History YMMV / WolfensteinTheNewOrder

* CriticalResearchFailure: Reading one of the newspaper clips reveal that the Nazi's are responsible for hunting down most of the wildlife in Africa rendering them an endangered species... The problem, the real life Nazi Germany are effecient environmentalists who staunchly protects wildlife and fauna, very unlike the Nazi's portrayed in the game.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Reading one of the newspaper clips reveal that the Nazi's are responsible for hunting down most of the wildlife in Africa rendering them an endangered species... The problem, the real life Nazi Germany are well known for their environmental and fauna protection acts, and only used human test subjects when conducting experiments.

* CatharsisFactor: After seeing all the horrors the Nazis commit, nothing feels better than blasting the bastards into LudicrousGibs.

* FoeYay: B.J. shares some of this with Deathshead and Bubi: For the former, Deathshead's "resilient specimen" quote and how much he "likes" him. For the latter, Bubi's effeminate reactions for Blazko, sometimes bordering on flirting (though the only person that Bubi will ever love is Engel).

* CompleteMonster: [[MadScientist Nazi General Wilhelm Strausse]], better known as "Deathshead", was also the main villain of the [[VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein previous]] two [[VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein2009}} games]], but really makes his mark here. Capturing protagonist William Joseph "B.J." Blazkowicz, Deathshead forces him to choose which of his two friends he will painfully dissect, B.J. being ForcedToWatch before Deathshead leaves the survivor to burn alive. Using the fruits of his terrible experiments to give the Nazis victory and establishing a cruel dictatorship, Deathshead continues his experiments by forcing a mental asylum to give him subjects and then ordering his soldiers to murder all the remaining patients when he decides he does not need them anymore. Finally confronted by B.J., Deathshead takes his dissected friend’s brain and places it in a robot as a [[AndIMustScream fully conscious slave]]--a fate he intends for all his dissected victims and B.J. himself--and forces him to attack B.J. Fully committed to his scientific legacy and believing compassion does not befit the "Master Race", Deathshead represented the worst of the Third Reich.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: This is one of the few pieces of [[NaziHunter Nazi-killing]] media that reminds us that Nazis are bad specifically because they're racist and genocidal. Most neo-Nazis ignore the racist part in favor of Nazis just being a totalitarian force; this game reveals just why letting the Nazis have anything at all is bad, reconstructing the idea of Nazis as AcceptableTargets. The game takes great pains to show that the Nazis were the worst of humanity, and that there is no justification for their behavior.

** Have you ever wanted to play a game based off of the works of [[Creator/QuentinTarantino Tarantino]]? Specifically based off of ''Film/InglouriousBasterds''? Well, here it is. Hell, when you consider Anya's implied backstory [[spoiler: as a Nazi-slaying SerialKiller]], she's practically a direct {{Expy}} of Shoshanna Dreyfus.

* HilariousInHindsight: Bobby Bram's [[VideoGame/QuakeIIIArena Q3 Rocket Launcher]] [[EasterEgg keychain]]. B.J. would later become a playable character in ''VideoGame/QuakeChampions'', after skipping ''III Arena'' and all of its versions.

--> '''BJ:''' Fuck you oath! People are dying!

* AcceptableTargets: Weirdly enough, averted - or possibly reconstructed, depending on your point of view. Rather than simply going, "they're Nazis, ergo, it's okay to do terrible things to them", the game takes great pains to show ''why'' the Nazis were terrible. References are frequently made to the master race and eugenics, cultures conquered by the Nazis are slowly being squeezed out of existence and replaced with German culture, the Nazis betraying their Axis allies (the Italians and the Japanese), and the second level shows them massacring every patient in an asylum simply because they're not useful. Even if you'd never heard of the Nazis, they'd be very evil villains.
* {{Adorkable}}: Probst starts out as GoshDangItToHeck individual and by ''New Colossus'', he began to awkwardly talk JiveTurkey and behaves like {{Cloudcuckoolander}} especially after taking what seems to be Acid though [[BunnyEarsLawyer that does not stop him from being an effective ally]].

