Context: I just played through New Order, Old Blood, and New Colossus in 2021. I played on PC with M+K and I'm a skilled DOOM Eternal player -- a game I have more hours on by far, have beaten on Ultra-nightmare. This will be relevant when I talk about gameplay. Story: I agree overall with Mr Beef about the villain moment. Deathshead giving you agency made him a more reprehensible villain and made me far more involved with wanting to play through the game and get revenge. It's the pinnacle of cruelty and calculated to make the player feel bad. It was an incredible story choice IMO. TNC with Engel is just ... it happens. It's sad and the violence is casual, but I'm un-involved. I'm just watching something play out. I also did feel disappointed in the story vs TNO overall. You captured a lot of it. I wouldn't say it's bad, I still liked it, but there was a lot more that could have been done. Also, Wyatt's storyline is more interesting from a character perspective, even though it's kind of meh for a lot of the game. His "Lost at Sea" scene was really great as was his ending. Gameplay: this was very interesting to compare TNO and TNC for me. I did 2 playthroughs of TNC -- first was Fergus on medium (Bring 'Em On), second was Wyatt on "hard" (Terror Billy). The gameplay felt the most fun to me on the medium playthrough. It felt like I could run and gun in any level after NYC and not be punished for it, ie I could beat any area only dying a few times and still re-stack to not be at a disadvantage for the next. The harder difficulty felt more like a stealth game and most times I was forced into a firefight I felt like I had messed up. TNO by comparison, I did 2 playthroughs on medium (Bring 'Em On). The second was a new game+ to experience the Wyatt timeline. TNO the first time through felt like a stealth game for the same reason above -- I was punished for going in guns blazing. TNO as new game+ felt like TNC on medium, very fun run and gun gameplay. The reason I bring up DOOM Eternal is threefold. First, my enjoyment of combat in TNC and TNO happens when it's closer to DE -- run 'n' gun, improvisational, fast decision making. When TNC and TNO felt fun, it was because I could run in, make a few mistakes, then react quickly and correct and bail myself out, which is very reminiscent of DE. Second reason I bring up DE: DE's difficulty is tuned so that the highest difficulty is the most fun. It is NOT easy, ie it's not as if id made a "medium" difficulty and then just called it "hard". TNC felt like the difficulty was tuned so that medium was the most fun. TNO felt like new game+ medium was the most fun. Third reason: just some context as to my experience and level at action-FPS. I recognize that will color and differntiate both my enjoyment and perception of difficulty vs you and others. Thanks for making this, articulated a lot of my complicated and disorganized thoughts about TNO and TNC.
When BJ was in that conference room being slapped by an angry mother, I had a thought flashed in my mind, what if this man presented as a trophy was bin Laden
Benjamin gszy yea and especially with engel saying "ladies and gentlemen we got him" which is a great view on how the person is portrayed as the villian in this new world
i'm just popping in months after this video's upload date and days after my second playthrough of this game to say that i appreciate how insightful and sincere this analysis is. in my experience, it's very hard to find people who talk about this particular wolfenstein series and assess its position in a greater cultural context in this way.
Thank you! I love when people stop by these older videos. I'm glad you liked the video - the new wolf games are alarmingly poetic, so I'm glad there is a market of people out there that value that poetry. Hope you stick around the channel!
