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L/RTTP: Wolfenstein The New Order/The Old Blood, aka dual-wielding shotgun simulators

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Do I really need to say anything else?



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Someone once said, "we in the killin' Nazi business. And...business is a-boomin"...and that line has never been more true than in Machinegames' amazing Wolfenstein revival. I had played some New Order before, but wanted to play both games fully before The New Colossus came out and it was so worth it.

Doom may have been faster and more furious in its gunplay, but Wolfenstein successfully blends gloriously gory fast-paced action with a surprisingly engaging and decent narrative and characters. BJ Blazkowicz has the build and unstoppable nature of your typical old school FPS hero, but Machinegames imbue him with such likable personality and out-of-time pathos that elevates him and his mission beyond what is such a pulpy over-the-top premise. The story beats and side characters and relationships really sell Wolfenstein's alt-history world, and make the gore splattering action and brutal knife kills that much more satisfying.

Nothing in The New Order was ever quite as satisfying as those dual-wielding auto-shotguns. All the weapons had a great sense of power, and the flying gore and limbs and crumbling bodies and debris made your shootouts feel intense and thrilling, but unleashing dual rapid-fire buckshot mayhem upon enemies never got old.

The pacing is the other really impressive aspect of New Order. How the game blends stealth elements, fierce action, slower moments and time to catch your breath, memorable narrative segments like your encounter with Engel on the train, and so on will never feeling like those aspects are tonally incongruous really makes the game special

I find it odd how Deathshead is portrayed as the main antagonist and Engel as a side one in the first, because she really had the most memorable moments in New Order. Deathshead just kind of appears at the beginning and end, but Engel gets a lot of moments throughout that really make you just despise her. She's probably in the game more than Deathshead is.

Currently about half way through The Old Blood and while the action is as good as ever, the pacing is a bit too stealth-focused in the beginning IMO. The pipe is a great addition though, feels even more brutal than the knife during those kills.

Now only 8 more days till this

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ch298807

Member
I'm looking forwards to what The New Colossus learns from DOOM. The shooting in The New Order is not quite 100%. I also have a hard time ignoring the collectibles in both games, which somewhat kills the pacing.

The New Order has been somewhat rough on PC. I'm on a 1070, but still have framerate drops. There's also some real bad textures here and there that I hope the new engine will fix.
 

Cess007

Member

Oh man, I clearly remember this section. It was friggin awesome. I think I even reloaded my save so I could play it again.

My only grip with the game is that the final boss wasn't as fun as I was hoping (I found the previous boss battle more meaningful and fun), but that's it. The rest is incredible.
 

antitrop

Member
My only grip with the game is that the final boss wasn't as fun as I was hoping (I found the previous boss battle more meaningful and fun), but that's it. The rest is incredible.

I agree, I enjoyed the penultimate boss fight much more.
 
I re-bought The New Order this week to go through it again before The New Colossus is out. The gunplay is actually more satisfying than I remember, especially when you play super aggressively. The stealth gameplay can be a bit rough around the edges, but it's still rewarding to take out a commander without being detected and I do enjoy reading the newspaper articles and letters that help flesh out the world.

I think DOOM probably bested it on the shooting front, but Wolfenstein's story and characters are definitely superior and that's one of the main reasons I'm looking forward to II.
 
This and Doom are the most overrated FPS this generation IMO. I am a big FPS-fan, but I didn't enjoy Wolfenstein at all. Tried it two times, never got far because it was so boring. I really liked the Raven developed Wolfenstein game, but I also wasn't a fan of RTCW.

I at least finished Doom and ended up liking, but not loving it.
 

Crumpo

Member
I just finished Old Blood this week and it was interesting coming back to Wolfenstein from DOOM-it made the encounters feel a lot more rigid and less exciting.

But all-in-all I still really loved the weapons, the map layouts, the challenges, even if the expansion was weaker than TNO.

