Wolfenstein: The New Order

Wolfenstein: The New Order is an Action-adventure First Person Shooter video game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released on 20 May 2014 for Microsoft Windows, Play Station 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game is the seventh main entry in the Wolfenstein series and the sequel to the 2009 Wolfenstein.

Set in alternative history 1960s Europe in a world where the Nazis won the Second World War, the single-player story follows war veteran William "B.J." Blazkowicz and his efforts to stop the Nazis from ruling over the world.

The game is played from a first-person perspective and most of its levels are navigated on foot. The story is arranged in chapters, which players complete in order to progress through the story. A morality choice in the prologue alters the game's entire storyline; some characters and small plot points are replaced across timelines. The game features a variety of weapons, most of which can be dual wielded. A cover system is also present.

Development began in 2010, soon after Id Software gave MachineGames the rights for the franchise. The development team envisioned Wolfenstein: The New Order as a first-person action-adventure game, taking inspiration from previous games in the series and particularly focusing on the combat and adventure elements. The game attempts to delve into character development of Blazkowicz, unlike its predecessors—a choice from the developers to interest players in the story. They also aimed to portray him in a heroic fashion.

At release, the game received generally positive reviews, with praise particularly directed at the combat and the narrative of the game. Considered a positive change to the series by critics, it was nominated for multiple year-end accolades, including Game of the Year and Best Shooter awards from several gaming publications. A stand-alone expansion set before the events of the game, titled Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, was released in May 2015. A sequel, titled Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, is in the works, which was released in October 2017.

Tropes used in Wolfenstein: The New Order include:

• The Aesthetics of Technology: While Nazi technology looks imposing and aesthetically fitting for the time period, the Da'at Yichud source material is almost mystical by comparison and much more advanced.
• AKA-47: While the firearms are generally referred to by generic names, this is most telling in the 1946 prologue. As even the Thompson SMG, Luger and STG-44 are referred to as generically as possible, though the STG-44 in question is shown to be an upgraded model.
• All Germans Are Nazis: Deconstructed. By 1960, Germans at large have been raised and indoctrinated knowing only the Nazi Party and its ideology. Many of them though are simply people who are just following orders and living their lives as far as they know, rather than being stereotypical villains.
• All There in the Manual: There are various newspaper clippings, posters and other texts scattered throughout the game that describe the Bad Future in more detail.
• Alternate History: The whole game takes places in one, beginning with the prologue (set in the latter years of World War II in 1946). Depending on your actions, there are even two subtly different timelines depending on who you save in the beginning (Wyatt or Fergus). The soundtrack also contains alternate music tracks from that version of The Sixties, including renditions of songs from The Beach Boys and The Beatles that had been heavily Germanized and Nazified.
• Bad Future: From B.J.'s perspective at least. The Third Reich won the War and is mentioned both in-game and through lore as having direct and indirect control over much of the planet. It's also strongly implied that they're also remaking the world in their image.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Anya Oliwa, B.J.'s Polish nurse, confidant and love interest is also her "cousin" Ramona, who's a wanted serial killer of Nazis.
• Big Brother Is Watching You: The London Monitor, a Humongous Mecha stationed in Nazi-controlled London, was designed to be this, being meant to keep the British in line. While even in Berlin, it's shown to not be unheard of for neighbors to spy on each other for supposed crimes against the Reich.
• Book Ends: The prologue and final level of the game all involve an assault on Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse's stronghold.
• Brave Scot: Fergus, one of B.J.'s old brothers-in-arms in the War. In the Wyatt timeline, however, he becomes part of Strasse's Ubersoldaten experiments.
• Broad Strokes: The game generally treats previous entries in the Wolfenstein series as this. Though it is mentioned that the events of the 2009 Wolfenstein still more or less happened, with Blazkowicz even reuniting with an older and crippled Karolin Becker.
• Clarke's Third Law/Sufficiently Advanced Technology: The technology of the Da'at Yichud is so advanced and powerful that its borders on mystical. It's strongly implied that the the mystic powers driving the Ghostapo antics in The Old Blood are also derived from Da'at Yichud tech.
• Cool Old Guy: Anya's grandfather doesn't hesitate to not only help bring her and B.J. to Berlin, but also take out a few Nazis with his trusty shotgun to boot.
• Crapsack World: Thanks to the Nazis' victorious streak, not only is the world worse off for anyone not Aryan or in the good graces of the "Master Race". But it's also being refashioned in the image of the Third Reich.
• Cultural Cringe: In-verse. In contrast to B.J. and the still-patriotic Wyatt, "J" has little love for his homeland as an African American, which is only outmatched by his hatred for the fascist Third Reich. While this does set off B.J., especially when "J" makes comparisons between Pre-War America and Nazi Germany, he still goes out playing "The Star Spangled Banner" on his guitar for all of Berlin to hear before being killed by Nazis.
• Darker and Edgier: The entire game is this to the series. It's also notable for being one of the relatively few World War II and Alternate History games that really go into showing Nazi ideology in detail and taken to its twisted conclusion.
• Defector From Decadence: Klaus Kreutz, a resistance fighter who was a proud Nazi until his family was killed due to his newborn child not meeting Aryan "standards". Which surprises B.J. due to the Nazis tattoos still visible on him.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The game not only goes at length to show Nazi ideology as put in practice, but also how it's influencing everything it touches.
  • It's mentioned that part of the Nazification of occupied lands involves Germanizing the populace into becoming loyal Aryans. By 1960, it's reached the point where German culture and language are starting to overshadow English ones in and around London.
• Dieselpunk: The world of 1960 is a mix of this and Raygun Gothic but with a heavily Nazi veneer.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The way the Nazis defeat the US and its subsequent efforts to "rebuild" America is a twisted echo of how the US defeated and helped rehabilitate Japan in reality.
• Downer Beginning: The prologue, which involves an ultimately doomed Allied assault on Strasse's stronghold in 1946. The Old Blood is also shown to be this in its entirety as the whole thing involves B.J. finding the whereabouts of Strasse's lair and ultimately leading to the aforementioned prologue.
• Dragon-in-Chief: While Nazi Germany in 1960 is still under a Fuhrer implied to be Hitler, it's strongly implied that Strasse had since become the real power in the Reich.
• Dual Wielding: Just about every weapon in the game can be dual wielded, sacrificing accuracy for sheer firepower.
• Easy Mode Mockery: Like the old games, the "Can I play, Daddy?" (i.e. easiest) difficulty shows a worried B.J. wearing a baby bonnet.
• Elite Mooks: The SS as well as Strasse's personal guard.
• Evil Old Folks: Both Frau Engel and Strasse are very old by 1960 (Strasse even more so), but they're still incredibly dangerous and depraved.
• Final Solution: It's implied that the Holocaust was much more thorough, with the Nazis all but wiping out most of the Jews. With the notable exception of the secretive Da'at Yichud order.
• Fish Out of Temporal Water: B.J. initially. Justified in that he'd been catatonic since 1946.
• Ghostapo: The Old Blood, which is set during the War and prior to The New Order, involves mystic Nazi hijinks reminiscent of earlier games. But with said mystic hijinks strongly implied to be derived from Da'at Yichud relics, it's left vague as to whether it's genuinely supernatural.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: In addition to the nigh-obligatory Gratuitous German, there's also quite a bit of fluent Polish as well as Yiddish and Hebrew.
• Historical Domain Character:
  • "J", a major character in the Wyatt timeline, is an African American renegade musician who's also all but stated to be Jimi Hendrix.
  • Die Käfer is a British band out of Liverpool who interlace their songs (with lyrics in Gratuitous German) with passive satire on the Nazi regime.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • A twisted case in the backstory. Part of the downfall of Russia involved the collapse of the Soviet Union mirroring (ironically) the Bolshevik October Revolution of 1918, with Stalin conveniently "disappearing" somewhere in Siberia.
  • Hitler's justification for blowing up New York with an atom bomb to end the War eerily mirrors the American justification for Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Real Life.
  • The prologue can be described as a twisted reenactment of the D-Day landings in 1944 Gone Horribly Wrong.
• Hopeless War: At points, B.J. muses whether he's really making a difference in a world that's already been lost.
• Hope Spot:
  • According to the backstory, it's mentioned that the Chinese were winning the Pacific front of the War against Imperial Japan... only for the Nazis to defeat both sides. It's mentioned as well that the Reich is sending in Chinese shock troopers to aid against the still-persistent American resistance, while a German-style city has been built in the ruins of Manchuria.
  • Newspaper clippings make mention of the French Resistance still hanging on, in addition to American insurgents fighting back against the Reich.
  • The "Über Concrete" relied upon by the Nazis and used to build many of their grand structures is revealed to be flawed thanks to Set Roth, a Da'at Yichud member, sabotaging the production process, which if not addressed would mean that eventually, the ominous symbols and monuments of the Reich's power will crumble back into dust.
• In Plain Sight: Sort of. The Kreisau Circle's headquarters is underground in Berlin itself, where no one would ever really suspect.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As much of a jerk "J" can be, especially with B.J., he does have a point in bringing how even Pre-War America didn't really treat blacks much better than in the Reich.
• Just Following Orders: Many of the Nazis in 1960 seem to work under this, especially when this has been the state of affairs more or less since winning the War. At the same time, however, they're also contributing to the "Nazification" of the rest of the world.
• La Resistance: The Kreisau Circle is still active, but worse for wear. It's also mentioned in the lore that the French Resistance is still fighting the Nazis after 20 years, and that there is an active insurgency in the United States against the current (Nazi-approved) American regime.
• Monumental Damage: It's mentioned that the Nazis nuked New York City. Inverted meanwhile with London, which still has Big Ben and Parliament... but is otherwise being heavily remodeled in the Nazis' image.
• Moon: The Reich not only landed there this time around, but there's even a sizable lunar base on it that B.J. infiltrates later on.
• Mythology Gag: The classic phrase "GET PSYCHED" flashes for a split-second before the very first cutscene.
• Oppressive States of America: The US is still around in 1960, but is under an oppressive Nazi-approved regime that's also rounding up minorities in concentration camps and is gradually manipulating American society into becoming more German and Nazi. The lore, however, mentions that there's still an active resistance movement in America that's giving the Reich headaches. Coincidentally, The New Colossus is set to take place here, and it's all but stated to be on the verge of a Second American Revolution.
• Retraux Flashback: B.J.'s playable nightmares are depicted as levels from Wolfenstein 3D.
• Schizo-Tech: Justified with the Nazis' peculiar technological developments. As it's pretty much all reverse-engineered from the Da'at Yichud.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: B.J. by this point, who simply looks perpetually tired of it all.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Not exactly the apocalypse, but after the events of the prologue, B.J. is catatonic for the next 14 years, finally coming to in 1960.
• Stupid Jetpack Hitler: How the Reich managed to turn the tables on the Allies, thanks to "Deathshead" Strasse. By 1960, this is taken Up to Eleven with even more powerful and intimidating Nazi technologies. Ultimately subverted, however, in that the Nazis reverse-engineered their technological feats from a secret, Jewish techno-order.