Been looking forward to this for a while, congratulations and thank you for uploading it. I would like to respectfully disagree with you on how they handled the opening i.e. execution of BJ's compatriots. In my mind the purpose of that moment from a narrative point of view is to essentially sell the villain to the player and get them invested. I'm glad you were emotionally invested in that opening (I wasn't, for reasons I'll get into later) but I would disagree with you that they handled it as effectively as in The New Order. In The New Order, they go through great lengths to build up Deathshead prior to the reveal. You fight weird aircraft, get attacked by robot men and dogs, and everyone else repeatedly emphasizes how essential it is to kill Deathshead or it's simply over for the free world. When you finally meet Deathshead, it's a very focused encounter - it's just you, your newly-introduced brothers-in-arms, and Deathshead. The game keeps the focus firmly on Deathshead and your friends with the use of obedient Ubersoldaten, and then adds an extra layer of involvement by letting the player make the choice of who the main villain should brutally vivisect. Then he turns on the incinerators and casually takes his leave. Even if the 20-30 minutes of gameplay leading up to that climax hasn't emotionally involved a player in what's going on by that point, the fact that a player is rendered powerless and forced to make such a reprehensible choice by the end of it will ultimately sell the idea that the villain is powerful and incredibly dangerous. In The New Colossus they try to do this but it doesn't work as well because everything that takes place in that moment undermines the idea that Frau Engel is a dangerous antagonist. In the previous game Frau Engel is a character whose charisma plays off others - Bubi, her entourage of soldiers or mechanical beasts (Herr Faust), etc. They try to work with this in TNC's opening segment but there are so many things that happen during it that undermines her villainous power leading up to the moment. Frau's soldiers attacking the submarine are getting annihilated by a heavily wounded man in a wheelchair and are comically stumbling into traps that should have been obvious to everyone about half an hour into their assault. If these are elite, well-coordinated troops that are cornering the Resistance, I'm really not buying it so far. That Ausmerzer is a pretty sick piece of kit though, and the fact that it's abducting an entire submarine does help communicate that sense of power over the situation. When the game introduces Sigrun, it takes a turn for the worse. She basically makes her mother lose face with her underlings at every moment she's introduced and is a massive (ha, sorry) distraction for the player from the main villain in the execution "moment". Frau Engel is taking breaks every couple seconds during this execution to shame or scold Sigrun, or is fishing for polite laughter from her "elite" troops. The player's focus is all over this frame: from their allies in mortal peril, to the cringeworthy family drama unfolding, to the soldiers laughing. Then, any illusion of power that Engel may have had over the situation is completely shattered when Sigrun overpowers her. The main villain's teenage daughter has manages to turn the tables enough to get an armless Scotsman and a paralyzed Blaskowicz an the upper hand in the situation. Frau Engel FLEES THE SCENE. It was sad to see Caroline get killed but how that moment was handled overall was so jarring that it took away much of the impact I should have felt. And another thing: while it can be argued that the emotional power that she holds over her daughter is effective at selling her villainy, it probably would have made it even more intense if she successfully made Sigrun execute Caroline. A villain with so much political influence and intense charisma that they can even force an unwilling family member to kill on command? That could even be some "I was just following orders" themes going on with that family dynamic too.
35:13 Nazi isn't a nationality, it's more like a belief system, there is no such thing as being born a Nazi since it's something defined by your belief system not which country or from who you were born, Sigrun is German, her mother is also German but is on board with the Nazi idealism, it's like saying every single German soldier in WW2 was a Nazi making a rather large amount of people treating Germans and Nazis during that time as synonyms, when in fact being a Nazi doesn't require you to be German, since it's based on a belief system and not nationality it's like those dumb people who say that racism is exclusive to white people and that being black, asian, mexican, indian or whatever gives you a free pass to be rude to other races, since only white people can be racist
I disagree with your take on Hitler's depiction in this game, I think despite making him a joke it doesn't reduce how disgusting or evil he is it just shows how pathetic and insane he is at his core and that age comes for all of us, Death's Head is a villain that the Nazis want to be perceived as, sadistic but genius and strategic, whereas Frau Engel is shown to be mainly sadistic and narcissistic, both thoroughly evil and intimidating but also clearly an unhinged and self serving individual that should be laughed at. Laughing at Nazis or figures that Nazis have glorified does not necessarily undermine how horrible they were, you can both laugh at the stupidity of their ideology and recognize the genuine threat they pose and how evil their actions may be, but by laughing at these colossal figures we are able to deconstruct their invincibility and the image they've formed for themselves. And the joke isn't just Hitler it's that these Nazis have glorified him so much that even in this senile state they have to do whatever he tells them to do, even though Adolf has no idea what's going on on earth, yet there's still a large personal dedicated to taking care of him, even though Nazis typically discard old people or people stricken with mental illness
The thesis of these Wolfenstein games is clear: Love conquers all. BJ NEVER talks about fascism or even American patriotism as the force driving why they were fighting the Germans in the first place. German atrocities aren't even mentioned, which is a point that probably should be addressed also. But the ridiculous amount of violence that begins with the plane crash and jumps the shark by the time he is beheaded, is survivable solely due to his love of Anja. That's as deep as this game gets. It's a love story with ultra-violent WWII counterfactual history iconography.
"The game isn't wasting too much of your time" This is so not true. Multiple playthroughs are downright torture due to the unskipable expo sections that last waaaaaay too long. It doesn't help that you're constantly stuck in place until said expo is over several minutes after it began.
Yesss i hate mein leben because every cutscene is UNSKIPPABLE! If every cutscene was skippable i would have beat the damn game on mein leben and gotten 100%
The Wyatt ending was way better, I think. I think the ending song may have been better? Or at least the movement before the song. And Wyatt's speech is way more exciting and revolutionary than the group speech at the end of Fergus' -- that one seems genuinely insane lol Thanks for the video!
