The most strangely soothing gaming content on UA-cam. I fall asleep to these most nights recently. Much props to you Noah, seriously. Love to see your take on the original Doom games, and Quake. Peace.
"...That's a big part of why movie versions of video games struggle so much. Frequently, the narrative of the game is inseparable from it's structural and mechanical ambitions, and when you rip those things out to get a purely cinematic experience out of it you're left holding something that is decidedly less impressive and engaging than when you started out with." Do you know how many movies/careers could have been saved if the Uwe Bolls of the world had your understanding?
I actually laughed when I realised why you had to explain what shareware is. Made me realise I'm old but from the classic era! :D Excellent vid, thanks.
Halo, Max payne, GTA, Deus ex, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil and Silent Hill Franchises. I really would pay to see Noah do a retrospective of these, or at least some of these. That said, what Noah has made already is grand and I can see the effort and detail he has put in, truly a well cultured and intelligent man. Grand work my friend.
"If you start killing Nazis, and keep killing Nazis, it stands to reason that, eventually , they'll run out of Nazis." Goddamn it Noah. Your comedy kills!
I love how your videos started out fully formed and already great, from Fallout to Elden Ring every single one is its own travelogue into a virtual world.
At one point you mention that the buildings of Wolfenstein 3D resemble nothing that's ever been built for any purpose, and exemplify it with floor plans shaped like swastikas. As a student of architecture, I can tell you the swastika is a frustratingly useful shape. A fair amount of us has at one point or another realized we're drawing a swastika-shaped building and had to redesign it from scratch. That's not a criticism, mind you. You points are valid. Just a fun fact.
The vast majority of your videos are about games or game series that I don't care about. And yet, they're still massively engaging, thought-provoking, and paced incredibly. I'll join the chorus of comments praising you, your style, your writing, and your videos. Thank you for your content.
The way RTCW takes on stealth in its "non" stealth levels is very interesting. For example, the first 2-3 levels of the game can be gotten through with mostly knife kills. The player is expected to run and gun, but they can also simply slaughter the enemies in a quiet fashion. The only difference is how much action happens. In the Rocket level, you can start shooting through dozens of nazis, but you can also continue the stealth from the last level, hide in a box a crane is moving around and get to the rocket without being seen. The Dam level? Silent sniping will make it into an easy, calm level. Shooting like a madman will change the music to the "Action" theme and make it one gigantic slaughter fest and one of the hardest levels in the game. So in a sense, it is often kind of like TNO, just never quite so explicit. And again thank you! This is one of the best Wolfenstein videos I have ever seen. Thank you sir, I love this series :) !
Thank you for making these videos Noah. I re-watch them constantly, and look forward to every single one. Your ability to approach a subject with such a degree of objectivity is amazing. Your clarity of thought is excellent and the hard work you put into making these videos surely pays off. Most video game analysts are incredibly juvenile, and it is nice to see someone taking this shit seriously. You are able to take each game for what it is, rather than criticizing what it should be. Great work.
Man, I've been watching through your videos in chronological order over the past few weeks, and I'm really impressed by how much you've embraced and improved your format. I seriously love long-form analytical videos, so your channel is like home for me.
Great vid! But a bit of a correction: Return to Castle Wolfenstein was NOT made by Raven and was NOT made by the same team that would go on to make Wolfenstein '09. RTCW made by Gray Matter Studios in collaboration with Splash Damage and Nerve, who handled the Multiplayer aspects.
I was really happy you showed off the hotdog scene. I really is a great moment that lends a lot to pretty much the entire artistic vision of Wolfenstein. One of many, really. I do remember hearing a few neat conversations done in full German through the games and they're a real treat. I love the German language and I'm glad MachineGames took the time to include them. I was also really hoping you'd do this series, and I'm glad you did. I didn't even hear of the '01 Wolfenstein though. I'm kinda surprised, especially if it was as good as you talked about. Guess I could hunt around for it and play it myself, if just for funsies. I actually haven't finished Old Blood either since I bought New Order late and just tried playing them back-to-back and got burned out I guess. Sounds like I was close to the paranormal stuff too. Anyway good stuff, Noah. Love your work as always and loving the frequency of that work. Makes me really love supporting you. You deliver.
This video convinced me to play The New Order. It was fantastic, though I do have one caveat: the tragic/noble nature of Blazkowicz carrying on a war that already ended was undercut a bit by how he and his friends just kept winning. This is a ragtag group of maybe a dozen rebels who manage to steal a nuclear submarine, blow up a giant robot, and storm a heavily guarded fortress. It doesn't always seem like a hopeless cause, because they punch big holes in the Nazi regime simply by trying really hard.
farmzombie I think the story felt appropriately pulpy, and the genuine human drama among the characters sold it for me. I was kind of cheering during certain moments, like the helicopters flying through the tunnels, or the Jimi Hendrix stand-in last stand.
