Wolfenstein: The New Order Review

A new generation of consoles are in dire need for first-person shooter games like Wolfenstein: The New Order. Although the game is available on PC, PlayStation, PS3 and PS4, and Xbox360, it seems that Xbox One fans are the most pleased with the exceptional prowess of the game’s graphics and audio. Of course, you can’t expect anything less but the best from developer Machine Games, especially in new generation, first-person shooter games.

In the new generation of Wolfenstein, players are re-introduced to the old school Nazi-killing Allies hero, B.J. Blazkowitz. He returns to the screen after spending 14 years in a Polish asylum recovering from an injury that he received close the end of World War II. Lo and behold, our protagonist awakes from his ordeal in the 1960s, in a world dominated by Hitler’s Nazis. Aside from the Nazi-killing sprees that the character goes on, there’s a deep fleshed out storyline that draws players into B.J.’s excusable reasons to continue his missions against the Reich. Players are also introduced to character backgrounds, older characters and war heroes that are wheel-chair ridden, and new characters with effective stories of their own. Viewers can instantly go from hating previous Nazi sympathizers to empathizing with them, thanks to the dialogues and effective graphic design. Above all else, gamers have found the input of combat and story to be perfectly balanced throughout the game, without too much of one or too little of the other. The purpose of this is to not only engage players in the story itself, but to allow them to think beyond a narrow-minded perspective of character decisions, into the philosophical and physically challenging realms.

Combat in the Xbox version of Wolfenstein: The New Order follows the old defense and offense methods of focusing on health and shields. Players have an arsenal of weapons that they gain throughout their quests in each chapter. The
downside, however, is that each chapter starts out without the weapons that players accumulated in the previous chapters. Though some may have found this to be a challenge and appreciate ‘evolving’, so to speak, through the given quest and starting out with a good ol’ fashioned handgun and knife, many gamers found this to be slightly debilitating because they can’t take advantage of weapon props earlier on in the chapter. Another downer is gaining ammo and new weapons; rather than walking over it like previous games, players need to spam the x-button in order to be directed to more goodies. Sounds simple, yes, but when there’s combat going on, it’s a bit more difficult to maneuver the fingers around the keys. From one point and then, it begins to feel like a scavenger hunt. One of the perks about leveling Blazkowitz, however, is that the character’s abilities are not leveled according to how many Nazis are killed or how experienced is gained. Rather, there are talent trees that open according to what missions are done.

Overall, the gameplay is indescribable beautiful and active. Players are beyond satisfied with the audio of gunfire, physical fights and dialogues, and the graphics of such welldeveloped and rounded characters are only half the reason to play what is considered to be one of the best first-person shooter games on Xbox One.