Wolfenstein: The New Order is a 2014 first-person shooter game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released on 20 May 2014 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game is the sixth main entry in the Wolfenstein series and the first since 2009's Wolfenstein. Set in an alternate history 1960s Europe where the Nazis won the Second World War, the 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. A morality choice in the prologue alters the game's storyline; some characters and small plot points are replaced throughout the two timelines. The game features a variety of weapons, most of which can be dual wielded. A cover system is 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 aimed to portray him in a heroic fashion.
At release, Wolfenstein: The New Order received generally positive reviews, with praise particularly directed at the combat and the narrative of the game. Critics considered it a positive change to the series and nominated it for multiple year-end accolades, including Game of the Year and Best Shooter awards from several gaming publications. A stand-alone expansion, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, was released in May 2015 and is set before the events of the game. A sequel, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, was released in October 2017.
1. Wolfenstein: The New Order is a first-person shooter video game with action-adventure elements, particularly in its combination of narrative-focused exploration and puzzle solving with Wolfenstein's action gameplay. To progress through the story, players fight enemies throughout levels. The game utilizes a health system in which health is divided into separate sections that regenerate; if an entire section is lost, players must use a health pack to replenish the missing health.
2. Players use melee attacks, firearms, and explosives to fight enemies, and may run, jump, and occasionally swim to navigate through the locations. Melee attacks can be used to silently take down enemies without being detected. Alternatively, players can approach enemies in direct combat, which often results in an intense firefight between the two parties.
3. A cover system can be used in combat as assistance against enemies. Players have the ability to lean around, over, and under cover, which can be used as a tactical advantage during shootouts and stealth levels. The game gives players a wide variety of weapon options; they can be found on the ground, retrieved from dead enemies, or removed from their stationary position and carried around. Weapon ammunition must be manually retrieved from the ground or from dead enemies.
4. Players have access to a weapon inventory, which allows them to carry as many weapons as they find. With some of these weapons, players have the ability to dual wield, giving them an advantage over enemies by dealing twice as much damage. Players can customize weapons through the use of upgrades; for example, a rocket launcher can be attached to the side of an assault rifle, and a wire cutting tool can be upgraded to a laser gun.
The New Order is set in alternate history where Nazi Germany deploys advanced technologies to turn the tide against the Allies and ultimately win World War II, taking over most of the world. Its storyline is loosely connected to 2009's Wolfenstein and features returning characters Kreisau Circle leader Caroline Becker and SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse, the nemesis of series protagonist, U.S. Army Ranger Captain William "B.J." Blazkowicz. The New Order has a branching narrative: during the prologue chapter, Deathshead forces Blazkowicz to decide the fate of one of his comrades. The player's choice as Blazkowicz will create two timeline versions of the game's storyline, where alternate characters are established as replacements for characters who otherwise would have significant roles in the plot.
After the prologue chapter, either Scottish pilot Fergus Reid or U.S. Army Private Probst Wyatt III survives and escapes Deathshead's compound. Blazkowicz suffers a severe head injury during the escape attempt and lapses into a persistent vegetative state. He is brought to a psychiatric asylum in Poland, where he is cared for by its head nurse Anya Oliwa and her parents, who run the facility under the Nazi regime. Blazkowicz watches as Anya's parents are regularly forced to hand patients over to Nazi authorities, who deem them Untermenschen for their mental disabilities and take them to Deathshead for unknown experimentation. Blazkowicz and Anya enter into a romantic relationship throughout the game's narrative.
Other major characters include Frau Engel, the Commandant of an extermination camp in northern Croatia known as Camp Belica; Set Roth, a member of a Jewish mystical secret society known as the Da'at Yichud who is incarcerated at Camp Belica; Bombate, a Namibian prisoner of Camp Belica who assists Blazkowicz; and Max Hass, a seemingly brain-damaged member of the Resistance who is looked after by former Nazi member Klaus Kreutz.
