Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Double Pack - Xbox One

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Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Double Pack (Xbox One)
Also for: PS4, PC
Viewed: 3D First-person Genre:
Compilation
Media: Blu-Ray Arcade origin:No
Developer: MachineGames Soft. Co.: Bethesda
Publishers: Bethesda (GB)
Released: 23 Feb 2018 (GB)
Ratings: PEGI 18+
No Accessories: No accessories

Summary

Two alternate history Nazi-fighting games, one box!

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Wolfenstein: The New Order was developed by Machine Games, a new team made up of ex-Starbreeze staff. As you may expect, coming from the people behind such stuff as the Riddick games, The New Order has a real focus on storytelling in this new addition to the franchise. Sure, there's still plenty of manz that need shootin', but why on earth can't you do that with a bit of entertainment and humour?

The game's story is an alternate history, and things have moved on from WWII. It's the 1960s and the world is very different. Things didn't go quite to plan for the Allies, so Europe now has a rather distinct Nazi flavour to it. Fresh from waking up from a coma, B.J. Blazkowicz has missed out on this whole rise of the Third Reich and - naturally, being a freedom loving all-American type, goes on a one man crusade to kill all of the Nazis.

Except you're not alone - working alongside various Resistance members, you're looking to fight smarter rather than harder.

The whole thing has a very well put together cinematic style, but if you're looking for that Citizen Kane of gaming move on - think more along the lines of The Expendables with a dash of accelerated technology and you'll be far closer to what Wolfenstein can offer you. Plenty of guns. Lots of shooting. Much running about... The kind of stuff you'd expect from a very pretty-looking FPS.

From a gameplay standpoint, everything works pretty much as you'd expect. There's plenty of opportunity for dual wielding whatever guns you find - double machine guns are a delight. The emphasis on fast-paced, tough shoot-'em-up gameplay delivered well.

Unless you have a time machine and a really wicked sense of humour, you may never get a better opportunity to find out what would have happened if the Nazis had won...

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

In a world of day one downloadable content, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood took a novel approach to expanding on the content of its predecessor. Or, you might say, an old school approach. This is a full-size chunk of game, weighing in at around eight hours for a low price point, it's been packaged as its own entity.

To that end, the game is a prequel set in the run-up to The New Order, the game that moved the Wolfenstein franchise back to the forefront of shoot-'em-up fans' minds. It puts players back in the boots of series hero B.J. Blazkowicz as he shoots his way through the game's two episodes.

In the first, 'Rudi Jäger and the Den of Wolves,' you'll need to go back to the place at the heart of the series - Castle Wolfenstein. You need to obtain a document that sets up the events of The New Order but, of course, things don't go to plan. Over the course of the episode you'll run across a few new enemy variants such as a sniper, solve some puzzles and do a fair bit of stealthing and shooting.

The second part, 'The Dark Secrets of Helga Von Schabbs,' take the game into weirder territory. Like, undead territory. With zombies. But shooter fans are no stranger to zombies and it fits with the B-movie feel of Old Blood.

The Old Blood brings players a tightly-focused dose of what they enjoyed from The New Order, and that should go down just fine.