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Wolfenstein Youngblood is a new co-op game – although one that can also be played in single-player mode. The game takes place in 1980, 19 years after BJ Blazkowicz ignited the second American Revolution in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.
It also introduces the next Blazkowicz generation to the fight against the Nazis, and you’ll play as one of BJ’s twin daughters, Jess and Soph, as you search for your missing father in Nazi-occupied Paris.
I started off quite enjoying this game, as you’re aboard a Zeppelin, running along, blowing away the enemies, with any normally-co-op situations dealt with well – since if a particular door needs both of you to open it via a switch each, then your sister will be along shortly to push it, but after I crashed down to the ground, I found myself in a second where i could largely just run past all the baddies to get to the next strong door, leaving them all be behind.
Also, since this entry in the series doesn’t have definitive ends to each level, and since you don’t have to take on the various tasks and side missions in a specific order, you’re left wondering whether you can or can’t quit out of it at any point without losing your progress. The game will always tell you that you might lose unsaved progress, but… when did it last save? So, I try to aim for completing a task or mission before doing so.
…TRY being the operative word, since like with Wolfy II, there are still baddies that can bump you off in a split second. How come they have weaponry that can knock my character down to zero health in one shot?! That’s really p’ing me off!
This also leads to some terrible A.I. issues, as you’ll see below. While in Paris, I was one-shotted again, so I called out to my sister, Jess, for help, but she didn’t come… even though she was stood a stone’s throw away. I crawled along the floor (the big baddie ignored me, even!), and even when she was on her own, she STILL didn’t bring me back to life! I was right in front of her – face up to her CROTCH(!) – and she let me DIE!!!
At first, I was starting to kinda enjoy this game, but then when the problems all kick in – so I’m dying almost instantly thanks to a sniper, or a stupid dog on a suicide mission with bombs strapped to its back, it’s just not a great deal of fun whatsoever. And that’s before I’m up against huge baddies that just make mincemeat out of me.
So, for now, I’m going to call this a ‘work in progress’ review, since the game is clearly unfinished and broken. Hence, I’ll just give this game an overall score, since while it looks and sounds okay (albeit no different than Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus – not that it was trying to be different, hence the lower price point), the fact it’s broken is making this a royal pain to stick with.
If you want to play something from Bethesda that is much more worthy of your time, Skyrim VR is the answer.
As an aside, another thing I found with Wolfenstein Youngblood is that, on PC, you can access the Developer Console, and I made a vlog about that below.
Overall: 4/10
Wolfenstein Youngblood is out now PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PS4, and click on the packshot for the full-size version.
Important info:
- Developer: MachineGames, Arkane Studios
- Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
- Players: Single player campaign, co-op, multiplayer
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.