Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The New Order is a 2014 action-adventure first-person shooter video game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released on 20 May 2014 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game is the seventh main entry in the Wolfenstein series, set in an alternate history 1960s Europe where the Nazis won the Second World War. The story follows war veteran William "B.J." Blazkowicz and his efforts to stop the Nazis from ruling over the world.
Wolfenstein: The New Order
- Jerk Gustafsson
- Jens Matthies
Lars Johansson
Jerk Gustafsson
Jim Kjellin
- Kjell Emanuelsson
- Axel Torvenius
- Tor Frick
- Jens Matthies
- Tommy Tordsson Björk
20 May 2014
The game is played from a first-person perspective and most of its levels are navigated on foot. The story is arranged in chapters, which players complete in order to progress. A morality choice in the prologue alters the game's storyline; some characters and small plot points are replaced throughout the two timelines. The game features a variety of weapons, most of which can be dual wielded. A cover system is present.
Development began in 2010, soon after id Software gave MachineGames the rights for the franchise. The development team envisioned Wolfenstein: The New Order as a first-person action-adventure game, taking inspiration from previous games in the series and particularly focusing on the combat and adventure elements. The game attempts to delve into character development of Blazkowicz, unlike its predecessors—a choice from the developers to interest players in the story. They aimed to portray him in a heroic fashion.
At release, Wolfenstein: The New Order received generally positive reviews, with praise particularly directed at the combat and the narrative of the game. Critics considered it a positive change to the series and nominated it for multiple year-end accolades, including Game of the Year and Best Shooter awards from several gaming publications. A stand-alone expansion, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, was released in May 2015 and is set before the events of the game. A sequel, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, was released in October 2017.
Synopsis[edit]
Setting and characters[edit]
The New Order is set in an alternate universe where Nazi Germany have managed to deploy advanced technologies, enabling them to turn the tide against the Allies and ultimately win World War II, taking over most of the world. Its storyline is loosely connected to 2009's Wolfenstein and features returning characters Kreisau Circle leader Caroline Becker (Bonita Friedericy) and SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse (Dwight Schultz), the nemesis of series protagonist, U.S. special forces operative Captain William "B.J." Blazkowicz (Brian Bloom).[5][8][9] The New Order has a branching narrative: during the prologue chapter, Deathshead forces Blazkowicz to decide the fate of one of his comrades. The player's choice as Blazkowicz will create two timeline versions of the game's storyline, where alternate characters are established as replacements for characters who otherwise would have significant roles in the plot.[10]
After the prologue chapter, either Scottish pilot Fergus Reid (Gideon Emery) or U.S. Army Private Probst Wyatt III (A.J. Trauth) survives and escapes Deathshead's compound.[10] Blazkowicz suffers a severe head injury during the escape attempt and lapses into a persistent vegetative state. He is brought to a psychiatric asylum in Poland, where he is cared for by its head nurse Anya Oliwa (Alicja Bachleda), and her parents, who run the facility under the Nazi regime. Blazkowicz watches as Anya's parents are regularly forced to hand patients over to Nazi authorities, who deem them Untermenschen for their mental disabilities and take them to Deathshead for unknown experimentation.[11] Blazkowicz and Anya enter into a romantic relationship throughout the game's narrative.[12]
Other major characters include Frau Engel (Nina Franoszek), the Commandant of an extermination camp in northern Croatia known as Camp Belica; Set Roth (Mark Ivanir), a member of a Jewish mystical secret society known as the Da'at Yichud who is incarcerated at Camp Belica; Bombate (Peter Macon), a Namibian prisoner of Camp Belica who assists Blazkowicz; and Max Hass (Alex Solowitz), a seemingly brain-damaged member of the Resistance who is looked after by former Nazi member Klaus Kreutz (Ken Lally).[13]
