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REVIEW: The New Order (2014)

Echo Zen

After months in development hell, the first instalment of our feminist game review series has arrived! Was it worth the wait, and work? We hope so, but we ask you to judge – after all, we’ll be uploading stuff like this for the next few months, and we’d prefer it not suck. Just be forewarned this first episode involves Nazism, robots, ableist prejudice and Jewish mysticism, with a large helping of assault rifles…

FEMINIST GAME REVIEWS
“WOLFENSTEIN: THE NEW ORDER” (2014)

OVERVIEW ► released in Q1 2014, “Wolfenstein: The New Order” portrays an alternate timeline where Nazis won WW2, resulting in a global Nazi empire. upon its release, the game received widespread acclaim not only for its polished gameplay, but also the depth of its narrative and characters. unlike most WW2 games that ignore the role of Nazism and racism, “The New Order” frankly portrays Nazi ideology and its human impact. whilst the hero, B.J., may resemble a typical beefcake male, he works alongside characters from different backgrounds, races and genders. this unexpectedly varied cast helps “The New Order” to engage with themes rarely seen in videogames, such as racism, ableism and anti-Semitism. in an industry often criticised for lazy ideas, “The New Order” shows how giving visibility to traditionally ignored groups can improve gaming.

VISIBILITY ► whilst a white, male hero might not seem too inspired, B.J.’s reaction to Jewish artefacts and Hebrew indicate he too is Jewish, a rarity in games. B.J.’s closest ally is Anya. far from being a sex object, Anya is a former PhD student who becomes a vital part of the underground resistance. female villains such as Nazi officer Frau are also depicted, though the game thankfully avoids the trope of “bad girls” as sexualised seductresses. less depicted are people of colour, due to the game’s Nazi setting. still, such characters have moments that help to individualise their identities. the game also engages with ableism, through the depiction of characters with disabilities and the impact of Nazism on their lives as a result. such characters aren’t window dressing or helpless victims to be rescued. rather, they take significant and active roles in shaping the narrative.

AGENCY ► the game’s narrative revolves around B.J., but his success depends on his allies, most of whom get ample time to shine despite their circumstances. B.J.’s friend Caroline commands the resistance. despite being paraplegic and female, she is depicted as skilled in leading her group to victories. Caroline later uses advanced tech to augment her mobility. but the game makes sure to demonstrate she is as capable before upgrading as after. people of colour are also depicted, albeit with less agency. one character is an African ex-soldier, yet spends half his time literally sitting around. unlike most WW2 games, religion is central to “The New Order”. B.J. realises the Nazis won WW2 by stealing technology from an ancient Jewish sect. though Jews as hoarders of power is an old stereotype, “The New Order” engages it in ways that actually help to humanise its Jewish characters.

PROGRESS ► whilst it excels in depicting characters from different backgrounds, “The New Order” is far from the first game to bring depth to its narrative. “Half-Life 2” from 2004 is one recognisable influence, depicting a dystopia where people from all walks of life must cooperate to resist genocide. “The New Order” makes clear its characters are more than mere tokenism. the game’s ending suggests they will be central to future sequels. the game is also part of a broader trend in gaming today, of including characters with whom women and minority gamers can relate and identify. this marriage of gameplay with compelling narrative is one reason “The New Order” has received over 45 nominations and awards since release. in the end, “The New Order” demonstrates how studios can benefit from having more empowering female and minority roles in their games.

Generally, if a game offers strong commentary on certain issues, we’ll focus more on those strengths than on its flaws. For “Wolfenstein: The New Order”, for instance, we could have criticised the lack of LGBT representation, but since it does a damn fine job with addressing racism and ableism, we focused on those issues instead.

(On the other hand, if a game had no strengths, we wouldn’t hesitate to shred it for failing in every regard, including the LGBT regard.)

