Reviews
‘Wolfenstein: The New Order’ Review: Death With Depth
Written by Vikki Blake, @_vixx
This review is late.
I hate being late.
The lateness wasn’t anything to do with the difficulty, or the content, or anything like that. I didn’t take offence at the gore or the narrative or any of the things deliberately constructed to gross you out (the more gross the better, amirite?).
The problem was, despite the many good (and bad) FPSs I voluntarily subject myself to on a weekly basis, this game made me sick. Like: SICK sick. Motion sickness hit me so often – and so badly – it’s taken me three times as long to plough through the campaign than usual. So take this as a friendly warning: if you’re occasionally motion-sick, this game just might make you barf. And if you’re regularly afflicted – well, don’t even try it. Seriously.
Anyway. Now we’re here, let’s get on with the frickin’ review.
In the polished world of AAA shooters, it’s tempting to gloss over the realities of war.
The cyclical debate of video-game violence often drags out a FPS or two at which to wag a disappointed finger, and a casual glance the Top 20 game chart in any store is all you need to see, right there in its day-glo glory, our industry’s obsession with the glamorousness of war.
When we pepper wave after wave of enemies with bullets in the repetitious humdrum of everyday shooters, as limbs fly through the air and blood splatters the earth, it’s easy to forget what we’re actually doing: mowing, maiming and murdering every day folk, usually fighting at the behest of governments.
Which is exactly what’s happening in Wolfenstein: The New Order. At least at face value, anyhow.
It’s 1946. The Second World War is presented in it’s true technicolour and terrifying glory. You play once again as BJ Blazkowicz, a US military sergeant tasked in taking out General Strasse (affectionately nicknamed “Deathhead”) and as you just might anticipate, not all goes entirely as planned …
Forced into a dead-end – and then a horrifying decision that pushes your storyline down one of two scenarios – you’re knocked cold. When you finally come to it’s 1960, and the world is a very different place from the flower-power ‘60s as we once knew them. In fact, everything’s different; in this reality, the Nazis won the war … and we’re all paying the price.
It’s here where the game takes time – and some pride, I would think – in setting the tone of the tale and exemplifying the horror of life inside enemy lines. Institutionalised and incommunicative, Blazkowicz can do nothing when the neighbourhood Nazis come callin’ and raze the place – and all inhabitants within it – to the ground.
It’s brutal and it’s bloody but it’s oh-so effective.
Blazkowicz escapes – just – with nurse and eventual love interest Anya at his side, taking refuge with the latter’s grandparents. As is usually the case, our protagonist swears revenge through clenched teeth and bloodless lips and we’re off, shooting everything and anything stupid enough to fall into the path between us and the captured Resistance party we’ve sworn to liberate.
Does this push the boundaries of interactive storytelling? Well. No – not really. But whilst the dialogue is a smidge cheesy and predictable, and the narrative falls just on the wrong side of cliched, the attention to detail – which includes not just the visual environments but also a surprisingly rich backstory too – weaves an effortless brilliance through an otherwise been-there-done-that experience.
There’ll be Wolfenstein touches that you’ll remember from games gone by; pick’n’switch weaponry, degradable (but plentiful) armour, power-ups and health packs scattered along the way. When you’re not battling soldiers you’re battling weird-ass robot wolf mech things, and when you’re not doing that you’re mostly likely taking out towers, tanks and/or helicopters.
It’s formulaic and lacks some originality, but don’t confuse that with being a bad thing; they say variety is the spice of life, and when it comes to Wolfenstein: The New Order, they’re not wrong. There’s just enough here to keep the gameplay from becoming stale – although you might occasionally find that the pacing stutters to a stop if/when you stop to scour around for ammo or armour.
The AI responses well, and whilst it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of combatants, take heart that there’s plenty of space and resource around you – just use the environments creatively and shift position often (and carefully). The cover mechanic responses just as it should, and there’s a veritable smorgasbord of weapons from which to choose – keep an eye on the ground for discarded guns and experiment to your heart’s content.
Interestingly, you can also take a more stealthy approach. No, it’s not quite the full Metal Gear-Solid-esque stealth experience, but it’s a perfectly competent alternative to otherwise bursting in, all guns blazing. And for those of you seeking a more cerebral experience, be sure to sweep your surroundings thoroughly; there’s many nuggets of story-mining gold secreted along the way. Keep your eyes open so you don’t accidentally slip past a hidden code or document that might add flesh to that narrative bone.
The Final Word: Whilst Wolfenstein: The New Order might not be the most thought-provoking title you’ll ever play, write it off as a generic shooter and you’ll be doing it a disservice: there’s a depth here seldom touched by your everyday shooter.
Don’t get me wrong – you can push on through in a hail of bullets and be none the worse off for it. But this is a story that deserves to be told.
Yes, it’s repetitive and whilst it occasionally suggests that your options are wide and varied, it’s essentially an shoot-em-up on-rails experience – but that’s not necessarily always a bad thing, is it?