Excellent video as always! I really love your in-depth de-facto essays :D 2 Things: 1.: There's one Wolfenstein game you actually left out: The Multiplayer-only, (actually) free-to-play&stand-alone Expansion Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which was originally planed as an expansion disk (which is what we called our DLC back in those days, you young whippersnapper), but was then released as a free download. God, I played a ton of that until I switched to the real hardcore shit like Day of Defeat and Red Orchestra :D 2.: As a German&someone who absolutely _loves_ The New Order: I was both surprised and very pleased by how much care the German writing and voice acting received. With the exception of Deathshead (who's voiced by Dwight Schultz), all the German-speaking characters are voiced by actual German speakers, and both the dialogue and the many, many flavor texts are very well-written. In fact, there are so many little jokes and tidbits hidden in the details, that I sincerely think you need to understand both German and English at an advanced enough level to really get *all* out of the game (tho you miss maybe like 1% if you don't speak any German, so don't worry too much :D ) The quality of foreign languages in even AAA video games is often veeeeeeeery bad - if you've ever played Gabriel Knight 2, that game is almost absurdly funny to native German speakers, because the voice acting is So. Very. Bad. "NAIN, KOHMISSAH GRUBER EEST NEEKT HEER!", fucking lmao. This is doubly interesting because the games - in their uncensored, original versions - are actually _banned_ in Germany. And I really mean banned, not just "indexed"; like Doom was until some years ago. (Tho, to be clear, it's not actually illegal [or rather, penalized] to own any banned media as long as you don't have _intend of distribution_, sorta kinda like weed is handled here.) I've only played the original version (it's fairly trivial to get - there's no customs check on inter-EU mail, and I live like 10 miles from the Dutch border, which is useful for obtaining both formerly mentioned items :D ), but as I understand it, even the plot was changed in a big way in the German version, kinda Hydra-ifying the Deathshead organization. It stems from our censorship laws - basically, video games are treated as _toys_ and not as works of art by the law, so stricter rules apply. It's no problem to show Raiders of the Lost Ark - Swastikas and all - on prime time TV, nor even showing nekkid people on the afternoon - that's covered by freedom of speech (or rather: freedom of art). Video Games are not. And that, to any angry internet shoutymen who might be reading this, is what *actual* censorship looks like, so kindly grow the fuck up, you fucking children.
Great video - you actually do a real critique of Wolf 2009 instead of just hating it outright like most people do. I also like the fact you included the 80's games too :)
Maybe somewhat repetitive gameplay let the New Order focus on polishing the game. Just because you like a game does not mean everyone else has to. Noah gave his analysis of why the game worked in certain areas and failed in certain areas while trying to express overall why the game is considered bad by most people. If you like Wolf 09' that's okay, just don't be a dick about it.
The biggest reason people like the new order over the 2009 wolfenstein isnt because TNO had better story ideas, but because the gameplay is more polished and the actual writing and pacing of the character dynamics is both engaging and somewhat believable. I mean, on a base gameplay leve, the New Order has more going on in the shooting gameplay, with more mobile play, and focusing a lot less on the (superficial) realism of 2009. As far as the themeing of the ongoing levels and story, TNO is just as whacky and crazy as 2009 is with it's crazy occult green gravity and time controlling thing, I mean god damn you fight your way across a German superbridge across the ocean that you tore down with stupid Jew magic in order to destabilize the Nazi world government.
TNO has more realistic characters. The only real thing I thought the game handled poorly with the characters is that you don't spend enough time getting to know them. A few more optional dialogues would have been nice.
One of your best videos, and maybe even your best. Your true skill in analyzing the games is incredible, your voicing and tone superb, and your true blending of footage and voicing is great. Your videos make us think about the games being seen in a way we haven't thought about, and have opened up new ideas in my mind, and the mind of any others no doubt. Thank you for being here.
Aa someone whose experience with this franchise begins and ends with The New Order, this video really helped me appreciate just how special these games are to the history of the medium.
YES! Came here just to rewatch one of your older videos while i had a chunk of free time, maybe while playing an online game of civ5... seeing a new video really brightened me up! Thanks, Noah. You put out the most thoughtful and thought-provoking video game retrospectives!
Yep, out of all the games, TNO is definetly my favourite because of the story, the themes it dealt with, and the pacing. It is so bizzar that they managed to make a game that is about murdering loads of nazis in ridiculous fasion with two massive shotguns and have a story where the characters really feel fucking genuine and *human* in one game. It is such an accomplishment. And you can totally see that it is very Tarantino-inspired, with the way the story is told and how the cutscenes are shot, which of course is one of the reasons why its so great. I felt that, while Old Blood was good, it was missing that heart and soul that TNO had, and I am so hungry for more. And the music... TNO is one of the few games that had me in awe at the main menu, just sitting there listening to the music. It just sets the tone *perfectly*. ua-cam.com/video/2kur41flzdQ/v-deo.html
After playing RTCW and The Old Blood back-to-back, I thought it was a very well-crafted homage to its roots while still having some of that human heart TNO added. Indeed, playing The Old Blood convinced me it was a mistake for the later titles to completely nix the occult aspect of Wolfenstein. There's a ton of great angles they could take on it with a world-wide Nazi empire as a starting base.
Fantastic analysis! I couldn't help but cringe a little bit when you didn't pick up ammo and armor when their prompt popped up in your Old blood and The New Order gameplay footage
I can't stop watching your reviews. They're so insightful and well put together. It's amazing how much time and effort you put into critiques funded by nothing more than patreon supporters
thank you for the video ! it was wonderfully made and i can feel the care you put into the creation of this. i first played wolfenstein on a c64 using an atari joystick and keyboard. my dad was stationed in germany when it came out for the commodore, and i remember the first time we played it, and hearing the actual german speech coming from the tv and we looked at each other saying "THEY ARE SPEAKING REAL GERMAN !" thank you for the nostalgia
love these videos truly amazing very well worded absolute perfection every little detail covered, every time I see a new video it makes my day that I get to sit down and soak in these videos amazing work keep it up the length is definitely a plus! also I know you said super bunny hop done a great analysis of the metal gear series and you couldn't add to that I love super bunny hop but I would really love to hear what you have to say about them, great work again keep it up!
fun points, re: new order, his line "mother of all headaches", I read somewhere that "mother of all" is derived from Desert Storm, so he wouldn't have had that phrase back then. fluh~ love the video Noah
+123doomdoom One thing that bothered me in 2009 is the change in tone regarding the Nazi characters. In RTCW they butted heads and had conflicting outlooks which you could read in the letters they wrote each other, and you got the sense that they were human beings, albeit briefly sketched ones. Furthermore, not all of them were good Nazis - Strauss thought the occult was nonsense and deliberately disobeyed orders to retain some of his prototype cyborgs. But in Wolf 2009, Strauss is a cackling goon without any skepticism or nuance, there are no more inter-agency rivalries or miscommunications, even the uniforms become more farcical and officers don't address each other by rank properly. You'd almost think it was was a deliberate aesthetic choice to go full-cartoon instead of trying to strike a balance. In fact, the writing of RTCW becomes better in retrospect when you have 2009 to contrast it with. At least, that was my opinion when both games were fresh in my memory.