I didn't like Sigrun, but I thought it was a little insane that Anna wouldn't even consider she defected to help them out and that she was doing something. Even Sigrun forgets this! Just so Anna can have an epic put down at the end. But I don't think the character writing in TNC is nuanced enough that I can hold that against the game. It's shlock on purpose. Though I really don't like that that being put up against nazis and naziism, considering since the last game was so sincere about why that ideology was dangerous and why nazis had to get killed, I understand that aesthetic informs how these people get written.
I think the gradual loss of subtelty happens to every studio Bethesda publishes. Like you hear Todd Howard in the Oblivion documentary and then you see Dishonored 2, Doom, and TEW2? There's nothing else it could be other than 'tone at the top' stuff, that their studios make immature stuff because they know senior leadership like it.
I have been on holiday for a while so thanks for waiting on a reply here. I will look up the Wyatt ending. I will replay the game again with Wyatt once my semester ends here at university. Your comment on the gradual loss of subtlety in Bethesda titles kinda blew my mind. It's so right. Hadn't thought about that pattern but it is there, and it's a little concerning. And yknow, it works with Doom. Just not with every single other title. Thanks again for the kind words.
Holy shit you're right. That makes me even more worried about more Wolfenstein sequels, because I thought New Order and Old Blood were some of the best writing in games ever and New Colossus felt comedic to a detriment.
Hi David, I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your videos. Regardless of whether or not I've actually played the games you talk about, I genuinely appreciate your takes on them. Thanks a lot man!
Love the video, love the channel, disagree with a lot but agree overall; the only part of your analysis that drives me to comment is in the concern about treating Hitler like a laughingstock (I should also note that I paused the video to write and research this comment, so I don’t know what else you may have to say on the topic). The game absolutely does this - treats the man responsible for the worst crimes against humanity in recorded history as a clown, a joke - but this is rooted in historical fact. Hitler was plagued by debilitating constipation (treated by amphetamines), slept through D-Day, was known to even the most dedicated Nazis to be unhinged, unpredictable, and unreliable, and was generally a pathetic, small, farting loser of a man. Wolfenstein, of course, is not a documentary. So the question, then, is not about the relative ACCURACY of the work, but of its RESPONSIBILITY. When The New Order came out, literal Nazis weren’t openly marching in American streets, and it was still assumed that Nazis were so thoroughly the “bad guys” that there was no controversy in making an anti-Nazi piece of fiction. Now, unfortunately, this game that was made as a cathartic, fun, pulpy action romp with a surprising amount of pathos as its secret lifeblood finds itself Political (helped along by the marketing campaign). So, then, is it irresponsible or trivializing to treat Adolf Hitler as a slapstick punchline? I don’t think so. Everyone loves Darth Vader, even though he’s the villain. Neo-Nazis love Hitler, even though HE’S the villain. Personally, I think treating him as the frail, stupid, selfish and despicable mound of failing flesh he really was is more responsible AND accurate (and also, it’s pretty funny) - not that I think it’s Wolfenstein’s job to BE responsible, in any case. It’s also thematically reinforced in the text; the first big monologue that Grace has features B.J. talking about the “monsters” that did this to New York, and she reminds him that they AREN’T monsters; they’re men. This is, to me, both the scariest and most heartening theme of the game. Sigrun fits in, too; she’s not a Nazi, she’s just the child of one, and she so easily became complicit not because she shared her mother’s horrific ideals, but because she wanted her mother to love her. ...Anyway, I’m going to get off my soapbox and watch the rest of the video. Keep makin’ ‘em - I love ‘em. :D
I have been on holiday for a bit - sorry for the late reply. I appreciate you coming in here with such insightful comments and research. Cool stuff. It's certainly not MachineGame's responsibility to be accurate or... responsible. My issue with Adolf I think comes in the form of an inconsistency in the thematic rules set up by the previous game. It shifts towards making the enemies of BJ less capable and overall kind of inept. I don't think it humanizes them. Hitler will almost certainly occupy the role of mecha-hitler in the next game, obliterating any claims to historical accuracy. It's another manifestation of the game trending towards making the nazis total comedy, something I mentioned a lot in the video. Again, I am less concerned with the portrayal of hitler than I am other things in the game. That being said, it is symptomatic of a bit of a theme shift in the game that worries me. You're awesome. Keep stopping by the videos and sharing your thoughts.
