After every near-death leap of faith or seemingly impossible rescue, someone is waiting in the wings to beat down our hero for doing something wrong or not doing enough. Blazkowicz begins the game as a fairly typical action hero, but the game forces him–and by proxy, the player–to make some moral choices that, while they don’t have major gameplay consequences, they do have emotionally resonant consequences that we’re reminded of time and time again. But here, the damage legitimately builds the character. At every turn he’s getting beaten, gunned down, tortured, cut, and all around pummeled to such a degree that lacking the context of such an amazing story and superb presentation, our hero’s ability to get back up and keep fighting would be laughable. I mean, I’ve got no other way to rationalize the success, so I’ll go with the weird motivation-cum-inspiration centrifuge concept.Īnd Blazkowicz’s mission is indeed improbable. Why? Perhaps as a mimetic exercise to better craft the similarly improbable mission of our hero B.J. It’s as though MachineGames specifically set out on an improbable mission. Wolfenstein: The New Order humanizes a franchise that has been historically a laughable exploit. Tap into what fans of a franchise like about that franchise then update with the modern gamer in mind. Fans would have been fine with a simple updated run and gun shooter in the same way fans were incredibly welcoming of the 2016 DOOM reboot.

The game does so much more than it probably needed to. But never having experienced Wolfenstein: The New Order is no longer one of those problems. Cigar rings, Cigarette packaging, matchbooks, kool-aid packets. Things in excess presented in a frame just look cool. I’d be assigned the re-marketing demographic of, at worst, “Serial Killer,” and at best “Guy who probably collects bread bag twist ties.” Now, I don’t collect bread bag twist ties, but you have to agree that if you were to frame a bunch of them it would look really great. I look up so much disparate stuff online that any sane algorithm would understandably be confused. What corners of the internet have I failed to explore? And this isn’t about the algorithms failing me. So when a game like Wolfenstein: The New Order avoids me for this long, I question the reliability of my conscious integration lifestyle. I have, and discuss in public, opinions about E3, meaning I do watch every moment of E3, even beyond what most would consider healthy. I read video game news blogs, I watch a lot of video game commentary on dozens of YouTube channels. I consider myself one who stays connected to the video game world. Watch the Wolfenstein: The New Order video game review here.

Wolfenstein the new order cutscenes