Wolfenstein: The New Order

While I don’t have as much enthusiasm for The New Order as some people seem to, I still consider it a really good game, especially put in the context of its 2014 release. For starters, W:TNO has undeniable atmosphere. The graphics are good, the technology designs and set pieces are pure eye-candy… It takes its sweet time to build its world and characters, telling its story through cutscenes and playable sections devoid of combat, and ends up being very compelling as a result. Also, despite being a pulpy tale featuring alternate history, giant robots and eccentric characters, W:TNO has no qualms about putting the most horrifying aspects of the Nazi ideology on display, so brace yourself for some very crude scenes. The gunplay is very straightforward and satisfying. The awesome thing is that pretty much any weapon can be dual-wielded and handles like an anti-aircraft gun, tearing through walls and Nazis alike and unleashing chaos with each pull of the trigger! The stealth system is pretty simple, but it’s very functional and overall one of the most enjoyable I’ve seen in an FPS game – plus, it’s always an option and never forced upon you! However, I found TNO’s campaign to have a weird pace (it’s not uncommon to have long intervals between firefights), and uneven game design at times. The combat areas and enemy placement feel hit or miss: a few combat zones are just kind of empty and uninteresting, making for bland hostile encounters, and the game overrelies on bullet-spongy enemy types as a cheap way to amp up the challenge. It’s the type of game that makes you want to go all guns blazing, but instead mostly encourages you to cower behind cover. So yeah, W:TNO can be rough around the edges… But in both its gameplay and its storytelling, it’s a compelling, daring and uncompromising game, even more so considering that it was released in a time when this type of old school shooter was not in fashion anymore. Every FPS enthusiast out there should give it a try.

The game itself is fun comic-book action but technically it's a freakin' mess. BUGS - Crashes randomly when trying to skip a cutscene - Crashes randomly at the end of a cutscene - Crashes repeatedly when clicking on the collectibles submenu under extras - Sometimes it boots into a black screen and you have to restart Searched high and low for fixes, but didn't find anything that worked. Playing with a mid-range system (Ryzen 3700x and RX 5600XT) and I'm sad and disappointed that a game made in 2014 is allowed to be sold in an unplayable condition.

Checkpoints instead of proper saves and starting a new game for some mysterious reason doesn't do it under a new profile, it obliterates the progress made on the previous one. It's like the low level game design stuff was done by competent people and the high level design of game features was determined by complete morons.

After 50 hours of relentless Nazi-killing and Uber Completion I can safely say this is in the Top 5 of best shooters I ever played. The gunplay is absolutely juicy, even the most basic assault rifle already feels like carnage, and don't get me started on how over the top the semi automatic shotgun feels. The stealth is decent, simple, gimmickless without wallhacks or executions from a mile away. I was honestly surprised by the story, yes, your comrades rarely appear in gameplay but their personality and traumas carry the narrative. Sadly, the game does not feature any supernatural lore or gameplay like The Old Blood or older titles, it's completely focused on the political dystopia and sciene-fiction elements, probably to appeal to a more mainstream audience. All in all an exceptional effort by Machine Games, these days even uncensored in Germany so the purchase is an absolute no-brainer, get the Two-Pack with The Old Blood, which is an even better standalone addon, and play both.

In der deutschen Version sind leider die zensierten Texturen und der low-gore-Modus enthalten. Der Kommentar "Good news for germans, GOG gives us the uncensored version with full nazi ass kicking. Hakenkreuze on dead nazis are a good thing. Only shame is that it took this long for the censors to realize this." unter https://www.gog.com/game/wolfenstein_the_two_pack verhieß etwas anderes.