Which Wolfenstein to play first
Play The New Order, then The New Colossus. That is $59.98 for the two games the Wolfenstein 3 announcement actually points at, and both have Chinese text. The Old Blood is an optional prequel.
Wolfenstein 3 will not have a release date for a while, so the useful question is not "when" but "what do I play in the meantime, in what order, and what does it cost". That is a question the series can answer with store records rather than speculation.
The fastest path to being ready
Three games carry the story that Wolfenstein 3 continues. Played in release order, they run from 2014 to 2017 and cost $79.97 together at current Steam prices, which is less than one new release.
| Order | Game | Steam release | Price | Metacritic | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The New Order | 2014-05-19 | $19.99 | 81 | B.J.'s modern run, and Fergus |
| 2 | The Old Blood | 2015-05-04 | $19.99 | 76 | A standalone prequel in eight chapters |
| 3 | The New Colossus | 2017-10-26 | $39.99 | 86 | Grace Walker, and the series high score |
Two of those three introduce people who appear in the Wolfenstein 3 announcement. B.J. Blazkowicz is the player character throughout, and Grace Walker arrives in the third game with Debra Wilson playing her, which is the same actor Xbox named for Wolfenstein 3.
Where to start if you only buy one
Start with The New Colossus if you want the highest-rated one and do not mind arriving mid-story. Start with The New Order if you want the story to land in order, which is the reason it is listed first above.
| If you want | Buy this | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The best-reviewed entry | The New Colossus, $39.99 | 86 on Metacritic, the series high |
| The cheapest full campaign | The New Order, $19.99 | 81, and it sets up everything after |
| The shortest taste | The Old Blood, $19.99 | Eight chapters, prequel, skippable for plot |
| A co-op game instead | Youngblood, $19.99 | Two players, B.J.'s daughters, not the mainline story |
| The 1992 original | Wolfenstein 3D, $4.99 | A different game entirely, 34 years older |
Do you need to play any of them first
Nobody at MachineGames has said you do. What can be said is that the announced cast includes returning characters, and returning characters come with history attached.
Fergus, whose name appears on the script page, is introduced in The New Order, and whether he survives that game depends on a choice made in its prologue. A player who skips The New Order will meet him in Wolfenstein 3 without knowing any of that, which is survivable but is not the intended experience.
The order that wastes the least money
If you want to be current without buying everything, this is the cheapest sequence that still covers the announced cast and the story's starting point.
- The New Order, $19.99. Start here. It establishes B.J., the alternate history, and Fergus.
- The New Colossus, $39.99. Skip The Old Blood for now. This is the direct continuation and it introduces Grace.
- Wait for Wolfenstein 3. Buy The Old Blood later if you want more, since it is a prequel and adds nothing to the through-line.
That is $59.98 for the two games the announcement actually points at, against $79.97 for all three.
Which ones come with Chinese
Bethesda's Wolfenstein releases are inconsistent about this, and it is worth knowing before you buy.
| Game | Simplified Chinese | Traditional Chinese | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| The New Order | No | No | 2014 |
| The Old Blood | No | No | 2015 |
| The New Colossus | Yes | Yes | 2017 |
| Youngblood | Yes | Yes | 2019 |
| Cyberpilot | Yes | Yes | 2019 |
| Wolfenstein 3D | No | No | 1992 |
The pattern is a clean split at 2017. If Chinese text matters to you, the two games that do not have it are the two earliest in the modern run, and the two most relevant to Wolfenstein 3 both do.
What each one needs from your machine
Steam's store data lists Windows only for all eight Wolfenstein games, with no Mac or Linux build for any of them. Controller support is uneven: The New Colossus is the first in the series with full controller support, while The New Order and The Old Blood offer partial support only.
| Game | Windows | Mac | Linux | Controller support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The New Order | Yes | No | No | Partial |
| The Old Blood | Yes | No | No | Partial |
| The New Colossus | Yes | No | No | Full |
| Youngblood | Yes | No | No | Partial |
| Wolfenstein 3D | Yes | No | No | Not listed |
PC system requirements live on each Steam store page rather than here, because they change with patches and this page would go stale. Wolfenstein 3 has published no requirements at all, since it has no store page.
The one thing to buy today
If you are going to spend money before Wolfenstein 3 has a date, spend it on The New Colossus. It is the highest-rated game in the series, it introduces Grace Walker, and it is the entry the announcement leans on hardest.
If you would rather wait, wait. Nothing in this list is going off sale, and none of it is required reading for an announcement that has so far released one page of script.