Not much of a point now, but just FYI, Doom was also Ray Casted, it just faked 3D better, but it was the same tech that was in Wolf 3D. You can tell because there's no Y axis, you shoot below an enemy standing above you, and somehow you hit them directly, because there's no up and down, just left right, forward and back. It just made it look like it was actually 3D with elevators and trickery.
As always Noah, brilliant work! Despite the longevity of your videos, I never feel as if you include anything superfluous just to reach that 1-hour mark. Keep it up brother, it's a crime you don't get payed for this (Patreon excluded).
The "Papers please" scene was amazing :O I cant believe i havent played the newer Wolfs. madness. Thanks for the motivation and the great video Noah :)
Oh my god Noah you are fucking Beautiful! I always wanted someone to cover the series like you covered the COD games, hell i was about to do it! But i knew, I KNEW, you'd come through with this video. Fuck you, you're amazing, Fuckin' A!
I remember seeing The New Order at E3 2013. I thought It looked terrible and had little interest in it past that. It launched and It faded from my attention. I bought both The New Order and The Old Blood because of the video. I'm very happy I did. They're probably the best FPS on the market the generation and I'd like to think you for that. This generation is severely lacking in worthwhile experiences and you prevented me from missing out on this one. Just wanted to thank you for that.
are you ever going to do a video on Command and Conquer? It's rare I ever see anyone critically examine every individual game in the series. Or even talk about games like the original.
+DeadYorick I've wanted to do Command and Conquer, but haven't worked out the time, the patience, or the technical problems-- I tried doing Renegade as a Genre Orphans video, but even with fan patches, it was crashing 4 or 5 times a level.
Amazing, simply amazing! This was everything I'd hoped it would be. Seriously if I ever come into more money, you'll be the first I'll consider supporting on patreon.
I've watched all your videos Noah in the space of about the weeks. I love them, really brilliant analysis into what makes games work from a tonal and writing perspective. As you seem to be a bit of a strategy fan, how about a look into the Company of Heroes franchise. There is a masterclass in balancing and presentation.
Raven did not make Return To Castle Wolfenstein. I'm surprised that you haven't corrected that. The rest of the video's content is so well researched and presented. Keep up the good work.
I like silent protagonists. I get annoyed in modern games getting pulled out to watch cutscenes. Especially when I'd never use the dialogue the main character is using. The Dead Space ones weren't too bad.
Hate to be the nitpicky guy noah, especially since this is a great video as always, but RTCW was developed by Grey Matter Interactive, Raven worked only on Wolf2009.
idk how you manage to make so many of these videos. It must be a pain but I'm glad you do it. I have all the free time in the world and in 3 years I've only managed to put out 6 in-depth videos, only a couple of which are even half the length of your average video. But I swear I'm going to do in-depth video game discussion videos some day. Once I work up the energy.
death becomes her While those tips may be true generally speaking, my severe ADHD issues prevent either from being the case for myself. Not to mention abnormally high levels of depression and good ol' writer's block. Generally speaking, inspiration either comes or it doesn't. And for months at a time, it just doesn't. And then one day it does and I can work tirelessly for hours and have something to show for it. Luckily youtube isn't the entirety of projects that I work on, so I manage to be productive in other areas when my video creating abilities are lacking.
+Malmrose Projects It's definitely hard to find the motivation sometimes, I had a pretty major fumble back in January where I was feeling down and played too many games without actually writing and producing anything-- lost more than a few patrons on account of it. The stress of knowing I was letting people down made it harder to bounce back from, so I bounced back unevenly-- ultimately, what I chose to do was take something I was close to finishing, my Doom 3 thing, get it out the door, do something new I felt really excited about, my Firewatch video, and by that point I was feeling like I was back on track and feeling like I had the stamina to grind out the larger projects I was stuck on. That Starcraft retrospective had been in and out of drafts since last October. I wish I had meaningful advice about how I do it, but I don't-- I started doing it for fun, then people started paying me to do it, and while I still have a lot of fun with it there's also a kind of unspoken agreement of professional conduct between me and the people supporting me. My navigation of that dynamic is occasionally messy, but I'm committed to the channel and to the faith people put in me with the investment. I think my biggest advice would be to focus on a thesis-- an idea you can follow from beginning to end in the video project, and then let the structure develop from there. I do a ton of outlining with paper and pen, so when I get distracted and have to come back to it I still have my sequence of ideas where I left it.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais Your advice is actually pretty good, it's how I managed to make an analysis of A Clockwork Orange. I started from the point of view that the film was, at least on some level, inherently feminist in nature. I actually came up with that idea because of your Postal series review, which is probably my favorite video of yours. You mentioned toxic masculinity and I realized that Alex from A Clockwork Orange was very much a representative of the idea of "toxic masculinity", so I started with that as the basic idea, and from that came a 30 minute review of Clockwork Orange's themes of power dynamics in both politics and gender. I guess the hard part isn't so much writing the script and voice-over as much as it is finding the ability to jump from "no idea" to "idea". It's especially hard when my most recent game I own is from 2007 or so. My hope is to do "mega-reviews" where I review an entire category. Like right now I'm working on doing a review of every Atari 2600 game I own (22 in total). Hopefully it won't suck but it probably will because I'm new to this idea. After that, I hope to cover Doom 1, 2, 3, ROE, and Doom 64 in one "mega-review".
