MachineGames had a massive problem in 2014. They were trying to resurrect a franchise that basically invented the first-person shooter but had somehow become a bit of a joke. Most people expected Wolfenstein The New Order to be another mindless "kill the bad guys" romp with zero substance. Instead, we got a game that managed to be both incredibly violent and shockingly emotional. It’s been over a decade, and honestly, most modern shooters still haven't figured out how to balance story and gameplay quite like this.
It’s weird.
You’re playing as B.J. Blazkowicz, a guy who usually has the personality of a brick wall, but here? He’s tired. He’s poetic. He’s grieving. The game starts in 1946 with a desperate assault on General Deathshead’s compound, and when that goes sideways, B.J. ends up in a vegetative state for fourteen years. He wakes up in 1960. The world is gone. The Nazis won. They’ve covered the planet in grey concrete and "super-concrete" that's literally rotting from the inside.
What Wolfenstein The New Order Got Right About Narrative
The genius of Wolfenstein The New Order isn't just the shooting. It’s the downtime.
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Most shooters are terrified of making you put your gun away for more than thirty seconds. MachineGames wasn't. They built this incredible hub called the Kreisau Circle HQ. You spend significant chunks of the game just walking around, talking to refugees, finding lost wedding rings, or cutting pieces of moldy bread. It sounds boring. It’s actually the best part of the game because it gives you a reason to care about the world you’re trying to save.
Take the character of Max Hass. He’s a massive man with a portion of his brain missing, and he can only say his own name. In any other game, he’d be a gimmick. Here, his relationship with Klaus—a former Nazi who defected—is one of the most touching things in the entire experience. It’s these small, human moments that make the ultra-violence of the combat actually mean something.
You aren't just a killing machine. You're a guy who lost fourteen years of his life and is desperately trying to find a reason to keep breathing in a world that feels like it’s already dead.
The Timeline Choice That Changes Everything
Early in the game, you have to make a choice. It’s a brutal scene. You choose between Fergus, the seasoned Scottish pilot, or Wyatt, the terrified young private. This isn't just a cosmetic choice. It splits the timeline.
If you pick Fergus, you get access to health upgrades and the ability to hotwire certain panels. If you pick Wyatt, you get armor upgrades and can pick locks. But more importantly, the vibe of the story changes. The dialogue is different. The characters that inhabit your base change. It’s a reason to play the game at least twice, which is rare for a linear shooter. Most games promise "choice" and then give you a slightly different colored ending. Wolfenstein The New Order actually makes you live with the consequences of who you let die in that lab.
Combat Mechanics: Dual-Wielding and Tactical Stealth
The gunplay is crunchy. That’s the only way to describe it.
When you fire a shotgun in this game, it feels like it has weight. The "Laserkraftwerk" tool/weapon is a masterclass in utility, letting you cut through fences or melt the faces off armored supersoldiers. But the most iconic thing? Dual-wielding. You can dual-wield almost everything. Two assault rifles? Sure. Two automatic shotguns? Why not. It’s ridiculous, but the game plays it completely straight.
However, if you just run in guns blazing every time, you’re going to die. A lot.
The Commander system is the secret sauce of the combat. If a Commander sees you or hears a loud noise, they’ll trip an alarm and call in endless reinforcements. You have to learn to sneak. You have to use the silenced pistol and the knife. It creates this loop of "quiet, quiet, quiet... LOUD." It prevents the gameplay from becoming a monotonous slog of just clicking on heads until the room is empty.
The Reality of the New Order Setting
There’s a specific aesthetic here that hasn't been matched since. It’s "Brutalist Sci-Fi." Everything is oversized, heavy, and oppressive. The moon base level is a standout, not just because you’re on the moon, but because of the way the game portrays the mundane bureaucracy of an evil empire. You see the paperwork. You see the lunchrooms.
It makes the horror feel grounded.
The game doesn't shy away from the reality of what it's depicting. It deals with themes of disability, racism, and the systematic erasure of culture. It's heavy stuff for a game where you also fight giant robot dogs. But that’s the magic of it. It doesn't feel like it's trying to be "edgy" for the sake of it. It feels like it's actually acknowledging the stakes of its own premise.
Why People Misunderstand the Difficulty Curve
Look, Wolfenstein The New Order can be brutally hard on the higher settings like "Über."