Tgis is a great breakdown, i adore these games, considering currwnt landscape it covers topics most media fibds unconfortable and they do it well. And yeah the beginning of the game was like geniuenly shocking to me and thats hard to do, i play shooters all day and always have. Its the accuracy they hone on these topics that i think is just awesome. These games are modern masterpeices in gameplay and narrative in my opinion.
I really like your analysis with BJs character and the main underlying message. I also especially like your analysis of Grace because many people hated grace but doesnt bring up what she has been through and i wish they made grace more of an active fighter mainly as she is all bark and no bite. Hopefully wolfenstein 3 would end the series in a perfect way and end with BJs dream from the new order coming true.
it was 1 year ago that i got myself to think how videogames are art, how they can be meaningful and why i enjoyed them, during that time i started thinking of games like Wolfenstein: The New Order and what they wanted to express, i found your channel looking for another person's view on the work. now that i see this video, i want to say that Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is something that this medium needs, something to push boundaries to what a videogame can explore. anyway, im looking foward for any other analysis, they are really interesting. you mentioned Fallout: New Vegas was a linear game, it caught my attention because being set in a open world is a big part of how the game presents itself to the player, i would love an analysis on fallout nv p.s. english is not my mother tongue and there might be gramatical errors
Late comment, and I did comment on your New Order video and I'm at the 56 minute mark and saying sup. =) I know this video is 4 years old, but I'm catching up! I do agree w/ you 100% on this video (except I didn't like Spesh). It took me some time to accept the absurdity after BJ got decapitated but still lived. I kept going back and forth w/ how much or if I appreciated the humor style mixed w/ the shock value (the jail cell scene w/ Spesh's death is like a microcosm of the entire game). And the courtroom arena battle... I had to lower the difficulty during that. Good to know I wasn't the only one who thought some of the engagement were poorly designed. But, as a 4-year later FYI, they must've added the end-game of killing Nazi commandres across America, b/c it exists now (I just finished the main campaign last night). As for the "not all Nazis are evil" and "just following orders"/adhereing to social heirarchy psychological discussions, it reminds me of a scene from Band of Brothers (which is based on a true story), where a Nazi being held by American soliders tells them he's an American, too. iirc, he lived in Oregon and his German parents forced him to sign up in the German army to defend the fatherland. And he was being calm and sincere, not begging for his life or anything. Just something for perspective.
Another thing to remember - and apologies if this is something you're already aware of, since this video is 4 years old and you already sorta alluded to it w/ the comment about regular soldiers compared to the SS/officers - is the news cycle and access to information was not the same. I am sure a lot of German soldiers were not even fully aware of the genocide going on. Sure, maybe they heard Hitler was rounding up Jews and doing something bad to them, but they were prideful and wanted to serve...and, hey, the US was doing that also, putting Japanese in camps and still having private groups lynch Blacks, and I don't think a lot of legitimately non-racist Americans necessarily were apalled as much as they should have been by their own country's actions. Whomever we judge in history, we have to remember to put their thought-processing and decision-making into perspective relative to the time (and culture, but I'm not a cultural relative moralist). Racism was still widely "acceptable" to the human brain who was not experiencing it first-hand. A lot of ppl on the outside - again w/o full access to what was really going on (bear in mind, even the USA didn't enter the war until it was attacked. I'm 99% sure we were unaware of the murders and true horrors of concentration camps, and even if we were, see the prior statement racism being acceptable to Americans, anyway) - probably just thought "oh, that Hitler guy is killing some ppl b/c they're Jewish? Someone should stop that mean guy" back in the 30s and 40s. Whereas today, full access to information or not, the reaction would be more like "Everyone needs to stop this man at any cost for his crimes against humanity." It reminds me of a convo I had w/ a lady who thought vikings were evil b/c they raped and pillaged so many towns. Now, as I stated before, I'm not a cultural relative moralist. Wrong is wrong, no matter the culture. But vikings truly did not have the capability of understanding that they were committing horrific acts. Violence was ingraind in their culture, and it was almost still accepted globally in any culture that killing ppl outside of your culture was acceptable. Humans still had a very tribalistic - even if diplomatic - and I'd say psychopathic mindset at the time. Our collective minds and understanding right/wrong was not as developed as it is now. Hell, a good chunk of our world still has yet to develop it. Anyway, apologies for the long read, but as a history and philosophy graduate, this stuff is interesting to me and I think it may be to you, too!