Noah Caldwell-Gervais My idea for "structure" was to just look at the gameplay footage, and then when I had a thought I wanted to say, I would just record it over the footage and then cut out all of the irrelevant parts until I had a video. Problem is that I end up just making a bunch of dumb jokes and never get around to any deeper points. I figure if I just keep doing it I'll eventually find a rhythm that allows me to turn it into something more serious. My biggest inspiration is good ol' Mr Plinkett from Red Letter Media, that combination of insight, personality, and humor. The hardest part for me is the insight. And not saying "um" every 5 seconds.
The rat that sometimes appears to show you secrets or lead you to the next objective might be tied to Billy (BJ's childhood friend) in the sequel to Wolfenstein the New Order. Thought it was a nice touch the spirit of compassion and friendship helping you along.
+Mihkel Noot That's exactly what I thought when first watching the video. Enemy Territory was definitely one of the most popular online shooters at the time, but I guess he was referring to it not having any story so it's disconnected to other Wolfenstein games?
+StormKidification I have great memories of rushing back from school and just playing all day. The amount of maps was just crazy. This game also had the most memorable headshots with the helmets flying off.
I had the same thought about Homefront. The first one jumped on the CoD-bandwagon with a linear campaign while the sequel looks like a Far Cry title with an open world, crafting and plenty of busywork padding.
I have watched most of these all the way through (except mafia and Baldur's gate) and most twice, I think this is my third time at this Thorough look video.
I enjoyed the 2009 iteration! Story was functional only; but the I found the gameplay to be solid fun...I actually prefer it to, say, Singularity - Ravens other big game release from that period (also seen as fairly mediocre/derivative at the time by the critical commentariat in general, but has some small following now, giving it _some_ retroactive love...) ...Wolfy2009 could also use a hug or two... and W:TNO was a wonderful, totally unexpected SP FPS treat! - full of that old-school goodness! ...The future's lookin' pretty snazz-tastic for Wolfenstien! :D
Never played wolfenstein but I will be buying the new order now. The atmosphere and architecture are amazing. Reminds me of dishonored and thief even. I also have a weakness for stealth gameplay.
I hope one day that Noah takes a look at the Ace Combat series, especially the PS2 era games. A very overlooked series in my opinion. But the well written story and strong anti war messages is what made it memorable for me.
![Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus in Close Critique [Full Spoilers]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GGhFBupwfdU/mqdefault.jpg)
![Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus in Close Critique [Full Spoilers]](/img/tr.png)
![A Thorough Look At Half-Life [Revised/Expanded/HD]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_bsIXA8lNZc/mqdefault.jpg)
The most strangely soothing gaming content on UA-cam. I fall asleep to these most nights recently. Much props to you Noah, seriously. Love to see your take on the original Doom games, and Quake. Peace.
Just saw this comment, I do the exact same thing - it'll take me a month to hear all the latest fallout one...
I've been listening to noah to sleep for about a year
"...That's a big part of why movie versions of video games struggle so much. Frequently, the narrative of the game is inseparable from it's structural and mechanical ambitions, and when you rip those things out to get a purely cinematic experience out of it you're left holding something that is decidedly less impressive and engaging than when you started out with." Do you know how many movies/careers could have been saved if the Uwe Bolls of the world had your understanding?
Uwe Bolls movies are money laundering schemes tho…
I actually laughed when I realised why you had to explain what shareware is. Made me realise I'm old but from the classic era! :D Excellent vid, thanks.
Halo, Max payne, GTA, Deus ex, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil and Silent Hill Franchises. I really would pay to see Noah do a retrospective of these, or at least some of these. That said, what Noah has made already is grand and I can see the effort and detail he has put in, truly a well cultured and intelligent man. Grand work my friend.
Welp, looks like you got your wish with Max Payne and Resident Evil
"If you start killing Nazis, and keep killing Nazis, it stands to reason that, eventually , they'll run out of Nazis." Goddamn it Noah. Your comedy kills!
+ChairmanKam This!!! I had to pause the video ^^
+ChairmanKam neo-nazis then
+ChairmanKam Nazis.
I kept waiting for Noah to mention the Grammar-Nazi scene.
@@jokesterthemighty227 nah communist
"if you kill Nazis... and you keep killing Nazis, it stands to reason that they will run out of Nazis eventually."
i love this logic.
48:17
Holy fuck did I laugh.
There is some sound reasoning behind it.
I love how your videos started out fully formed and already great, from Fallout to Elden Ring every single one is its own travelogue into a virtual world.
At one point you mention that the buildings of Wolfenstein 3D resemble nothing that's ever been built for any purpose, and exemplify it with floor plans shaped like swastikas. As a student of architecture, I can tell you the swastika is a frustratingly useful shape. A fair amount of us has at one point or another realized we're drawing a swastika-shaped building and had to redesign it from scratch.
That's not a criticism, mind you. You points are valid. Just a fun fact.
The vast majority of your videos are about games or game series that I don't care about.
And yet, they're still massively engaging, thought-provoking, and paced incredibly. I'll join the chorus of comments praising you, your style, your writing, and your videos.
Thank you for your content.
*Crosses fingers for Noah to eventually do a thorough look at Wing Commander*
that would be awesome!
Your fingers still crossed creep?
The way RTCW takes on stealth in its "non" stealth levels is very interesting.
For example, the first 2-3 levels of the game can be gotten through with mostly knife kills. The player is expected to run and gun, but they can also simply slaughter the enemies in a quiet fashion. The only difference is how much action happens.
In the Rocket level, you can start shooting through dozens of nazis, but you can also continue the stealth from the last level, hide in a box a crane is moving around and get to the rocket without being seen.
The Dam level? Silent sniping will make it into an easy, calm level. Shooting like a madman will change the music to the "Action" theme and make it one gigantic slaughter fest and one of the hardest levels in the game.
