Wolfenstein players have been blasting Nazis for an incredible 41 years. Wolfenstein is one of the most reliably fun shooters in the business, is responsible for popularizing the first-person-shooter, and its newer entries feature one of the craziest stories in gaming.
So, with twelve games spanning 38 years, which ones should you hunt down and which are best consigned to the history books? There’s a lot to get through here, so let’s hop to it.
Castle Wolfenstein (1981)
Anyone playing a 1981 game released on the Apple II should already know what they’re getting into. The first game in the franchise sees the player take on the role of an unnamed Allied soldier imprisoned in the titular Castle. You must break out of your cell, retrieve secret Nazi battle plans, and escape.
Though all but unplayable now except to the most dedicated retro gamer, Castle Wolfenstein is notable as one of the first stealth games. The player is encouraged to sneak through the castle and avoid attracting guards by keeping quiet, stealing uniforms to move incognito, and retrieving equipment from fallen enemies. It’s an echo of the enormously popular Metal Gear franchise that’d appear on the MSX six years later, though for modern players it’s incredibly archaic.
Our advice is to watch a YouTube playthrough.
Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984)
The second-oldest in the series is also the last entry from original developer Muse Software. Gameplay remains similar to the stealth-action template described above, albeit with a few twists. You can now attempt to bribe guards, need to secure correct passes to survive inspections, and have a dagger to silently kill enemies.
The graphics hadn’t moved on much in the three years since Castle Wolfenstein, so even in the mid-1980s it was considered outdated. Skip it.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (2003)
As you’ll see as we get farther through the list, the Wolfenstein games aren’t simply about running through corridors blasting Nazis (just mostly). The formula has been tweaked a number of times over the years, as can be seen in this online multiplayer squad-based shooter. Originally intended as an expansion for 2001’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein it was spun off into its own freeware game and by all accounts was a lot of fun.
But in 2022? If you download and install it from Steam you can indeed get into a game, though you’ll find empty servers with bots if you’re lucky. That you can play it at all is nice, though at this point this is a shambling zombie of a multiplayer game.
Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot (2019)
The most recent entry saw Wolfenstein take a leap into VR. Set after The New Colossus, you play a hacker working for the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation. The twist is that as a “cyberpilot,” you hack into and control the various robots used by the Nazis, ranging from flying drones, Panzerhunds, and the massive Zitadelle robot.
Cyberpilot is a fun experience, though the PSVR release sees the system struggling to render Paris, leaving things looking extremely blurry. It’s a neat little diversion — and blasting through Nazi troops as a giant missile-spewing mech is fun — but is far from essential.
Wolfenstein RPG (2008)
In the late 2000s iD Software and EA Mobile embarked on a curious series of experiments in mobile gaming. Running a full-throttle first-person-shooter on a phone wasn’t going to happen, but a turn-based first-person RPG? The first effort was DOOM RPG on Java devices in 2005, with the Wolfenstein franchise getting the same treatment in 2008.
It’s a surprisingly fun game, taking the bones of Wolfenstein 3D and expanding them into a story about B.J. Blazkowicz battling the Nazis’ Paranormal Division (and mutant chickens). It’s also notable for iD Software legend John Carmack working on it and runs impressively well as a result.
The fly in the ointment is that actually playing it is a pain. Wolfenstein RPG was released on Java phones and iOS, though can no longer be purchased on the App Store and isn’t compatible with modern iPhones. So, anyone wanting to check out this hidden gem is going to have to head to eBay and be prepared to do some technical fiddling with a very old phone.
Wolfenstein (2009)
Raven Software’s take on Wolfenstein is rapidly becoming a footnote in the franchise’s history. This landed on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in 2009 and is a by-the-books FPS that provides mindless Nazi-shooting fun. Blazkowicz is once again facing magically-enhanced Nazis attempting to tap into the “Black Sun” dimension. This supernatural theme sees B.J. granted various powers that are fun to use, though the game doesn’t do much with them.
More notably for those that jumped on with 2014’s The New Order is that this is technically the first installment in the ongoing franchise, though the connective tissue between them is slight. Nonetheless, if you truly want to see how the current Blazkowicz story began, this is where you need to go.
Unfortunately it’s been delisted from all online stores, so your best bet is tracking down a physical copy on consoles.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (2019)
Set in an alternative 1980s, Youngblood sees a pair of players step into the boots of Blazkowicz’s daughters Jessie and Zofia as they search for their missing father in Nazi-controlled Neu-Paris.
