Wolfenstein: The New Order - Best of 2014?

[WarpedAcorn]

I have been a fan of the Wolfenstein series since it was first released. The only game in the series I never completed was the last one simply titled, Wolfenstein (if was just bad). After seeing the newest Wolfenstein on sale and also appearing on so many people's best games of 2014 lists, I decided to pick it up. After completing it I am left with one major question...

Why did this game get so much praise?


Firstly, I will admit that Wolfenstein: The New Order (WTNO) is a good old-school AAA shooter. For $20 I think I got my money's worth. However, for this game to be on so many "Best of" lists either means 2014 was a weak year for games or I am missing something. Some of my gripes are:

-Arsenal: Most of the weapons BJ carriers are, in my opinion, generic and boring. Most don't unlock their secondary function until late in the game. The dual-wield feature, while bad ass, is usually less practical and wastes ammo. Whenever using the Rifle or Shotgun I felt bored and just wanted to use something with a little more flair. The one weapon they got REALLY right was the Marksman Rifle. The Marksman, a sniper rifle with a secondary function as a rapid fire laser rifle was a fun weapon I wanted more of (laser function only unlocked during the last portions of the game). The Laser cutter was also fun, but its lack of battery made recharging tedious.

-Cutscenes: Pre-rendered Cutscenes were great, and much like Max Payne 3 I could and would watch an entire movie that tells the WTNO story. What irked me was the disconnect between the gameplay levels and the Cutscenes. Very rarely did they transition together well, and usually I felt like an entire scene was missing that linked them. From a storytelling perspective this very much annoyed me.

-German: I respect the authenticity the developers were going for, however all too often people would be speaking in German or with heavy accents while battle music was blasting and/or action was on screen that made it next to impossible for me to read the subtitles. I feel I missed out on a lot of dialogue because of this. A minor gripe, but still it stood out to me.

-Clunky Stealth: I played the game as stealthily as possible. I do appreciate how you are often given options to go in guns blazing or to sneak a bit. But the sneaking options are severely limited without a robust set of options outside of crouch-walk. It would have been nice to have a few more modes of entry (some later levels showcased this) and stealth tricks. I also absolutely hated that thrown knives were 1-hit kills even when they hit the enemy's calf.

-Level Design: Early and late levels are designed really well, and I especially like the finale levels. Everything inbetween is fairly forgettable though. It might not help that it feels very similar (I think you visit 2-3 different prisons in there). They are all very linear corridor-style, but the middle levels really lack personality.


Really I spent almost the whole time playing WTNO thinking about another old-school FPS remake I played not long ago, Shadow Warrior. I really enjoyed SW and had a lot of fun with it. WTNO felt kinda stale when I played it, while SW felt like a new piece of nostalgia. Where SW succeeded was in recapturing what made old school FPS games fun, but also moving the genre forward by introducing new elements such as the Swordplay and Magic. It also didn't help that ALL the weapons were fun and I found myself wanting to constantly use them all.

So again, I have to ask, what am I missing about WTNO?

[Shinzai]

The gameplay was really tightly designed around being fun, with not too much emphasis on depth. There were secret areas, rather than constant "LEAVING COMBAT AREA, TURN BACK OR DIE" messages, the game let you approach the combat side of the game whatever way you wanted, whether you wanted to carefully aim down scopes/sights, dual wield, or knife every enemy 1 at a time.

The cutscenes/story were pretty good overall, doubly so for the FPS genre and such a fun entry into the FPS genre. They maintained a poe-faced style, while also being consistently amusing/silly. The game takes the parts that most players feel should matter seriously, but it doesn't take itself too seriously as a whole. It's like playing a great B-Movie.

The German/in-game dialogue is mostly for flavour.

The weapons issue might just be down to taste. I enjoyed the usage of pretty much all the weapons, though there weren't many crazy 'stand out' types. They were all just very solidly made, great sound, nice animation and a good feel to use, though perhaps overly familiar.

Overall, it was one of the few FPS games I had a lot of fun with in recent times, Shadow Warrior being another one. There aren't really many FPS games as solidly made as Wolfenstein that came out in 2014. Titanfall was OK, but the novelty wore off fast and CoD: Advanced Warfare's multiplayer was better than its single player.

[PizzaSHARK]

I feel like TNO definitely earned GOTY awards. They did a fantastic job of making the characters and plot interesting and engaging while still remaining goofy and true to Wolfenstein's "those wacky Nazis" feel.

The gunplay was tight and responsive. Maybe the weapons were "boring" in the sense that they aren't exactly innovative (your standard assault rifle, shotgun, silenced pistol, sniper rifle stuff), but they're responsive and fun to use. I feel like the stealth was very well done for a game that doesn't focus on it or force the use of it, and you can easily transition from dual wielding assault rifles and spraying bullets everywhere into creeping around and shanking commanders in the same level. I used a lot of both, depending on whatever was most efficient for the area. I honestly didn't use single weapons very often - mostly just a single silenced pistol for sniping commanders at long range (I love sniper pistols!) Dual wielding assault rifles was plenty effective and I don't see how it wastes ammo - like any good shooter, your first shots are laser-accurate so using them effectively is just a matter of squeezing off one or two bullets from each gun, pausing, and repeating until everything's dead.

Gameplay time is pretty good and there's a small amount of replayability since the game has two separate timelines, each with a unique character that's done well enough to be worth seeing (you get either a manic pixie dream girl named Tekra or Jimi Hendrix), and with the option of carrying your perks over into further playthroughs in case you weren't able to unlock everything the first time through.