So in a sense, it is often kind of like TNO, just never quite so explicit.
And again thank you! This is one of the best Wolfenstein videos I have ever seen. Thank you sir, I love this series :) !
Thank you for making these videos Noah. I re-watch them constantly, and look forward to every single one. Your ability to approach a subject with such a degree of objectivity is amazing. Your clarity of thought is excellent and the hard work you put into making these videos surely pays off. Most video game analysts are incredibly juvenile, and it is nice to see someone taking this shit seriously. You are able to take each game for what it is, rather than criticizing what it should be. Great work.
Man, I've been watching through your videos in chronological order over the past few weeks, and I'm really impressed by how much you've embraced and improved your format.
I seriously love long-form analytical videos, so your channel is like home for me.
Great vid! But a bit of a correction: Return to Castle Wolfenstein was NOT made by Raven and was NOT made by the same team that would go on to make Wolfenstein '09. RTCW made by Gray Matter Studios in collaboration with Splash Damage and Nerve, who handled the Multiplayer aspects.
I was really happy you showed off the hotdog scene. I really is a great moment that lends a lot to pretty much the entire artistic vision of Wolfenstein. One of many, really. I do remember hearing a few neat conversations done in full German through the games and they're a real treat. I love the German language and I'm glad MachineGames took the time to include them.
I was also really hoping you'd do this series, and I'm glad you did. I didn't even hear of the '01 Wolfenstein though. I'm kinda surprised, especially if it was as good as you talked about. Guess I could hunt around for it and play it myself, if just for funsies. I actually haven't finished Old Blood either since I bought New Order late and just tried playing them back-to-back and got burned out I guess. Sounds like I was close to the paranormal stuff too.
Anyway good stuff, Noah. Love your work as always and loving the frequency of that work. Makes me really love supporting you. You deliver.
This video convinced me to play The New Order. It was fantastic, though I do have one caveat: the tragic/noble nature of Blazkowicz carrying on a war that already ended was undercut a bit by how he and his friends just kept winning. This is a ragtag group of maybe a dozen rebels who manage to steal a nuclear submarine, blow up a giant robot, and storm a heavily guarded fortress. It doesn't always seem like a hopeless cause, because they punch big holes in the Nazi regime simply by trying really hard.
farmzombie I think the story felt appropriately pulpy, and the genuine human drama among the characters sold it for me. I was kind of cheering during certain moments, like the helicopters flying through the tunnels, or the Jimi Hendrix stand-in last stand.
I think you miss that their also constantly showing how the Nazis are already falling and how their system is not sustainable, how wrong nazism is.
Excellent video as always! I really love your in-depth de-facto essays :D
2 Things:
1.: There's one Wolfenstein game you actually left out: The Multiplayer-only, (actually) free-to-play&stand-alone Expansion Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which was originally planed as an expansion disk (which is what we called our DLC back in those days, you young whippersnapper), but was then released as a free download. God, I played a ton of that until I switched to the real hardcore shit like Day of Defeat and Red Orchestra :D
2.: As a German&someone who absolutely _loves_ The New Order: I was both surprised and very pleased by how much care the German writing and voice acting received. With the exception of Deathshead (who's voiced by Dwight Schultz), all the German-speaking characters are voiced by actual German speakers, and both the dialogue and the many, many flavor texts are very well-written. In fact, there are so many little jokes and tidbits hidden in the details, that I sincerely think you need to understand both German and English at an advanced enough level to really get *all* out of the game (tho you miss maybe like 1% if you don't speak any German, so don't worry too much :D )
The quality of foreign languages in even AAA video games is often veeeeeeeery bad - if you've ever played Gabriel Knight 2, that game is almost absurdly funny to native German speakers, because the voice acting is So. Very. Bad.
"NAIN, KOHMISSAH GRUBER EEST NEEKT HEER!", fucking lmao.
This is doubly interesting because the games - in their uncensored, original versions - are actually _banned_ in Germany. And I really mean banned, not just "indexed"; like Doom was until some years ago. (Tho, to be clear, it's not actually illegal [or rather, penalized] to own any banned media as long as you don't have _intend of distribution_, sorta kinda like weed is handled here.)
I've only played the original version (it's fairly trivial to get - there's no customs check on inter-EU mail, and I live like 10 miles from the Dutch border, which is useful for obtaining both formerly mentioned items :D ), but as I understand it, even the plot was changed in a big way in the German version, kinda Hydra-ifying the Deathshead organization.
It stems from our censorship laws - basically, video games are treated as _toys_ and not as works of art by the law, so stricter rules apply. It's no problem to show Raiders of the Lost Ark - Swastikas and all - on prime time TV, nor even showing nekkid people on the afternoon - that's covered by freedom of speech (or rather: freedom of art). Video Games are not.
And that, to any angry internet shoutymen who might be reading this, is what *actual* censorship looks like, so kindly grow the fuck up, you fucking children.
29:53 He mentions Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory here
Great video - you actually do a real critique of Wolf 2009 instead of just hating it outright like most people do.
I also like the fact you included the 80's games too :)
Maybe somewhat repetitive gameplay let the New Order focus on polishing the game.
Just because you like a game does not mean everyone else has to. Noah gave his analysis of why the game worked in certain areas and failed in certain areas while trying to express overall why the game is considered bad by most people. If you like Wolf 09' that's okay, just don't be a dick about it.
The biggest reason people like the new order over the 2009 wolfenstein isnt because TNO had better story ideas, but because the gameplay is more polished and the actual writing and pacing of the character dynamics is both engaging and somewhat believable. I mean, on a base gameplay leve, the New Order has more going on in the shooting gameplay, with more mobile play, and focusing a lot less on the (superficial) realism of 2009. As far as the themeing of the ongoing levels and story, TNO is just as whacky and crazy as 2009 is with it's crazy occult green gravity and time controlling thing, I mean god damn you fight your way across a German superbridge across the ocean that you tore down with stupid Jew magic in order to destabilize the Nazi world government.
