Review - Wolfenstein: Youngblood
The modern Wolfenstein franchise didn’t need a co-op game, but the one they gave us opens a new gameplay style that, while flawed, is still pretty fun.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood follows Jess and Soph Blazkowicz, daughters of Wolfenstein protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz. The characters are young, teenage women who grew up training to help their family take down the Nazis. When their father goes missing, they are forced to grow up and start fighting the Nazis in Germany. The plot isn’t the strongest part of the game, but the cinematics are well done and I appreciate the connection to the original game. There are main quest lines and side quests that mesh pretty seamlessly together in the world, and the overall plot was entertaining enough to keep me interested. Collectibles and readables spread throughout the world add more lore that isn’t found within the cutscenes.
Jess and Soph flip flop back and forth between teenage girls and sociopathic killers in a way that is jarring, and their ‘southern’ accents are equally as flip-floppy throughout the game. Due to their lack of character development in the game, I can’t decide if I enjoyed the the protagonists or felt that they were cringey.
The scenery of this game is absolutely beautiful. The maps are large, featuring sprawling apartment landscapes above and detailed ground level zones as well. There were lots of moments of using my doublejump to find a window or a balcony to shoot from that made combat more interesting. I really enjoyed exploring the area, but couldn’t find a map to open other than the mini-map. This wasn’t an issue while exploring, but it made finding the paths to quests difficult and frustrating.
Wolfenstein, as per usual, has incredibly fun gunplay in the game. The weapons and the weapon upgrade system gives an RPG aspect to the game that I enjoy (I’m a big fan of customizing my weapons to fit specific purposes in a game). Unfortunately, the boring style of enemies take away from what could be the biggest highlight of the game. Most armored enemies feel like bullet sponges, and all I have to do as a player is shoot them continuously while avoiding their shots. You’d expect enemies with tanks on their backs to be potentially flammable or have some other weakness, but in the end it feels like I’m expected to just shoot them a ton. The combat is challenging solely because some enemies take forever to die, and not because they’re particularly difficult mechanic-wise. If you have something to hide behind and enough ammo, anything can go down. Oddly enough, the hatchet seems to be the most OP weapon in the game. I could chuck a hatchet at a heavily armored enemy and one-shot them (somehow????) and then pick up my hatchet and chuck it at more enemies. It’s a bit confusing and honestly feels like the weapon is overtuned, so I’d be curious to see if that changes in future patches.
The multiplayer aspect is entertaining and arguably the best part (and most worthwhile) part of this game. When playing with another player, the game becomes exponentially more fun and exciting. There are many moments in the game that require both players (resurrecting each other, opening doors, locating codes), and the combat is easier when two people can balance aggro with one another. Sadly, the single-player is incredibly unfun. The AI partner is just okay, sometimes helping me out and sometimes running behind me without even shooting the enemy. This could be forgivable if there weren’t plenty of other games with excellent and supportive AIs (Republic Commando still has my favorite AI teammates of all time). Luckily the AI was super good at using their health or shield pep ability, so they had some use to me.
Quickmatch for the game is pretty unreliable. When I would get a human teammate I’d have a lot of fun, but they could leave whenever they wanted and I was suddenly (and surprisingly since there was no notification) stuck back with an AI teammate. I enjoyed the game, but whenever I was with theAI teammate I was frustrated enough to want to quit and move on to something else.
So is it worth it? It honestly depends on your playstyle and if you have a friend that is also interested. At $30 it’s at least not priced like a main game launch (especially with only 10 or so hours of gameplay), and makes the co-op a little more attainable for people on a budget for a co-op shooter. If you have an interested partner, I’d say 100% to get the game. I really enjoyed the co-op and the fighting is more enjoyable with a teammate you can communicate with. If you tend to lean more single-player, then I’d put a hard pass on this one. The clunky AI, difficult combat, and thin storyline aren’t enjoyable alone and the quickmatch isn’t a good way to find a long-term teammate.
Disclaimer: Bethesda provided me a copy of Wolfenstein: Youngblood for review purposes.
- iluffhomer — https://twitter.com/iluffhomer
