Wolfenstein Young Blood is the latest in the granddaddies of the first person shooter genre. Set in an alternate history where the Germans won World War 2 by dropping nuclear devices on America which leads to their surrender. Youngblood follows on 20 years on from the events of the previous game with America’s liberation and fighting the Nazi war machine.
Developed by Akane Studios, known for Dishonoured series, and Machine Games known for their work on the previous Wolfenstein entries.
I had very high expectations - especially following the fantastic crazy Wolfenstein: The New Colossus and while some of that game's greatness carried over, Youngblood is a very different animal.
Billy Blaskowitz, Nazi killing legend protagonist from the previous games, has gone missing and you take up the role of his twin daughters Jess and Soph to don power suit and stomp some heads in occupied Paris to search of their father.
This game is more light hearted and leans heavily into its 80's aesthetic which is very reminiscent of Far Cry Blood Dragon with the look, music and collectable cassettes that play 80’s inspired German music to be found in the levels.
Jess and Soph are funny and endearing if a little over the top nerdy, like they just walked out of Stranger Things and sometimes Beavis and Butthead.
However, I kept waiting for more depth or character out of the girls or hints into their relationship with their family or growing up in a ravaged America - like the insights the player got in the previous game.
I kept bracing myself an emotional gut punch like one of them dying in the arms of her sister, and the survivor dropping the naive childish humour motivated for revenge on the Nazi’s, the kind of moments New Colossus delivered but no impact ever came...
Graphically, the game is an updated version of what we saw in the New Colossus with no radical change, but it still looks great and gave me consistent frame rates. Lighting and shadows looked realistic and performance only taking any kind of dip when there were lots of enemies on screen.
The effective use of particle effects, blood and explosions felt epic and sci-fi, you can almost feel the heat of the lasers and smell the boot polish, blood and gun oil. The game also gives a massive amount of graphic customisations on PC, allowing you to get the perfect balance between performance and prettiness.
This game is designed as a co-op experience and it shows, as it works much better with another person than single player where a player would be forced to rely on the limited AI.
You can coordinate with another human and tell them to use a particular weapon or to provide support which makes the game a far more enjoyable experience. And also who doesn’t prefer mowing down enemies with friends?
The deluxe edition even comes with a Buddy Pass, which is a fantastic idea to get your friends in on the fight. You can use ability called Pep’s which allows you to select a gesture to perform with the other player to gain benefits like health recovery.
Other Pep’s with different effects can also be unlocked using in game currency. Pep’s are an interesting idea but it took me out of the game a bit as I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to think that giving a person a thumbs up would repair bullet wounds.
Another new addition that Youngblood features are role-playing elements like the levelling up system and the ability to upgrade your weapons. Through collecting coins you find scattered all around the in game world, you can increase your characters abilities, attach scopes and other modifiers to guns and unlock other capabilities like duel wielding weapons.
However, enemies also have levels, which increase their armour, health and weapons. This often meant fighting enemies with higher levels just dragged on with their enormous health bars.
While stealth is an option in Youngblood it rarely works effectively even with invisibility, with so many foes patrolling around the game it leans much more toward run and gun combat.
Enemies have different armour types that take more damage from certain weapons forcing you to switch them up on the fly. However, I couldn’t be bothered or remember half the time and would just pump round after round into these bullet sponges.
The game features a semi-open world where you travel to locations on the Metro line and fulfil objectives in that area - choosing which missions to complete and which to come back to. Youngblood also features a hub area in the Paris catacombs that you can travel to at any time to regroup, grab ammo and receive much needed quests.
So, the big goose-stepping elephant in the room for Youngblood is micro transactions.
Youngblood features multiple in-game currencies: Silver coins for modding and upgrading weapons and appearance and unlocking pep’s. Nazi gold is a currency you buy with real money and this can be used on booster and cosmetics and ability points, which you receive per level to upgrade your character and unlock extra abilities. I personally abhor these kind of mechanics in a game and think while they are understandable in some mobile games and online service games to keep them running, I don’t think they make sense in a game like Wolfenstein.
Death is really punishing in this game with some checkpoints being so far from where you fell and you also re-spawn with the amount ammunition you had when you died. This means on some of the tougher boss battles you will slog through the level to get back to the boss and have fewer resources to take them down, which I found this needlessly tedious.
There was a building of pace in the New Colossus and a feeling of inevitability and tension. The feeling like you were on an freight train heading full speed towards a brick wall with BJ’s deterioration and the insurmountable amount of cruelty in his life and the vast Nazi machine. Unfortunately that’s all pretty absent from here and there’s no such impact or weight to the plot.
The game has oodles of polish, handles really well and the gunplay is of course superb but it’s really missing a strong plot, great character development and really well crafted hateable villains that radiate menace like general Engel and Deathshead.
Overall it’s a good game that looks great and plays well. The light-heartedness and retro 80’s look were really enjoyable. The twins were a nice change from the brooding Billy Blaskowitz - if a bit annoying sometimes and lacking any real depth or development. However, the forced co-op, and addition of micro transactions makes it feel more like a spin off than a sequel. Youngblood just cannot hope to fill the power armour clad boots of New Colossus. It's a good shooter and great co-op game but don’t expect much more than a run and gun.
Wolfenstein Young Blood is out now for PC, Playstation Xbox and Nintendo Switch and is available on steam for £24.99 or £34.99 for the Deluxe edition which includes the Buddy pass.
