This is Why Wolfenstein II Doesn’t Have Multiplayer

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus released today, and though you’ll be finding a bunch of Nazis to blast through while building up the Resistance in America, one thing you won’t find is a multiplayer feature. In a recent report on GamesIndustry, MachineGames’ Tommy Björk discussed how a multiplayer component would “dilute” the storytelling experience of The New Colossus and how focusing on a single player narrative instead was beneficial in “pushing the boundaries” of the game.

The only way we can create these super immersive narrative experiences is if we can solely focus on the single-player. Having a multiplayer component in this work process would just dilute it all. That’s the danger if you try to do two things at once.

In an industry that is still heavily dominated by multiplayer and online experiences, choosing to focus on a single player campaign, especially for a shooter like Wolfenstein II, is a bold move. It calls into question whether the $60 price tag is actually worth it, as many players probably won’t return to the game after finishing the main story if the replay value is lacking. To Björk’s statement, though, MachineGames doesn’t even view its new release as a shooter. “We call them action adventures rather than shooters…we feel there’s so much more to them than just shooting.”

While there’s no escaping the game’s classification, the fact there’s no multiplayer allows for players to be fully immersed not only in the environmental storytelling of this alternate 60s setting, but also in the dangerous politics and ideology that resides at the game’s center.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is the follow-up to The New Order (2014), and it released today for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Let us know if you picked it up. You can also check out everything you need to know about the game here.