this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
136 points (99.3% liked)

games

20741 readers
2 users here now

Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.

Rules

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Nakoichi@hexbear.net
MiraculousMM@hexbear.net
ZoomeristLeninist@hexbear.net
jack@hexbear.net
gaystyleJoker@hexbear.net
Sulv@hexbear.net
136
Pretty cool for a Swedish studio to put this in their game (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by doublepepperoni@hexbear.net to c/games@hexbear.net
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The only mention of Sweden in Wolfenstein: The New Order is just to shit on them for collaborating with the Nazis and for subjecting the Sami to horrible race science

Also michael-laugh at this newspaper clipping about the Nazis nuking New York:

"This final act of violence may have saved millions of lives that would have resulted from a land invasion of America," said the German leader in a press statement following the announcement.

I wonder what the writers meant by putting these words in the mouth of Adolf fucking Hitler thonk

top 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 58 points 3 weeks ago

"This final act of violence may have saved millions of lives that would have resulted from a land invasion of America," said the German leader in a press statement following the announcement.

Now that right there is brilliant writing

[–] SpiderFarmer@hexbear.net 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

My favorite apolitical game.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

It's interesting that gamers shat themselves over the sequel and not over this game. Again, I haven't played TNC yet, but in The New Order the Resistance leader is a middle-aged woman in a wheelchair with short hair and tattoos

spoilerwho gets a suit of Jewish power armour near the end and uses it to wreck Nazis
Also, it's very mean to the Nazis whom gamers love.

I wonder if it's just because The New Order came out a few months before Gamergate started

[–] merthyr1831@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

yeah i think the millennial/genZ fash culture war wasn't in full swing before Wolfenstein 2

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Gamergate was happening the same year but hadn't yet reached its fever pitch IIRC.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

Wolfenstein: The New Order came out in May, Gamergate started in August

[–] ProfessorOwl_PhD@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

TNO provoked the right on purpose with its "Make America Nazi Free Again" ad campaign. Worked perfectly, tons of free advertising.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Isn't TNC the one about fighting Nazis in America? TNO takes place entirely in Europe. That also sounds like a play on MAGA, which wouldn't have been a thing in 2014 but very much would have been in 2017

[–] ProfessorOwl_PhD@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, sorry, got them the wrong way round. I meant the second game.

[–] ClimateChangeAnxiety@hexbear.net 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I’ve gotta play that game

[–] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

All the Machine Games Wolfensteins (except Youngblood, whoops!) are really good. The combat can be a little grueling at times, and there's some flaws of course, but I really enjoyed them. New Collusus is surprisingly emotional and well written, while also essentially being a B-grade nazisploiltation movie.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm a bit torn on how the Nazis are portrayed. On one hand, as far as pop culture depictions of the Nazis go, I think TNO (I haven't played the other games yet) does a really good job as showing them as grotesquely monstrous and detestable without making them too whacky or silly, but their genocidal racism is heavily downplayed. In the world of Wolfenstein, there's no ongoing Holocaust, anti-semitism or any other kind of specific racism. The Nazis just go on about how superior they are as Aryans and equally hate everyone not German. On the other hand, their genocidal ableism does get portrayed on screen very explicitly and there's mentions of homophobia and transphobia.

I guess there are limits to what you can put in a game that is at the end of the day supposed to be a fun romp where you shoot at Nazi stormtroopers with dual-wielded laser rifles until they explode into chunky salsa but it does still occasionally feel kind of sanitised

[–] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

TNO and TNB are both fairly constrained in locations and scope, mostly focused on action. TNC took that criticism and goes a lot farther with it. Not to spoil too much, but you get to see a little of how the occupying Nazis have alllied with the KKK to oppress people (including the KKK), and some other more up-close examples of how a Nazi regime works, and is bad.

The angle of Jewish people is explored uh... somewhat. TNO does have the level where you escape a concentration camp. Secret magic ancient Jewish technology, stolen by Nazis, is framed as the reason why the Nazis are so powerful in that universe. So that's a little... odd.

It kind of comes back to something my partner brings up. The problem with bad guys in media is that its more fun when the bad guy is cool, kind of a bad ass. Media portraying Nazis often make them very monstrous and evil, but also makes them look really cool. Starship Troopers and Star Wars both base their (very cool, very futuristic) fascists on Nazis. They're strong willed, iron jawed, smart dressing, (evil guys, totally evil!), have better tech than you, have bigger bombs than you, and so on.

This is so bad in Star Wars now that they've effectively turned a series about freedom-loving rebels vs space nazis into a red team vs blue team sports match where it doesn't matter who you root for as long as you keep buying more red/blue team merchandise.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

I simultaneously admire the game for having the balls to do the camp level with giant smokestacks belching smoke from incinerated Nazi victims looming overhead while also feeling like with a few aesthetic changes you could've passed it off ass a Combine labour camp from Half-Life

Also I looked up what happens if you save Wyatt instead of Fergus, and the African-American resistance member that shows up in his timeline tells Blaskowicz "back home, YOU guys were the Nazis" after talking about his experiences in 1940s America. So yes, there definitely is some discussion of racism even in TNO. If this game had come out a few years later, gamers would have gone nuclear over that scene

[–] ProfessorOwl_PhD@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, the secret Jewish technology stuff brings up a bunch of really not great implications for a game about killing Nazis.

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 2 points 3 weeks ago

I think the Nazis relying on stolen ancient Jewish technology is meant to be both ironic and a riff on Raiders of the Lost Ark, but yes, the whole globe-spanning ancient Jewish order of super scientists was my least favourite part of the game's plot and introduces a bunch of questions that the game just handwaves away

[–] peppersky@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

putting those statements in random newspaper clippings that probably more than 95% of players are never going to read isn't particularly praiseworthy stuff.

[–] borschtisgarbo@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago

I don't see any better way to convey the information