Tevun-Krus #18 - Alternative History

The Alternative History Setting of Wolfenstein: The New Order - by @TheRobot

So, here we are again with another look at a fantastic setting for a video game. Last year one of the hot new players on the game scene was the reboot of the Wolfenstein franchise which saw new blood pumped into an old classic.

In the 90s we were assaulting Castle Wolfenstein to kill Hitler and Mech-Hitler, now we're in occupied Europe. The team over at Machine Games did a fantastic job creating an alternate history and giving us new ways to slaughter Nazi. Oh and here's a quick spoiler warning. SPOILERS!

So the game opens in familiar territory, if you've been playing WW2 shooters for as long as you remember everything seems common place. You're on a bomber taking flak fire as you a sky full of roaring engines scream towards the beaches of occupied France. You take a seat in at the controls of the forward turret with Han Solo's advice ringing in your ears, "don't get cocky kid!" You're pumped up, ready to take down some Messerschmitt. Then you see it, the weird trails of engines not from this period, Nazi stealth fighters racing towards you and buzzing around all your fellow prop engine bombers.

But that's not all; you land on the beaches looking up to see giant tripod walking machines that look like diesel punk tripods from War of the Worlds, just before you're attacked by some giant robot dog thing eating its way through the wreckage of your plane.

But that's not even the beginning, after spending 14 years drooling in a looney bin you finally wake up and see the beautiful horror that machine games have created. The USA is no longer a thing, the Nazi's beat the allies to the bomb and that was that. It's the 1960's, on the radio songs sound familiar but not quite the same. That's it; you're listening to a German accordion version of House of the Rising Sun by the Animals. And now you see it, the full version of what could have been. The Nazi's rule the world and the moon. Officers who look like they should be on the bridge of a Star Destroyer from Star Wars and soldiers dressed in black armor patrolling the streets. It's a fascist nightmare and you're here to slay some Nazi's.

The question of 'what if the Nazi's won World War 2' has been asked since 1938 before it even ended. Machine Games has shown us what that would have looked like, a terrifying concrete world managed by steel and thunder. The machines and tech that are perfect metaphors for the Nazi war machine as well as the monuments to vanity we're all familiar with. London Nauticas, massive Berlin Prisons and Moon bases are exactly the kind of massive Nazi installations we saw the allies assaulting in countless WW2 films. Only this time we take on that role in a much darker interpretation of Nazi rule.

If you want alternate history then Wolfenstein: The New Order is the game for you.