Chow Down On 30 Minutes Of Wolfenstein: The New Order

Wolfenstein: The New Order is a curious bird, going by a recent half-hour livestream showing a hearty chunk of the first campaign chapter. Yes, BJ Blazkowicz does stab dogs in the neck in QTEs and stand behind turrets in scripted sequences, like those modern video games wot all the kids like nowadays. He can also eat dog food to regain health and collect maps and treasure, like those old video games wot were proper games and not for babies. Then there's stuff that's just plain fancy, like dual-wielding knives and sliding and I think "interesting" is the word I'm feeling around? The game's interesting. I'm interested in playing it.

It's looking pretty linear in this particular mission, with optional sneakiness to avoid raising alarms. Far Cry 3's story missions come to mind a little, what with the sliding and sneaking and unlockable perks, but no, that's not the right comparison to draw. I'm enjoying seeing a new big-budget shooter and not instantly boiling it down to "Oh that looks like ..." inside my head like some kind of monster whose work requires them to watch and quickly process untold thousands of trailers every year and look, as long as we fight the cynicism this engenders than we can still cling to some fragment of the bright-eyed and excitable person we once were okay?

This being the first chapter, the game's still introducing and explaining ideas rather than parading around in its finest going-out clobber, so it's hard to get a read on quite how the full game will look. But oh my, admire how that jacket compliments its proud elbows, and don't those sequins really set off its many emerald eyes?