Old Blood's first chapter or two are weak and give a poor first impression, and it's stylistically more of a homage to occult Wolfenstein despite also being a prequel to New Order (and thus introduces some goofy shit), but the notion it retroactively ruins New Order is ludicrous. And once you muscle through the slow start it's a ton of fun with some memorable setpieces and strong characters.
Speaking of, and I've said this before, New Order/Old Blood highlight how talented the writing team at Machine Games is in regards to characterisations. Despite often saying very little, and being dressed in pulpy violent concepts, almost if not the entire cast of both games is distinct and extremely well characterised with a surprisingly authentic humanity. Much of the dialogue is written and performed very naturally, and I think it's incredible that Machine Games managed to forge these individuals from a game that is otherwise all about killing retro future Nazis (sometimes on the moon).
It's got that Tarantino quality wherein the characters are larger than life and the backdrop pulpy violence, yet the dialogue, performances, and characterisations are very strong.
