With the Xbox One soon to head off into the sunset thanks to the arrival of the Series X/S it’s worth stepping back to revisit some of the games that made an impact here during this generation. Not all of them are exclusive but each of them resulted in many hours spent glued to controllers and that’s all that really matters. 🙂

Wolfenstein: The New Order set the template for this new spin on id Software’s classic franchise with a game that looked incredible and was an uncompromising old school shooter. But it was the Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus that elevated the franchise to a whole new level. It’s still retains much of what made the previous game so good but it’s combined with a story that can only be described as completely bonkers. There’s so many memorable moments it’s easy to get into a conversation about it even now as to what is the best moment in the whole game…

From fighting in a wheelchair to despots with hygiene issues to getting naked and bloody to sinking an axe into your enemy’s skull, it’s often brutal, gross and probably offensive but it all fits perfectly into this world they created where the Allies lost the war. It’s one of things that really impressed me about The New Colossus – it felt like the developers weren’t afraid to pull any punches with what they were trying to do throughout the game and they followed through with them all. The number times I had discussions with friends about this game that included the phrase “I can’t believe I saw that” were just too numerous to mention here and I can only think of one other game that had a similar impact here. If anything is going to help you to justify gleefully mowing down alternative future Nazis it’s probably the incentive to see what happens next and it’ll make you feel like a killing machine every step of the way too.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a great example of a developer building on an old franchise and making it their own which I hope we see more of. Even with the misstep “side story” that is Wolfenstein: Youngblood, so much was done right with this game that I still have faith that when a Wolfenstein III is eventually announced I’ll be there ready to blast my way through the story that hopefully concludes this trilogy on a high note.