Night -the claw- Nightclaw Ever heard the term "science fiction"? :P
AlexeiVoronin My point isnt that TNO isn't realistic, it's literally that TNO is just *as* whacky and insane as 2009, if not even more crazy.
TNO has more realistic characters. The only real thing I thought the game handled poorly with the characters is that you don't spend enough time getting to know them. A few more optional dialogues would have been nice.
One of your best videos, and maybe even your best. Your true skill in analyzing the games is incredible, your voicing and tone superb, and your true blending of footage and voicing is great. Your videos make us think about the games being seen in a way we haven't thought about, and have opened up new ideas in my mind, and the mind of any others no doubt. Thank you for being here.
Aa someone whose experience with this franchise begins and ends with The New Order, this video really helped me appreciate just how special these games are to the history of the medium.
YES! Came here just to rewatch one of your older videos while i had a chunk of free time, maybe while playing an online game of civ5... seeing a new video really brightened me up!
Thanks, Noah. You put out the most thoughtful and thought-provoking video game retrospectives!
Return to castle Wolfenstein is fire. I always have it installed. Played it as a kid. Fun summers.
This Guy deserves more subscribers
Yep, out of all the games, TNO is definetly my favourite because of the story, the themes it dealt with, and the pacing.
It is so bizzar that they managed to make a game that is about murdering loads of nazis in ridiculous fasion with two massive shotguns and have a story where the characters really feel fucking genuine and *human* in one game. It is such an accomplishment.
And you can totally see that it is very Tarantino-inspired, with the way the story is told and how the cutscenes are shot, which of course is one of the reasons why its so great.
I felt that, while Old Blood was good, it was missing that heart and soul that TNO had, and I am so hungry for more.
And the music... TNO is one of the few games that had me in awe at the main menu, just sitting there listening to the music. It just sets the tone *perfectly*. ua-cam.com/video/2kur41flzdQ/v-deo.html
After playing RTCW and The Old Blood back-to-back, I thought it was a very well-crafted homage to its roots while still having some of that human heart TNO added. Indeed, playing The Old Blood convinced me it was a mistake for the later titles to completely nix the occult aspect of Wolfenstein. There's a ton of great angles they could take on it with a world-wide Nazi empire as a starting base.
That and the fact you can dualweild automatic shotguns never hurts... except for the Nazis, then it hurts a LOT
Love that you started the review with Spike Jones and His City Slickers and their "In Der Fuherer's Face".
the only part that i dislike about your videos is deciding what to watch next, literally it's so hard, they all look so good.
this is one severely underrated Channel the way that Noah articulates his thoughts and ideas is flawless
Fantastic analysis! I couldn't help but cringe a little bit when you didn't pick up ammo and armor when their prompt popped up in your Old blood and The New Order gameplay footage
I love your analysis videos bro
RTCW was INSANELY good. Amazing game.
As a lifelong fan of Wolfenstein I'm really interested to hear your take on the series. Keep up the good work.
I can't stop watching your reviews. They're so insightful and well put together. It's amazing how much time and effort you put into critiques funded by nothing more than patreon supporters
You have the english pronunciation amd tonality of Rick Steves
I like that
+Nutritious Bag Circles oh my god youre right
Never fucking ever thought I'd ever see him mentioned anywhere in anyway whatsoever lol
thank you for the video ! it was wonderfully made and i can feel the care you put into the creation of this. i first played wolfenstein on a c64 using an atari joystick and keyboard. my dad was stationed in germany when it came out for the commodore, and i remember the first time we played it, and hearing the actual german speech coming from the tv and we looked at each other saying "THEY ARE SPEAKING REAL GERMAN !" thank you for the nostalgia
zuerst :) Thanks for the upload, Noah. I'm looking forward to this one.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is easily among my top 3 favorite games of all time.
Man, your videos are the best, always look foward to them popping up. Great work as always.
Will/when we get a thorough look at XCOM?
and maybe XCOM 2, at this point? a similar "thorough look at XCOM" sort of video?
Been praying for it for years..alas, i feel Noah couldn't take the time to make what might be a 3 hour video on it.
+tuxandashotty I like what you were going for, I think a better way to do it would be "[When] will we get a thorough look at XCOM?"
holy crap the audio quality is great
your videos make me want to make my own analysis videos, such an inspiration. love ya, noah
love these videos truly amazing very well worded absolute perfection every little detail covered, every time I see a new video it makes my day that I get to sit down and soak in these videos amazing work keep it up the length is definitely a plus! also I know you said super bunny hop done a great analysis of the metal gear series and you couldn't add to that I love super bunny hop but I would really love to hear what you have to say about them, great work again keep it up!
What are the chances of a getting a Max Payne retrospective?
Seconded.
thirded
+Jonny Smith I've been asking for one for the past few months! I would really like to hear Noah's perspective.
+Jonny Smith Fourthed
+[Insert name here] fipfthd
Yes! Another episode. Man, you deserve so many more subs and views. All I can say is thanks, and keep up the great work!
Noah, you are someone who seemingly witnesses games and gaming through my eyes.
Fantastic! And serendipitous as I just started "The New Order" earlier today, my first Wolfenstein since 92's 3D.
fun points, re: new order, his line "mother of all headaches", I read somewhere that "mother of all" is derived from Desert Storm, so he wouldn't have had that phrase back then. fluh~ love the video Noah
Yeah it's like fantasy movies not set on earth mentioning "Swiss cheese"
Noah, another masterpiece. Your level of connoisseurship of video games is superb.
I was so hoping you'd talk about Wolfenstein someday and I'm very glad you did.
This is easily the best channel youtube will ever have to offer.
