MachineGames – is a game developer studio founded by some of the key people from Starbreeze Studios. Who worked on Riddick and Darkness. And you can feel it in this game. Which is already a pretty high praise for the new Wolfenstein.
Wolfenstein as a series carry a lot of responsibility. It’s a “first FPS!” after all (it isn’t, actually, but who cares). The first return of the series with Return to Castle Wolfenstein was very popular and loved by many. I didn’t finish it and didn’t like it much, but I’m in the minority. Wolfenstein from 2009, which was liked by some (myself included), was considered a disappointment in general. Unlike those titles, even though technically Wolfenstein: The New Order is somewhat of a sequel to a previous game, it seems to have been designed with a mindset of “okay, what if Wolfenstein 3D was developed today, what would it be?” So it works like a mix of the pure action from the early FPS era and concepts that are common in modern titles. And, unsurprising for these developers, also quite a few novel ideas thrown in the mix.
First thing to mention, and the first thing to set the whole tone for the game, is the soundtrack. It’s absolutely amazing. After several unskippable annoying logos and the “Press Enter” which actually expects you to press Enter and no other button (ah yes, hello again id tech 5 -_-), music just goes WHAM. Distorted guitars going wild and heavy. Don’t take my word for it – check it out somewhere on the internet, it’s unlike anything else in games nowadays. And it fits the mood of the game so well. Heavy, brutal,shotguns akimbo, bent armor on enemies, killer robots and the disgusting face of war. Just hearing the track you can see it all.
Second thing to talk about is the tone. Which is… weird. At times it does a very “meta” commentary about the war, about the violence, about trying to filtering out the horrors just to be sane and stay alive. Showing how brutal and horrifying the nazis are, and how violent and disgusting the vengeance is, how people die around you, how lives are lost in a last hurrah. And sometimes you see Jimi Hendrix-like character taking LSD and jam on a guitar. Sometimes it’s nazis heaving a Moonraker-like Moon base. Often Blazkowicz will monologue about serious topics, out-Max-Payne-ing Max Payne in metaphors and melancholy. And not less often you’re just a character in a silly action movie, where an american hero is killing nazis using all kinds of weapons. I suppose Inglourious Basterds is the most obvious comparison here, just with slightly more emphasis on patriotism and being a hero. Which isn’t bad, it’s just really weird at times. Yet, it works. Though, I really don’t understand why did the developers introduce alternate storylines, since they’re basically the same with very few changes (and some upgrade changes, one of which is just mostly pointless anyway).
The game does have these “RPG elements”, the perks, the upgrades and stuff. But that’s about as far the game goes with trying to follow the modern FPS crowd. Apart from it, it’s a mix of old and new. You can take cover from first person, which is done surprisingly well. Health is shown in numbers, like in them old days, but you do get a bit of a regenerative element too, where HP regenerate to the nearest higher number divisible by 10. You can also overheal, where the health will break the limit and then slowly degrade to your maximum health – something that I’ve personally not seen before in singleplayer FPS at all. You usually start without a full set of weapons at the start of a chapter, yet you’re not limited to 2-4 slots and have a full selection. And lots of guns, including heavy guns, can be dual-wielded, which works really well. And despite the cover system mentioned above, you’re meant to move a lot, not just sit and camp. At least on Normal difficulty or lower (which are stylized in the same way as in Wolf 3D). Oh and you can slide too. There are also full on swimming levels, which is a rarity in modern FPS titles.
And the levels are super open. Not the classic FPS open, of course, but it’s like what you’d expect from a late 90s-early 00s FPS, far from just a corridor. Lots of segments allow you to play differently to. Like, it’s not Riddick, of course, but stealth is pretty good here. You’re not forced to stealth, usually, but can in most locations. You also get a special laser cutter, that’s really fun to use given how destructible a lot of elements in the game are. And every new level tries to be fresh in at least some way, so the game keeps on surprising you again and again. Only one level was not particularly great and only because it was a bit too heavy on platforming. I mean, come on, first person platforming without a manual save…
It’s a great game. Really great game. Can’t even complain much. Sure, idTech 5 is still a mix of amazing and horribleness, especially if you’re using an AMD GPU. It’s not RAGE levels of bad, and it does look far better as well, but still. It’s a game that grabbed me with that first chord in the main menu and I couldn’t stop playing until I finished it a second time. And I’m even kinda sad that it’s over. I wish more games were this exciting.