BJ Sneakowicz: Wolfenstein's Stealth Vs BANGTHOOMPSH

There is stealth. In Wolfenstein: The New Order, which is, as you might have already guessed, a Wolfenstein game. That might strike you as strange, but a) the first games to bear the Wolfenstein name were actually stealth-focused, and b) I dunno, I mean this doesn't look terrible. Just functional. Stealth is an option, if it's up your gentle whisper of an alley. Blast-kowiczing your way through all that draws breath, however, looks a lot more fun.

So basically, you end up killing everyone either way in this particular situation. It's just a matter of whether you want your bloodbath to run hot or cold.

Shooting is definitely the main course, though. It's got crazy butt slides and alt-fire effects and people who explode like their flesh is a watermelon stuffed full of pop rocks. Stealth, meanwhile, looks basic and tepid. Knife a dude up close, knife a dude from far away, use your silenced pistol to down dudes from implausibly further away, etc.

The razor's edge tension of good stealth just doesn't seem to be there, especially given the awareness that you can go into Captain Commando McSlaughterOmelette mode at the drop of a hat. Maybe I'll care if picking one path over another radically alters the story, but otherwise I can't see why I'd want to daintily dab at my meal when nothing's keeping me from digging in.

It's been a long time since I played a build of this one, though, and stealth wasn't really a factor in that demo. Maybe things are better than they seem. Wolfenstein: The New Order will be out on May 20th. Think you'll give it a chance?