits in well with the fictional Nazi-controlled future. The developers also artfully reference real-life Nazi atrocities into the story.
