Right its been a wee while since my last post here mainly due to doing posts on the French open on my other blog, so its time for a new one here. And this one will be on a new video game, Wolfenstein the new order, the latest game in the popular shoot em up series featuring the main character William "BJ" Blazkowicz. So let's load up the guns and give this bad un a look....
So the story begins three years after the events of Wolfenstein (released back in 2009, which I have previously reviewed earlier this year) and Blazkowicz takes part in an assault on a Nazi fortress where they are developing advanced technological weapons, which is run by BJ's nemesis, General "Deathshead" Strauss. However BJ and two other allied soldiers, Fergus Reid and Private Wyatt are captured by Strauss who forces BJ to choose which one of the men he will torture and kill. However BJ manages to escape with whichever soldier BJ chooses not to be a victim at Strauss's command, however as they escape from the lab, BJ suffers a head injury from sharpnel from the explosion of the lab. BJ later is taken to a psychiatric hosital in Poland where he lies in vegetative state and he is cared for by the heard nurse Anya Oliwa. However years later in 1960 the Nazis order the asylum to be shut down and the patients killed, but BJ awakes just in time to kill the Nazis and save Anya and they escape together. BJ and Anya travel to her grandparents who explain that in 1948 the Nazis won the war after they forced they US forces to surrender their position. And from here BJ starts to take on the Nazis and travel around the world in an effort to stop their evil reign.
Wolfenstein the new order definitely is a very good addition to the Wolfenstein series and the gameplay and combat are once again excellent. The gameplay isn't too far removed from what went before in Wolfenstein released back in 2009 except there are some new enhancements. BJ's movement is very much the same as before as he run, climb, jump, crouch, all the usual stuff, although this time BJ can also swim through certain areas in the game as well. BJ can also use melee attacks to take down enemies and employ the use of stealth kills where he sneaks up on enemies and stabs them in the back or the neck (lovely eh?!). The health system in The New Order has changed a little though as BJ can now pick up health packs, armour and supercharge health packs which can boost BJ's health beyond his normal limit, although this quickly reduces when he takes fire from enemies. BJ also can upgrade his health meter as the game moves on as it starts at 100 and moves up in increments of 10.
And when it comes to weapons, BJ also has access to a large variety of guns, such as machine guns (with grenade launcher attachment), hand guns (with the option for silencer attachments) shotguns, which also have ricochet shells, sniper rifles and of course hand grenades. There is also an advanced technological weapon which BJ acquires at some point in the game which is a laser cannon than can also be used as a cutting tool to cut through wire fences and metal panels. BJ can also dual weild certain weapons as well such as the shotguns and the machine guns, which also comes in handy when BJ comes under heavy fire from multiple enemies at once. Another option is that BJ can pick up discarded weapons on the ground of enemies he has killed such as big chainguns, although he can't hold onto the wepaon in his inventory he needs to ditch it, but the weapons inventory is pretty big so you can store quite a few weapons anyway. BJ can also run and shoot at the same time and slide run in the process which is also a pretty nifty new feature in the gameplay.
As for the game's graphics they are very impressive and they are based on the company iD (who were behind Doom) and their new techengine 5 which allows to create large scale environments effectively. And the graphics in the game, like so many today, are really varied as BJ navigates different environments such as prisons, labs, research facilities and other areas and locations. The character models are also pretty good although if you look at BJ's visage in the game's title screen, he looks quite different from he appears in the game, although that might be to do with the 14 year gap in the story as it moves on. Getting onto the game's voice acting its very good and the actors all provide good performances from Brian Bloom as BJ, Gideon Emery as Fergus Reid, and Dwigh Schultz in the role as General Krauss. The game's music score is quite good and is well suited to the period of the game although it does bizzarely use some heavy metal crunching guitars in the title theme, which seems to permeate through alot of video games these days!
Which brings me onto the flaws of the game.... any???? Well there aren't too many issues with the gameplay as it works pretty well, although one thing that does annoy me a little is the voice over acting of BJ by Brian Bloom is very hushed, during the action, but he talks normally in the cut scenes, but he overdoes the whispering when he narrates. The game's stealth is also pretty basic as well even though it is quite effective its called a "system" but its hardly much of a system, as you just sneak up and kill the baddie with a melee weapon and that's about it. I also think the armour and health packs while they are plentiful they don't provide much effective cover against the firepower you are up against, particularly the armour which is reduced pretty quickly, but then again if you are under fire from Nazis with big freakin guns what else do you expect I guess. The laser cannon weapon is another niggle as while you can upgrade it as you go along, the limited amount of charge it holds can fast become a pain in the arse as you need to find a wall recharger to pump it up again. The laser cannon also doubles as a cutting tool but again the limited charge in it means you need to wait for it to regain what little charge it holds before you can start cutting wire fences again, its not a problem if they are small but if they are bigger then its a nuisance.
That aside The New Order is an excellent addition to the Wolfenstein series and its a very entertaining shooter which will keep you playing for hours with its great action and impressive graphics.
And with that I shall say auf weidersehen!
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