Most of what can be said about Wolfenstein: The Old Blood can be said about The New Order. Originally planned as DLC packs, The Old Blood was thankfully made into its own retail product with a physical release on console, which is something I'll champion every day of the week.

While the gameplay and aesthetics transition neatly between TNO and TOB, the game takes a pretty large leap into the absurd and paranormal come the later half. Paranormal elements have never been a stranger to the Wolfenstein series, particularly with the 2009 "reboot" from Raven. The Old Blood just has a hard time implementing these elements into what was a more grounded and "realistic" experience in The New Order.

The Old Blood may not be as great as the full game it expands on, but it still offers a short but sweet FPS campaign and a few decent challenge maps to get your money's worth.

It may be a stretch to suggest, but I fully believe Wolfenstein: The New Order is at least partially responsible for the "boomer shooter" revival that kicked into gear especially during the late 2010s. At the point of The New Order's release, first-person-shooters began steering away from the design principles of their predecessors. Large mazes, key hunting, arena-styled combat, and the ability to carry more than two weapons was on the way out in favor for more "realistic" directions. Shooters began to slow down in pace after the release of Halo, which popularized many of the FPS trends we began seeing in the 2000 for better and worse. Especially during the 7th console generation, FPS games began to bleed into each other with the same brown/gray aesthetic and mechanics, say for a few outlier like Singularity that would bring something new to the table. For the most part, every shooter during this period of time either felt like a worse Halo or Call of Duty.

Wolfenstein: The New Order succeeds at presenting a blend of modern and classic design philosophies that made it a truly unique shooter for its time, and still a bit of an anomaly to this day considering its scale and budget. Protagonist B.j. Blazkowicz presents this humorous blend of "down to Earth straight-man" and a Looney Tune: sensitive and quiet in many cutscenes only to transition into gameplay where you feel like a lightning-fast gorilla with a gun fetish. Melding the more modern, "cinematic (for lack of a better term)" direction of shooters of its current era with the bombast and fun of shooters of yore was exactly the direction the series needed, unlocking a hunger for more games like this in the future. The tonal differences between the story and gameplay almost feel comedic, but playing everything completely straight was the direction to go (an issue I have with The New Colossus a few years later).

Now passing the ten-year mark of The New Order's release, it's easier to notice and understand some of its faults while recognizing how impactful the game still is. While the general gameplay of TNO is a blast, there are a few segments of platforming, treasure hunting, and even just getting around are a hassle. Pacing is everything for a game with such high highs like this, so it makes sense to pump the breaks where needed. Sadly, most of these slower segments feel like a bit of a chore and artificial to extend the length just a bit more; it's hard to have fun when you're running around a sewer looking for a blowtorch when you just finished raiding a Nazi camp and blew everyone into little giblets. TNO additionally has a checkpoint issue when it's trying to push players to search as many nooks and crannies as they can for resources and collectables. The bridge level in particular has an awful checkpoint where I was attempting to grab what looked like a collectable, but died trying to jump to it over and over again, leading me to have to restart the level and loose five-plus minutes of progress about five separate times before I gave up from frustration. This issue is compounded by loading times, which seem to be fast enough on the SSD I have the game installed on, but having every little fall resulting in a loading screen gets old fast. I have fully-completed this game several times in the past (both the Xbox 360 and One versions), but I no longer have the patience to be as meticulous, especially for dorky Steam achievements.

Those small issues are only a fraction of the total experience of Wolfenstein: The New Order. Classic gameplay sensibilities mixed with modern design into a ten-hour adrenaline-fest. two-weapon limits? Get that shit out of here; we have seven different weapons, nearly all of which can be dual-wielded and/or have alternate firing modes. Skill trees? upgrades are dispensed by you playing well and tactfully, not spending artificial "upgrade points" you acquire through bullshit XP. This is the template the AAA FPS genre should have went but didn't. Thankfully, in the wake of this franchise seemingly being on ice in favor of Todd Howard's dream Indiana Jones game, the indie shooter scene has exploded (argually too much) and I firmly believe we have The New Order to thank for that.

drags cigarette "Man, they don't make 'em like this, anymore."

Most of what can be said about Wolfenstein: The Old Blood can be said about The New Order. Originally planned as DLC packs, The Old Blood was thankfully made into its own retail product with a physical release on console, which is something I'll champion every day of the week.

While the gameplay and aesthetics transition neatly between TNO and TOB, the game takes a pretty large leap into the absurd and paranormal come the later half. Paranormal elements have never been a stranger to the Wolfenstein series, particularly with the 2009 "reboot" from Raven. The Old Blood just has a hard time implementing these elements into what was a more grounded and "realistic" experience in The New Order.

The Old Blood may not be as great as the full game it expands on, but it still offers a short but sweet FPS campaign and a few decent challenge maps to get your money's worth.