A new game in the Wolfenstein series appeared on store shelves on May 20, 2014 and has already managed to win the love of hundreds of thousands of players around the world. What is the game that pleased gamers and game critics? Let's try to figure it out together.
Series history
Not every modern video game lover knows that the Wolfenstein series currently has as many as nine games. The first game, which was called Castle Wolfenstein, was born in 1981 and belonged to a unique genre of stealth action - in fact, it was thanks to her that this genre emerged. The game takes place during the Second World War. The nameless protagonist of the game penetrates the Nazi fortress called Wolfenstein. He must organize a series of sabotage behind enemy lines and prevent the Nazis from carrying out their evil plans.
This game was developed by the studio Muse Software. It was executed in an isometric 2D-graphics, where the player had to wade past the guards unnoticed, killing some of them if necessary. The main goal of the gameplay was to collect the secret plans of the Nazis and evacuate from the castle to a safe place. The game was released for Apple II, Amiga, DOS, Atari and Commodore 64 platforms, and enjoyed relatively good popularity.
In 1984, three years after the original was released, the continuation of the game appeared - Beoyond Castle Wolfenstein. Visually, the game practically did not differ from the first part, except that the images of the soldiers were now worked out a little more qualitatively for better recognition. The plot of the game this time was based on the so-called Operation Valkyrie, during which an attempt was made on the life of Adolf Hitler in 1941. The player will penetrate the Nazi bunker and plant a bomb in the office of the Fuhrer. Such important innovations were introduced into the game play, as doors between rooms, cabinets with weapons and ammunition, and a pass system, which allowed to move freely around enemy territory with the necessary documents.
After the release of the second game of the series, there was no new information about it until the beginning of the 90s. In 1991, the very iconic Wolfenstein 3D came into being, in which every person, who is at least slightly interested in video games, was playing. Developed the game studio id Software, and the publisher was the company Apogee Software. The rights to use the name Wolfenstein had to be redeemed from the Muse Software studio, although initially the game had to be called completely different. After going through dozens of different names, the developers came to the conclusion that Wolfenstein 3D is perfect for their project, after which a deal was made with the leadership of the studio Muse.
This game became the ancestor of the genre of first-person shooters and eventually acquired a cult status. At the heart of her story is the adventure of the soldier William “Bee Jay” Blaskowitz, who is trying to escape from the castle of Wolfenstein, overthrowing the Nazi regime. The castle is a huge maze with many secret rooms, which are hidden powerful weapons and game bonuses. At the end of the game, the main character had to fight with Hitler, who controls a giant fighting robot.
Initially, the developers planned to introduce into the game stealth elements from the first two parts of the series, but later abandoned this idea, finding that the game would become too complicated and boring. Of course, Wolfenstein 3D is not the very first first-person shooter, but it was thanks to this game that this genre gained enormous popularity in those years. Over the years, the game has been ported to countless platforms. Today, you can play Wolfenstein 3D on almost anything, from your computer to your favorite smartphone.
Since 1991, several more games of the series have been released, for example, a Wolfenstein 3D prequel called Spear of Destiny (1992), in which Be Jay Blaskowicz will have to return the spear of fate stolen by the Nazis from the Versailles Museum. In 2001, the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein was released. In it, Blaskowitz confronted the fascist specialists in the occult sciences, who with the help of magical rituals aroused an ancient evil. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (2003) became a multiplayer game based on the Quake 3 engine - id Tech 3. In 2008, the Wolfenstein RPG game, later ported to iOS with updated graphics, was released for the Java ME iOS mobile platform. This game was distinguished from the rest by the presence of elements inherent in the RPG genre, for example, character pumping, gold gathering and the presence of various mini-games.
In 2009, the continuation of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was simply called Wolfenstein, was released, which confused many fans of the series. The game used the id Tech 4 graphics engine on which games such as Doom 3, Prey and Quake 4 were developed. In the game, agent Blaskovic is once again confronted by otherworldly demonic creatures who came to life through the efforts of the Nazis. You can see the visual evolution of the series in the video below, it vividly demonstrates how the games of the series have changed over the past 33 years.
