Unfortunately, most of the chapter revolves around Blazcowicz escaping, without much depth into the prisoners’ stories or life in the camp. You enter as Blazcowicz and see some of the camp through a prisoner’s eyes, bearing witness to slain prisoners’ bodies piled unceremoniously in a corner. Photo: Bethesdaīerlin is not the only area where Nazi oppression is apparent Wolfenstein: The New Order takes a semi-risky human angle with a chapter in a concentration camp nestled in the north of Croatia (likely a representation of Jasenovac). Nazi Germany is strikingly portrayed in the new title. This is especially apparent in the game’s rendition of Berlin, designed to be an imposing fortress city with “concrete for miles.”

What’s happening in the world of Nazi rule is far more interesting than the standard FPS fare of deserts and jungles Wolfenstein: The New Order’s world sports an oppressive, brutalist architectural structure with possible art deco and neo-baroque hints. Sometimes, he’s actually kind of funny (upon lifting a very light dumbbell: “Yeah, you still got it old man”). Instead, Blazcowicz keeps most of his thoughts to himself, spoken in short inner monologues that comment on what’s transpiring around him. At least he’s true to his character - an elite soldier who exists to kill Nazis, after all - but it was a real chance to show a more human aspect of Blazcowicz.

That’s telling of the entire game, though - someone dies, something explodes, and BJ just goes right on back to shooting Nazis. Most of the levels and the main story remain unchanged, which diminishes the impact your choice really has. You get a few different scenes, but that’s about it. This should affect the storyline in a major way, but it ultimately means very little. One thing The New Order does well is storytelling, even if there’s a lot of squandered potential at the end of Chapter One, you’re presented with a choice - you choose the fate of two fellow soldiers.

That means that the man you play is actually given time to develop as a character (fancy that, FPS developers?) along a forked story path. Wolfenstein: The New Order instead focuses solely on the single-player experience, delivering a campaign that easily doubles (if not triples, assuming you’re slow) the play time of games like Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Wolfenstein the new order soldiers