“We do have the lighter, funnier elements, but we take the theme of the alternate history very, very seriously,” he said. Over the course of the game, players will learn how these characters escaped the Nazis and joined the resistance. Ojerfors explained that Blazkowicz becomes part of a resistance movement, which includes Jews and people of many nationalities–including Germans. “I don’t want to tell examples of what those various scenes are, but you’ll very much experience the horror and the evil of the Nazi regime, so we do explore that.”

I asked Ojerfors whether Wolfenstein: The New Order does anything similar.

But it also makes sure to convey the actual horror of the time, most notably in the film’s opening scene. Tarantino’s film also indulges in an alternate history, and blends humor with catharsis. “So we have the more twisted, slightly humorous aspect of it, but we take the main theme … we take that seriously, and we look at it as something we explore together with the player.” “The way we see it is, we make our game like Inglourious Basterds,” Ojerfors said. But Ojerfors assured me that the developers at MachineGames want to treat the topic with sensitivity. There’s only so much I can infer from the short interview, especially because publisher Bethesda Softworks is still withholding key plot details. After seeing the first trailers for the game, I wondered whether the new Wolfenstein would go too far in painting the Nazis as generic villains, ignoring why they’re so reviled in the first place.Īt E3, I was able to get some answers from Andreas Ojerfors, the senior gameplay designer for Wolfenstein: The New Order. Although Wolfenstein has dabbled in sci-fi and supernatural themes since the beginning, New Order appears to go even further by making robots and mechs the main attraction. These Nazis are being portrayed as badass robots, rather than horrifying humans. I totally get the catharsis that comes with killing virtual Nazis, and have indulged in my fair share.īut as someone with two grandparents who survived the Holocaust, something about this reinvention of the series didn’t sit right with me. Wolfenstein 3D hooked me on PC gaming 20 years ago. I’m used to video games that use Nazis as villains, turning them into fodder for our amusement. Once again, William “B.J.” Blazkowicz has to kill a whole bunch of Nazis. Democracy has fallen, and the Nazis rule with an army of mechanized super-soldiers. The game imagines an alternate history, in which the Nazis won World War II. Follow I first heard about Wolfenstein: The New Order, the concept unsettled me.

Wolfenstein the new order super soldier