+Slupwunks, Master Memer Seriously?
@@Fendertastic 3 years ago but I'll give it a shot. Can you name another gaming channel with writing of this quality?
I actually very much enjoyed Wolf 2009.
+123doomdoom One thing that bothered me in 2009 is the change in tone regarding the Nazi characters. In RTCW they butted heads and had conflicting outlooks which you could read in the letters they wrote each other, and you got the sense that they were human beings, albeit briefly sketched ones. Furthermore, not all of them were good Nazis - Strauss thought the occult was nonsense and deliberately disobeyed orders to retain some of his prototype cyborgs. But in Wolf 2009, Strauss is a cackling goon without any skepticism or nuance, there are no more inter-agency rivalries or miscommunications, even the uniforms become more farcical and officers don't address each other by rank properly. You'd almost think it was was a deliberate aesthetic choice to go full-cartoon instead of trying to strike a balance.
In fact, the writing of RTCW becomes better in retrospect when you have 2009 to contrast it with. At least, that was my opinion when both games were fresh in my memory.
Wolfenstein 09 is my favorite
Not much of a point now, but just FYI, Doom was also Ray Casted, it just faked 3D better, but it was the same tech that was in Wolf 3D. You can tell because there's no Y axis, you shoot below an enemy standing above you, and somehow you hit them directly, because there's no up and down, just left right, forward and back. It just made it look like it was actually 3D with elevators and trickery.
As always Noah, brilliant work! Despite the longevity of your videos, I never feel as if you include anything superfluous just to reach that 1-hour mark.
Keep it up brother, it's a crime you don't get payed for this (Patreon excluded).
The "Papers please" scene was amazing :O I cant believe i havent played the newer Wolfs. madness. Thanks for the motivation and the great video Noah :)
Always lights up my night to see a new video from you!
Your intros are the best on UA-cam not for their quality but for there imagination.
FANTASTIC....Love this retrospective, great job!! Easily one of my favorite UA-cam channels out there.
Always love to see new videos, Noah. Thanks much! Very informative and rewatchable.
YES YES YES! New Noah video and its about one of my favorite series. Noah, you're the man. Never stop.
Oh my god Noah you are fucking Beautiful!
I always wanted someone to cover the series like you covered the COD games, hell i was about to do it!
But i knew, I KNEW, you'd come through with this video.
Fuck you, you're amazing, Fuckin' A!
+Salokin Sekwah We meet again my friend.
no love sad fish TBH i got into Wolfenstien Thanks to GGGGGGGggggman.
Salokin Sekwah Oh yeah, I like his reviews a lot too. I ended up watching his vids for hours because they are so great in length and content.
no love sad fish Shit i was watching him back when he had only a couple hundred subs!
I remember seeing The New Order at E3 2013. I thought It looked terrible and had little interest in it past that. It launched and It faded from my attention. I bought both The New Order and The Old Blood because of the video. I'm very happy I did. They're probably the best FPS on the market the generation and I'd like to think you for that. This generation is severely lacking in worthwhile experiences and you prevented me from missing out on this one. Just wanted to thank you for that.
Oh I did. Seriously, it was the only worthwhile thing I took from this E3.
really appreciate your deep dives bro. lots of fun to watch and very smart.
this video is very extensive and you give a well though out dialogue. nicely done!
are you ever going to do a video on Command and Conquer? It's rare I ever see anyone critically examine every individual game in the series. Or even talk about games like the original.
+DeadYorick I've wanted to do Command and Conquer, but haven't worked out the time, the patience, or the technical problems-- I tried doing Renegade as a Genre Orphans video, but even with fan patches, it was crashing 4 or 5 times a level.
Yo, I have been really liking your long form "reviews?" I'm glad you a large back catalog to binge.
Noah's thought process and jump attempt at 50:50 are hilarious.
Amazing, simply amazing! This was everything I'd hoped it would be. Seriously if I ever come into more money, you'll be the first I'll consider supporting on patreon.
I've watched all your videos Noah in the space of about the weeks. I love them, really brilliant analysis into what makes games work from a tonal and writing perspective.
As you seem to be a bit of a strategy fan, how about a look into the Company of Heroes franchise. There is a masterclass in balancing and presentation.
Noah, I think this is your best video, yet. Your pronunciation is practically perfect.
Raven did not make Return To Castle Wolfenstein. I'm surprised that you haven't corrected that. The rest of the video's content is so well researched and presented. Keep up the good work.
I like silent protagonists. I get annoyed in modern games getting pulled out to watch cutscenes. Especially when I'd never use the dialogue the main character is using. The Dead Space ones weren't too bad.
I wish this one was longer lol. I'd be so down for a 5 hour video about these games.
I love Wolfenstein 09, it's just great fun. The gunplay is excellent.
50:53 "Alright captain, you can jump out now." *falls*
The intro was especially great :)
Every time you post a video it makes my week! Great job Noah.
Thank you for another amazing video.
Your voice is so soothing. Like the way you talk and how close you are to the mic reminds me of npr in the best way.
A very good piece of work as always. Loved the intro, too. :)
Hate to be the nitpicky guy noah, especially since this is a great video as always, but RTCW was developed by Grey Matter Interactive, Raven worked only on Wolf2009.
idk how you manage to make so many of these videos. It must be a pain but I'm glad you do it. I have all the free time in the world and in 3 years I've only managed to put out 6 in-depth videos, only a couple of which are even half the length of your average video.
But I swear I'm going to do in-depth video game discussion videos some day. Once I work up the energy.
death becomes her While those tips may be true generally speaking, my severe ADHD issues prevent either from being the case for myself. Not to mention abnormally high levels of depression and good ol' writer's block. Generally speaking, inspiration either comes or it doesn't. And for months at a time, it just doesn't. And then one day it does and I can work tirelessly for hours and have something to show for it. Luckily youtube isn't the entirety of projects that I work on, so I manage to be productive in other areas when my video creating abilities are lacking.
