Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The New Order was developed by Machine Games, a new team made up of ex-Starbreeze staff. As you may expect, coming from the people behind such stuff as the Riddick games, The New Order has a real focus on storytelling in this new addition to the franchise. Sure, there's still plenty of manz that need shootin', but why on earth can't you do that with a bit of entertainment and humour
The game's story is an alternate history, and things have moved on from WWII. It's the 1960s and the world is very different. Things didn't go quite to plan for the Allies, so Europe now has a rather distinct Nazi flavour to it. Fresh from waking up from a coma, B.J. Blazkowicz has missed out on this whole rise of the Third Reich and - naturally, being a freedom loving all-American type, goes on a one man crusade to kill all of the Nazis.
Except you're not alone - working alongside various Resistance members, you're looking to fight smarter rather than harder.
The whole thing has a very well put together cinematic style, but if you're looking for that Citizen Kane of gaming move on - think more along the lines of The Expendables with a dash of accelerated technology and you'll be far closer to what Wolfenstein can offer you. Plenty of guns. Lots of shooting. Much running about... The kind of stuff you'd expect from a very pretty-looking FPS.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
To that end, the game is a prequel set in the run-up to The New Order, the game that moved the Wolfenstein franchise back to the forefront of shoot-'em-up fans' minds. It puts players back in the boots of series hero B.J. Blazkowicz as he shoots his way through the game's two episodes.
In the first, 'Rudi Jäger and the Den of Wolves,' you'll need to go back to the place at the heart of the series - Castle Wolfenstein. You need to obtain a document that sets up the events of The New Order but, of course, things don't go to plan. Over the course of the episode you'll run across a few new enemy variants such as a sniper, solve some puzzles and do a fair bit of stealthing and shooting.
The second part, 'The Dark Secrets of Helga Von Schabbs,' take the game into weirder territory. Like, undead territory. With zombies. But shooter fans are no stranger to zombies and it fits with the B-movie feel of Old Blood.
The Old Blood brings players a tightly-focused dose of what they enjoyed from The New Order, and that should go down just fine.