Very hyped for a new Wolfenstein
 
Replayed this a week ago. Still super satisfying, still entertaining, still one of my favorite shooter campaigns. I just love how they put together their campaigns- letting everything breathe with just the right amount of time in each location, fully animated first person one-off sequences, odd forward progression through the crevices of locations, etc. It not only gives life to BJ and the rest of the supporting cast, but also to the environment, so that even when you're not hit over the head with huge set-pieces every few minutes, the accumulation of moments over the course of each passing hour feels substantial.

Plus yeah, double shotties to Nazis is great.

But woof, idTech 5 + cross gen did this game no favors. More so these days. Next game looks leaps and bounds better.
 

saturnine

Member
This and Doom are the most overrated FPS this generation IMO. I am a big FPS-fan, but I didn't enjoy Wolfenstein at all. Tried it two times, never got far because it was so boring. I really liked the Raven developed Wolfenstein game, but I also wasn't a fan of RTCW.

I at least finished Doom and ended up liking, but not loving it.

Bolded might be why you didn't enjoy it. The beginning of TNO is far from the best part.
 

Kassovitz28

Neo Member
Perfect timing ! I just bought New Order and Old blood on the EU PSN sale (5 eur each).

I'm new to the series, I know New Order came out first but Old blood is a prequel;
which one should I play first to best experience the story ?
 
Funny I've just gone back to this and its just as good as I remembered. Roll on the sequel I should be finished with the old blood/new order within a few more days. Dual shotties are so goddamn satisfying.
 

Duffk1ng

Member
I really felt like TNO was a missed opportunity at the time, personally. Despite really enjoying it I felt like most of the missions ended right as they were getting really good a lot of the time. And they didn't do enough with the setting in terms of enemies and weapons. Yeah you get the Laserkraftwerk and for one mission the laser assault rifle, but for the most part the options were pretty standard. Most of the weapon wheel was taken up by dual wielding. Same with the enemies, just Nazis, Armoured Nazis, Nazi Dogs for the most part with the odd mech occasionally.

They could have done more with the setting, particularly when it came to enemy variety. The strength of the classic styled FPS games it's emulatingwas always in the wide variety of stuff you got to fight and shoot with, so I thought it was a shame that the developers didn't use the robotics etc to diversify it a bit.
 

daninthemix

Member
I thought the stealth was ill-advised and enemies seemed a bit spongy - though maybe it just felt that way because I wasn't enjoying it much.

Wolf 09 much better, imo.
 

spyshagg

Should not be allowed to breed
the lucky ones are the ones who played the game without any expectations, back when it launched. How you go about playing this game is what makes it or breaks it.


Fantastic piece of art in my opinion.
 

Khoryos

Member
The thing you have to realise about Deathshead is that dedicated Wolfenstein players had been trying to kill that fuck since 2001.

You remember how, when swimming through the sewers, he references swimming in to "Deathshead's X-labs"?

That's a mission in RTCW.
 

Crumpo

Member
I'm new to the series, I know New Order came out first but Old blood is a prequel;
which one should I play first to best experience the story ?

I'd go in order of release. Old Blood has some good nods to things you see or hear in TNO, which would be a bit lost on you if you played them in the other order.
 

thenexus6

Member
I played alot of TNO stealth with throwing knives and silenced pistol it was so satisfying. Awesome that the game can be played both ways equally as fun.
 

DarkTom

Member
I feel I am the only one that found the game quite boring on GAF. I dropped it halfway. I'm glad lad all those liked it got a sequel though.
 
My favorite FPS in years, I can't wait for the sequel. I don't understand those who call the game boring, I was completely engaged the entire time.
 
Finished my replay about a month ago. Doing Wolf09 and RTCW now.

Excellent game. Memorable characters. Great combat. I like the perks unlocking through gameplay. Oddly, one thing its light on is good advanced weapons. Compared to Wolf 09 it was a regression in this area - Particle cannon, Tesla gun, Panzershreck, Flamethrower, Leichenfaust are all a blast to use. Luckily the base weapons are good in TNO. Laser is powerful but doesn't feel great to use, Imo.
 
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