It's just broad enough to support making combat your own without feeling tedious or taking away from the core feel of the game. Players who prefer other playstyles can unlock bonus dual-wielding damage, high damage explosives, and more. I, for example, love crippling the enemies with stealth before going full-on Rambo, so by taking out a certain amount of enemies with silent kills my Blazkowicz unlocked throwing knives, a pistol silencer, quiet sprinting, and more. Both styles play well, and the limited perk ladder and unlocks support your play style. Controls are tight, weapons have satisfying weight, and the enemy AI was never frustrating. The good thing is even if you try stealth and botch it, the gunplay is extremely fun, so I never minded having to shoot more baddies. Conversely, stealth may take longer, but if you can sneak around and kill the commanders before being noticed, you'll prevent any reinforcements from coming by. If someone sees you while the alarms are still up a (u)boat load of extra enemies will show up to stop you until you find the area's commander. Many of the arena's will notify you of alarms near by. Both have their advantages due to the game's alarm system. You'll have to do at least a little bit of both no matter what, but It's possible to play through most the game guns blazing, or enter new areas undetected.

Some games do this on purpose, like Spec Ops: The Line in order to send a message about the nature of war and violence, but I never got the feeling that that was the goal here.Д«esides the great story telling in Wolfenstein: The New Order, the other element that surprised me was how well the game balances stealth play and bullet-hosing. Don't get me wrong, I love turning armies of baddies into tomato soup as much as the next guy, but it seems a little out of place sometimes after I'd just get done reading a letter hidden in the map from a German soldier to one of his family members about how horrible the war is, or after Blazkowicz is emotionally destroyed by the loss of someone. Unfortunately, the quality with which the occasional tenderness of the story is delivered almost hurts the game sometimes as it creates a deal of dissonance with the waves and waves of enemies you're mowing down. Sure there are a few cheesy bits of monologue here and there, but overall every single character, especially Blazkowics, speaks with the subtlety of voice that really makes them seem human.

I think the reason that the events hit so hard is that the voice acting and animations are absolutely top notch. One scene in particular early in the game had me paused for about 5 minutes hoping that I wouldn't really have to make a decision, which made taking a double barrel shotgun to their faces later all the more satisfying. I'm not talking вЂњtwirling their mustachesвЂќ evil, I mean doing really, really bad things to people that legitimately made me upset and want to kill them. The New Order is no pleasure, it's actually pretty heart-wrenching and stomach churning at times. Actually, that's probably the wrong word.

While the setting and general story concept are cool, it's the quality with which the narrative actually unfolds that makes it such a pleasure to experience.

Wolfenstein the new order silencer