Hey, Waypointeers! We hope you’re all ready to join us, and the Waypoint staff, on our delve into Wolfenstein: The New Order. Released in 2014 and developed by MachineGames, The New Order is a first-person shooter in which you play as B.J. Blazkowicz in an alternate-history 1960s Europe conquered by Nazi Germany.
To consolidate discussion, we’re making this thread to serve as the home for the Wolfenstein: The New Order chat around Waypoint 101. Feel free to share your updates, current thoughts, and blog posts as we go. We hope that, by having folks talk about the game as they play it, we can all have a more enriched experience. We’ll be expanding the scope of this thread as we go, as new Waypoint 101 episodes go up.
As we close in on the end, we’ll be collecting folks’ final thoughts in this original post to serve as a testament to the discussions we’ve had.
A: Waypoint 101 is Waypoint’s video game book club! This is a semi-regular podcast series, in which Waypoint staff dive deep and dig into a game in full. Rather than the crew explaining the game to one another and the viewers, the team will have all played the game and, thus, open room for a discussion based on an assumption of knowledge. Of course, it’s a perfectly enjoyable listen even if you’re unfamiliar with the game!
Q: Do I have to play the whole game at once?
A: Nope! Depending on the length of the game, it will be cut into chunks and played one part at a time. Until we know how much the first episode will take on, the thread should stick to first impressions or the first hour or two. We’ll keep you updated here.
Q: I played this game before. Can I talk about that thing at the end? Y’know, the thing?
A: This thread will be gated in line with the episodes, so folks who are playing along with the podcast don’t get spoiled. Spoiler things appropriately. Try not to get into huge discussions involving things outside of the current scope of discussion.
Q: Are we playing Wolfenstein: The Old Blood?
A: This Waypoint 101 is only covering The New Order in this playthrough. Sorry, Old Blood fans!
Q: I want to raise something for the Waypoint staff to talk about on the podcast!
A: Well, we can’t guarantee they’ll read it out, but you can e-mail your questions and comments to gaming@vice.com with the subject line Wolfenstein: The New Order. Like the thread, it’s best to keep discussion to the section of the game at hand.
I’ll start my new playthrough tonight! Probably on easy mode, I didn’t enjoy what I played of it on normal mode much. I want to feel like a whirlwind of nazi destruction.
Golly, this is a dillema for me. The game is not available on PC in the country I live in, and I sold my PS3 since I last finished it.
I’m considering just watching a playthrough to remind myself how the narrative unfolds, but so much of this game seems to depend on experiencing it first hand. I really don’t want to sit this one out. Oof.
I mentioned this in the other Wolfenstein thread and I think it’s worth mentioning in this thread as people start to get in to this game:
I had way more fun playing this game on the easiest setting than I did on Normal. I played the first level or two on normal and then bumped it down to the condescending pacifier baby mode and had so much fun. My experience became so much better once I bumped it down. I went from pinned down soldier to super soldier to angel of death and that elevated the game for me.
I tried to throw a knife into a nazi, missed, and accidentally hit a nazi dog instead. This alerted the nazi to my presence and he walked over to beat me with a club and I stabbed him in the neck and thought to myself “Well, so much for the tolerant left.” while stabbing him. 10/10
I’m playing on easy and god is it satisfying to just…flawless victory all over these Nazis’ faces.
One thing I love about this game is how they kind of lock the player into having interesting interactions with the other members of the team that some people playing a shooty FPS game might otherwise ignore. And they feel natural.
Also, making a character named BJ with barely any actual previous character so damn lovable.
I never played very far into this game when I first got it but I’ve heard how much more then just a typical FPS it is over the years and I’m happy that I’ve actually started working my way through it. I played through chapters 1 & 2 this morning and I’m really surprised at how strong the narrative is so far. Listening to BJ’s thoughts here and there outline a surprisingly gentle, almost poetic, soul instead of what you would typically expect for a buff Nazi-killing soldier in a game like this.
In just the first 2 chapters there have already been a few gut wrenching scenes where control is taken either completely away or a choice forced upon you that do an excellent job of conveying the absolute terror and hopelessness of dealing with people who have absolute hate and disdain in their hearts for anyone other than themselves.
