With Wolfenstein: The New Order, Machine Games isn't looking for subtlety. There's not much gray area in a game where you're shooting assault weapons into the face of giant robot Nazis in castle. While the return of Captain William J. Blaskowicz won't win any awards for telling a story or teaching a message; it succeeds wildly at delivering a fun and interesting shooter that makes me feel like a badass at almost every turn. The New Order is a game that thrives on the strength of it's excess, but it also slows it down at times.

Wolfenstein: The New Order feels a lot like director Quinton Tarantino got the rights to the famed shooter series and just went nuts with it. Rather than place you in the middle of World War II like previous games in the series did, you play as Captain Blaskowicz as he attempts to lead the resistance in overthrow the Nazis since they won World War II and took over the world. The Nazis have used their new technology (which is basically giant mechs along with human and animal modifications) to make the world cower in fear, and it's up to ole' BJ to stop them.

"...a slightly old school and silly shooter. "

The New Order makes no bones about what kind of shooter it is; a slightly old school and silly shooter. Thankfully the gunplay feels great throughout most of the entire game and you're able to take the somewhat dated mechanics and goofy level design for what it is. Each of the game's weapons is a lot of fun to fire and as a result, it's extremely fun to fire them off and take out unsuspecting Nazis in an almost cartoon level of violence and blood. This is a mature shooter, and Machine Games revels in it quite well.

Sections in The New Order range from tight corridor shooting to big open arena style clashes and even some great action set pieces. Thankfully the corridor shooter sections are far outweighed by the others since they're the least fun to play through and ignore much of what makes The New Order so much fun to play. Each of the more open sections gives you a lot of choice in just how you're going to go about completing it. Make no mistake about it, the end goal is still to make Nazi's pay dearly but the constant inclusion of secondary paths and a stealth system allows you to strategize and while each section will normally turn into a shootout before long, it's still a nice touch.

"...often feel like they're lifted directly from a 90s shooter..."

A lot of the mechanics from The New Order often feel like they're lifted directly from a 90s shooter, which while it is an interesting choice, it doesn't always feel like the right one. Running around the map and collecting enemy helmets for health just feels unnatural and uneven; and why can't I pick up every enemy helmet? Why is it just certain ones that can give health? It's important to note that your health will regenerate to a certain amount (it's less depending on how little health you have), but if you want full health, you'll have to go on a helmet search.

With Wolfenstein: The New Order doesn't strive for innovation, it just does it's best to translate the classic Wolfenstein experience to the modern age of gaming. The result is a flawed but fun and visceral shooter experience that will both evoke nostalgic memories of the granddad of shooters and also turn new gamers on to a series they may have never tried. After the failed relaunch of the series with 2009's Wolfenstein, The New Order is a great next-gen shooter.