• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Wolfenstein TNO: 2014 GotY + one of the best shooters ever *GIF WARNING*

M

Messofanego

Banned
Untalkative_Bunny said:
.

Not only campaign shooters, but others as well. I finished TNO then started Destiny and was underwhelmed.
Click to expand...

Same lol

I can find Destiny enjoyable but it's because of the social aspects and only some of the shooting like when getting headshots.

iECG8k4QlRN6h.gif
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Creamium said:
I take it the choice you make in the beginning isn't that impactful on the story? I may just restart the game either way, I feel like replaying the earlier levels.
Click to expand...

Not very impactful. Story beats are identical despite the npc change. There is a different unique npc at base as well for each timeline to make those sections a bit less redundant and there are rare moments where the door unlock method slightly alters path progression in levels. An alright way to experience the game a second time with a bit of new stuff, but hardly two unique campaigns at all.
 
Q

QaaQer

Member
gdt said:
I finished this a couple of days ago and I'm replaying the alternate timeline now. I loved the shit out of it. I wish the ending was longer, but thats for the sequel I guess. What a great cast of characters.
Click to expand...

Great song over the credits as well.
 
S

SeanTSC

Member
Net_Wrecker said:
Finally finished Killzone Shadow Fall yesterday after owning it since launch and having since played Wolfenstein....Was not a good decision. KZ can't stack up.

I have a feeling I'll be saying that for the majority of upcoming campaign focused shooters. Wolfenstein has that special something. If only they had the tech Guerrilla has.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I made the same mistake. I finally went back to finish it last week (had only played a couple chapters) and boy did I regret not finishing it before playing Wolfenstein. It felt like complete garbage in comparison. It was a little more impressive "graphics" wise, but not art wise, and the gunplay, guns, story, etc were all just whimpering in Wolfenstein's shadow.
 
J

jg4xchamp

Member
http://www.endlessbacklog.com/index.php/reviews/183-wolfenstein-the-new-order-2014

Recently beat the game and wrote about it on my own site^, so a little late to the party. I really dug the game from a gameplay perspective. The dual wielding just feels satisfying, and the death animations are top notch. I'm also a huge fan of just how the game feels on a mouse and keyboard. There is something about how much control you feel you have over Bj's full body, and shooting mechanics.

There are some plot stuff I'm not a big fan of

The choice to me is superfluous at best. From a character standpoint I don't buy someone as stubborn as BJ actually picks one of his boys to die. From a choice standpoint there is no real reason the player should feel guilt over it, so it's a choice that lacks any punch. It's a manipulative sophie's choice. The gameplay ramifications and plot payoffs are a minigame thing for unlocking doors and the idea that Deathshed is menacing.

All of that could have been done without the choice, and I don't buy that it makes the game "replayable". Because the game is good enough on its own merits and design to be worth replaying. As the OP said the combat mechanics themselves are left open to so much experimenting. The secrets. The unlockables. New game plus. 999 mode.

The actual plot itself is hooky and again I can not stand BJ's inner monologue voice. The soft spoken shit just felt groan inducing after awhile.

It's really well thought out and the aesthetic is fantastic. You get the sense that the studio really gave a shit about what they were creating. More importantly you can tell they did some homework on the things one would associate with the 60s and what would be the most "Nazi" alteration of that thing.

Question for some gaf guys. What did you all feel about the criticism that the game is inconsistent in tone?

I for one never thought the game ever breaks tone, and the example usually used

Moon base

Doesn't really break it for me either. It's a completely unrealistic setting in tone, premise, and execution so it makes some sense that they went there. It's also not built up as this shocking reveal and nor does it feel out of place in what the aesthetic is. It's the 1960s, and oh by the way one of the most significant moments in human history happened in the 1960s. That criticism is one of the more odd ones to me. I think the
American anthem scene
is way more stupid for instance.
 
B

btkadams

Member
The OP makes me want to play this SO BADLY. I've waited this long though, so I'm going to try to hold out for a good deal. The gifs are awesome.
 
L

Lord Helmet

Member
Looking for a good new shooter for campaign mostly. Just bought this today thanks to the OP. Best Buy has it on sale for $39.99 ($31.99 after GCU). Hope it's as good as it is made out to be!
 
