Wolfenstein: The New Order review round-up

It’s easy to see why Wolfenstein: The New Order was under embargo until launch day. Reviews have been vastly polarising – it would seem that for every 6/10 there has been a 9/10.

It’s hard to imagine Bethesda being too concerned about those lukewarm reviews though – after the embargo lifted this morning the gritty first person shooter swiftly sold out on Amazon.

The mixed reviews are down to the fact that it’s a little disjointed and inconsistent in places, and also perhaps too dumb for its own good. Most critics did however agree that it’s still a far more enjoyable experience than the po-faced likes of Killzone: Shadow Fall and Call of Duty: Ghosts.

Here’s what has been said so far:

9.0 – Polygon: “Its bizarre love triangle of traditional shooter elements, sci-fi pulp and believable human angle becomes something much more than its origins would suggest”

9/10 – Metro GameCentral: “The best Wolfenstein game ever made and one of the best single-player shooters for years, with a brave attempt to tackle serious issues and still have fun at the same time”

9/10 – Official Xbox Magazine: “A genuine treat that excels in escapist shooting and rah-rah bad-guy killing, yet still finds time to be soulful, emotional and occasionally melancholy”

90% – Gaming Trend: “Wolfenstein: The New Order delivers an experience well beyond my expectations, elevating this venerable series not only into a new generation, but raising the bar for story-driven shooters as a whole”

8.5 – EGM: “With its brilliant level design and copious replayability, The New Order more than lives up to the Wolfenstein name”

8.0 – GameInformer: “Machine Games presents a competent shooter with more polish and a better array of characters, but ultimately the game feels more comfortable recompiling established conventions than it does striving for innovation”

8/10 – God is a Geek: “Wolfenstein: The New Order is what it is and, more importantly, it knows that. Calling it big, dumb fun sounds a little condescending, but it fits a game that follows the Michael Bay formula of mixing explosions with explosions and filling in the cracks with reliable-but-cliched story beats and fast dialogue – which, in a quasi-Sci-Fi shooter like this, is absolutely appropriate”

8.0 – NowGamer: “It’s a wonderful surprise that absolutely lives up to its E3 promises, and, for the moment, might be the best shooter on PS4 and Xbox One”

8/10 – GameSpot: “The game is both a celebration of the Wolfenstein series and what feels like a fitting send-off for it”

4/5 – Guardian: “[However] despite its nods to the oldest first-person shooter of all, it does feel thoroughly honed and reasonably modern. It isn’t the future of first-person shooters, but it does rank among the best single-player examples.

4/5 – GamesRadar: “An over-the-top shooter with fun action, memorable set-piece moments, and decent characters, Wolfenstein: The New Order successfully transforms an old-school game into a modern experience”

7.8 – IGN: “Wolfenstein: The New Order’s emphasis on storytelling and characters make it a shooter worth playing”

7.5 – Destructoid: “In many ways, Wolfenstein: The New Order is “First-Person Shooters: The Game,” but it gets most of the important details right. It’s still weird to me seeing Wolf games developed over and over by new devs, but MachineGames did a great job adapting the franchise in its own way. With a few tweaks, the next iteration could be something truly special”

3.5/5 – The Escapist: “Wolfenstein: The New Order doesn’t make the most of a highly promising premise, but it provides the baseline of gun-toting freedom fighting that fans expect”

3/5 – Digital Spy: “Wolfenstein: The New Order is not the most sophisticated of games and it’s certainly not perfect, but it wears its silly plot and over-the-top action like a badge of honour, and for that we applaud it”

3/5 – JoyStiq: “The greatest problem in Wolfenstein: The New Order, then, is a jarring inconsistency of tone and cohesion.”

6/10 – Eurogamer: “Overall, it’s built on an impressive world but it doesn’t do enough with it, and as a result it’s curious, but hardly compelling”

6/10 – VideoGamer: “In short bursts, it’s everything you’d assume it would be, and if your expectations don’t go any further than that you won’t be disappointed. Ignore the (awful) narrative, shoot some fools and enjoy”

If you’ve been having trouble finding a copy then you’re not alone – we had to visit three stores until we spotted a copy on the shelves. We guess the mid-week release date threw a few retailers.