It’s been a long and chequered lifespan for Wolfenstein, the alternative history shooter that depicts a world in which the Nazis won the war. Having re-invented – if not invented – the first person shooters we know and love today, some of the series’ entries haven’t hit the mark. 

Wolfenstein: The New OrderBattle your way through hordes of super-Nazis

But in The New Order, we have the most polished, most playable and, most importantly, richest storyline to date. It’s not perfect – some, scrap that, most critics have had niggles and slight problems they felt were important enough to mention in their respective reviews, but an overall score of 78 on Metacritic means fans of Wolfenstein will almost certainly come back for more Nazi-crushing action, while newcomers will likely find this to be the most accessible incarnation yet. 

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“Wolfenstein: The New Order doesn’t reinvent the franchise or give us anything particularly innovative. Yet what it does do is excel at giving us a deep shooter experience unlike we have seen on the XBOX One to date. This visually remarkable game features memorable characters, a terrific soundtrack and frantically entertaining gameplay. Wolfenstein: The New Order is hard to put down and for good reason – it simply kicks ass,” writes Trevor Houston, emphatically, for Canadian Online Gaming. 

“Machinegames' more grounded treatment of the often way over-the-top alternate Nazi history is also a nice touch, and while The New Order is in no way, shape, or form a simulation of the real world, its 10-to-12 hour campaign can certainly make you stop and wonder more than, say, Raven's 2009's occult-centric Wolfenstein reboot,” says IGN’s Colin Moriarity. 

“The New Order is willing to address some problematic themes, and ducks predictable tropes in a way that's clever and gratifying. A conversation with a fellow guitar-playing resistance member briefly demolishes the good versus evil rhetoric that Nazi-themed videogames like to indulge in. The good guys don't have a spotless track record with human rights, he points out, in language powerful enough to make you raise an eyebrow,” writes Jon Blyth for Official Xbox Magazine. 

WolfensteinWolfenstein's unrelenting style hasn't gone anywhere

And finally, The New Order has “Great level design, strong replayability, and beautiful graphics more than make up for a sometimes-disjointed plot. The New Order proudly exclaims that Wolfenstein is back, and this new entry should be played by all FPS fans,” says Ray Carsillo of EGMnow.