11 - Beyond Good and Evil: Nazis and the Supernatural in Video Games

Summary

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.

—Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

THE INTRODUCTORY CINEMATIC from the hit video game Wolfenstein (Raven Software / Activision, 2009) opens aboard the Nazi warship Tirpitz in the dead of night, five miles off the British coast, as it prepares to rain death down upon sleeping England. As warning bells signal that missile launch is imminent, Nazi soldiers run toward a general standing with his back to them, shouting that an American spy is on board. When a soldier notices dripping blood, the jig is up: the “general” is none other than Special Agent B. J. Blazkowicz, sent to stop the Nazis. While the hero of the story quickly dispatches his startled foes, an alarm is sounded and, following a heart-pounding chase, Blazkowicz is cornered and reluctantly raises his hands. An officer appears and, noticing an eerie glow emanating from Blazkowicz's coat pocket, demands the protagonist show him the strange light. Blazkowicz slowly pulls out what players later learn is a mysterious Thule medallion, an artifact created by the ancient Thule society that allows holders to harness power from an alternative realm, the Black Sun dimension. As the Nazis open fire, the medallion suddenly flashes, and blue waves of energy explode outward, enveloping the enemies and turning them to dust. Explosions begin to rip through the Tirpitz as the dynamite Blazkowicz has set goes off and the ship begins to sink. The cut scene fades to black with Blazkowicz, who has narrowly escaped by plane, staring intently at the now quiet Thule medallion, and radioing his superiors at the Office of Secret Actions with the urgent message, “Wake up the director, tell him we have to meet as soon as I land.”

Thus begins an action adventure that sends players to the fictional city of Isenstadt, deep within Nazi Germany, where they must stop the evil General Victor Zetta and the mad scientist Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strasse, who are trying to exploit the black arts in an attempt to secure victory for the Third Reich—one of many such video games that have appeared over the years.