For those interested in the behind-the-scenes, we wrote on Tumblr about project decisions we made along the way, driven by YouTube’s hostility as a space for women in general and feminism in particular. For those wondering how that hostility drove our design, here are some relevant bits…

…we knew that despite gaming being a statistically female-dominated hobby… Straight White Boys™ still consider gaming to be their domain… The most common attack levelled at gamer girls who critique games is that girls aren’t “real” gamers – they’re filthy casuals, not hardcore fanatics with the encyclopaedic knowledge of gaming and technology that men enjoy, and thus any insight gamer girls have to offer is illegitimate…

For personal credibility, we made the decision to *not* have an onscreen persona that could be attacked – thus forcing critics to attack us over substance, not style… we don’t do facecams, which means critics have no angle to attack our hair, makeup or other inconsequentialities…

For gaming credibility, we played our games at their highest default difficulties… If you’re female and thinking of delving into YouTube’s gaming sphere, consider doing the same. In fact, we consider this important enough that we developed a companion series, SLOW MOTION KILLS, for the sole purpose of showing off leftover footage demonstrating our gaming prowess…

Oh, right – this review series has a companion series, for haters who question our gamer-ness. To show how elite we are, we crammed all the kills from our footage into a slow-motion montage of French music and bullet ballets. If your younger brother’s sole interest in games is in the carnage, rest assured we’ve covered his needs…

Meanwhile, look out for our next instalment in a few weeks. If you’re curious as to which title we’ll cover next, here’s a hint: crowbar.

9 thoughts on REVIEW: The New Order (2014)

  1. Hey, interesting stuff! Not my type of game but sounds like a cool project.

    On minor thing- is there a reason all the capitalization was removed? Makes it harder to read.

    1. Do you mean the text in the transcript, or the video? For simplicity, the transcript text was actually copy-pasted straight from the video project files. Because the video text was lower-case (for aesthetic reasons), the transcript text is thus lower-case as well. (The video text might look upper-case, but that’s because it’s formatted as small caps, so lower-case letters simply look like small upper-case letters.) Actually this is likely way more detail than you care for — if you’d like, I can format future transcripts with capitalisation.

      Glad to know you’re interested, though! But out of personal curiosity, is this specific game not your cup of tea because it involves (lots of) shooting, or because it’s about genocide and depressing stuff?

      1. But out of personal curiosity, is this specific game not your cup of tea because it involves (lots of) shooting, or because it’s about genocide and depressing stuff?

        I’m fine with FPS games, but this one just seemed a bit mechanically one-note; things more my cup of tea in that genre would be Deus Ex, Bioshock, Dishonored, or Fallout (totally called in sick from work to play Fallout 4 when it released last week). Probably the most fun FPS I’ve played recently is called Due Process (check out the trailer, it captures how fun/hilarious it is pretty well).

        My real first choice is probably not very entertaining for streaming/videos though, which are strategy games a la Dwarf Fortress, Prison Architect, or Clockwork Empires. How about you?

        Re: thematic darkness, I’m fine with it so long as it’s not handled in a gross way, which this game sounds like it avoids.

        Because the video text was lower-case (for aesthetic reasons)

        Ah, the E. E. Cummings effect (also, I’m now realizing that I’m slowly becoming my grumpy grandfather). No worries if it’s a lot of work to recapitalize everything, just curious.

      2. Boy, I spent years on studying those kinds of games, researching how to design open-source simulations with sandbox-like depth but simple Minecraft-like graphics… long before “Minecraft” made simple graphics cool in 2009. If your interests are like mine, I can see why you’re excited for “Due Process” — finally, a tactical simulation that strips out the kerfuffle and focuses on actual tactics, instead of jingoism or graphics! Not that I dislike good graphics, but people play “Deus Ex” and “Fallout” for their deepness, not because they have the best graphics.

        The streaming style is something we’re considering for the next season, if the series goes there. Yes, 4 minutes for a feminist review is good, but last month FemFreq began doing 10-minute reviews for the first time, so we need to up our depth. Maybe we can take massive titles like “Grand Theft Auto V”, and instead of one review, we… analyse all 79 story missions in the game in 79 videos? It’s ambitious, but I think games like GTA V have the depth and cultural relevance to sustain a whole season. The games we’ll review for this first season are mostly one-note shooters like “Quake 4” or “Battlefield 4”, so something deeper would be a real change of pace. We’ll see.

  2. I’d like to contribute more, but my gaming days were with Pac man. After that, I was developing parental skills and had no time for gaming skills. 🙁

    1. Well, I suppose rearing the next generation of feminists might be more important than mashing buttons on PS4 controllers. I declare you to be off the hook… this time!

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