+Malmrose Projects It's definitely hard to find the motivation sometimes, I had a pretty major fumble back in January where I was feeling down and played too many games without actually writing and producing anything-- lost more than a few patrons on account of it. The stress of knowing I was letting people down made it harder to bounce back from, so I bounced back unevenly-- ultimately, what I chose to do was take something I was close to finishing, my Doom 3 thing, get it out the door, do something new I felt really excited about, my Firewatch video, and by that point I was feeling like I was back on track and feeling like I had the stamina to grind out the larger projects I was stuck on. That Starcraft retrospective had been in and out of drafts since last October.
I wish I had meaningful advice about how I do it, but I don't-- I started doing it for fun, then people started paying me to do it, and while I still have a lot of fun with it there's also a kind of unspoken agreement of professional conduct between me and the people supporting me. My navigation of that dynamic is occasionally messy, but I'm committed to the channel and to the faith people put in me with the investment.
I think my biggest advice would be to focus on a thesis-- an idea you can follow from beginning to end in the video project, and then let the structure develop from there. I do a ton of outlining with paper and pen, so when I get distracted and have to come back to it I still have my sequence of ideas where I left it.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais
Your advice is actually pretty good, it's how I managed to make an analysis of A Clockwork Orange. I started from the point of view that the film was, at least on some level, inherently feminist in nature. I actually came up with that idea because of your Postal series review, which is probably my favorite video of yours. You mentioned toxic masculinity and I realized that Alex from A Clockwork Orange was very much a representative of the idea of "toxic masculinity", so I started with that as the basic idea, and from that came a 30 minute review of Clockwork Orange's themes of power dynamics in both politics and gender.
I guess the hard part isn't so much writing the script and voice-over as much as it is finding the ability to jump from "no idea" to "idea". It's especially hard when my most recent game I own is from 2007 or so. My hope is to do "mega-reviews" where I review an entire category. Like right now I'm working on doing a review of every Atari 2600 game I own (22 in total). Hopefully it won't suck but it probably will because I'm new to this idea. After that, I hope to cover Doom 1, 2, 3, ROE, and Doom 64 in one "mega-review".
+Malmrose Projects Well, you can let the material guide the structure-- just play the set and find a thread you can follow from within.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais
My idea for "structure" was to just look at the gameplay footage, and then when I had a thought I wanted to say, I would just record it over the footage and then cut out all of the irrelevant parts until I had a video. Problem is that I end up just making a bunch of dumb jokes and never get around to any deeper points. I figure if I just keep doing it I'll eventually find a rhythm that allows me to turn it into something more serious. My biggest inspiration is good ol' Mr Plinkett from Red Letter Media, that combination of insight, personality, and humor. The hardest part for me is the insight. And not saying "um" every 5 seconds.
Brilliant work as always! I never even knew about the original two games, overall a very insightful und interesting video.
Awesome presentation ! so many memories love these!
The murdered staff of the hospital where Anya worked, were Anya's parents, the elder couple were her grandparents.
You're the best game critic I know. Utterly amazing stuff. Thank you.
Outstanding video. Thank you so much for this.
The rat that sometimes appears to show you secrets or lead you to the next objective might be tied to Billy (BJ's childhood friend) in the sequel to Wolfenstein the New Order.
Thought it was a nice touch the spirit of compassion and friendship helping you along.
Enemy Territory was massive to be honest. One of the best online shooters ever created. Still fun to play in 2016.
+Mihkel Noot That's exactly what I thought when first watching the video. Enemy Territory was definitely one of the most popular online shooters at the time, but I guess he was referring to it not having any story so it's disconnected to other Wolfenstein games?
+StormKidification I have great memories of rushing back from school and just playing all day. The amount of maps was just crazy. This game also had the most memorable headshots with the helmets flying off.
Probably one of your best analysis videos so far, I'd say.
Would you consider making a perspective video on Doom, perhaps when Doom 2016 comes out?
I didn't know there was a Woflenstien before 3D.. untill quite recently. Now I am all into retro history.
The first flamethrower that was actually pretty realistic was the one in Turok 2.
Cause it actually used a polygonal link for the flame strings.
Man, I really like the comparison videos better. But these thorough look ones are still excellent.
Wait, wait, wait... RTCW: Enemy Territory is not well known? I've spent hundreds of hours playing and loving it! ^^
I had the same thought about Homefront. The first one jumped on the CoD-bandwagon with a linear campaign while the sequel looks like a Far Cry title with an open world, crafting and plenty of busywork padding.
I have watched most of these all the way through (except mafia and Baldur's gate) and most twice, I think this is my third time at this Thorough look video.
I didn't realize until the end that this video was eight years old, gods know why youtube decided I needed to see it but I'm glad they did.
The New Order had this feel of originality I haven't felt in a FPS since Half Life 2.
I enjoyed the 2009 iteration! Story was functional only; but the I found the gameplay to be solid fun...I actually prefer it to, say, Singularity - Ravens other big game release from that period (also seen as fairly mediocre/derivative at the time by the critical commentariat in general, but has some small following now, giving it _some_ retroactive love...)
...Wolfy2009 could also use a hug or two...
and W:TNO was a wonderful, totally unexpected SP FPS treat! - full of that old-school goodness!
...The future's lookin' pretty snazz-tastic for Wolfenstien! :D
Never played wolfenstein but I will be buying the new order now. The atmosphere and architecture are amazing. Reminds me of dishonored and thief even. I also have a weakness for stealth gameplay.
I hope one day that Noah takes a look at the Ace Combat series, especially the PS2 era games. A very overlooked series in my opinion. But the well written story and strong anti war messages is what made it memorable for me.
Yes indeed, Dark Souls would be a a great undertaking.