New world old character
Wolfentein: The New Order - a game created in the walls of the Swedish studio MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Game development began in 2010, it was then that the studio id Software transferred franchise rights to the Swedes. It should be noted that the Swedish developers did not lose face and showed great respect for the original games of the series, reflected in the careful elaboration of the game world, as well as in numerous details that make the atmosphere of the game unforgettable.
In Wolfentein: The New Order you will once again find yourself in the shoes of the experienced warrior Bee Jay Blaskowitz. In the first chapter, the hero assaults the castle of a German general, popularly known as the Skull for its indescribable cruelty. Military operation is not going according to plan, Blaskowitz gets a serious head injury and falls into a coma. His coma lasts for 14 years, and when the war hero comes to life, the year is 1960, and the world is completely ruled by the fascists.
It is necessary to understand that the actions of the game unfold in the conditions of the so-called "alternative history", that is, in a world where the Second World War ended in favor of Germany. This did not happen from scratch: in 1943, German scientists discovered a cache of artifacts from the ancient Jewish order Daat Yishud, thanks to which they would withdraw their science and military power to a completely new quality level. The Nazis created artificial intelligence, learned how to build robots, developed stealth technology, and much, much more.
In 1945, Germany seized Moscow and moved further into the USSR. After the battle of Izhevsk in 1946, the USSR surrenders to the Germans, and Joseph Stalin is considered missing. In 1948, Germany prevails over China and Japan. In the same year, the Germans dropped an atomic bomb on the United States, which does not leave the American government any choice but to surrender. In 1951, the German astronaut Hans Armshtark becomes the first person to set foot on the lunar surface. Germany begins to build its colony on the moon. The British band The Beatles quickly renamed Die Kafer (“bugs” - German) and mastered the German language, you can even hear their compositions in the game and see the cover of the popular album Das Blaue U-Boot (“Blue Submarine” - German). Now, I hope you can imagine a world ruled by the Nazis.
William Blaskovich, who has found himself in a new world, has to go through serious tests: get his old comrades out of a military prison, seize the Nazi laboratory, go down to the ocean floor on a German submarine, go through all the horrors of a concentration camp, and even visit the lunar military base. The plot is served so that you simply do not have to miss. The game is replete with interesting moments, excellent humor, vivid characters and even a dramatic love line between the main character and the nurse who took care of him while he was in a coma.
Playing The New Order is really interesting. And I tell you this, a person who, in principle, does not like the genre of first-person shooters. Even if I, a person from far away shooters, the game hooked so much that I passed it in one breath from the beginning to the very end - it means this work is really worthy of all praise. In addition to passing the main storyline, as the game progresses, you will be able to search and read various archive records that make up the overall picture of events that have occurred in the world over the past 14 years, and also look for various artifacts, art objects stolen by the Nazis, audio diaries and other interesting bonuses . This will appeal to those who like to dive into the game at 100% and explore every corner of it.
Game process
What could be the gameplay shooter? You need to shoot and defeat the hordes of opponents who yearn for your death. In this regard, the new Wolfenstein follows established traditions. Nevertheless, the game diversifies the shooting of various unusual situations. You will have to jump from one plane to another thousands of meters above the ground, have to blow up a bridge, put on a spacesuit, roam the surface of the moon, explore the shelter of the ancient order, carry out various assignments of comrades and colleagues in misfortune, solve puzzles, collect Enigma codes, scattered throughout the game and so on. You will always be something to entertain yourself, it is this game and clings in the first place.
The game also appeared a system of perks, that is, special skills, thanks to which your character becomes even more professional killing machine. Each skill you get by completing a special task. For example, by killing five Nazis with throwing knives, you will be able to carry an extra throwing knife with you. And so with almost every weapon and skill in the game.
