When it comes to balancing the importance of gameplay versus pacing with the narrative, there is no better contrast than Machine Games’ two games for the third Wolfenstein soft-reboot, The New Order and The Old Blood. While both games adhere to the same core gunplay with slight changes in weapons, perks and enemies given different settings, each game offers a distinct experience catered for two different types of gamers. To describe one game as being superior than the other is something every player will have to consider, and if you can choose between the two it’s best to know how they cater to different single-player tastes.

The Old Blood, as the title would suggest, is not about the line where BJ describes how his aunt suffered dementia because the disease runs in the family’s lineage; the title is a return to form with the latest Wolfenstein series to the games that make up its history. The line itself is a blatant omission from the developers that the plot is superfluous to whatever story is established for The New Order as it is a memory lapse forgotten in the overall story of TNO. What the game chooses to do instead is utilizing its series’ history in an inventive way that goes beyond the Wolfenstein 3D Easter Egg levels as The Old Blood is not simply a prequel to the New Order but also a reimagining of Return to Castle Wolfenstein with characters from that installment returning into the continuity of Machine Games that the New Order followed with some of the returning cast of the 2009 remake of Wolfenstein.


As far as the most underwhelming aspect of The Old Blood, the game is guilty of having a narrative with little to no relevance to the events of The New Order. While it is neat for Machine Guns to give some backstory for BJ’s “Count to four—inhale—count to four—exhale” technique more meaning, the overall plot is a throwaway feature that capitalizes on reusing characters from Return to Castle Wolfenstein like Ludwig Kessler, Richard Wesley, Helga Schabbs and Emmerich Schreiner with a modicum of extra depth of their character. The importance placed on the storyline about the King Otto’s secrets, the Nazi Zombies, and the overarching objective to find Deathshead’s compound for the introduction of TNO showcases how meaningless it is.

What is perhaps the thing that will be divisive amongst fans is how the game is structured to be more gameplay packed with less, if any, quiet-time for its pacing. In many ways, TNO felt like a game inspired by Half-Life by how you would be fighting Nazis on the moon in one chapter and finding a mentally handicapped child his toys at home base. Characters and the overall absurdity with its Inglorious B*stards’ style of storytelling is at the wayside, yet it still uses Nazis as a means to explore the human usage of violence as well as how easy it is to make killing Nazis comedic when you create a label of an enemy to one extreme to be mocked. Sections in TNO were reserved for the narrative to be the focus as well as have vehicles and stealth-orientated levels to add greater variety to offset the constant combat that TOB adheres to much like RTCW.

This is by no means an objective issue as the game is far more concise, focused and gameplay orientated, which would benefit players who found the constant interruptions of TNO to take away from the experience. Perhaps the only objectively worse thing about its narrative is the pointless choice of saving a side-character in one mission as it has less of an impact than the small benefits of the Fergus/Wyatt timelines of TNO. If you were to take all the core gameplay of TNO and compared it with the running time of TOB, the chances are they would be likely the same; it’s how they are spread out that is the major difference. As a result of these pauses in combat and stealth, I found it easier to play three or four hours of one session in TNO versus the multiple one to two-hour sessions with my time from TOB, and this is because the level-design and gameplay are what matter the most.


It’s much easier to state what is the same from The New Order rather than to describe what has been changed in The Old Blood in its gameplay. However, these small adjustments made go a long way to make the core experience have more run-and-gun fun than the stop-and-pop moments of TNO.

Perhaps the worst offenders in TNO when it came to level design was when there were scripted ambushes that put players in the crossfire from both sides that rewarded more cautious play than the no cover attitude that the recent Wolfenstein games favor. TOB has far fewer sections that suffer from this issue as enemies typically attack from one direction with enough time given for the player to plan ahead. Levels themselves incorporate more open environments to hunt down operators and other Nazis as stealthy or as lethally carefree as possible. The only exception is the notorious introduction that is geared towards stealth to set-up this version of Castle Wolfenstein and the main antagonists. Every area that follows allows both playstyles more flexibility that has small breaks infrequently with a brief confrontation/cool-down period and a mech section for variety. The result creates a more forgiving experience even with hitscan enemies and more liberal usage of items instead of hiding behind cover.