Q

QaaQer

Member
Lord Helmet said:
Looking for a good new shooter for campaign mostly. Just bought this today thanks to the OP. Best Buy has it on sale for $39.99 ($31.99 after GCU). Hope it's as good as it is made out to be!
Click to expand...

Just keep in mind it is a pure single player FPS made by 50 guys, and you'll be golden.
 
D

Dr_Boris_Goltz

Banned
Just finished the game. I didn't like it as much as the GAF collective.

I think it was the constant gun pointed at feet scavenging that really put me off.
 
P

Ponchito

Member
This game was outstanding. Finished it 3 times already.

Great characters, story, mechanics, sequences and the music is excellent.

My only gripes were:

1. Poor enemy AI, especially when stalking them, you could be standing right next to them and they wouldn't notice you (on the hardest difficulty).

2. Some clunky elements to it's great story, some cuts were a bit rushed IMO.
 
2

2spooky4me

Member
Graffgor said:
Just finished the game. I didn't like it as much as the GAF collective.

I think it was the constant gun pointed at feet scavenging that really put me off.
Click to expand...

I feel the same way. Overall the story was enjoyable, but some mechanics (like being forced to look down and hit a button to pick up everything and bullet sponge enemies) ruin this game for me. It also felt really generic. Gonna have to be more careful before buying into Gaf hype now.
 
J

jacobeid

Banned
I keep thinking about this game weeks after I finished it. For some reason the game just resonated with me. I've recommended it to everyone that I know.
 
A

AEREC

Member
btkadams said:
The OP makes me want to play this SO BADLY. I've waited this long though, so I'm going to try to hold out for a good deal. The gifs are awesome.
Click to expand...

I would bring down the hype a bit, otherwise you will only be disappointed...this thread makes it sound like the end all be all of FPS games.

It's a solid game no doubt but it really doesn't stand out from any other FPS.
 
B

bomb

Unconfirmed Member
I feel like I am playing this game wrong. I want to play it like a classic run-n-gun shooter but I feel like I need to stay behind cover often due to quick damage from multiple enemies. It feels more like a COD set piece, large areas, multiple cover spots shooter than the classic wolf.

I try to pick up as much armor as possible to stay out in the open longer but I find myself low on health quick.
 
M

Marjar

Banned
God it frustrates me so much that I preordered this and yet can't even play it on my PC. Runs like a PowerPoint presentation. :(

I need to finally upgrade my computer before the summer ends and play this.
 
E

Extra Sauce

Member
Robot Pants said:
Ok I just started playing this, and did anyone else find this is yet another PS4 Game with a bad audio mix?
Click to expand...

The audio mix is definitely the worst aspect of the game but is this a PS4 thing? I'm a new PS4 owner and this was my first game, hope it's not a taste of things to come...
 
P

PanicFreak

Member
Quick question for the pros out there, I just finished the game on the Wyatt timeline and I want to go back to the pilot's. Do your perks and collectibles carry over?
 
J

Jito

Banned
AgentP said:
Shogo and Resistance 3 come to mind, but I don't know.
Click to expand...

Never played Shogo but Resisitance 3 is a good FPS, hardly the best of the genre though and nothing close to what Machine Games achieved with Wolfenstein as their first game.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
epmode said:
RPS linked this article from Dead End Thrills:

http://deadendthrills.com/welcome-to-the-occupation-a-world-for-wolfenstein/

Well worth reading.
Click to expand...

Great read about world building.

"Personality can survive a lot of execution errors. If you don’t have personality then you have to have flawless execution."

Great quote.

I'm glad someone else picked up that the London Monitor feels like a homage to the War of the Worlds, impending doom sounds and all.

Even though it's not designed as an open world and more a ride, there is some great scenery that I would just end up staring at:
ibkwLpFwTZuYsy.gif


Love the bit about the HQ:

Let’s talk about the Kreisau Circle HQ a bit more. It’s a special place, quite unbelievable and yet willed into credibility by the sheer work – and panache – that’s gone into it. What appeared as just a barebones NPC depot in Wolfenstein 2009 is a gorgeously embroidered film set in The New Order, home to an allied cast of physically and mentally damaged fugitives. It is a dark, damp, desperate place warmed by its people and insulated by all the contraband – paintings, records, icons, photographs – that seem to glue the place together. Lit hot and cold by candles and a groaning wall of televisions, it owes much to movies like 12 Monkeys and Brazil.