You can pass the game in the style of stealth, silently sneaking up to enemies from the back and looking for safe workarounds, or you can choose a frontal attack tactic and rush ahead, destroying everyone who gets in your way. What to choose - you decide for yourself, based on your gaming preferences.
The enemies that you encounter during the game include Nazi soldiers and officers, heavy armored juggernauts armed with large-caliber machine guns, metal four-legged Panzerhund robots, battle bellows the size of a 10-story building and many other incredible creatures and mechanisms. The artificial intelligence of opponents does not shine with special delights and is the usual such AI, which is found in most modern video games. On the other hand, I personally have never been so fun and fascinating to shoot the Nazis. So maybe it is for the better, that they are not particularly smart.
The weapons available in the game are also a standard set for the extermination of fascism inherent in this series of games. You have the opportunity to shoot at once with two hands, you can use a pistol with a silencer or a plasma cutter, recharging from special outlets. With this cutter, you can cut metal chains and thin metal bulkheads, which is very useful to you during combat missions.
Game levels are interspersed with rest on the basis of the rebels, where you get closer acquainted with the other characters, perform simple tasks and get ready for the next combat mission. The characters, by the way, are quite interesting, and each of them is endowed with a unique personality and is charismatic in its own way. The actor game of virtual heroes wants to say, according to Stanislavsky, “I believe!”. Captain Blaskovic is so cool that he leaves far behind such characters as Jack Bower from the series "24" and John McClain from "Die Hard". He famously crushes his foes into the cabbage, interrogates German officers with the help of a chainsaw, and easily deals with the army of robots of the Third Reich.
Visual component and sound
The game looks quite attractive, but against the background of some projects for consoles of a new generation, all this is not so impressive. The id Tech 5 engine at the heart of The New Order uses giant textures with a resolution of 128,000 x 128,000 pixels, making the surfaces in the game look naturalistic, and not made up of numerous gluing elements. But the MegaTexture technology has its drawbacks - this is the huge size of the distribution of the game. The PC version has a size of 44 GB, and for the Xbox 360 game console, the game was released on 4 disks. The developers even joked away during the interview that the pirates will have a hard time spreading such a huge game on the Internet. Nevertheless, in the very first days after the release of the game for sale, it was downloaded from torrent trackers more than 100,000 times.
The effects in the game are wonderful, the shadows from the objects are soft (one more merit of id Tech 5), the characters are highly detailed, and all this in aggregate looks just wonderful. But, of course, only the owners of top-end PCs and consoles of the new generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4 can enjoy the most beautiful version of the game. On consoles of the previous generation, the game looks very mediocre. Of course, the roughness and imperfections of graphics take place on all platforms, but during the hurricane merriment simply do not pay any attention to this.
The audio component in the game is great. Everything here is wonderful: from background sounds to character dubbing. The music about which I already wrote above also pleases. Most of the songs that you hear in the game are performed in German. You can hear famous English songs like House of Rising Sun in the German interpretation.
Summing up
Wolfenstein: The New Order will please not only fans of first-person shooters, but also just connoisseurs of daring action games in which the transcendental steepness of the main character only emphasizes the madness on the screen. The game is provocative, exciting and diverse from start to finish. You will not be bored for a minute, and this is a huge plus in the case of modern video games.
pros
- Fascinating story
- Well-developed game world
- Bright, catchy characters with a good sense of humor
- Gorgeous action component
- Excellent work of artists and animators
- A huge number of gaming secrets and bonuses
- Wonderful music, including famous songs
Minuses
- Not enough advanced AI enemies
- Quite a controversial ending.
- The graphics could still be better.
- The presence of minor, but glaring bugs
My personal assessment of the game: 8 out of 10 .
The game can be safely recommended to all your friends, and even to those who are quite far from the video games. Without a doubt, they can get a lot of pleasure from it. In the end, saving the world from the yoke of fascism has never been so much fun! Special thanks to the company for providing a review of a copy of the game.
The article is based on materials .
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