i think its best to not think of this game in our context today. yes i know their tweets and the minor controversy it had, but we need to take a step back and breathe a little and look at this games context and subtleties. BJ is a hardcore,Texan, American. he loves, from what i can tell, the idea of America, the dream, the freedom, the equality of all men. He shows a great disdain for nazis, but for the commie? he shows some reluctance and even insults his ideology. so i belive its fair to say he also hates commies but since they are not an immediate threat he just plays nice. kinda like in WW2 with stalin and the rest of the allies. on another note, i think the commie agrees to help partially because he thinks BJ is right and partially because he respects his stance. i personally do have a GREAT hatred for communism for my own reasons, and despite me being Texan myself i am not a degenerate, inbred, gun zelot, (i do own some tho), nazi. i hate nazis with all my fiber in my being. infact i hate people who think they deserve to have superioity because of "x" or "y". no one deserves it. it is fine to have success, but not superiority. i think it is important to make that distiction. i say all this to give a bit context to my interpretation of this game, and ask for forgiveness on my spelling errors in advance as i am typing on my phone. i look forward to a response, if i get one at all as i have been anxious to talk about this game but no one i know has played it yet.
Last Man Standing no worries about typos, it was well said. I am also from the south. My parents own guns. I grew up with hunting and trucks and all that. I don't think Texans are degenerates. I do however think that TNC actually hurts itself in how stupid they make the nazis and KKK people out to be. I think the game still is good and still has subtleties, but not nearly to the degree that the previous game did. Also, to your point about communism, I don't know where I land on what TNC is trying to say about it. I'd have to really dive into that Horton character and look. To me it seems that he was included just to address that BJ does have little tolerance for extremity on either side.
I am working on a big one right now, but with teaching it just makes it so so difficult to make something that asks for this much work. It's coming along. Maybe April.
You should really rerecord your lines if you stumble over them. Analysis videos shouldn't play like a wikipedia recap, you should relay the events of the subject you're studying either while commenting on them constantly or you should use your points of discussion as the structure and include all the events even if out of order. The events are required information, not the real meat of an analysis. I like your discussions because you're pretty thoughtful about looking at everything in play instead of just bitching or praising the work.
Its interesting how the Wolfenstein community always responds (comparatively) badly to a new entry into the series but later warms up to it. This happened with WOlfenstein 3D and Castle Wolfenstein fans, with 2009 and The New Order and will happen with TNC as well. Only RTCW was sparred truly, as was Enemy Territory. Your thoughts? On the Wehrmacht side of the argument I just see them as soldiers. No more evil than US or USSR (god, the USSR makes Nazis look like kittens fucking hell) soldiers. Perhaps less brutal than Japanese soldiers. But the commanders... or more specifically the true Nazi or SS commanders and engineers of the Holocaust were definitely Evil. They knew what they were doing and engineered it. Sigrun... I dont see her as a Nazi at all. She has a diary in which she has openly had anti-Nazi ideals or at least showing little consideration for the propaganda. She really doesnt care for being a Nazi. We also see her showing compassion, something only the resistance and certain normal Wehrmacht soldiers show (the soldiers in dialogue or cutscenes). She shows moral fiber and some level of right or wrong from the very start of coming on the U-boat. She is obviously not of the same cloth as her mother or Deathshead. Those two are drunk on power and and ambition and doctrine, for them it is like a drug. For her, and the resistance, it is disgusting or at the least unwanted in that form. About her opposing her mother, it would have led to death or changed nothing. Ironically, people forget that a single human being is usually not enough to make a difference in gruesome situations, at least not a big one. Still, thematically, it shows that Sigrun has been becoming more and more awoke as the time passed on. From being passive and disliking the situation, to trying to fix it with some zeal in a neurotic rage (and getting away with it out of pure luck). The appeal to your own family before others, especially when everyone you know agrees with thatis likely an overwhelming feeling so her being able to resist indoctrination is already insanely impressive and I dont think most of the resistance would fair better if they were raised like this. I dont get how people found Grace annoying. She was funny to me and pretty darn likeable. She talked lots of obscenities but so do I in real life... I see nothing wrong with her character. Then again idiot gamers attacked Yennefer too for less... I dont know what to say. Her moments with hyping up BJ for death and destruction like the "you are a freight train motherfucker!" part were genuinely funny and in my opinion - very friendly. She also seems to be testing people to see their backbone. She did it with BJ and when she saw the zeal she accepted it. When she saw it with Seigrun, she started being kinder to her in general (getting choked aside). The old and the weak are doomed. But Death comes to everyone, always. The beauty is in the battle against it, one no one will ever win. I see no contradiction but its interesting your viewing of this answer. Bioshock Infinite is a game that triggered me. Metro Last Light and The New Order are much better in