“id Tech 5 is incredibly good at some things while other things are just a challenge,” says Matthies. “Obviously the main strength is that it’s incredibly fucking fast; you can make a 60fps game like this and have a huge amount of geometry still in there. And of course there’s the whole megatexture aspect, which is both a blessing and a curse because you can make every pixel in the environment unique. The Kreisau Circle HQ is a good example of that because it’s so rich – it’s detail upon detail upon detail; there’s no limit to how much you can layer it. You could go on forever and make it more and more awesome. The limit is how much time you can spend on each surface. You always have this sense that no matter how much you’ve done, you want to do more. Always more.”
Click to expand...

That this three-storey chimney full of oddballs and cultural clutter can feel plausible, even homely, despite being mere feet from sewers, a full-blown helicopter hangar, and a thousand Nazi jackboots, is a terrific accomplishment. Only personalities with complete authority over a game from inception through to release – for lack of a better word, auteurs – could, you feel, have threaded it all together.
Click to expand...

This bit about the characters is also great:
Also notably mashed up in The New Order are our expectations of gender, which in this game is a refreshing, depoliticised cocktail that exists purely to enhance the story. Within Caroline’s Kreisau matriarchy, heroes BJ and Anya nurse, command and fuck each other, but never for the benefit of a leering gamer. (If anything, the camera seems ashamed to catch them ‘at it’.) Tekla (female) is a geek and a bully; Klaus is openly vulnerable as he dotes on his manchild; the cast soon swells with nary a hint of a token role. As for Frau Engel, the deliciously problematic Bond villainess with sex and death fetishes, a toy boy, and, um, a concentration camp to run… Well, as usual, “none of this is by chance.”

Matthies’ stance is that “as human beings, regardless of what we feel or what we’re born into – we have cultural obligations to perform in the world – inside we all feel the fucking same; we’re all insecure and want approval and love. Exploring all of those sides is always interesting – more so with characters who are overtly playing on stereotype, like BJ. A big problem is that people and publishers in general have this sense that your protagonist has to be super alpha male the whole time, whereas I always saw BJ as a grunt. He’s comfortable taking orders; he’s a samurai, not a feudal lord. The big scheme of things is not his deal. He has a very specific skill set which is killing Nazis. I love that about him, that he doesn’t have to pretend to be more than he is.
Click to expand...

How to do good pacing:
Matthies moves on to describe the process of making the combat levels, and how iterating on the layouts means “tightening the screws until everything makes more sense.” The London Nautica, for instance, cosmetically a shrine to a Nazi moon landing but also home to the Laserkraftwerk cutting tool, functionally exists to deliver the Project Whisper stealth helicopters “that allow access to vastly different places in the world without some complex mechanism of transport to get there.” But it’s “not a chicken-and-egg thing,” he insists, as levels rather coalesce around several heavily storyboarded beats in the campaign. He explains: “You have to apportion both knowledge and gameplay in a way that’s consumable for the player. There’s a vast document which maps out every weapon and enemy in the game – how they’re revealed and when they’re revealed – to ensure we give the game good pacing. These particular scenarios are then constructed around the facts of what you find.”
Click to expand...
 
E

Enco

Member
Messofanego said:
Coffee next gen fluid dynamics

iAl6ocNmkFF6j.gif
Click to expand...

I LOVED this whole segment.

The game allowed me to live out loads of cool scenes I've seen in movies.

I wish the whole
space
thing was more fleshed out though. A long scene with
space travel and lots more gravity stuff
would have been really nice.
 
N

Net_Wrecker

Member
Messofanego said:
Great read about world building.

"Personality can survive a lot of execution errors. If you don’t have personality then you have to have flawless execution."

Great quote.

I'm glad someone else picked up that the London Monitor feels like a homage to the War of the Worlds, impending doom sounds and all.

Even though it's not designed as an open world and more a ride, there is some great scenery that I would just end up staring at:
http://i.minus.com/ibkwLpFwTZuYsy.gif

Love the bit about the HQ:

This bit about the characters is also great:

How to do good pacing:
Click to expand...

