Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus‘ setting is confirmed to be in a Nazi-occupied America. Bethesda officially announced that a sequel is coming for The New Order and revealed the trailer over at their press conference at E3 this year.
Publications in the US already got their hands of a demo and previews are beginning to surface all over the internet. In this recent interview by IBTimes.co.uk with the game’s director and co-founder of MachineGames, Jens Matthies, he stated that they want to know what would be the cultural implication if the U.S was under a Nazi occupation.
[alert type=white ]”We started thinking about what the cultural implications of that was, because of course, in the 1960s there was a very big cultural revolution in the US that, sort of, spread throughout the whole western civilisation. [It was about] civil liberties, and personal freedom, there was Woodstock, and The Beatles and all of these things, right? So it’s very interesting if that decade is suddenly happening under Nazi rule, what does that mean culturally?
And so already back then before we even started making the first one, we were thinking about what would America look like in this world? America being this country that is literally founded on the idea of freedom, is now under occupation by the Nazis, right? And you have all of this Americana and all of these very, very iconic visuals, that are now suddenly subverted by Nazi ideology.”[/alert]
The team was highly enthusiastic to put this alternative setting and that making it just a level in the game is just too small for it.
[alert type=white ]”So we were really enthusiastic about putting that into the game, but what we realised was that project is so big it can’t just be a level, the whole game has to be about that. So that was something we consciously saved in case we got to do a sequel, which fortunately we got to do. So, that was the genesis, I would say.”[/alert]
Since Wolfenstein was initially developed by id Software, MachineGames worked with the studio to provide and get feedback from one another. Jens stated that the have communication all the time within Bethesda, and that his studio and id Software are very close.
[alert type=white ]”All of the studios within Bethesda are in communication with each other all the time. We test each other’s games, give feedback, that kind of stuff. But we have an especially close relationship with id because not only are we working on their IP and their engine, but our programmers are essentially co-developers of the engine, so everything that we do to benefit our game can benefit their game. And everything they do to benefit their game, can benefit our game. So, that’s very productive.
We talk to them all the time and of course, in the very beginning, it was important for us to make sure that whatever we do to the game has their blessing, because they are our heroes. I wouldn’t be in the industry if it wasn’t for Quake and its modding scene. That’s how I built my portfolio and got into the industry. People like Tim Willits and Kevin Cloud, those were my heroes growing up, you know? So, we never had any interest in making a game they wouldn’t approve of. But now we’re at the point where now they trust that we know what we’re doing. We get along very well with them.”[/alert]
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is expected to launch this October 27, 2017 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