The common complaint is that the cover system is janky. It’s a "lean" system where you hold a button and use the stick to peek. It feels old school because it is. But once you realize the game wants you to be aggressive rather than hiding behind a crate for ten minutes, it clicks. You have to scavenge. You have to manually pick up every single piece of armor and every bullet.
Some people hate the manual looting. They want it to be automatic like in Call of Duty. But the manual looting forces you to look at the environment. It makes you feel the desperation of B.J. grabbing every scrap of metal he can find just to stay alive for five more seconds. It’s a deliberate design choice that emphasizes the "resistance" fantasy. You are under-equipped and outnumbered. Act like it.
The Technical Legacy and ID Tech 5
Let’s be honest: ID Tech 5 was a weird engine.
The "Megatexture" technology meant that the environments looked incredible and unique, but it also led to some nasty texture pop-in back in the day. If you play it now on modern hardware, most of those issues are gone. The game still looks surprisingly good because the art direction is so strong. They didn't rely on flashy lighting effects as much as they relied on strong silhouettes and a very specific color palette.
The sound design is also top-tier. Mick Gordon—who later went on to do the DOOM (2016) soundtrack—did the music here. It’s not just heavy metal; it’s distorted, industrial, and uncomfortable. It perfectly matches the feeling of a world that has been crushed under a boot.
Common Misconceptions and Errors
A lot of players think Wolfenstein The New Order is a direct sequel to the 2009 Wolfenstein game. While it technically follows the same continuity, MachineGames basically soft-rebooted the whole thing. You don't need to know anything about the older games to enjoy this.
Another mistake? People think the stealth is optional. On lower difficulties, maybe. But on hard? If you don't take out those Commanders silently, you will get swamped by "Kampfhunde" and heavy soldiers. You have to play it like a tactical shooter at times, which catches a lot of "run and gun" fans off guard.
How to Get the Best Experience Today
If you’re picking this up for the first time or returning for a replay, there are a few things you should do to actually enjoy it.
First, don't play it like a modern military shooter. Use the lean mechanic. It's mapped to the Alt key on PC or the left bumper/trigger combo on consoles. It’s your best friend. Second, actually read the newspaper clippings you find. They flesh out the world in a way that the cutscenes don't. They explain how the Nazis won—from the discovery of ancient technology to the atomic bombing of Manhattan.
It’s grim, but it’s fascinating world-building.
Actionable Insights for New Players:
- Priority One: The Commanders. Always scout a room before firing. If you see a signal indicator at the top of your screen, there’s a Commander nearby. Kill them first, or prepare for an infinite wave of enemies.
- Don't Sleep on Stealth Perks. You unlock perks by doing specific challenges. Want to carry more grenades? You need to get grenade kills. Want to move faster while crouching? Do stealth takedowns. Check the perks menu early and aim for the ones that fit your playstyle.
- The Laserkraftwerk Upgrade Path. You’ll find upgrades for your laser cutter throughout the game. Some make it a better tool, others make it a devastating sniper rifle. Look in every corner, especially in the London Nautica levels.
- Health Overcharge. You can pick up health packs even when you're at 100. This "overcharges" your health, though it slowly ticks back down. Use this right before entering a big arena. It gives you that extra padding needed to survive the initial burst of fire.
- Timeline Choice. If you want a more "classic" feel with more health, go Fergus. If you want to feel more like a tank with better armor, go Wyatt. Most fans agree the Fergus timeline feels a bit more "canon" for B.J.'s story, but the Wyatt timeline has better side characters.
Wolfenstein The New Order remains a high-water mark for the genre because it treats its audience like adults. It assumes you can handle a story that is genuinely depressing and gameplay that is genuinely challenging. It doesn't hold your hand, and it doesn't apologize for being a "single-player only" experience in an era that was obsessed with tacked-on multiplayer.
If you want to understand where the modern "Boomer Shooter" and "Narrative FPS" genres converged, this is the ground zero. Go back and play it. It’s still as sharp as a combat knife to the throat.
To get the most out of your playthrough, start on "Bring 'em on!" difficulty to get a feel for the mechanics before jumping into the harder modes. Focus on unlocking the "Scout" perks first to reveal Commanders on your map, which makes the tactical side of the game much more manageable. Finally, make sure to explore the resistance base thoroughly between missions; there are side quests and character beats there that provide the emotional core of the game, making the final confrontation with Deathshead significantly more impactful.