Yesterday we told you about the announcement of Bethesda’s new game, Wolfenstein: The New Order. Most of you seemed happy that the game was in development and could be slated to come to Wii U, but a few of you said it wasn’t your style. Former Epic Mickey developer Warren Spector agrees with you, according to a rant posted on his Facebook page. He goes off on such titles, saying they’re creatively bankrupt:
Did the world really need another Wolfenstein game? Did we need a generically dark, monochromatic, FPS, kill-the-Nazi-giant-robot game? Uh. No. The world did not. I am so tired of stuff like this.
Spector says that Bethesda is doing nothing but recycling content from a game “as old as I am”, while new IPs have a very hard time getting green lit by a publisher. It seems like a rail against the modern military shooter for sure, but Spector should probably point those guns at yearly Call of Duty releases instead of Bethesda for this one. The last Wolfenstein game that came out was in 2009. While the use of Nazis may be tiresome, Wolfenstein has always revolved around them, so it’s not like Bethesda is pulling a new cliche out of its hat.
Spector says he’s entitled to complain because he’s constantly having to fight against the attitude that game developers “should just make a shooter.”
You’re welcome to write off my opinions but I have a right to express complaints about people recycling work as old as I am. I’m allowed to complain about the difficulty of getting new stuff green lit — new IP, new game styles and so on given my perspective as someone who’s constantly fighting the pressure to ‘just make a shooter.
Do you agree with what Warren Spector is saying? While his initial creation of Deus Ex was well-received among critics, Epic Mickey was mediocre and Epic Mickey 2 has done abysmally. Is this because gamers don’t want to play these games, or is it because the content isn’t interesting enough? Let us know your opinion below.