It has been a few years since I have played Wolfenstein: The New Order. I really liked Machine Games foray into the series. I purchased the spinoff, The Old Blood, as well as the sequel, The New Colossus, but have not played them yet. A friend and I were looking to play a game together, and I convinced him to buy Youngblood. We jumped right into the coop shooter.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a weird game. It was co-developed by Machine Games and Arkane. The DNA of both companies blend together in the game making an odd concoction. It makes it difficult to review, because it feels like both a departure and a continuation of the new Wolfenstien series. Should I be comparing it to the other games and spinoffs? Or should I review it as a standalone title? Neither of these options feel like the right choice.
Machine Games did a soft reboot of the series with The New Order. They made killing nazis fun again. Youngblood tries to continue the spirit of the other games, but with coop. Unfortunately, Machine Games and Arkane stumbled.
I have not played The New Colossus, but Youngblood takes place 20 years later. My friend and I played as Jessie and Zofia Blazkowicz, who are the twin daughters of B.J. A lot of players found them annoying. I had a hard time placing them in the universe established by Machine Games. My friend called them “female Beevis and Butthead,” which is accurate. Their dialog can be cringy at times, but it grew on me. By the end of the game I liked them.
I did not feel like I was missing anything by not playing The New Colossus. It spoils some of the major events, but does not delve into the how’s and why’s. It sets up the fact that B.J. has gone missing, and Jess and Soph need to find him. We were given some reason to do the missions, however, I feel like they did not add anything to the story. Good thing “kill nazis” was all the motivation we needed. There were some twists, which we easily sussed out. The game ends with an ending that should have been epic, but fell flat. Unfortunately, the game sets up a sequel.
Youngblood is an open game. My friend and I collected missions in a central hub. We were able to revisit areas to complete objectives. On the plus side, Arkane’s level design shines through. There is a lot of hidden detail built into the levels, adding to the overall story of the world. There is also a lot of incentive to explore, since there are several collectibles. On the negative side, we had to revisit areas and plow through the respawned nazis over and over and over and over again. As we unlocked abilities, we had to revisit areas. When we unlocked a new missions, we had to revisit areas. When we died, we had to redo levels (more on that later). When we finished the game, a new unlockable opened up… and we stopped playing because we did not want to revisit areas. It gets old.
Maybe it would have been fine if the enemies weren’t bullet sponges. Killing nazis in The New Order felt great. You can stealth kill them, blow them up, start them on fire, or just fire a few bullets in them. In Youngblood, they can take forever to kill. This is mostly related to the leveling system, and the fact that there are now two people killing nazis. As you level, you unlock new abilities. Unfortunately, as you level the enemies get more health. It is not a great leveling system, and it could have used a lot more time in the oven. Fortunately, the shooting does feel good.
Weapons have a unique heft to them. Each weapons can be leveled up as you use it. The game has a system where enemies are resistant to certain types of ammo. It encourages using different guns on different enemies. Juggling ammo was not fun, but the game is generous with ammo, which helps.
At the beginning of the game, each character is setup to be different. One character is supposed to be stealthy, while the other is supposed to be a brute. Very early into the game my friend and I could distribute skillpoints however we wanted. My friend tried to go the stealth route, but it really is not viable like it is in The New Order. Enemies quickly had too much health. There are a lot of cool abilities in the skill tree, but we were always at odds with the ever-growing health bar of the enemies.
The enemies were bullet sponges, but my friend and were the opposite. We died a lot. Dying is like any other coop shooter. If I get downed, my friend could revive me. More often then not, we both would go down. In those instances one of us could use a life, respawn, and try to revive the other. However, we could only carry three lives. Losing all three lives resulted in us starting the level over with respawned enemies; this is how we got sick of replaying levels. The checkpoint system is horrible. Most of the time, the checkpoint is at the beginning of the level. It became better with patches, but it still is not good.
Thankfully, everything looks and sounds great. The artstyle established in The New Order shines through with technology advancements over the years. Bullets sear through enemies in gorey detail. Each gun has a satisfying sound when shot. Although few, the environments a varied and detailed.
I do not know who this game is for. It is a lot of fun to kill nazis with a friend, but there are better coop games out there. I cannot overstate the awfulness of the checkpoint system. Even if you are a fan of the new Wolfenstein games, the tone of Youngblood is a departure. It is not a bad game. I do not hate it as much as some fans on the Internet. When the game is good, it is really good. However, when it is bad, it is very bad. It makes it mediocre.
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