First Impressions: Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC)

Over the Christmas week (four friggen months ago), I picked up Wolfenstein: Youngblood on the Nintendo Switch for fewer than $10, which is the latest game in the Wolfenstein reboot that started with 2014's Wolfenstein: The New Order.  Back when the game was first released, I felt that my computer was nowhere near capable of running W:TNO, and after trying to run The Evil Within which was also released in 2014, I was mentally convinced that I would have to wait until it was either ported to the Switch or I upgraded my computer to play the game.  Well, after purchasing the fourth title in the series and with Steam's Winter Sale giving me an excuse to spend some skrillah, I looked at the system requirements, convinced myself that my computer could, in fact, run a game on the id Tech 5 engine which was first used in Rage, I plopped down the $8 for both Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Old Blood DLC and jumped into some Nazi killing fun.

Kind of.

I mean, what I was playing was a lot of fun at first, but I was using the Xbox 360 wired controller since the mouse I had previously been using broke earlier in the week and my replacement had yet to arrive.  Naturally, I inverted the Y-Axis but found myself a bit awkward in the looking and running department.  I did briefly switch back to normal camera controls, but that felt even worse, so I put it back on inverted.  I was able to clumsily get through the opening plane sections but at first, couldn't figure out how to sprint-run-jump out of the plane until I finally find and then there was a running sliding maneuver (required to avoid some breed of Panzerhund) that I could not coordinate with the controller so I put the game down.  A few days later when my new mouse arrived, I was able to fly through the area.  For the most part.

You Can't Tell At All How Bad The Top 3rd Of The Screen Was Splitting.

The thing with my computer and running W:TNO is a bit weird.  I would have to either film the game from an outside source or just describe it because all of the screenshots I took look perfectly fine.  And by perfectly fine I mean that I am running on Low settings.  What does not come across in any of the screenshots I have taken is the amount of tearing happening.  In other games like Mirror's Edge when I came across a lot of tearing happening to characters and the environment, I was able to tweak the graphics settings to make everything run more smoothly, but here, everything I have tried has not worked.  The game runs between 30-52 fps, but the top 30% of the screen consistently tears here and there every time I move.  And W:TNO being a first-person shooter, there is a lot of moving around.  I have read that this might have to do with the refresh rate of my monitor/screen, but I have yet to find out how to fix that.

When I say that the game is playable, what I really mean is that the game is playable at least for me.  I would not be surprised if someone watching the screen while I play would end up with motion sickness, but because I am the one playing and apparently am easier to please than 86.47% of people playing PC games, I can play it just fine.  Now you may be asking yourself, why I haven't just chucked my old laptop in the garbage can of PC despair and pick up a new one that will run 4K 1080p at 120fps with a 10TB SSD and 64 GB of RAM, and in short, I can't afford to.  It does take some time to boot up, and sometimes opening programs takes longer than I would like, but it still operates and my lap does not become a furnace when playing with mouse/keyboard controls.

A Face Only Hitler Could Love. Probably.

Presently, I have just finished helping Set Roth escape from Camp Belica and dealing a severe blow to one Frau Engel.  Earlier in the first half of the game, I decided to save Fergus Reid over Private Probst Wyatt III, if only because Fergus did save BJ's life earlier in the opening, and I felt that BJ would have known Fergus for a longer time and might have had a deeper connection to him.  I did experience Fergus having a survivor's guilt moment with BJ, which I appreciated, that there is more character development and emotional impact than just moving from one kill zone to another.  So kudos to Jens Matthies and Tommy Björk for writing great characters and equally impressive dialogue.

Dein Leben!

Lastly, while encamped with the resistance, I found a (well-known easter egg) in the form of old Wolfenstein 3D style levels when you go to sleep on a schlubby-looking cot and experience nightmares.  The music is pulled straight from W3D, but it is no "Wondering About My Loved Ones," which Conklederp and I have a strong affinity for.  What is interesting about this stage (of which I have only found the same one a couple of times), is that it only seems to be there for nostalgia purposes.  Maybe?  I have managed to fight my way towards the exit on one occasion, but nothing happened when I woke up.  Maybe if I had found all of the treasures and secrets?  Or maybe it is just there for the sake of being there?  Either way, I love the nod to the id Software's original first-person shooter.

So far, I am greatly enjoying the game and the story being told.  I love alternate-history takes on US history and the Nazi's winning World War II seems to be a favorite of people in this genre.  But since Wolfenstein has always been about killing Nazis, not having another WW II rehash or direct and literal reboot of Castle Wolfenstein is a welcome change.  I like that a lot of what was in the original series works well being carried over, like rooms hidden behind walls, Nazi's hoarding treasures and religious artifacts away, and again, killing Nazi's is always fun.

More later either as I progress through the game or I end up finishing it, because then it will be onto the DLC, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood.



~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian
Dark Trumpets of the Night