To make a first person shooter appealing to the modern gamer is much more difficult than you might imagine. And that’s because it’s not all about visuals, guns or meaty explosions: rather, it’s about fun.

That fun factor is missing from many recent first-person shooter releases but Wolfenstein: The New Order has it in spades. Of course, it helps that the visuals are great, the guns are cool and there are plenty of meaty explosions too.

While the World War II setting has been done way too many times before, Wolfenstein: The New Order rewrites the narrative. The war never ended and the Nazis never lost. What happened next was European domination and a continent living in fear and repression.

You return as the hero B. J. Blazkowicz and you’re very angry with how things have turned out. The world you find yourself in is fantastic. Someone took a long, hard look at alternate reality fantasy and brought it to life in this game. It looks great and is rich, deep, colourful and very believable. Until you see your first robot dog that is. Cue over-the-top gore, an ability to wield guns and regenerative health to take out waves upon waves of evil enemies.

There is a lot of imagination in how the game is put together but also a distinct lack of it. The premise is good, but the execution has been done before. You can see plotlines coming a mile away, characters are quite predictable and there are no real surprises, except those robot dogs.

However, as a shooter and as pure entertainment, the game works as advertised. It delivers a solid experience that is well worth the eight or nine hours it will take you to complete.

As long as you don’t take it too seriously, Wolfenstein: The New Order is a great game with lots on offer. It has great visuals, the controls are responsive, the cover mechanic works extremely well and who doesn’t want to wield 12-gauge shotguns and vent their anger without getting arrested?

Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.