This is like the 3rd really great, extensive interview I've read about MachineGames. I love their focus and their voice in the genre, and I hope they get to keep making what they want, how they want for years to come. First person shooters need them.

2004, remember, was the year that gave us Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay. There’s a great satisfaction in how The New Order seems to carry on their work through osmosis, technical coincidence, and straightforward inheritance. No other developer right now seems so loyal to that old FPS roadmap, and so undeterred. To wit, Matthies declares: “we have a philosophy where we want you as a player to be richly able to engage with the world. Everything meaningful to the experience should be open. If we think you should drive a car, just for that one moment, then we do it. That’s why we like to have stealth in there – because if you can fully support stealth and guns-out super mayhem, you’ve got the whole spectrum.”
Click to expand...

That kind of game design, "If we think you should drive a car, just for that one moment, then we do it," is what makes Wolfenstein stand out. That's what made The Darkness and Riddick stand out. Ultimately they're shooters, but they're filled with moments. Small moments where you do things, maybe the only time you'll do them in the entire game, because they help the experience move forward, pace the game, and give it character. It's not just about what happens while pulling the trigger, watching a cutscene, or watching things fall down, it's a holistic experience where everything feels in sync.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Net_Wrecker said:
This is like the 3rd really great, extensive interview I've read about MachineGames. I love their focus and their voice in the genre, and I hope they get to keep making what they want, how they want for years to come. First person shooters need them.



That kind of game design, "If we think you should drive a car, just for that one moment, then we do it," is what makes Wolfenstein stand out. That's what made The Darkness and Riddick stand out. Ultimately they're shooters, but they're filled with moments. Small moments where you do things, maybe the only time you'll do them in the entire game, because they help the experience move forward, pace the game, and give it character. It's not just about what happens while pulling the trigger, watching a cutscene, or watching things fall down, it's a holistic experience where everything feels in sync.
Click to expand...

Amen. Hard to get that in big 100+-person big-budget game projects where everything feels cohesive.
 
G

General_Frags

Member
Dear lord I love this game haven't finished it quite yet, on the Bridge level (Uber diff) and I have most of the perks unlocked. Does the game get better? Also what are people's favourite guns? I particularly like dual wield shotguns.
 
K

Kaneda Shotaro

Member
Okay reading the OP, now I need to place this. Thanks!

What are the differences between the PS4/XBO versions? Anything noticeable like framerate or are they pretty much the same?
 
O

OverturePT

Member
Fantastic game, loved it. It's in my opinion without a doubt the best FPS to have come out in years. The shooting is incredibly satisfying, the dialogues and monologues are fantastic (wasn't expecting it at all tbh) and the soundtrack is pretty fucking good (1min in and it gets incredible).
 
G

gstaff

Member
Kaneda Shotaro said:
Okay reading the OP, now I need to place this. Thanks!

What are the differences between the PS4/XBO versions? Anything noticeable like framerate or are they pretty much the same?
Click to expand...

I've played through both and I believe it comes down to controller preference more than anything.

Challenge for anyone out there: See if you can pull off a knife kill like this one I got for a video we captured. That shot was one in a million.
 
F

FaustsBoon

Member
Holy shit...

I know that I am super late to the party, but I went into Wolf:TNO expecting a shooter that FELT great. What I did not expect was the INCREDIBLE narrative, characterization, pacing, etc...

The moment you "figure out" "J", or the payoff to the Ramona diaries... just.... wow.

I am genuinely awed by this game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PSA : Tactical shooter fans - Black One Blood Brothers is a mashup of SOCOM, ARMA, Rainbow 6
Opinion Analysis Indie
1
335
noob smokes replied
Free-to-play anime-style action shooter Strinova launches November 21 for PC (2025 for PS5, Xbox Series, iOS and Android)
News
9
1K
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
  • Locked
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle includes warning denouncing Nazis
2 3 4 5
223
8K
IDKFA replied
  • Poll
Would Killzone benefit from a Wolfenstein MachineGames era treatment?
Opinion
42
2K
Giallo Corsa replied
  • Poll
Do you look up the best classes, best weapons, what upgrades to get etc in games you're playing?
2
53
1K
rm082e replied
Top Bottom