It's good, actually.

I'm someone that got really disappointed, frustrated and baffled with Wolfenstein II, and even though this game is still not what I wanted, I was able to really enjoy it for what it is.

Playing with my bestie, and even doing some offline play, there was a good amount of fun to be had. The level design was handled by Arkane and as such we have very open ended, but not outright open world, levels, with lots of shortcuts, items to find and different encounters to get into.

Most of the game will be spent doing side content instead of the 5 story missions at hand, but I really didn't mind cause that's where the strenght is this time instead of the story. The gunplay is nearly identical to Wolfenstein II except now placed in levels that aren't frustratingly small or unfair, and while you can't dual wield as many guns, the upgrade system (which isn't actually grindy) can make any gun very reliable, especially the machinepistol and shotgun, so that it isn't missed at all.

The RPG mechanics in this game aren't actually that deep. Some enemies will not scale to your level from below so you need to get some level ups before getting to certain encounters, but you always have the option of finding an alternative route or taking them down with some more challenge. Leveling up actually doesn't take much effort, and even just running around shooting anything will net you some good XP. The guns are upgraded with currency you find or get from completing missions and you get more than enough to have a decent arsenal in the first couple of hours. What's most important is getting your skill points and weapon upgrade coins spent, you don't even have to think too much about it, just look at what you like and get it. As long as you actually upgrade whatever, enemies will not become bullet sponges and the game actually remains fairly balanced.

Something very worth noting is that everything scales for each player independently, both on their level and difficulty setting, so asides from those few encounters with enemies that have set levels, playing with someone that's not on your same level will not drag you down, this feature is actually extremely well implemented and I'm surprised it's never mentioned.

The big thing where this game fails in comparison to other Wolfenstein games as of late is story, but really not due to "cringy" protagonists (I really thought they were fine, and way less annoying than any real teenager I'm likely to find), but simply due to it being a very straightforward and short plot. That's really my only big complaint, the story could have been better, but it's not nearly as terrible as Wolfenstein II's (seriously, THAT should be your example of tone inconsistency making things hard to take seriously).

I guess I should mention the microtransactions too, and I'll just say, they're so easy to forget while you're just playing and are never in your face. Very few select items are tied to it, none of them relevant to progression. CAPCOM has been doing way worse on their singeplayer games for years, so if they can do that I just find this case very inoffensive.

I quite enjoyed playing this, both with a friend and alone, and certainly think it's worth at least a run on especially with how cheap it usually goes for on sales now. I think people are too harsh on it because it's not Wolfenstein III, but it's at least way more consistent than II with decent level design, an actual final boss, and characters that aren't pissing on New Order with their writing. I actually hope Wolfenstein III adopts the more open ended design and considers a lighter tone like found here if they're still gonna go with what II was doing. Either way, please chill, this game wasn't made to replace Wolfenstein III and it's not the future of the series like many wanted to assume it was just to be angrier at it.

É o New Colossus, mas como conseguiram deixar tão ruim? Ok, é focado em multiplayer, mas ele segue a historia da saga bixo, quem gostou dos outros logicamente vai querer continuar esse. Que triste. Talvez com algum amigo fique mais interessante, mas sozinho é complicado. A IA da irmã não é ruim, mas você ficar dependendo ou ter alguem dependente de você A CAMPANHA TODA é desastroso. Nem vou falar sobre os personagens, resolveram tirar o BJ pra colocar a patati e patata como prota. Espero que ignorem esse jogo na sequencia do 2.

Escribo esta reseña habiendo completado hasta el momento de su publicación la historia principal. A fecha posterior de la publicación de esta reseña, ya debería haber completado las secundarias al 100%.

Quienes me conozcan ya saben de mi afán por la saga de DOOM y por consiguiente el aprecio que tengo por Wolfenstein y es que el año pasado por simple y puro gusto rejugué las entregas principales y la precuela de estos de MachineGames y entre partidas llegué a comentar que me gustaría probar esta entrega pero, al no conocer a nadie mas que quisiera jugarla, la di por imposible. Si, lo se, se puede jugar en solitario confiando en que la IA aliada no sea un dolor de muelas pero ya tuve bastante con Resident Evil 5 en su día y no iba a pasar por eso otra vez. Al final aprovechando las rebajas de Invierno en Steam compré el juego a sabiendas de que a un colega le iban a regalar otra copia, y llevaba un tiempo queriendo hacer una serie conmigo en Twitch así que nos lanzamos de cabeza y tras haberlo jugado puedo decir que si bien me he divertido, por que al final jugar con colegas suele venir acompañado de risas situacionales, su trama me parece extremadamente corta (que por muy spin off que sea, The Old Blood se me hace mas entretenido en ese aspecto), por momentos algo estúpida y tener que pasar por zonas constantemente haciendo secundarias para aumentar niveles por que hay enemigos que como te salga con una calavera en la barra de salud mejor date la vuelta... bueno, no es plato de mi gusto.
Hablando de su excusa narrativa para ponerte a pegar tiros a Nazis... Jess y Soph Blazkowicz, las hijas de Billy y Ania, no dejan de ser dos crías que saltan al campo de guerra por impulso tratando de buscar a un padre que aparentemente suele desaparecer por alguna misión supersecreta que se encomienda a si mismo, y hay momentos en los que la cosa se pone algo seria pero durante las pantallas de carga de los ascensores las ves haciendo el canelo (que a ver, no dejan de ser dos post-adolescentes) a la espera de salir a repartir plomo sin receta, como si no estuvieran en un país ocupado por la Alemania Nazi y estuvieran en busca y captura y quieras que no, rompe un poquito la ambientación. Pero bueno, este juego narrativamente se adscribe a la teoría de Carmack sobre su importancia.
Me tienta ponerle las tres estrellas y si me limito a lo malo del juego, debería ponerle un dos o uno y medio pero, lo dejaré en dos y medio por que al final de todo la experiencia de haberlo jugado con un colega ha estado divertida y al final eso es lo que acaba importando.