In July 1946, the Allies, on the brink of defeat in Europe, launch a massive aerial raid against a fortress and weapons laboratory run by Deathshead. Blazkowicz, a paratrooper taking part in the operation, joins the assault but is captured inside its human experimentation laboratory. Blazkowicz escapes from the laboratory's emergency incinerator, but is severely injured and admitted to a Polish psychiatric asylum where he remains in a catatonic state. When a Nazi death squad orders the asylum to be "shut down" and executes Anya's parents when they resist, Blazkowicz regains consciousness and eliminates the extermination squad before fleeing with Anya to her grandparents' farm. When Blazkowicz identifies himself, Anya and her grandparents reveal it is 1960 and that the Nazis defeated and occupied the United States in 1948, achieving world domination; an anti-Nazi Resistance fought back, but almost all members have been captured or killed. Blazkowicz interrogates a captured officer from the asylum and learns the top members of the Resistance are imprisoned in Berlin's Eisenwald Prison. Anya's grandparents smuggle her and Blazkowicz through a checkpoint in Stettin before they travel to Berlin. During the train ride, Blazkowicz encounters Frau Engel for the first time. When they arrive, Anya helps Blazkowicz break into Eisenwald Prison, where he rescues the person he spared fourteen years prior (Fergus or Wyatt) and learns the Resistance movement is led by Caroline, who was left paralyzed due to an incident at Isenstadt in 2009's Wolfenstein.
The Resistance executes an attack on a Nazi research facility in London, bombing their operations base and stealing secret documents and prototype stealth helicopters. The documents reveal the Nazis are relying on reverse-engineered technology derived from the Da'at Yichud, which created inventions such as energy weapons, computer artificial intelligence, and super concrete; however, it is revealed that someone is tampering with the super concrete's formula, making it susceptible to mold deterioration. The Resistance discovers a match with Set, who is imprisoned in Camp Belica. Blazkowicz agrees to go undercover inside Camp Belica and meets Set, who tells him that the Nazis have co-opted Da'at Yichud technology to mass-produce and control robots, and offers to help the Resistance in return for the destruction of the camp. Blazkowicz finds a battery for a device that controls Camp Belica's robots, which he and Set use to incapacitate Engel, destroy the camp, and liberate its prisoners.
Set reveals that the Nazis' discovery of one of the Da'at Yichud caches, which included advanced technology centuries ahead of its time, allowed Germany to surpass the Allies in military might. Set agrees to assist the Resistance by revealing the location of one such cache but states that the Resistance requires a U-boat to access it. Blazkowicz and the Resistance hijack a U-boat, the flagship Eva's Hammer, and learn it is equipped with a nuclear cannon that requires keycodes from the Nazi lunar research facility to operate. Blazkowicz uses the Spindly Torque—a Da'at Yichud spherical device capable of destroying super concrete—to steal the identity of a Nazi lunar scientist and infiltrate the Lunar Base. He succeeds at obtaining the keycodes, but upon returning to Earth, he discovers that Engel has mounted an assault on the Resistance base, killing several members and capturing the survivors on behalf of Deathshead.
The Resistance use the Spindly Torque to breach Deathshead's fortress. After liberating Deathshead's captives, Blazkowicz travels to the top of the tower, where Deathshead's workshop is located. Inside, Deathshead reveals to Blazkowicz that he possesses the preserved brain of the soldier Blazkowicz chose to die, and uses it to power a robot that fights Blazkowicz. Blazkowicz defeats the robot and destroys the brain, putting his friend to rest. Commandeering a larger robot mecha, Deathshead attacks Blazkowicz, who gets the upper hand and destroys the robot. He drags Deathshead out of the wreckage and attacks him, but Deathshead arms a grenade that kills himself and gravely wounds Blazkowicz. Crawling to a window, Blazkowicz mentally recites "The New Colossus" as he watches the Resistance survivors board a helicopter. Believing they have reached safety, Blazkowicz gives instructions to fire the nuclear cannon. After the credits, a helicopter is heard approaching.