Plot[edit]
In July 1946, Blazkowicz and his comrades take part in an air raid against a fortress and weapons laboratory run by Deathshead but are captured and brought to a human experimentation laboratory. Blazkowicz escapes from the laboratory's emergency incinerator, although he is severely injured. He is admitted to a Polish psychiatric asylum where he remains in a catatonic state. In 1960, the Nazi regime orders the asylum to be "shut down" and executes Anya's parents when they resist. Blazkowicz awakens from his vegetative state and eliminates the extermination squad before escaping with Anya.[11] Blazkowicz and Anya drive to her grandparents' farm, where they inform him that the Nazis had defeated the United States in 1948 and that the members of the ensuing anti-Nazi Resistance have been captured. Blazkowicz interrogates a captured officer from the asylum, learning that the top members of the Resistance are imprisoned in Berlin's Eisenwald Prison. Anya's grandparents smuggle her and Blazkowicz through a checkpoint in Stettin before they travel to Berlin. During the train ride, Blazkowicz encounters Frau Engel for the first time.[12] When they arrive, Anya helps Blazkowicz break into Eisenwald Prison, where he rescues the person he spared fourteen years prior (Fergus or Wyatt)[14] and finds that the Resistance movement is led by Caroline, who was left paralyzed due to an incident at Isenstadt in 2009's Wolfenstein.[15]
The Resistance executes an attack on a Nazi research facility in London, bombing their operations base, and stealing secret documents and prototype stealth helicopters.[16] The documents reveal the Nazis are relying on reverse-engineered technology derived from the Da'at Yichud, which created such inventions as energy weapons, computer artificial intelligence, and super concrete; however, it is revealed that someone is tampering with the super concrete's formula, making it susceptible to mold deterioration. The Resistance discovers a match with Set, who is imprisoned in Camp Belica.[17] Blazkowicz agrees to go undercover inside Camp Belica and meets Set, who tells him that the Nazis have co-opted Da'at Yichud technology to mass-produce and control robots, and offers to help the Resistance in return for the destruction of the camp. Blazkowicz finds a battery for a device that controls Camp Belica's robots, which he and Set then use to incapacitate Engel, destroy the camp, and liberate its prisoners.[18]
Set reveals that the Nazis' discovery of one of the Da'at Yichud caches, which included advanced technology centuries ahead of its time, allowed Germany to surpass the Allies in military might. Set agrees to assist the Resistance by revealing the location of one such cache but states that the Resistance requires a U-boat to access it.[19] Blazkowicz obtains a U-boat but discovers that it is the flagship of the Nazis' submarine fleet, and is equipped with a cannon designed to fire nuclear warheads, which requires keycodes from the Nazi lunar research facility to operate.[20] Blazkowicz uses the Spindly Torque—a Da'at Yichud spherical device capable of destroying super concrete—to steal the identity of a Nazi lunar scientist and infiltrate the Lunar Base.[21] He succeeds at obtaining the keycodes, but upon returning to Earth, he discovers that Engel has mounted an assault on the Resistance base, capturing some of its members on behalf of Deathshead.[22]
The Resistance use the Spindly Torque to break open Deathshead's compound. After liberating the compound's captives, Blazkowicz travels to the top of the tower, where Deathshead's workshop is located. Inside, Deathshead reveals to Blazkowicz that he possesses the preserved brain of the soldier Blazkowicz chose to die, putting it in a robot. The robot comes alive and assaults Blazkowicz, who defeats it, destroys the brain, and puts his friend to rest. Commandeering a larger robot mecha, Deathshead attacks Blazkowicz, who gets the upper hand and destroys the robot. He drags Deathshead out of the wreckage and attacks him, who pulls out and arms a grenade which kills himself and gravely wounds Blazkowicz. As he crawls towards a window, Blazkowicz mentally recites "The New Colossus" as he watches the Resistance survivors board a helicopter. Believing they have reached safety, Blazkowicz gives instructions to fire the nuclear cannon.[23] After the credits, a helicopter is heard approaching.[5]