The Wired Revolution Act II: How The 2010’s Wolfenstein Games Show That Fascism Deserves a Kick in The Teeth
/By Nathan Moloney
IMAGE courtesy of machinegames/bethesda
For years many have argued about what a ‘good’ Nazi even is, but MachineGames posits in their Wolfenstein games that the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi, and it is quite a persuasive argument. As the fans of the series will know, in 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order and 2017’s Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus thrusts the player into the fascist stomping boots of B.J Blazkowicz as he fights through an alternate 1960s after the victory of the Nazis in WW2. The message of the following writing is that sometimes it is needed to fight back against the oppressors of the world. Sometimes violence is the answer against those who would inflict violence on targeted groups of people. These games do not shy away from depicting the subject matter so neither will we, so a content warning for well, The Nazi Party in general. Now it should be noted that from this point onward you should have played the games to the end, as there will be spoilers from this point onward. However, for the smaller spin offs such as The Old Blood and Youngblood there will be no spoilers for those games (as I have yet to play them, and they are less important to the overall narrative of B.J across the games). With all that understood, let's get into the overall essay.
IMAGE courtesy of machinegames/bethesda
B.J starts his journey after having been knocked into a coma in the final battle of the war and coming out of it in a mental hospital some 20 years later, coming to the defense of the family that cared for him and the patients that come under Nazi abuse. This opening shows two things regarding both B.J and the world that I want to highlight. First is that nobody is safe under their regime, not the polish family running the hospital nor the patients inside, suffering comes for us all. Second is that BJ is Captain America, he’s a strong American hero out of time come back to help people.
However, there is one thing that makes him function stronger than Steve Rogers in this case of a fight against the Nazi party, and that is the fact that B.J is Jewish. Whereas Steve is everything the Nazi’s love fighting against them, B.J is tainted in their eyes by his Jewish heritage, there can never been an equal exchange of ideals between them, because they will always hate him for the one thing he can never change, his blood.
IMAGE courtesy of machinegames/bethesda
In my prior writing on Metaphor ReFantazio I discussed how that game shows the power of collective action against a greater evil, and we see that laid clear in this series with the Kreisau Circle. A fictional extension of a real anti-Nazi group in Germany, this verison of the circle is a multi-racial rebel group consisting of people fighting against the fascist government. This might be an even stronger version of what Metaphor ReFantazio was doing due to these games existing in a more real world with real races and real people. These are games that are not afraid of showing Nazi’s in a bad light and letting the player fight back against with brutal attacks against the violence being perpetrated against the world. MachineGames never shys away from the violence needed to make a meaningful change, and they never try to sugarcoat the fight to make the world better.
In 2025 I find this to be a strong message, where we as Canadians look over to our neighbors and see a madman breaking down the rules, putting people in cages, wanting 51st states and waging war against his own citizens. It’s hard not to fear the worst when we see a weak man trying to seem strong by hurting people and swinging his dick around.
Is the United States on the road to fascism? Who really knows, but it will be if people are not willing to stand up and fight for what is right. Look to how open MachineGames was to placing their boot in the mouth of oppressors and tyrants and think about that if they were willing to do that in a video game, what are you willing to do in real life?
As pointed out by Youtuber peterspittech they couldn't make this game today, not because we the people have changed but rather due to the cowards at the top of the boardrooms. Are you willing to let them win? Or like B.J, are you going to get off your knees and fight?
IMAGE courtesy of machinegames/bethesda
Nathan Moloney is one of our featured writers, and will be heading up the review section for IGN. Born in Oakville Ontario and raised between there and Toronto Nathan aims to bring a wide range of experience to the team. Being a lifelong gamer, he has played everything from Lego Batman to XCOM 2 and Hades. With a particular interest in role-playing games, Nathan will bring his love of narrative into everything he does. Expect reviews telling you about what he loves and dislikes about the storylines in the games he loves, as well as powerful discussions about the revolutionary narratives in many video games.
