4/5 ★ – fez219's review of Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Really fun reboot! The story is much more involved for a Wolfenstein game than you'd expect, for better or worse, but mostly for the better. The premise — Nazis win the war and you wake up in 1960 — is excellent, and the game does a ton with it in both the gameplay and story department. The villains are perfectly creepy, stealing the show with their insane cruelty any time they're onscreen. The heroes are unique and compelling, and I wish it gave more screentime to some of them. There are a few issues in the story. The game is mostly frenetically paced, which is how Wolfenstein should be! But there are a few plodding missions at the Resistance HQ that task you with fetch quests and give you an opportunity to learn more about your allies. While this gave more space for the heroes to develop, it's not the kind of slow gameplay I'm looking for in something like this. Also, maybe BJ Blascowicz doesn't need sex scenes??? Those were rough. There's also an early choice that leads to two different "timelines," but it feels pretty inconsequential and underdeveloped. Maybe if choices were felt more throughout the game it would be more compelling to replay the game for a different story. One last flaw in that although the campaign is plenty long, the ending is an abrupt cliffhanger that doesn't really work. The Nazis, the weapons, and the environments all have great designs that had me hooked to see what was around the next corner. The graphics are pretty good for the time, but not amazing, and New Order isn't optimized perfectly. The gameplay is quite good, but not perfect. The level variety and set pieces are amazing and keep things fresh through the entirety of the game. I don't want to spoil things, but it consistently surprised me. You can usually go in guns blazing or stealthily, which works surprisingly well. I didn't expect to like the stealth as much as I did! There are also a ton of collectibles to find off the beaten path, so there's quite a bit of replayability built into the level design. The shooting feels mostly great. Blasting through weaker enemies with your powerful arsenal is very satisfying, especially when dual wielding. The chunky noises and recoil of the guns feel great. The strongest enemies are also fun to fight, as their armor gets blown apart as they take damage. The mid tier enemies are a bit annoying though. They soak up too much damage without reacting much. Most of the guns get upgrades as you play and feel great, but I think the shotgun could have been buffed. It's incredibly powerful against the weakest enemies, but feels way too weak against anything else and too risky to use late game. I like the idea of perks, but wasn't a fan of how they were implemented. I like that you could choose where to focus your playstyle, but I felt a bit pressured by the unlock system to change my playstyle. Maybe it's a me problem, but I often found myself playing it as a cover shooter and having less fun in order to unlock perks. I think unlocking skills through collectibles or exp that you can spend how you want makes for a better system than the achievement-like perk system here, which made me feel compelled to play differently. But again, maybe that's more of a me problem and players who ignore the perks can have more fun. Overall, it's a great shooter and reboot. It's worth your time even if it doesn't quite reach the Everest peak of DOOM 2016.