---

I completed TNO on the Uber difficulty.

I felt like I was directly punished for playing in the way that TNO is supposed to be played: as a fast-paced run and gun shooter. ADSing with weapons is rarely a good option except with the weapon designated for it due to poor viewmodels and general inaccuracy at range. However, the way to play this game on the Uber difficulty is by picking off enemies from a distance. Going in fast against any enemy except common enemies (no enemies as powerful as shotgun guys) will get you insta-killed. There is no mechanic like DOOM (2016) where getting glory kills gives you health back. By running in, you're effectively rolling the dice on whether or not you survive the encounter. Playing in a COD-like way of picking off enemies from afar behind cover netted me better results than when I went in guns blazing, so that's the way I played. Slow and methodical. It wasn't fun due to the aforementioned ADS problem and the game just not being built around it seemingly. Various guns become mostly useless except in rare occasions as all you're doing is going for headshots. I would've turned down the difficulty except...

The game makes fun of you for playing on lower difficulty settings. There's a very blatant "playing at higher difficulties makes you cooler!!!" design. The easiest difficulty has the protagonist wearing a pacifier and a baby bib, looking sad. The hardest one has the protagonist with a very smug grin and looking badass. Difficulty elitism is already a terrible ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idea as you're just alienating players who are lesser able (goes directly against everything Wolfenstein stands for in its story btw lol) but it's even worse when the hardest difficulty a) isn't even that hard and b) doesn't result in a difficulty that's actually fun to play the game in. And why would I lower the difficulty when the game is telling me that the coolest and most badass way to play is on the hardest one?
For contrast, CoD (at least MW2 and before) had difficulty variances like Wolfenstein. The main difference is that CoD never made you feel awful for choosing a lower difficulty setting and the game is fun to play at all difficulties. Difficulties remain clear in their intent and who they're meant for, but it doesn't actively insult the player.

You may be able to enjoy this game as it was intended on a lower difficulty, but I don't recommend buying already just based off of this needless elitism and poor balancing.

---

It doesn't stop there.

• Jump between cutscenes and gameplay is incredibly jarring. Cutscenes are letterboxed and gameplay isn't.
  
• Cannot autopickup ammo, health, or armor. I had to spam SO MUCH to pick up all the things I needed after a battle or otherwise I was hurting my chances at doing well in the next fight. Autopickup is a no-brainer. Genuinely the most annoying thing besides the combat.
  
• Loading takes forever. It's genuinely surprising. It's way too long for a game of this recency.
  
• Shotgun guys do SO much damage. It's unreal and they probably do the most damage in the game at unreasonable ranges. You cannot engage with these guys.
  
• Weapons should backpack reload. Duh.
  
• Some characters just die for no reason.

• The big mech thing that I tried to kill with the AA gun. I wasn't able to kill it with the AA gun before it tried to kill me with it's charge-up blast, so I backed away from it before it fired. It continued playing the sound of the charged-up cannon for the rest of the mission.
  
• I received the Autopanzer perk and the notification stuck on my screen for the entire mission. Could not get it off.

Quite limited.

• Headshots on armored enemies cause their helmets to drop, which serve as a quick slight armor boost. Great way to encourage accuracy.
  
• The story and presentation. The story is campy but not too much. The letters and side content you can discover is very good and really gives a semi-accurate look at the propaganda of a theoretical war-winning Nazi regime. I also cried reading one of the letters. Hard stuff.

Don't buy.

[h1]Wolfenstein: The New Order seems like a solid shooter with a phenomenal story about screwing Nazis over, but is ruined by solely elitist difficulty settings and poor difficulty tuning.[/h1] [hr][/hr] [b]I completed TNO on the Uber difficulty.[/b] [h2]Uber's Difficulty Scaling:[/h2] I felt like I was directly punished for playing in the way that TNO is supposed to be played: as a fast-paced run and gun shooter. ADSing with weapons is rarely a good option except with the weapon designated for it due to poor viewmodels and general inaccuracy at range. However, the way to play this game on the Uber difficulty is by picking off enemies from a distance. Going in fast against any enemy except common enemies (no enemies as powerful as shotgun guys) will get you insta-killed. There is no mechanic like DOOM (2016) where getting glory kills gives you health back. By running in, you're effectively rolling the dice on whether or not you survive the encounter. Playing in a COD-like way of picking off enemies from afar behind cover netted me better results than when I went in guns blazing, so that's the way I played. Slow and methodical. It wasn't fun due to the aforementioned ADS problem and the game just not being built around it seemingly. Various guns become mostly useless except in rare occasions as all you're doing is going for headshots. I would've turned down the difficulty except... [h2]Elitism:[/h2] The game makes fun of you for playing on lower difficulty settings. There's a very blatant "playing at higher difficulties makes you cooler!!!" design. The easiest difficulty has the protagonist wearing a pacifier and a baby bib, looking sad. The hardest one has the protagonist with a very smug grin and looking badass. Difficulty elitism is already a terrible fucking idea as you're just alienating players who are lesser able (goes directly against everything Wolfenstein stands for in its story btw lol) but it's even worse when the hardest difficulty a) isn't even that hard and b) doesn't result in a difficulty that's actually fun to play the game in. And why would I lower the difficulty when the game is telling me that the coolest and most badass way to play is on the hardest one? For contrast, CoD (at least MW2 and before) had difficulty variances like Wolfenstein. The main difference is that CoD never made you feel awful for choosing a lower difficulty setting and the game is fun to play at all difficulties. Difficulties remain clear in their intent and who they're meant for, but it doesn't actively insult the player. You may be able to enjoy this game as it was intended on a lower difficulty, but I don't recommend buying already just based off of this needless elitism and poor balancing. [hr][/hr] [h2]Other Problems[/h2] It doesn't stop there. [list] [*]Jump between cutscenes and gameplay is incredibly jarring. Cutscenes are letterboxed and gameplay isn't. [*]Cannot autopickup ammo, health, or armor. I had to spam SO MUCH to pick up all the things I needed after a battle or otherwise I was hurting my chances at doing well in the next fight. Autopickup is a no-brainer. Genuinely the most annoying thing besides the combat. [*]Loading takes forever. It's genuinely surprising. It's way too long for a game of this recency. [*]Shotgun guys do SO much damage. It's unreal and they probably do the most damage in the game at unreasonable ranges. You cannot engage with these guys. [*]Weapons should backpack reload. Duh. [*]Some characters just die for no reason. [/list] [h2]Bugs[/h2] [list] [*]The big mech thing that I tried to kill with the AA gun. I wasn't able to kill it with the AA gun before it tried to kill me with it's charge-up blast, so I backed away from it before it fired. It continued playing the sound of the charged-up cannon for the rest of the mission. [*]I received the Autopanzer perk and the notification stuck on my screen for the entire mission. Could not get it off. [/list] [h2]Good Things[/h2] Quite limited. [list] [*]Headshots on armored enemies cause their helmets to drop, which serve as a quick slight armor boost. Great way to encourage accuracy. [*]The story and presentation. The story is campy but not too much. The letters and side content you can discover is very good and really gives a semi-accurate look at the propaganda of a theoretical war-winning Nazi regime. I also cried reading one of the letters. Hard stuff. [/list] Don't buy.