The Return to Monkey Island thread has more info, but the basic explanation is that the game was revealed to have an artstyle that people didn't like, at all. In response to those comments, Ron Gilbert went full manchild mode, and said that he won't be commenting about the game until it's release, saying that those comments are toxic.
And then Cuckmann decided to butt-in, to make that controversy about himself as well.
These 7 men and women become the main antagonists and opposition against BJ. They're unhinged sociopaths, but also highly skilled and very dangerous. Sort of similar to the band of mercs every metal gear solid game introduced.
This means every main mission ends with a unique and exciting boss fight. Every boss also has quirks for their soldiers, meaning the enemies in the game are varied
You could say it resembles how the original worked with each boss at the end of an episode, you could easily call it a callback.
Cut out the part with BJ's dad being a fat drunken redneck that forces BJ to shoot his dog, kills his mother, then gets murdered by BJ. Can include that BJ grew up impoverished and in a society where there is deep racial animosity, but don't turn anyone into a stereotype.
They had to get the obligatory "Father bad" trope/message out of the way.
That shit was so pointless, we didn't need any more reason for BJ to despise Nazis after every atrocity he had seen in the games (be it the abominations they created, the eldritch horrors they unleash, watching Feargus/Wyatt get slowly mutilated by Deathshead, or any of the real life shit they've done). I enjoyed Wolfenstein for its over the top weapons & setting, not watching some asshole beat his wife (I don't care if money was supposed to be involved, an antisemite marrying a Jewish woman in the 1910s is asinine) & kid while forcing the kid to shoot his dog.
Because we really need more reasons to hate Nazis. Jesus Christ, what they think their audience is. We have been hammered over and over that Nazis were bad people, dont need to make them borderline cartoonish more than they already are in Wolfenstein.
BJ should've died at the end of The New Order, at least then I wouldn't have to see him somehow survive getting his head cut off by putting some stupid ring on the neck of a super soldier body. I'm supposed to believe that glorified choker allows him to eat and breath as if nothing happened (don't get me started on that gadget that allows him to squeeze through pipes, is his body now made of rubber?)?
Thats literally something out of Drake of the 99 Dragons. Im not joking, the master of the protagonist gets his head put on a machine but cue the scene after the boss fight and he is suddenly ok.
After TNC and the horrible twins in Youngblood (and ripping off Operation Cinder from Star Wars), I have no hope for this series.
Neither does Id to be honest, its clear that they seem to looking forward towards more Doom or at least a possible Quake reboot. Its nothing official but I legit think Id is putting this franchise to rest again, maybe to reboot it again in a couple of years when they feel the negativity around TNC and Y.B died off.
airing out their father issues.
MANY of these grew up without a father (or an abusive one) and they have, somewhat understandably depending on the circunstances, held some grudges but I see a lot using this an excuse to send anti patriarchal messages, as if ever father is just like their abusive/missing ones.
Its not a healthy way to deal with those inner demons. The best way to get back at your bad/missing father is by being the best father yourself to your child, and even then, do it because you are a good person and you love them.
But then again, Im motivating a healthy mindset instead of fanning those flames so people in places of power can use it for their own agendas.
More competently they would as I said perhaps show that BJ grew up rather impoverished, his mother and father arguing because of money, his dad having to teach him how to hunt at a young age so that they had food on the table.
Feels like God of War was only the recent example of a piece of media showing fatherhood in a good light. Kratos is a very flawed man but its clear he loves his boy, he just isnt very good at showing it for obvious reasons. But by the end of the game, its clear father and son are closer and trust each other with their own sentiments and secrets. Then again, the director had very personal experience by being a father himself by that point of his life. Thats a healthy way to project it.
We had the original TLoU where we had a flawed but still well intended father but...yeah.
This then ties into the story as the leader of occupied America is a sort of soft spoken intellectual similar to Breen in Half Life 2. He points out that under his leadership America has prospered, welfare policies brought over by the nazis has ensured that no family goes hungry or suffer from unemployment. But of course it comes at the expense of liberty, and it's built on top of a mountain of corpses. And in the end the american puppet leader is executed by the supersoldiers brought over from Germany, as it's the start of a plot where a coup is enacted all over the Reich to eliminate the old guard and implement the true ideal society, where might is right and the strongest take what they can.
Thereby BJ and his crew doesn't liberate the US through fucking magic, but instead events they set in motion become the catalyst for infighting among the occupiers, and the coup gives the US resistance the time it needs to shake off the occupiers without reinforcements from Europe.
Honestly, that feels slower but far more realistic...and I guess thats why Id didnt do it (outside of the fact they probably couldnt come up with a plot that engaging themselves).
Each entry could have been further and further victories in almost like a chronicle of sorts. Real sense of progression and excuse to keep the series consistently producing content.
But nah.