These tweaks are also evident in the perks’ system as you no longer are required to unlock prior ranks and many of them can be unlocked on repeated playthroughs within the first or second chapter. The perks themselves are still plagued with the idea of forcing the player to do X number of things to unlock extra features as a means to instill an unnecessary reason for the player to vary their playstyle much like DOOM (2016). None of them, however, are counter-intuitive like the Overcharge stealth perk of TNO, and many of them can unlock useful features like the Quick-Turn ability or the ability to carry a mounted machine gun in your inventory slot.

Everything else about the combat from its weapons and enemies is largely the same from TNO except with the small chapters of Nazi Zombies that add greater numbers to tackle in the few levels that feature them. There is also a surprising lack of interesting collectables from TNO like the Enigma codes replaced with Challenge arenas for leaderboards and perhaps one too many Wolfenstein 3D levels. As a standalone product, TOB is simply more of the same, but done better in its gameplay, which is really all that anyone could ask for.


When it comes to the future of the Wolfenstein games, it will be interesting to see if the sequel will adhere to The New Order format of storytelling and gameplay or The Old Blood’s sole focus on level-design and gameplay. As a sequel, it’s likely to not skimp out on the narrative as much as TOB. It’s also evident by the massive change in the health system from the sequel’s previews where the player can only regenerate up to 50 health that the next Wolfenstein is focused more on the constant action and item usage rather than having the player ration resources and play the game safe. Whether that will be successful or not remains to be seen, but if it’s anything like The Old Blood then perhaps the sequel will be able to reach the compromise between the new and the old designs that has kept this reboot divisive amongst its fanbase.

