Most remember Wolfenstein as Wolf 3D. The game that introduced everyone to 3D shooters and while it wasn’t true 3D it was the start of a revolution. 

Wolfenstein 3D wasn’t the last member of the family by any stretch, there were other games some by ID and some by other developers when ID was busy with Doom and Quake. All the games did share one thing in common: the protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz, the muscle-bound American soldier that was on every wall in the USA. The games weren’t great after Wolfenstein 3D since ID wasn’t involved directly. They still aren’t involved but that didn’t stop Swedish developer Machine Games from trying.

Story:

The Prologue: B.J. is enjoying the American dream of sitting on a lawn while food is barbecued behind him, until Fergus, the pilot of the plane he is on, wakes him. They are on their way to Deathshead’s compound which they hope to take for the allies which in turn wins World War 2. Unfortunately, the attack fails leaving B.J, Fergus and a private Wyatt to be taken hostage. B.J. is forced to choose between Wyatt and Fergus by Deatshead to prevent both of them being slaughtered. When Deathshead leaves, B.J. along with the surviving members of the group jump through a window to escape but B.J. is hit with a piece of metal forcing him into a coma.

B.J. wakes up in an asylum in Poland, run by Anya and her parents. In a vegetative state he sees Nazis visit the asylum to take away patients for Deatshead’s “tests”. 14 years after his injury the Nazis decide to close the asylum, an overzealous officer decides to start executing patients right in front of Anya and her parents. When they try to stop him, he executes Anya’s parents after fighting her off. He is stopped by other officers who decide to take Anya to Keller. As the officer approaches B.J. he gets a knife in the neck. B.J. then fights his way out of the asylum and saving Anya.

B.J. then breaks into a prison in Berlin to free captured resistance fighters where he finds the person, he spared from Deathshead 14 years ago. The survivor tells B.J. The resistance still exists at the Kreisau circle which is led by Caroline Becker. After he re-joins the circle, the resistance starts attacking Nazi facilities to take them back while looking for advanced technology… from this point on the story exists to hold the shooting in different areas together like the moon

It’s a decent story but in a game like Wolfenstein is anyone really going to notice?

Sound:

The sound has a lot of detail. It seems like the development team went out of their way to count and make everything have a sound. Doors slamming, water dropping everything has a sound effect. The guns also sound great and sound as heavy or as muffled as they need to, even the wind up sound on repeating weapons is awesome. The sounds really add to the game are something to be enjoyed, especially the sounds the guns make. 

The voice acting is decent. B.J. and Wyatt sound very southern USA while Fergus sounds like a true Scotsman. The Nazis sound about right though Deathshead himself could be any evil villain from anywhere. 

Graphics:

Wolfenstein: The New Order takes place in a dystopian world where the Nazis won World War 2. The graphics do a great job of delivering that dystopia by making everything look bleak and washed out. The graphic engine still manages to point out metal and concrete even with the washed out effect. It also makes collectables pop with by using highlights on them.

Everything in the game has a lot of details, the guns are well modeled, the floors have scratches. The fire, water and glass are nowhere close to static and look impressive even in 2020. The different enemy units are easy to tell apart by their uniforms and get ups. Special mention goes to the guy who made the armored dogs, they really have a lot of detail and I know this because I see them up close quite often.

The attention to even the smallest things are nice. Shooting a wall causes the standard decal but hitting a pressurized pipe causes smoke to appear. The colour of lights make the nearby smoke look coloured. The particle effects are well done too, this is most noticeable in shots from the LKW when it hits a mech as you can see the light trail and the melting parts of the mech. The Tesla grenades also show off the particle effects in an easier way to study them. 

My main problem with the graphics is the 60 frames per second cap. A less important problem is that some things can simply be walked through after they have played their role, this is most noticeable after cutting a steel piece and walking through it when it doesn’t fall flat.

Gameplay:

The New Order is a first-person shooter from years long gone. It has guns, grenades, special weapons and tons of gore just to call-back the 90s.

Levels in The New Order are usually made out of massive areas but you get limited to tight corridors or walkways quite often. The layout of the levels is well thought out with alternate paths, plenty of things to hide behind along with med packs, armour and ammo for different weapons lying around openly. There are also hidden items to be found throughout the levels including weapon caches, weapon upgrades and upgrades to health or armour depending on who survived the prologue. There are also certain sections that are blocked off unless you let Wyatt survive the prologue (giving a lockpick ability) which helps a lot with the stealth approach.

Getting through the areas is aided by weapons, all of them feel great. They each have a kick that matches their size which nearly doubles when being dual wielded. The pistols are easy to use with low recoil and can be silenced, the light machine guns have less recoil than the pistols but since their high rate of fire makes them move quite a bit. The shotguns and heavy rifles have the most kick but that is expected for the damage they do. There are also grenades that are your standard frags along with Tesla grenades that temporarily incapacitate robots. Finally, there are knives that can be used for close range takedowns as well as thrown for instant silent kills, all of which are silent.

The special weapon, the LKW is a huge let-down. It doesn’t have the oomph of the conventional weapons and its ammo is strange so it feels like a chore to use even with its special upgrades (keep an eye out for them) and higher damage. The game forces you to use it as a blow torch which is fine but in combat it is only really useful against the mechs. 

Enemies in the New Order go from the standard but well armoured grunts with rifles to huge mechs carrying laser and plasma weapons along with cyborg dogs. In the middle there are commanders who can call for backup, armoured soldiers with shotguns as well as turrets. All of them share the same weakness though; bullets. The New Order doesn’t even remotely try to be smart; every enemy can be taken out with bullets and you don’t have to aim for any specific spot, just fire! You can also make your life easier by sneaking up behind them and giving everyone except the over amoured enemies a surprise knife in the back.

To make every fight a bit more challenging the New Order makes you kill all these Nazi clowns in creative ways to unlock “Perks”. Perks are permanent upgrades that you get for killing Nazis in unique ways like dual wielding, while sliding, varying your guns, etc. This along with the in-game collection upgrades means that there are tons of character upgrades to help you become the ultimate killing machine. 

All the above combine to make taking on the missions an adventure in experimentation. You could go in guns blazing but will have to fight overwhelming odds. You could take the sneaky route and trim the Nazi heard before they discover you but most of the time you will be doing a combination of both. The missions try to add a break from the pure on foot killing by giving out cars, scuba gear and in one mission… a FREAKING MECH!

Conclusion:

Wolfenstein: The New Order is a classic FPS made with modern technology. It deserves to be played especially by those who love hectic combat. The max difficulty really pushes you to strike hard and fast while thinking on your feet.

Pros	Cons
Decent Story	No one cares about the story
Great Graphics	60 FPS Lock
Varied mission locations	Perks can occassionally be too much
Fun combat	Dull special weapon

Recommended Purchase Price: $30 or ₹1500. 

Final Score: 8/10