Hungry Like the Wolfenstein | Wolfenstein: The New Order Hands on Preview

<p>The playable demo available at this year’s PAX East consisted of a small portion of the single-player campaign&comma; set in a rich&comma; beautifully rendered alternate WWII reality where the Nazis utilize all sorts of high-tech wizardry &lpar;including some pretty bad-ass looking mechs&rpar; in addition to their regular&comma; era-appropriate weaponry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It wasn’t exactly clear just how far into the game this particular level is set&comma; but it kicked off with a bang&comma; throw me straight into the fray&period; After a short cut scene&comma; I was storming a beachhead under a hail of incoming gunfire&period; However&comma; in addition to the standard pillboxes&comma; the beach was also defended by a giant Nazi mech&period; After instantly dying several times&comma; I reluctantly turned the difficulty down&comma; which allowed me to finally make it past the beachhead and into the Nazi base&period; While I did storm this beach with my Allied brother’s in arms&comma; once I made it inside&comma; I was on my own&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was at this point that the game felt like an instantly familiar&comma; corridor shooter&comma; literally&period; I continued through a winding&comma; and somewhat confusing&comma; Nazi base&comma; blasting both electrified infantry soldiers&comma; and the occasional mechanized K9&period; While inside&comma; I was instructed over the radio by an unseen member of the Allied forces to find and destroy a couple enemy anti-aircraft guns&period; After using one of these guns to blow apart debris obstructing part of the base&comma; I was abruptly attacked by a new&comma; much larger mechanized Nazi beast&comma; subsequently ending the demo&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Much of the game’s control scheme is akin to most other FPS titles&comma; except for the L1 button &lpar;the demo was played on a PS4 controller&rpar;&period; While the L1 button is held&comma; instead of turning in the direction that the right stick is pushed&comma; the player controlled character performs a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;peak” in that direction&period; While similar to the Battlefield &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;peak”&comma; this maneuver isn’t just available when players are standing against cover&period; Instead&comma; it can be performed anywhere&period; This did feel a bit freeing as I didn’t have to plaster myself against cover to use it&comma; but it also felt odd and occasionally frustrating&comma; especially when it came to going prone&period; My only other gripe was that instead of automatically picking up ammo when walking over fallen enemy soldiers&comma; I had to press a button to collect the ammo&period; This seemed unnecessary and led to multiple instances where I found my ammo running dry mid firefight because I hadn’t mashed the button while walking over available ammo&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The highlight of the demo was the gunplay&period; The pistols&comma; rifles&comma; and machine guns I was able to find weren’t cumbersome&comma; but did feel like they had appropriate weight and were satisfying to fire&period; The game includes both a weapon wheel&comma; which allowed me to carry multiple different gun types&comma; and the ability to switch back and forth between two weapons of choice via the triangle button&period; I was also pleasantly surprised to find that I could duel-wield not only pistols&comma; but assault rifles as well&period; While the duel-wielding was limited to the specific weapon type &lpar;I couldn’t have a pistol in one hand and a rifle in the other&rpar;&comma; it was a ton of fun to step into a room and mow down a Nazi crew with a file in each hand&period; My favorite part of the demo would have to be when I came across the mounted turrets&comma; which could be removed and carried until the ammo runs out&period; While initially slow to start as the turret begins to spin&comma; the efficient lethality at which this gun diced-up enemy soldiers was immensely satisfying and gorgeously gory&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wolfenstein&colon; New World Order is scheduled for release on PC&comma; PlayStation 4&comma; PlayStation 3&comma; Xbox One&comma; and Xbox 360 on May 20&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;