The "Nightmare!" ("Escape from Castle Wolfenstein) is a bonus level and easter egg in Wolfenstein: The New Order based on the first level of Wolfenstein 3-D. It starts the Side Mission: Escape from Castle Wolfenstein.
Background
In the headquarters of the resistance movement, B.J. Blazkowicz lies down on a mattress near a picture of himself at Castle Wolfenstein. He falls asleep and had a nightmare of his past experiences in 1945 (Operation: Eisenfaust).
He comments on his dream "Dreaming. Strange dreams. The killing never stops. Til I die."
The side mission background notes states: "Where am I? It's all a blurry haze. Think I need to get out of this place."
He 'remembers' the first level of Wolfenstein 3-D, floor 1 of "Escape from Wolfenstein" before waking up.[1]
Trivia
- The Wolfenstein (2009) graphic novels also included Wolfenstein 3-D as part of the series history in the same timeline. It put Wolfenstein 3-D as the end of the Third Reich and the rise of the Fourth Reich in the late 1945-1946 period (placing 2009 game in an altered WW2 history c. 1945/1946).
- Several secret locations are in the level. Also there is a hidden exit although both exits lead the player to the same location.
- Wolfenstein: The New Order includes a somewhat similarly altered history (although no evidence if it was directly inspired by the graphic novels) in which the battles with Deathshead continue into 1946, and the Nazis ultimately win the war by the late 1948, and Blazkowicz wakes up from a coma and begins fighting the "New Order".
- Following the "nightmare", the end of the level contains a waking up animation, as Blazkowicz wakes up from the mattress.
- Near the bed are photographs, propaganda, and other documents on the wall. One of these pictures depicts B.J. Blazkowicz escaping Castle Wolfenstein just as in the nightmare. This is actually the background art of the original Wolfenstein 3D title screen.[2]
- Enemy comments have subtitles just like regular enemies in the game (though translated into English from German).
- The last secret near the secret level exit, has sardine cans which spell out the letters MG (a reference to Machine Games). There are three more cans below it placed in a slanting formation.
- When Gamespot asked Activision if Robohitler would be in Wolfenstein: The New Order, they were told that he was already defeated in Wolfenstein 3D (but still possibly alive). It was suggested to them that events of Wolfenstein 3D were still canon.[3]