execution of thematic depth IMHO. I strongly believe there is no topic too harsh or too scary for an art form. And I see video games as an art form. So it seems I will have to disagree on one of the parts of her comment, as to me no topic is above art, as art is above human life. However its interesting how she felt on Hitler. You see for many people in Europe, Hitler is both this scary boogeyman and an incompetent, scared, flawed human being. This is what I think Wolfenstein attempted again. Here we have the most powerful man in the world, the command of an empire that has 75% of the Earth under his control, who is revered and protected by so many people even if evil... but he is still human. Age caught up to him. Death is knocking on his door and whilst Deathshead was old too, Hitler isnt as preserved (and had problems IRL that escalate with old age). This is what I like about Wolfenstein, it humanizes the evil. The reason that is important is because too often in video games we see evil as a simple linear, black and white thing, as a monster. Real world evil is not like that, monsters as we see them in games do not exist. Real monsters and evil are just as much human as the good guys and some of them (Sigrun for example) can even see salvation, whilst the rest is... still just like the rest of us. That is why I liked Hitler here. NOt only did I laugh a lot at him as his scenes were hilarious, but it also showed to me that Machinegames can both mock the evil and humanize it at the same time. That takes some skill IMHO and is more interesting this way. Deathshead I commented was human too, in you last video, with his love for technology, robots, the unknown... ambition. Now we see humanities weaknesses shown on another evil person, one that won the war... and is losing himself, just a puppet for smarter and just as evil officers below him. I am not American though I know of the problems people see with the left and right wing there and they, unfortunately, affect me too. I took marketing as that - just empty banter. Its so silly how people pre-judged the game based on that. The thing about the game's tone... makes sense. Not sure how I feel there as the game still showed nuance but less than before (in total). It did play the enemies more for laughs but also didnt neglect their depth too much. I find this a subjective area and can not decide either way as since it is part of a series, TOB and TNO help it and at the same time accentuate its difference. However,the game really did need more work on exploring its setting and being longer. TNO did better but it too brushed over a lot of occupied Europe. Irony is, the postcards and letters do some legwork and even do sideshadowing techniques seen in literature... I think time and budget werent enough for TNC even more-so than with TNO. I dont like how tame the arsenal is.See Wolfenstein 2009 for what guns means. I dislike the not as cool lazerkraftwekr. Love the particle effects.I like the improved combat AI. Really liked the gameplay overall, it flows well between styles though its usage of the Exoskeleton was ... underwhelming. I dont understand the "This game is SJW!" angle either and as any Eastern Europeaner I hate SJWs for their imperialism and extreme hate towards my people, history, and art. If anything I should see more of it, if the game were SJW propaganda... instead I see a liberal leaning story (nothing wrong either way!) with some real nuance to it. I think its just low culture Americans fighting their culture war, both left and right wing attacking everything they dont like without thinking more than 2 minutes about it. Same way SJWs attacked Poland and Polish history for the Witcher 3, now the idiot alt-right are attacking Wolfenstein for misunderstanding its themes and ideas and storytelling techniques. I dont grade games on length or price. I prefer either a pros and cons or a grade system or nothing at all. With that said, 2 full replays + all side missions and every single collectible got me 25 hours so I am happy. But yeah, as good as TNO for me, but not a RTCW. Likely my GOTY for the year problems and all.
Sorry - Been on holiday for a bit so I'm just now getting to this. There is a lot of good stuff here and I'm glad to see you on another video. It remains to be seen how people will remember this game. I think they will look back fondly, because a lot of the nuance of the game's problems will be forgotten and all that will remain is that it was an interesting and exciting story that hopefully is a necessary second chapter in a comprehensively good trilogy. My words on evil and it's place in the story only act as a framing device to understanding the role of characters like Sigrun. I am not really taking a stance on purpose, because I think the game would rather each individual person decide if they, for example, think Sigrun is STILL evil even though she defected. I liked Grace too. Gamers suck when it comes to certain types of characters. I think Bioshock one is VASTLY better than Infinite - Same with TNO. I agree with your stance that no art should be censored because of content. However I do think artists should be aware of their responsibility as arbiters of culture. I don't think she was saying that the game shouldn't have been made, but that for her, with literal nazis occupying the streets of our towns, it was PERSONALLY a little too uncomfortable for her. Apologies if that wasn't communicated well enough. She likes the game and has no problem with it existing, just she is not interested despite it being a great game in probably her favorite subgenre ( Story driven atmospheric linear shooters). I actually think Hitler's portrayal DE-humanized him for me. It made him seem surreal to me. Different interpretations, I guess. Hated the guns. So boring. Dual wielding mismatching wasn't interesting enough for me to cover the negatives of the lack of guns. Thank you for the kind comments and insightful readings, lemme know if you wanna mull over anything else.
