With the immanent release of Wolfenstein: The New Colossus coming, I booted up my copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order to get back into the sci-fi Nazi fightin' mood. For those of you not familiar; Wolfenstein was a WWII FPS with the twist that the Nazis are working on super secret weapons that blend science and the occult. The hero of this series, BJ Blazkowicz, is not a fan. In the rebooted series, BJ is put into a coma in the opening mission (Spoilers! Those were spoilers. If you haven't played the game, go back and unread that) and he winds up as a resistance fighter in a version of the 1960's where the Nazis took over the world.
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BJ is a glorious conduit of mayhem for which to unwind with. The game gives you the stealth option, but choosing stealth in a Wolfenstein game is like going to an ice cream buffet for a salad. There are tons of guns and plenty of upgrades for which to give those 1960's (yet-somehow-moonbase-having) Nazis what for.
They actually downplay the occult for this one and focus on what a little knowledge of a new force of nature can do for technology, much like another game I recently reviewed. It's alright though; there's enough robot punching, mech armor, and sleazy underbosses to get plenty of play out of the game before things get stale.
I have high praise for the voice acting, but the lines Brian Bloom was given to read get real old around the third level. Yes, I appreciate that the character is living a torturous experience as his world is utterly destroyed by the enemy he's sworn to eradicate. No, I don't want a Duke Nukem type of cavalier attitude about serious events. But I don't load up this ridiculous 60's era sci-fi game to mope for an hour every night. I just wish the writers had ol' Blazkowicz a chance to marvel at the wondrous new technology once in awhile.
Even if it was only a sweet new laser gun, right before he went into battle against yet another robot.
For a game about a dystopian earth, it sure looks gorgeous. There is a scene where you, as BJ, must carry around a tray with two coffees on it. I remember the scene prompting me to go on and do more things, but for the life of me I just couldn't stop looking in those coffee cups. It looked so real that I felt like I had just come back from the optometrist with a fresh pair of glasses.
There's plenty to love outside of the graphics and havoc, but in the interest of time I will boil it down to this: replaying The New Order has made me remember that Bethesda knows what it's doing. If The New Colossus is anything like it's predecessor, we're in for a magnificent game.