Es posible, ahora que ya tengo el juego en mi poder, que termine rejugandolo en solitario para poner a prueba las capacidades de la IA aliada, pero vamos, tampoco me corre mucha prisa. Todo este tocho puedo resumirlo en una frase: Como juego de acción cooperativo no está mal, pero no es un buen Wolfenstein.

I 100%ed this game but don't know if I should

It's alright but I've faced many issues connecting with my friend, which is a shame for a coop game.

Because it's more RPG than the other games of that franchise, it's also become way grindier, where some enemies become HP sponges when your level is low

Wolfenstein Youngblood is an interesting beast. It's billed as a 'side project', under the stead of another development team (Arkane Lyon), yet its premise is one that's presumably important and vital enough that it feels like it should be required reading for anyone interested in the series. Instead of focusing on new characters in a new setting of the same world, Youngblood jumps ahead in time and tells the tale of B.J. Blazkowicz's twin daughters, 20 years after the somewhat ambiguous ending of The New Colossus.

It's a truly bizarre choice, narratively, since the last game's ending leaves things on such a major cliffhanger that it seemed as though the third game was just around the corner. Yet here we are, jumping well ahead of that story and giving piecemeal details of what went down in the yet-unseen Wolfenstein III, with the one key detail being that Hitler was killed off-screen and his death led to a freak weather apocalypse.

What's most bizarre of all, though, is that there's no clear reason or moment where it all clicks and you go, "Oh, that's why this came out before Wolfenstein III." It really does just feel like a side project in terms of its importance, despite what it spoils about a potential third game in the series.

Both of the Blazkowicz twins are fun characters and fit right in with the universe and the audience's expectations of what the daughters of B.J. and Anya would be like—Jess is more like Anya in her being reserved and calculating, whereas Soph is much more gung-ho and bloodthirsty. They're also joined by Abby, Grace's now-grown-up baby daughter from the last game, who serves as mission control and is a fun character in her own right.

As for everything in the story besides the characters and their dialogue, you can take it or leave it. It's woefully generic filler compared to the high-stakes mayhem and antics of the previous MachineGames Wolfensteins. It largely comes across as a lesser rehash of the events of The New Order; the twins meet up with a resistance network and must eliminate Nazi targets for them and do odd jobs here and there until they can square up with the big bad Nazi general at the centre of it. Sure, perhaps that's a gross oversimplification of the broad strokes of the plot, but nothing really interesting happens in between.

Though perhaps the muted story is by design since Youngblood was built as a co-op game after all. They do, of course, give you the option to play it solo, which is what I did, but I can't say it's any better or worse for it. Most likely the latter, as the companion AI for the sister never feels as helpful as it should be and just highlights how imbalanced the combat is.

It seems like if you're playing solo and you want to have something at least approaching a decent time with this, you need to play on the easiest difficulty and always be upgrading your preferred weapons to their maximum efficiency. Even then, I wouldn't say that it's still all that fun. You can tell Arkane had a hand in this game, as there's much more of a focus on movement and verticality than there has been before in Wolfenstein, but it's not exactly a gamechanger.

Sure, it can help spice combat up a bit and give you some room to work with, but the stealth mechanics, or lack thereof, are perhaps the poorest yet, despite giving you an invisibility cloak as a core ability. The introduction of healthbars to all enemies now means that silenced headshots, even with a fully upgraded pistol, are rarely ever one-and-done, which is much the same with throwable weapons.

Despite having moments of fun with the game's gunplay and abilities, it's overall just disappointing, especially coming from two passionate, immensely talented studios and game directors working in tandem on this title. Perhaps this was a case of too many cooks, but whatever the case, the trailers make it look and sound more fun than it is to play (though perhaps that's mainly thanks to Carpenter Brut).

Story-wise, it's a bizarre tangent to take things on. The characters and dialogue are as fun as they always are, but the crux of the plot is super generic, and the choice of setting it after the potential Wolfenstein III is just baffling.

If you have a spare afternoon and a friend to play this with, there's surely fun to be had, but otherwise, you might want to save your time and money with this one.

4/10