Thank you for the response! Fair enough mate! I am just tough on censorship in general as I believe it stifles the art form. I am writing a review on TNC and I would like to include your video on the "Sources" page. Would you approve of that? *Here is an example (also check the other pages :D ! ) : www.gnd-tech.com/content/1056-S-T-A-L-K-E-R-Shadow-of-Chernobyl/view/7 BTW keep the great work! This one is better than the TNO one you made!
Alexander Yordanov yes you can use this one. I am tough on censorship too, believe me. These games have a right to exist in whatever absurdity they choose. Thank you. I am still learning how to do this games writing stuff. On to the next one!
The idea that the Wehrmacht were normal soldiers, completely disconnected from the evils of the SS is patently untrue, and this is evidenced by the photographs that they sent back to their relatives. In the 90s, after Reunification there was a touring exhibit called "Crimes of the Wehrmacht" which dispelled the German "Lost Cause." After the war the Germans developed this belief that all nations suffer in war equally (based on the firebombing of Dresden), that the Wehrmacht was equal to any country's army, and that the German populace knew nothing about the campaigns. This was later challenged by what was known as the '68 Generation, of adults who began to criticize their parents and grandparents actions. Sources: Niven, Bill. Facing the Nazi Past: United Germany and the Legacy of the Third Reich. London: Routledge, 2002. Prince, Michael K. War and German Memory: Excavating the Significance of The Second World War in German Cultural Consciousness. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2009.
@@Rhythmicons You do have a point, but there is something else here too - you cannot fully blame grunts for political actions way above their heads. I do not blame the average Soviet soldier for being the defenders of a great evil, neither the US soldier for being part of an inhuman empire that seeks to crush all challengers. They are just grunts, nothing moore , the lot of them.
Wow I couldn't agree more you hit the nail on the head, well done. Excellent review, it's funny I kept getting this feeling of two steps forward one step back with this game again and again. Every time I was enjoying this game something annoying or off putting would happen then it would take time to start enjoying myself again then something annoying or off putting would happen again, rinse and repeat till it ended. I play alot of games especially FPS games, this game has a crushing difficulty. This is the first time in a good five years I actually had to play a game on easy for my first playthrough because anything above that was proving too much for me. I have the same format I always playthrough a game on normal first so I learn as much about the game as I can then I go straight to the highest difficulty on my 2nd playthrough. Not this game, in order to beat this game in a timely manner I had to play on "Can I play daddy?" mostly because of the disorganized level designs like the reviewer said more or less. When it came to stealth play in The New Order/Old Blood I had taking out commanders down to a science, made Uber so much more manageable. In this one I tried the same tactics and was almost always caught. The weapons are just so bland & uninteresting compared to the New Order. It was kind of pathetic, they all just have this black paint job appearance and the upgrades are just garden variety COD-style upgrades. You know (A-cog Scope, Extended Mag, Silencer). Not like The New Order where you had a rocket launcher attached to your Assault Rifle, Incendiary shotgun shells that bounced off the walls, and a Sniper Rifle that at the touch of a button was also a Laser-Rifle. The game is neat in that it tries new things that most FPS games don't like having you in a wheel-chair in the tutorial mission or having only 50 health points till you get to the half-way point but it just seems like a step back from the excellence of The New Order. Then there is just how abruptly it ends and with no boss fight. I do still like the game and think it's fun. Like when you get to the second half of the game unlocking your newfound abilities the game has an almost Titanfall-like flow to it but that just isn't Wolfenstein to me. I don't know maybe expecting them to catch lightning in a bottle a second time was too much too expect, but the foundation was already built then they for some reason decided to built a new foundation that in my mind is a worse one then we had before. Oh well I hope they can bring things a little closer to TNO for the 3rd game because from the review scores and sale numbers there will be a 3rd game.
I really wished that BJ died and that Fergus/Wyatt became the main protagonist. I also think that it would have been a good idea to have the KKK be early game enemies (they would have weaker gear, speak English instead of German and are less organized). Have it so that when the Nazies fully took over the US, a lot of people who are in agreement with them wanted to join the army. However, because the Nazies view the German arian race as superior above all, they instead made the KKK a sub-division of the Nazi army where American who wanted to join them would 1st have to join the KKK and only once a KKK member has truely proven themselves, then they are allowed the Nazi army and are given the same training and gear as the average soldier.
