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.

The franchise that tried to be a looter shooter that it made the brutal combat and satisfying gameplay shine very underwhelming with a very suffocating bullet sponge enemies that you lose satisfaction from the game. The open world design feels empty and just crawling with braindead mobs that lacked engaging content, it feels like they should have stick to their linear concept. The new protagonists however are two weird girls that I'm not sure I have the same emotional investment compare to to the last franchise.

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

I am still so fucking depressed at how abhorrently this game turned out. All of the dark, emotionally driven mastery of TOB and TNO, and the wacky zaniness of TNC are gone. They straight up Star Wars Sequelified Wolfenstein.

I should note, I don't hate the Blaskowicz twins because they're women (TheQuartering and all the other incel gamers can kindly piss off) I hate them because they are cringe 80s stereotypes with no chemistry and awful writing. But they aren't even the worst characters in this game's story... to myth utter shock, that award of shit went to their old man. Character assassination doesn't even begin to describe it, he has been DECIMATED by this game, and turned into a sniveling coward who no longer cares about the world he set out to save. The villain is also plainly fucking embarrassing too, go figure.

Oh and this is without even getting into the grindy, repetitive, unfinished, microtransaction-filled pissfest that is the rest of the game, but I honestly can't. Thinking about this game pisses me off so fucking badly. Fuck you MachineGames, I have utterly zero faith Wolfenstein III will be any good now, my hope in this new saga is fucking dead and gone.

i personally like the idea of a wolfenstein thats coop and also think the story approach they went for isnt all that horrible either. however they completely fumbled with the bullet sponge enemies. stealth feels like a punishment rather than an option. i can sort of glance over the live service things as you can get everything by playing but god damn is it shit to see that i can fully upgrade my weapon for 5€. also which i dont get is how utterly repetitive the areas in the games are. you get: rich town, poor town, poorer town, docks, prison town and of course paris. the underground areas are all the same fucking thing aswell. please if you think about playing it play it with your friend and turn off your brain.