Today's Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus trailer is a little different, deeply uncomfortable
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is supposed to be pretty hot, and certainly this new trailer is working some magic.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is an alt-history affair where you punch nazis. Punching nazis is time-honoured video game tradition and after however many years we've been doing it we're all familiar and comfortable with unleashing whatever weaponry we can find on The Bad Guys. Same old, same old, right?
Well, maybe not: it really seems like Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus wants to put the punch back in punching nazis. This new trailer only contains a few snippets of gameplay, focusing instead on setting a scene of horror. Not jump scare horror or body horror, but the horror of a seemingly normal-looking situation suddenly spiralling into nightmare land.
Look, you'd better just watch it:
Holy balls, right? That ending.
We're used to delicate, pastel, orchestral-scored indies about the brevity of life and sanctity of love giving us Feelings, but it's something of a shock to the system to see them crop up in a mainstream first-person shooter. After years of gradually being numbed to the escalating tragedies of bombastic shooter stories, is Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus going to be the FPS campaign that makes you sweat?
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus made a splash at E3 2017 with its powerful debut trailers, and from what we've seen so far it absolutely lives up to that.
We expect Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus to be one of the highlights of October, a month that already packs in some terrific releases. Look for it on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
MachineGames' first go with the franchise, Wolfenstein: The New Order, was very well-received - although followup prequel The Old Blood went under the radar. I'm thinking of looking it up now, though, hey.