Alternate history first-person shooter (of Nazis, specifically) Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a spin-off from the main Wolfenstein games. It’s set in 1980, and developers Machinegames don t go halfway on it. The game is soaked with 1980s references, from early electronica and synthpop in the French Underground to 3D glasses and UVK Tapes (VHS tapes but, um, more Nazi-like). The in-game explanation is that Nazi dominance is so complete that it pervades popular culture.
The music of our 1980s is rooted in our postwar reality, tied to its precedents of the 1970s – particularly punk music and punk culture – and a further evolution of postwar youth culture. But how could musical ideas like New Wave possibly have flourished in an alternate postwar world dominated by Nazi occupation? Well they couldn t have. All this stuff isn t in the game just because it looks and sounds cool. It creates an important storytelling dynamic that empowers the player to fight evil for a culture worth keeping.