The year was 2014 and Wolfenstein was back.
B.J. Blazkowicz was once again tasked with stopping the Nazis, not just to save the free
world, but also because, he just really loves killing Nazis!
Originally a 1981 Apple II game, Wolfenstein didn't become majorly popular until id software
got their hands on the franchise, with their 1992 Wolfenstein 3D.
I'm not going to go into the history of it too much- just check out the excellent Masters
Of Doom by David Kushner for a more in depth look.
But essentially, John Carmack, John Romero and the rest of the guys at id created a computer
programming wonder.
It was one of the first first person shooters and it fused action, violence, speed and gore.
A perfect combination.
And Machinegames knew it, sticking to this winning formula with Wolfenstein: The New Order.
It's 1946 and the Nazis are winning the war.
Probably partly because they've got giant metal dogs.
B.J. is on a mission to take out one of the Nazi general's, but things go wrong.
But he escapes!
But this leaves him in a coma.
Fast forward 14 years and it's 1960 and the Nazis have basically taken over the world.
Now can you imagine what they could have got up to in this time?
Their science and research was entirely focused on weapons and warfare.
They got into some shady genetic research, creating an army of super soldiers.
They developed advanced armour and technology.
They invented the atom bomb and wiped the USA off the face of the map.
They conquered London, despite, I'm pretty sure, a fierce resistance.
And they've got a moon base.
That's right, Nazis have conquered space.
All that's left to stop them is a small resistance force, made up of a few brave individuals.
And of course a very, very pissed off B.J.
The game is a perfect blend of stealth and action.
I love how the Nazis have a tiny blue light on their armour, just to make them easier
to spot.
This makes mowing them down with a turret that bit more simple.
It's like the game knows what we're going to want to do, knows what is fun and so makes
having that fun as easy as possible for us.
You'll be climbing up the sides of castles, shooting guards out of windows when a plane
smashes into the building.
You'll be breaking into a Nazi labour camp to rescue an important scientist.
You'll get to explore the underwater caverns beneath Berlin.
And you'll get to have fights on a bridge.
There's the full range of secrets, collectables and enigma codes that id game's known for.
In fact, when you first see that id logo at the beginning and that heavy metal starts
playing, you know you're about to be in for a good time.
Exploring is rewarded and in fact it's encouraged to use a bit of stealth.
Killing an enemy commander without getting spotted, reveals all of the secrets that are
nearby on your minimap.
Ultimately it is the intense firefights with the aggressive enemies
that provides the highlight of the game, but it is nice that these moments are built up
to, with the more quiet periods beforehand, with you sneaking around.
There's also a perk feature, where by doing certain tasks it allows you to upgrade.
Again, this encourages you to mix your play style up a bit and dabble with all of the
different toys that the game has to offer.
So do stuff like, kill 5 machines with grenades, and then your grenades from point on will
detonate on impact.
Wolfenstein's got a great sense of imagination.
It's a big case of 'what if?' and runs with this, thinking up of all of the crazy things
that an evil superpower would do, if it ever ruled the world.
It's got that old school feel, where shooters weren't just about drab, realism or multiplayer
lobbies, but where instead about duel wielding machine guns and going nuts.
They were about having fun and Machinegames knows it, just like id did before them.
I've already played and reviewed the DLC to this game, Old Blood- and that's just as good,
and the one you want to play if you want to kill some zombies.
I'm glad I've finally got round to playing this game, it's been in my backlog for a ages.
So all we got to do now is wait for Wolfenstein II and the return of our beloved B.J. Thanks
for watching.