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
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