When it comes to balancing the importance of gameplay versus pacing with the narrative, there is no better contrast than Machine Games’ two games for the third Wolfenstein soft-reboot, The New Order and The Old Blood. While both games adhere to the same core gunplay with slight changes in weapons, perks and enemies given different settings, each game offers a distinct experience catered for two different types of gamers. To describe one game as being superior than the other is something every player will have to consider, and if you can choose between the two it’s best to know how they cater to different single-player tastes. The Old Blood, as the title would suggest, is not about the line where BJ describes how his aunt suffered dementia because the disease runs in the family’s lineage; the title is a return to form with the latest Wolfenstein series to the games that make up its history. The line itself is a blatant omission from the developers that the plot is superfluous to whatever story is established for The New Order as it is a memory lapse forgotten in the overall story of TNO. What the game chooses to do instead is utilizing its series’ history in an inventive way that goes beyond the Wolfenstein 3D Easter Egg levels as The Old Blood is not simply a prequel to the New Order but also a reimagining of Return to Castle Wolfenstein with characters from that installment returning into the continuity of Machine Games that the New Order followed with some of the returning cast of the 2009 remake of Wolfenstein. [h1]Not All Quiet on the Western Front[/h1] As far as the most underwhelming aspect of The Old Blood, the game is guilty of having a narrative with little to no relevance to the events of The New Order. While it is neat for Machine Guns to give some backstory for BJ’s “Count to four—inhale—count to four—exhale” technique more meaning, the overall plot is a throwaway feature that capitalizes on reusing characters from Return to Castle Wolfenstein like Ludwig Kessler, Richard Wesley, Helga Schabbs and Emmerich Schreiner with a modicum of extra depth of their character. The importance placed on the storyline about the King Otto’s secrets, the Nazi Zombies, and the overarching objective to find Deathshead’s compound for the introduction of TNO showcases how meaningless it is. What is perhaps the thing that will be divisive amongst fans is how the game is structured to be more gameplay packed with less, if any, quiet-time for its pacing. In many ways, TNO felt like a game inspired by Half-Life by how you would be fighting Nazis on the moon in one chapter and finding a mentally handicapped child his toys at home base. Characters and the overall absurdity with its Inglorious B*stards’ style of storytelling is at the wayside, yet it still uses Nazis as a means to explore the human usage of violence as well as how easy it is to make killing Nazis comedic when you create a label of an enemy to one extreme to be mocked. Sections in TNO were reserved for the narrative to be the focus as well as have vehicles and stealth-orientated levels to add greater variety to offset the constant combat that TOB adheres to much like RTCW. This is by no means an objective issue as the game is far more concise, focused and gameplay orientated, which would benefit players who found the constant interruptions of TNO to take away from the experience. Perhaps the only objectively worse thing about its narrative is the pointless choice of saving a side-character in one mission as it has less of an impact than the small benefits of the Fergus/Wyatt timelines of TNO. If you were to take all the core gameplay of TNO and compared it with the running time of TOB, the chances are they would be likely the same; it’s how they are spread out that is the major difference. As a result of these pauses in combat and stealth, I found it easier to play three or four hours of one session in TNO versus the multiple one to two-hour sessions with my time from TOB, and this is because the level-design and gameplay are what matter the most. [h1]If It Ain’t Broken, Then Break Some More Nazi Skulls[/h1] It’s much easier to state what is the same from The New Order rather than to describe what has been changed in The Old Blood in its gameplay. However, these small adjustments made go a long way to make the core experience have more run-and-gun fun than the stop-and-pop moments of TNO. Perhaps the worst offenders in TNO when it came to level design was when there were scripted ambushes that put players in the crossfire from both sides that rewarded more cautious play than the no cover attitude that the recent Wolfenstein games favor. TOB has far fewer sections that suffer from this issue as enemies typically attack from one direction with enough time given for the player to plan ahead. Levels themselves incorporate more open environments to hunt down operators and other Nazis as stealthy or as lethally carefree as possible. The only exception is the notorious introduction that is geared towards stealth to set-up this version of Castle Wolfenstein and the main antagonists. Every area that follows allows both playstyles more flexibility that has small breaks infrequently with a brief confrontation/cool-down period and a mech section for variety. The result creates a more forgiving experience even with hitscan enemies and more liberal usage of items instead of hiding behind cover. These tweaks are also evident in the perks’ system as you no longer are required to unlock prior ranks and many of them can be unlocked on repeated playthroughs within the first or second chapter. The perks themselves are still plagued with the idea of forcing the player to do X number of things to unlock extra features as a means to instill an unnecessary reason for the player to vary their playstyle much like DOOM (2016). None of them, however, are counter-intuitive like the Overcharge stealth perk of TNO, and many of them can unlock useful features like the Quick-Turn ability or the ability to carry a mounted machine gun in your inventory slot. Everything else about the combat from its weapons and enemies is largely the same from TNO except with the small chapters of Nazi Zombies that add greater numbers to tackle in the few levels that feature them. There is also a surprising lack of interesting collectables from TNO like the Enigma codes replaced with Challenge arenas for leaderboards and perhaps one too many Wolfenstein 3D levels. As a standalone product, TOB is simply more of the same, but done better in its gameplay, which is really all that anyone could ask for. [h1]In With the Old and New[/h1] When it comes to the future of the Wolfenstein games, it will be interesting to see if the sequel will adhere to The New Order format of storytelling and gameplay or The Old Blood’s sole focus on level-design and gameplay. As a sequel, it’s likely to not skimp out on the narrative as much as TOB. It’s also evident by the massive change in the health system from the sequel’s previews where the player can only regenerate up to 50 health that the next Wolfenstein is focused more on the constant action and item usage rather than having the player ration resources and play the game safe. Whether that will be successful or not remains to be seen, but if it’s anything like The Old Blood then perhaps the sequel will be able to reach the compromise between the new and the old designs that has kept this reboot divisive amongst its fanbase.