Best of all? None of that online bullshit. There are no leaderboards, no buttons to "share this on Facebook!", no requirements to sign up for a goddamned social club, no "pounded out in the last week before going gold" throwaway multiplayer mode, none of that shit that developers seem compelled to force into their games these days.

I feel like it's a little pricey at $60, but it's a good deal at $40 and a total steal at $20. I'd heartily recommend it to anyone who likes shooters and I definitely feel like it's earned its GOTY awards.

[Deleted]

I don't think you missed anything OP, we all like different things. In the case of New Order, I think part of it is that it has been years since we have seen such a strong thematic, well paced and strong narrative (with some good jokes in there), and I think that actually does deserve a lot of praise, because it is quite hard to get that right.

You yourself give the example of Shadow Warrior, and where I will agree it is superior (mostly) in gunplay, I felt outside of the few dialogs and cutscenes that it was not in any way well themed (it is jumping all over the place, and the places aren't particularly interesting or well fleshed out), and the pace was butchered, killing vast amount of demons over and over again, from room to room, and only in the end you received anything for your trouble. So where New Order is stronger, is that it is well put together as an actual story, and SW falls somewhat flat and just throws some cool demons at you to forget that.

All of this is opinion!

[Deleted]

I found the writing to be cringeworty to say the least, the gameplay was like playing a crappy call of duty and I don't remember anything special about it. Oh I'd give it ++ for violence.

- - - Updated - - -

The gameplay was really tightly designed around being fun, with not too much emphasis on depth. There were secret areas, rather than constant "LEAVING COMBAT AREA, TURN BACK OR DIE" messages, the game let you approach the combat side of the game whatever way you wanted, whether you wanted to carefully aim down scopes/sights, dual wield, or knife every enemy 1 at a time.

The cutscenes/story were pretty good overall, doubly so for the FPS genre and such a fun entry into the FPS genre. They maintained a poe-faced style, while also being consistently amusing/silly. The game takes the parts that most players feel should matter seriously, but it doesn't take itself too seriously as a whole. It's like playing a great B-Movie.

The German/in-game dialogue is mostly for flavour.

The weapons issue might just be down to taste. I enjoyed the usage of pretty much all the weapons, though there weren't many crazy 'stand out' types. They were all just very solidly made, great sound, nice animation and a good feel to use, though perhaps overly familiar.

Overall, it was one of the few FPS games I had a lot of fun with in recent times, Shadow Warrior being another one. There aren't really many FPS games as solidly made as Wolfenstein that came out in 2014. Titanfall was OK, but the novelty wore off fast and CoD: Advanced Warfare's multiplayer was better than its single player.

Yeah excepts when you leave the prison and the prisoner goes get the getaway car you get instant death scenarios if you deviate from the path as "snipers instantly shoot you" if you get too far.

[Talyrius]

I'd give it best FPS GOTY, but not best overall GOTY.

[Deleted]

I love story based shooters. Those Battlefield 8 420 no scope fag and shit like that are a cancer upon the genre. Even Destiny is not that far from BF 8 (or whatever number it has now).

Wolfenstein is definitely best fps of last year and several years. Last fps I played that I liked so much was Chronicals of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

[PizzaSHARK]

Yeah excepts when you leave the prison and the prisoner goes get the getaway car you get instant death scenarios if you deviate from the path as "snipers instantly shoot you" if you get too far.

What're you talking about? They don't go off to get the car, they just run inside a building and yell at you to hurry up and get in.

[Yriel]

I think it was an ok shooter but i didn't really like the level design in the second half of the game (i started to notice it in the submarine level). Everything was just linear corridors, one after another. I never thought that i would ever get bored while exploring a nazi moon base but man was this a boring level.
The first areas were really well done and it seems that had to release early or something like that so they rushed all levels in the second half.

So no, it wouldn't get my GOTY award either.

[Deleted]

What're you talking about? They don't go off to get the car, they just run inside a building and yell at you to hurry up and get in.

Yeah because if you go down and start walking the other way you get instant death scenario. Are you being thick on purpose?

[Ergar]

Imo it was OK at best, and i have no clue why so many people call it "game of the year". I watched the whole playhrough on youtube, and while it did look fun, it was nothing amazing. Pretty generic gunplay overall. I really did like the enviroments and the story, but it's still far from game of the year in my eyes.

[Mister Cheese]

It had the benefit of sneaking up on people more than anything. Wolfenstein 2009 was meh at best and nobody expected this one to be any good after the pre-release demos and footage. A lot of people thought Wolfenstein was going to be turning into Call of Duty to appeal to a wider Audience. But what did we get? SHOOTING FRIGGIN' SPACE NAZIS ON THE MOON!! What game does that?! It still feels like the old arcade shooter while mixing the new elements. And, to be fair. It didn't have much to compete with this year. 2014 was really disappointing in gaming.

[PizzaSHARK]

Yeah because if you go down and start walking the other way you get instant death scenario. Are you being thick on purpose?

I'm just not sure why you would wander off that direction and expect anything interesting to be there in the first place.

[Deleted]

I'm just not sure why you would wander off that direction and expect anything interesting to be there in the first place.

Because you can? Because the game has hidden items?

[Acidbaron]

Because i set out to be a level based shooter with a linear path and it did that extremely well?

A game is a good game if it succeeds in what it set out to be, just because it wasn't a sandbox like farcry 3 and up doesn't make it a bad game, it makes it a different game :facepalm: