

Unveiled earlier this month, Wolfenstein: The New Order is being developed for current and next-gen systems by the team behind cult favourite shooters such as The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay and The Darkness.



Big fans of Wolfenstein 3D, which is viewed as the game that gave birth to the modern day first-person shooter, the team at MachineGames is keen to stick to the action-packed philosophy of the original, all the while adding some tricks of its own.

The game takes place in an alternative history in which the Nazis won the war with the help of some rather advanced and mysterious technology.

Having awoken from a 14-year coma, returning hero BJ Blazkowicz is the last line of defence against a Nazi regime that has gone global.

It's a bizarre concept that makes for an incredibly fun, over-the-top action game, something which was only possible by removing the restrictions of reality.

"When we started to talk with Bethesda and they told us that nobody was working on Wolfenstein, we thought, 'Yes, that sounds good'," creative director Jens Matthies told Digital Spy.

"Then we spent some time with id Software to familiarise ourselves with the technology and also to develop the foundation of the game concept. We sat there and brainstormed and came up with a number of different settings.

"But what we learned over the years is to have a basic concept that allows you to do anything that you can dream up.

"So we thought, 'What if the Nazis won the war, and they won by having this crazy technology?' That means we can do anything. If we want to add robots we could do that, if we want to add crazy laser weapons we can do that too.

"Everything is possible in this world."

Indeed, everything does seem possible when you have a level in which Nazi-occupied London plays host to kamikaze Cockney cabbies, robotic guard dogs and a gigantic Nazi research facility barely overshadowed by Big Ben. And in this world, the Nazis also won the space race.

As Matthies goes on to explain, the game's locations dictate where the story goes next, and not the other way around.

"We spend a lot of time thinking about our locations, because we're very story-driven," Matthies revealed.

"In previous games, a lot of locations have come from the story, but that hasn't really yielded the coolest environments.

"So this time we reversed it and thought about what would make the coolest locations, and built the story around that instead.

"This ended up making the story better, because now you have to solve really interesting plot turns and think about how you get from one country to another country.

"It's not really about now you're here and now you're there, it's more about what would make a cool setting."

Though tight-lipped about other places we can expect to visit, the London mission sees BJ attempt to secure some highly advanced Nazi helicopters, something which immediately gives him access to every country in the world, and possibly the planets beyond - the Nazis have been to the moon, after all.

Securing the helicopters is no easy task, however, especially when faced with a facility packed with soldiers and robots, including a gigantic mech that bursts into the hangar as a hands-off demo comes to an end.

Fortunately, the ability to lean in four directions out of cover, dual-wield weapons and pick up old-school health packs gives BJ a fighting chance of survival, while a handy laser cutter, which can be used to cut holes in fences and certain doors, enables a certain amount of stealth.

However, while the game is still very much about shooting Nazis and blowing things up, Matthies is keen to point out that The New Order adds new storytelling techniques and adventure elements.

"We look at this game not as a pure shooter, but more as an action/adventure shooter. It's still very heavy on the shooter elements, but we're introducing adventure aspects too," Matthies explains.

"Our BJ is still that sort of Nazi ass-kicking action hero, but we've also introduced a lot of depth to the character.

"We're really trying to explore what it's like for him to have been on the winning side of this war for so long, but now finds himself all alone and has to turn the tide of this war on his own."

This new action-adventure style is no more evident than on a night train to Berlin. Confronted by a sadistic Nazi general and her boy toy plaything, BJ must participate in a life or death card game aimed at discovering whether he has racial purity.

It reminded us of Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds, especially the famous apple strudel showdown in which he interrogates Jewish refugee Shosanna.

It's not quite as intense or believable as the aforementioned movie scene - possibly because of the giant mech parked in the corner of the train - but it certainly is dramatic.

It bodes well for a game where the focus is very much on delivering a good story at the expense of the now customary multiplayer mode, an omission that took us by surprise when we found out.

"We have always been really passionate about single-player, and would prefer to put that development time into a stronger single-player than spread ourselves too thin.

"If you want to do multiplayer these days you have to come up with something so extraordinary because the landscape is really strong.

"For a studio like us, we'd have to focus solely on it."

Wolfenstein: The New Order will be released on current and next-generation consoles later this year.

Wolfenstein: The New Order



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