I had to come back to this video because theres one thing that really surprises me that no some seems to realize k and soldier scene makes zero sense because first ks hate catholics just as bad as everyine else they hate they also are extremely xenophobic and despise foreign invaders they would not side with the soldiers as they are both thats why it makes zero sense they joined them its such a weird thing to miss as even in history class in middle school this was taught
I really liked this game I got it for rather cheap (15€) so the length isn't as much of a issue to me though one of my main problems is difficulty on the Playstation 4/5 the difficulty is not balanced at all on I am death incarnate during the jury room I died in 0.4 second yes you read that correctly less than half a second it wouldn't be so much of a problem if this didn't block you from 100 percent completion as it makes the mein Leben (permadeath) achievement borderline impossible one wrong slip up can ruin the whole play through . Personally as a side note I'll tell my political opinion of the game and it's general message . With these kind of games especially this series it's hard to justify the enemies but one thing you learn when studying history psychology etc Its very easy walk away with a good guy bad guy mentality which I believe is toxic because not truly understanding the other side can just lead you to write off a person not take a word of there's seriously and just pretend that they are the scum of society personally my political views are quite moderate but I believe that because so many people have fell in this trap that the left and right have no want for commonality which I believe can only end in disaster as the strong will crush who they see a the weak do you think Soviets could see the perspective of Nazis or vise versa the answer is no and that's why they killed eachother
If the game ended with the revolution and you beating the Nazis what would be in the third game then? Cause we know this is a trilogy, and it's clear the end would have to be the end of the war.
The crazy thing is that there wasn't even a game that took place after the death Engel and revolution. The next game was in like the 80's. And the story and characters and gameplay was all shit. They screwed such a good saga with the last title. Everyone from twins to Blazkowicz himself were written poorly. The potential was wasted, also I'm not a fan of the co-op in wolfenstein and even then it was poorly executed in Youngblood. It just makes me sad that such a well written series of games was ruined by one title
I have no problems paying $60 for a short game, the game just needs to be replayable. I bought it first day for the switch and I've had it for about a week, and I'm on my third playthrough. The main campaign's gameplay is so fun and satisfying that I want to keep playing over and over. So yeah, I think I got my $60 worth. I will say agree that after BJ's beheading, the games pacing and writing falls apart a bit. Up until that point it was pretty great, so it's sad to see that it became a bit pompous comedy.
First off, neat video! I enjoyed the watch, thanks for sharing your thoughts and questions. There's a lot you said I could comment on, but I'm gonna try and restrict myself or we'll be here all day, I could talk about this game forever. Mostly I comment because I was musing myself recently on the portrayal of Hitler in this game. I feel like they made the right call - Hitler, the person, fucking sucks as he should. He's given no respect and no room for morons to come away like "dam he was cool tho". But even if he as an individual is a joke, the effect he has on people is not, the real horror of the scene is everyone pretending this disgrace is a worthy leader, forced to revere and worship such an obviously trashbag human. That felt like a good balance to me - Hitler is a joke, but what he did and encouraged and the support of him is not. I dunno how that view feels to you, but it felt appropriate to me.
Honestly I do not agree with censorship at all so then including Hitler or even white hooded clansman does not bother me because these things are believable in the settings presented.
you get it man, the game isn`t perfect specially in the level design department, but that was the case in TNO as well, but the art direction story telling, writting (except for the poopy joke) is really good, and it sad how people dismiss it thanks to the toxic political climate that we live this days.
I have over 100 hours in this game. I've replayed it like 3 times in incremental difficulties with beating it on "i am death incarnate", getting all the uber commanders and then played the game's SAS machine which is basically the arcade mode. I appreciate the cutscenes and has good replay value given its nonlinear open arena level design and great gunplay.
Jesus Christ, of course I'm gonna have to be that evil Germans sympathetizer, how different is it for Black person to be criminal due to environment from that Sigrun character, would you even give It a shot, or do they not deserve environmental factors, especially seeing she's mostly a child born into that world. Which I don't even believe warrants absolution for any supposed awful act or anything but all that pondering sounds even worse when you mention she could be killed for opposing the ideology, it's always comfy to discuss not being under those kinds of threats.
@@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009 well their marketing tarnished their game with politics. Think of their audience. You want politics in games? It’s not even that there’s politics is biased and partisan. That’s why a lot of remade movies and shows are doing poorly. This current political agenda has ruined a lot of properties.
@@TaylorWilmes movies and games were always full of politics You are only noticing it now and it's getting upset by it because it doesn't share your views or because some generic the quartering radicalized you
