I love history. And as any history buff would tell you, World War II was a very interesting time to speculate what could have happened. For instance, if only Hitler had given the tank divisions more fuel at Dunkirk, it is very likely that all of the world would be speaking German.

Along with history, I also love video games — especially video games that explore the interesting topic of what could have happened. I recently began playing Wolfenstein: The New Order, a video game about WWII that does just that. It does take some liberties with reality, when it introduces gigantic nazi tesla cannons in the first 10 minutes of the game, but I’m not complaining.

My favorite leap into science fiction is the robotic dog/lion the size of a semi-truck that is the first enemy you encounter. I wish those things had appeared, although if they had, the pure awesomeness of them would have won the Nazis the war. The what-if question that is posed is: what if during the Nazi search for ancient technology (that the Indiana Jones movies portray entertainingly) they actually found some? What if they found the technology to make giant nazi tesla cannons and robotic dog/lions the size of semis? I won’t spoil the answer to the question and so the premise of the game, but the answer should be pretty obvious.

The combat is rewarding and fast-paced. It is in the same style as the critical success of this year DOOM. I find that particularly interesting because both the originals Castle Wolfenstein and Doom (1993) sparked the FPS genre. Now they have both had reboots that were both praised for having fast paced keep-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat combat.

Overall, I had a great time playing Wolfenstein: The New Order and have enjoyed even more the questions it has raised in my mind.