* CreepyAwesome: Deathshead.

** J, just by the virtue of him being [[spoiler:Jimi Hendrix]].

** [[spoiler:The first and final missions task BJ to kill Deathshead at his base of operations, a towering Nazi fortress. [[Literature/TheManintheHighCastle A man in a high castle, as it were.]]]]

** Goddamned Drones. They take a negligible amount of ammunition to bring down, but they move quickly and it's very easy to expend more bullets than necessary to kill one. Too bad there's never just one, and they often accompany enemies who can easily kill you while you're softened up.

** All members of the Kreisau Circle would qualify, see TheWoobie below.

-->'''B.J. Blazkowicz''': "They put a Nazi on the moon. Fuck you, Moon."

** [[spoiler:The assault on HQ. The place is in flames, your comrades are captured, Klaus and J/Tekla wind up dead in the process.]]
** [[spoiler: The game ends with B.J.'s possible death. The music and his final speech are what sells it.]]

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: This is one of the few pieces of [[NaziHunter Nazi-killing]] media that reminds us that Nazis are bad specifically because they're racist and genocidal, meanwhile most ignore the racist part in favor of Nazis just being a cool, totalitarian force.
* SpiritualSuccessor: This game, along with its [[VideoGame/WolfensteinTheOldBlood expansion pack]] and [[VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus sequel]], are often considered this to VideoGame/EscapeFromButcherBay and its sequel VideoGame/AssaultOnDarkAthena, due to the similar stealth mechanics, melee executions, weaponry and dark tone. It also helps that they are all made by the same people.

** Chapter 12, "Gibraltar Bridge", is this for some players. You're sent on a ruined bridge to steal the identity of one of Deathshead's top commanders. Sounds easy? Not so much. In addition to the tricky level design (be prepared to fall to your death when looking for hidden items!), enemies have a tendency of using every possible angle to attack you from. Also, there's quite an abundance of Supersoldaten around every corner. At least this is the level where you get the rocket launcher attachment for the assault rifle.

--> '''BJ:''' "''Fuck you oath! People are dying!''"

* WinBackTheCrowd: For the ''Wolfenstein'' franchise and old school FPS fans, it has. See SurprisinglyImprovedSequel.

** Mas Hass, as he's brain damaged as a result of his wound on his head and reduced to a ManChild, [[spoiler: then losing his father figure Klaus to the Nazis]].

** [[spoiler: Fergus or Wyatt, if one of the two are picked to be dissected and having his brain transferred to a machine to fight B.J., with the one who had been sacrificed to beg for a MercyKill.]]
*** [[spoiler: Even the one you ''don't'' pick qualifies. It's clear through their rant to B.J. about halfway through the game that they're still suffering deeply from survivor's guilt even ''fourteen years'' later. That combined with the stresses of managing one of the last pockets of resistance in a Nazi-controlled world will turn anyone into TheWoobie.]]

** Realizing that [[spoiler: Resistance HQ has been discovered and under attack]] is a serious PlayerPunch, but becomes unintentionally amusing when you realize [[spoiler: how long BJ and Klaus would have to drive to reach Berlin. Driving from London to Berlin, including taking a ferry to cross the channel, takes about 12 hours on average. Since BJ and Klaus leave London in the early morning hours and arrive in Berlin at approximately late morning, that means it took over 24 hours to reach the hideout... which implies that, among other things, the place was burning to the ground while Caroline struggled with her armor and J was getting high for over ''an entire day'']].
** The [[spoiler:brain extraction]] can be this, if you realize how inefficient and destructive the method really is, and that it would ensure nothing remotely useful was left afterwards, never mind capable of being [[spoiler:reprogrammed into a robot]].

** The aforementioned [[spoiler:brain extraction]] transforms back into this if one interprets Deathshead being more than capable of doing it the practical way, but ''opts to inflict more pain instead''. Fits perfectly with his [[MadDoctor character]].