Movies
‘Recluse’ Review – Harrowing Haunted House Horror With Lots Of Skeletons In Its Closet [Tribeca 2026]
A haunted house story is tense, terrifying storytelling when it’s properly executed. There’s been a growing tendency in horror to blend together harrowing haunted house stories with traumatic homecomings. A family member’s illness or death triggers a return to something dark that was intentionally left behind. Recluse hits all the tropes that one expects to find in this type of horror film, yet it manages to push this story in a daring, disturbing new direction that uses sound as a superpower.
It’s a unique lens to experience a familiar story about family secrets, generational trauma, unresolved grief, and the importance of not just legacy, but preservation. It’s a hell of a directorial debut from Henry Chaisson that’s guaranteed to get under the audience’s skin as they’re dragged through this painful, toxic tale.
Recluse is a gothic haunted house story where an isolated audio engineer, Joan (Sasha Frolova), returns to her family’s estate to check in on her father after he suffers a terrible accident. Joan suddenly discovers something much more sinister that paints her family’s tragedies in a very different light. Chaisson’s debut functions as a fascinating companion piece to this year’s undertone, which does a lot of the same things.
These two films make for a fascinating case of parallel thinking that tackles comparable subject matter through a similar lens, albeit in a bigger, less claustrophobic story in Recluse’s case. In fact, it’s the perfect horror film for anyone who was let down by undertone and didn’t feel like it brought enough to the table. It’s a considerably more conventional horror film, but this isn’t meant to denigrate its high quality. Recluse may hit some familiar notes, but it’s a scary, well-crafted haunted house horror story that goes for the jugular.
A gripping mystery that involves the tragic, unresolved circumstances that surround Joan’s mother teases a chilling connection to the recent horrors that have afflicted her father. Joan desperately tries to put these pieces together and give her family some sense of grander peace before she’s pulled under and becomes another victim of this festering curse that’s systematically worked its way through the Wyatt family. By doing so, Recluse digs into some deeper commentary on collective trauma, a very literal look at the “sins of the father” adage, and how one selfish decision can ripple through generations and fracture off into different dilemmas. By the end, Recluse has brilliantly flipped the powerful concept of legacy on its head by illustrating the horrors and sense of entitlement that can be born out of this idea.
A legacy is just another name for a curse under the right context.
”Listen” is a simple but powerful command from Joan’s father that she briefly obsesses over. In a way, it becomes Recluse’s grander mission statement, whether it’s in response to Joan listening to the people in her life, the signals that her body and mind are telling her, or the world’s greater whims. It’s important to reconnect with these grounding pillars, especially when it feels like control is slipping away.
Recluse excels with how audio and soundscapes can create entire universes that are full of rich details that transport individuals to these environments. There’s also a level of objectivity when it comes to audio recordings and the evergreen permanence that they’re able to provide. Joan’s career as an audio engineer makes sense for someone who wants to cling to hard evidence and proof of existence. It provides great insight into Joan without ever getting lost in contrived exposition.
Joan’s entire life is built around audio engineering, and so it makes sense that Recluse features excellent sound design that really goes above and beyond with its production elements. All of the sound design is expertly handled and turns the film into something special. These auditory elements intuitively keep the audience on edge so that they’re more susceptible to the actual scares that eventually strike. The smallest sound effect gets turned into a crushing, cacophonous assault. It’s a really effective way to build terror. Writer/Director Chaisson also handles the film’s music, which achieves a sublime, unnerving dissonance that further heightens the free-floating anxiety.
The story at the center of Recluse is slightly generic in some respects, but the film’s visual language and tone make it feel distinctly memorable. It also doesn’t hurt that the home that Joan returns to is basically an eerie art studio that’s full of contorted paintings. Recluse never struggles to generate mounting dread and terror that pump through every scene. Powerful, thoughtful cinematography consistently reinforces the film’s themes. Joan is constantly reflected in different surfaces or viewed through mirrors. She’s also often confined to tight, constricting framing that all speaks to her refracted identity during this moment of loss and her attempts to regain agency and control by making sense of something that’s seemingly unexplainable.
Recluse is full of truly disturbing visuals that make it seem like Joan is lost in a dream that turns out to be an extended nightmare. It’s a surreal journey reminiscent of invasive psychological horror like Silent Hill, with a touch of Sinister and Hereditary thrown in for good measure. There are so many individual frames that could endlessly fuel urban legends and creepypastas.
It does a great job with how it presents Joan’s fragile state of mind, where chilling flashes of the past sneak up on her and unresolved trauma manifests into unsettling imagery. There are endless shots that are obscured in darkness, or shadow is creeping in from the corners of frames like a suffocating force of nature. It’s very rare that a scene is fully lit. It leads to a very lonely, isolating atmosphere that’s easy to get lost in.
Chaisson’s debut stands out from the many other high-minded haunted house horror films without succumbing to the same pretensions that often drag down these stories. It’s a grief-stricken character study that’s full of upsetting visuals that scratch at something visceral and raw. The horror elements connect, and the answers to its grander mystery provide an appropriate and believable sense of closure. Those who are looking for an atmospheric horror film that isn’t afraid to be different while still channeling something real will appreciate Recluse.
Recluse made its world premiere at Tribeca; release info TBD.
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