Results are mixed. The graphics are great, story is interesting, and it plays as well as you’d expect a MachineGames FPS to, but the RPG elements feel like they’ve been crowbarred in. For example, enemies now have levels and if you try to take down one that’s a few levels higher than you they become a frustrating damage sponge. When you blast some S.S. Officer in the head with a belt-fed turbo shotgun you want him to explode, not keep coming!
Get a good co-op partner and Youngblood can be a lot of fun once you figure out the intricacies of how to buff and heal one another in battle. It’s even just about playable with an AI buddy, though the real meat is taking down Nazis with your friends fighting alongside you.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
Wolfenstein 3D is a foundational game and the grandaddy of every first-person shooter that would follow. In the early ’90s John Carmack’s iD Software was experimenting with a fast pseudo-3D game engine on a single plane of movement, with John Romero suggesting taking inspiration from Castle Wolfenstein. After snapping up the license they released the first episode as shareware on PC and set the gaming world alight.
Exploring a 3D environment at a smooth frame rate was a revelation in the early ’90s. It’s also still very playable if you bear in mind when it was released, and various ports of it have popped up in modern Wolfenstein games as a nod to where the modern series began.
18 months after Wolfenstein 3D, iD Software would release DOOM and truly set the world ablaze. This game often ends up in DOOM‘s shadow, though gamers should always remember that without Wolfenstein 3D the gaming landscape could look very different.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001)
Though perhaps not as iconic as 3D or as interesting as later games, Return to Castle Wolfenstein still stands as a great example of how to do a reboot right. Developed by Gray Matter Interactive and built on the rock-solid foundations of iD Tech 3 (aka the Quake III engine) this combined a fun single-player campaign and popular team-based multiplayer mode (now mostly defunct).
Return to Castle Wolfenstein‘s story takes Blazkowicz all over World War II, from Egyptian ruins, secret Norwegian paranormal bases and, finally, the crypts of the titular castle. The story is your typical Nazi occult horror that the series has become known for, though at least it’s presented with as much pizzaz as the era would allow.
Naturally a 2001-era FPS is clunky and basic by modern standards, but it still holds up, offers some fun Nazi-blasting action, and is usually available on Steam for a few dollars.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (2017)
2017 was a good year to release a game about killing Nazis and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus leaned into the series’ impeccable antifascist credentials. For the most part it delivered the goods – taking Blazkowicz on a seriously bizarre tour through a Nazi-controlled 1960s USA featuring magic, body horror, and some of the most satisfying weapons in video gaming.
By this time MachineGames had become known for the quality of their writing, with this building upon the characters and concepts in The New Colossus with an almost Tarantino-like ability to balance ultraviolence and pathos. There’s a whole bunch of neat character stuff here, the most dramatic being B.J.’s relationship with his father and the funniest a trip to Venus to meet a doddering Adolf Hitler.
The only problem is that The New Colossus is surprisingly hard, even on the default difficulty. Despite the game talking you up as an unstoppable destructive force, Blazkowicz proves unexpectedly squishy. Expect to die a lot, even with upgraded health. Many players will advise to just set the game to the lowest difficulty and enjoy turning Nazis into piles of bloody goo. It’s hard to argue.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (2015)
This standalone prequel to The New Order is proof that brevity can be a huge positive. The Old Blood is a grindhouse-inspired and supernaturally-themed game that shows MachineGames at their best. In the first chapter you head back to Castle Wolfenstein to discover yet more occult nastiness, with the second half going full zombie movie as you blast your way through a burning town to try and put a stop to the Nazis’ ultimate plans.
At just six hours long The Old Blood doesn’t have any fat on it and being able to beat it in an afternoon underlines its fast-paced cinematic nature. But, ultimately, The Old Blood is still very much secondary to…
Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014)
Few expected much from The New Order prior to release. 2009’s Wolfenstein had been a damp squib and a narrative-driven single-player FPS was still something of a rarity. But as soon as this hit shelves people started realizing they had something very special on their hands.
The conceit is that Blazkowicz was knocked into a coma at the end of World War II, awakening to find the Nazis won the war and have almost complete control of the world. After joining up with a ragtag resistance group you journey around Europe and see the warped impact of their rule. This turns out to be some of the best world-building in gaming and is an impeccably researched alt-history (we particularly love the ’60s pop songs recorded in German).
B.J. Blazkowicz also gets a substantial character upgrade. Throughout the adventure we’re privy to his internal monologue, showing a more introspective and traumatized side to him, combined with a passionate hate for fascism in all its forms.
On top of that, you get to drop acid and hang out with Jimi Hendrix. What’s not to like?
Rumors say a new Wolfenstein is in development at MachineGames that’d continue the story of The New Colossus. We’re not going to get tired of blowing holes in Nazis anytime soon, so bring it on.