** A badass soldier who took part in World War 2 has a long slumber, wakes up after a timeskip, returns to fighting for America after his forced hiatus, and primarily fights a vicious Nazi leader with a skull motif? ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' would like his royalties. Goes a step further in the Wyatt timeline where Wyatt often calls B.J "Cap". Considering B.J is even voiced by [[Creator/BrianBloom an actor]] who played [[WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes one incarnation of Steve Rogers]], it's possible that this might've been intentional.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Splitting the narrative into two timelines is this for some players, as it seems to promise more radical differences between the two than are actually delivered, and is often accused of being a cheap way of adding in some replay value. In fact, other than [[spoiler: the character you pick for Deathshead's experiments]] the two timelines are more or less identical even down to the dialogue at times [[spoiler: as despite being completely different in personality, the surviving character in one timeline will at times say things that are almost exactly the same as the surviving character in the other timeline]]. Most of the other differences are largely cosmetic; a different mechanic for unlocking secrets and hidden areas (hotwiring in one, lockpicking in the other) leading to some possible shortcuts, a different stat upgrade (health in one, armor in the other) and a different secondary character who adds some spice but overall doesn't really affect the narrative in any meaningful way. [[spoiler: For what it's worth, most players seem to think the Fergus timeline has the edge over the Wyatt timeline, if only because the Health Upgrades add a permanent boost to the character's health, whereas the armor boost simply makes armor pick-ups increase your armor to 100 quicker.]]

* AcceptableTargets: Weirdly enough, averted - or possibly reconstructed, depending on your point of view. Rather than simply going, "they're Nazis, ergo, it's okay to do terrible things to them", the game takes great pains to show ''why'' the Nazis were terrible. References are frequently made to the master race and eugenics, cultures conquered by the Nazis are slowly being squeezed out of existence and replaced with German culture, and the second level shows them massacring every patient in an asylum simply because they're not useful. Even if you'd never heard of the Nazis, they'd be very evil villains.

* ThatOneAttack: The Kampfhunde and Prison Guards grab you in a clinch. While they don't do that much damage especially when you block their attacks, they can slowly drain your health away if you don't stab them to death quickly enough. To make matters worse, you're unable to move, especially with the Kampfhunde during gunfights and you're getting shot at by the Nazi soldiers.

* GoddamnedBats: Goddamned Drones. They take a negligible amount of ammunition to bring down, but they move quickly and it's very easy to expend more bullets than necessary to kill one. Too bad there's never just one, and they often accompany enemies who can easily kill you while you're softened up.

* UglyCute: The Panzerhund, though maybe "terrifying cute" would be a better descriptor.

* HarsherInHindsight: Private Prendergast undergoing a TraumaCongaLine in the game's DownerBeginning to a point he himself rants to the heavens for it and latter revealed to be KilledOffscreen in the TimeSkip is more heartbreaking due to his portrayer Nicholas Tucci's untimely death at age 38 after succumbing to a fatal illness.

** On a meta level, the system requirements for ''[=Wolfenstein:TNO=]'' list a requirement of ''[[UpToEleven 50 gigabytes]]'' of hard drive space. Even by today's standards, that's pretty excessive. A look at the gameś files reveals much of the game's data (such as the audio files) is nowhere near as compressed as it could be, meaning that this large size was most probably deliberately engineered, most likely to curtail piracy.

* MoralEventHorizon: If Deathshead didn't cross it when [[spoiler:he forced Blazkowicz to [[SadisticChoose choose whether he would vivisect Fergus or Wyatt]],]] then he crossed it when [[spoiler:he trapped Fergus/Wyatt in an AndIMustScream situation for ''fourteen years'' by using their leftover brain as the WetwareCPU for his Machine-Man.]]

** The in-universe recording label Neumond Recordings is rife with [[http://www.wolfenstein.com/en-us/site great tunes]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYDbWza2B6o "Berlin Boys and Stuttgart Girls"]] in particular is an EarWorm.

* EarWorm: "Mond Mond, Ja Ja" by Music/TheBeatles—sorry, Die Käfer—will stay in your head for a long, long time.