So far I’m playing on the medium setting and haven’t really had any difficulty mowing through dozens of Nazis, but I may drop the difficulty down as others have suggested if it starts to ramp up later in the game. I’ve long since given (mostly) up on worrying about difficulty based achievements or awards in games and mostly want to play through for the story. Although I will admit that I’ve found myself really scouring through the levels for the hidden items.
I agree completely. Fergus is an absolute fantastic personality and the rest of the ragtag group of “beer boys” as he calls them really feel natural as a group working together. Wyatt too really grows as a character as he starts to better accept what is going on around him, from stabilizing the plane at the start and panicking to saving BJ from one of the robot dogs and learning stress reducing breathing exercises before the wall climb. Again way more characterization in a FPS then usual I feel. Which makes the decision at the end of chapter 1 between saving Fergus or Wyatt all that much harder. I ended up saving Fergus (because I really want more of him in the game as I love his character’s dialogue) but it was so crushing having to watch Strasse do his dirty business. I was actually happy that the camera pulled away for that as I can usually handle lots of violence in media but something about eyes always makes me cringe. I may have to go through a second play through to see what the difference between saving each character is.
Been loving Wyatt in my second playthrough. It still hits some of the same beats, but I feel that Wyatt is generally a little more optimistic and has a better arc. I really recommend it, especially since going into 2, Wyatt is the canon choice.
The beginning of this game has never really worked for me - when it came out, I made it to the first mission and bounced hard off of one of the firefights. Maybe I was playing on Normal, or maybe it’s because I’ve played some Overwatch now, but I’ve found Easy to be plenty engaging and doable.
I think one of my biggest mechanical hurdles is that the game does a pretty poor job of punctuating the beginning and end of firefights. Maybe I’m spoiled by dynamic soundtracks “battle music” thing, but the sting after stealth takedowns always sounds like an alarm at first, and I often find myself waltzing out of a room when I get shot in the back by a straggler. Not backbreaking, but definitely annoying.
Also the first time you walk upstairs in the Kreisau and see the memorial; I didn’t notice it the first time but damn is that a gut punch. I love the atmosphere in there, a combination of fortress, survival bunker, and home.
Finished the intro just now. I think I’ve seen this part of the game and a little after before but it was a long time ago? The only negative thing I’ve heard about the game is that it doesn’t put its best foot forward, so maybe I was expecting worse but it was fine as a tutorial set piece.
Also, I think at one point I triggered a bug. I shot at the big walker with the first big cannon and the game started playing this endlessly rising tension sound/music loop and it never stopped until I triggered the next cut scene. And it was loud enough to cover up some of the dialogue, but luckily I play everything with closed captions turned on so it didn’t make me miss anything.
I’ve got about another 15-30 minutes of stuff I’ve definitely seen before and then after that I am almost entirely unspoiled. Won’t be getting to any of that tonight, but I’m looking forward to it when I do have a chance to play more.
First impressions, no spoilers, the voice acting is consistently strong throughout. I can’t point out a single performance that sounds lacking. Even more impressive is that the campy material works right along with the straight material and yet still feels cohesive. Great direction and great performances across the board.
Just a heads up for anyone who hasn’t picked the game up yet, as of today it’s 25% off on PSN for both PS3 and PS4! I was thinking about passing on playing through the game, but with the sale going on, I’ll probably go for it.
I thought saves carry over. Wasn’t that Fergus getting smashed by the cookie in the trailer?
I am actually in the middle of my second playthrough with Wyatt & J who I think are great but I think I personally prefer Fergus & Tekla because I really like the way they kind of force BJ to be a calming voice when they are at their lowest. I’m only about third of the way through so I could change my mind though.
I don’t think they made any compromise for their planned trilogy so I don’t see them cowering towards a single canon route. Pretty sure they are going to commit by the choice the player did in one way or another.
Ah, I must be mistaken then. I’ve liked both routes (even though the cat’s out of the bag I’m still gonna spoiler tag everything) and I think that there is some stuff in the second half with Wyatt and J that really shines. J is more memorable than Tekla to me, Fergus more than Wyatt. In fact, I picked Fergus solely because I wanted that voice actor around me for a whole game.
