Wolfenstein: Youngblood – not the sequel you’re hoping for. Set a full two decades after the events of New Colossus, you’re put into the shoes of BJ’s two twin daughters, Jessie and Zofia, as you search for the missing Nazi Killer.
Protagonists Jessie and Zofia
After choosing which sister you want to play as, purely cosmetic by the way, Wolfenstein: Youngblood starts off with familiar faces introducing you to the new protagonists of the game, BJ and Anya. Afterwards, the game jumps ahead to a time where BJ is missing and familiar face Grace Walker shows up as the head of the FBI, along with her kid Abby. Then the obvious happens, and like a movie plot from numerous movies that came before it, it’s up to the kids to take matters into their own hands and save the world. Or at least find out where BJ is, and what happened to him.
Story
The story is rather predictable, unfortunately. We shouldn’t see a plot twist coming a mile away, but it happens anyway. It’s also rather shallow in comparison to both New Colossus and New Order. Upon defeating the final boss, I was in utter disbelief that it was over. That was it? What makes it worse is the fact that there weren’t any notable scenes that really stood out. Going back to New Colossus, the whole Venus scene with Hitler was just brilliant. Many would say that was the best part of the game and the rest was just mediocre at best.
That’s a high bar to top, but I was expecting nonetheless. In Wolfenstein: Youngblood, the only scene that remotely comes close to it was one of the initial scenes just prior to taking control over the characters for the first time. In this scene, the sisters are tasked with killing their first Nazi, and hilarity ensued. After nearly ruining their chances, they ultimately dispatch the Nazi at hand, only to have brain splatter into the mouth of Jess, and Soph begins to vomit and laugh from the experience. Yet to think that this scene is the only one to stand out from the 8 hours and 22 minutes is rather disappointing to say the least.
Their First Target
Graphics and Sound
While the story is shallow and lackluster, the graphics and sound-effects are still on point. I played this on an i7 6700k at 4.6 GHz, with a 1080ti, and had every setting possible maxed out. I expected a rather decent performance hit, especially at 1440p 144 Hz, and yet the game ran as smooth as a hot knife through butter. Very rarely did I dip below 144 FPS, the game is so amazingly tuned it’s crazy.
The graphics themselves are nice, but you can tell they could have been better. I attribute this to the fact that the developers are taking console limitations into account, and I can’t fault them for it. Regardless, the world design is beautiful, and I thoroughly enjoyed the eye pleasing graphics with no performance hit.
Beautiful World
Gameplay
Fortunately, the gameplay outweighs the story, so it’s not a total loss. If you’ve played New Order or New Colossus, you can expect it to be much the same. Overflowing with over-the-top carnage, super weapons, and the choice to go stealthy or guns-a-blazing. The game rewards you for stealth gameplay with silver coins, currency used to upgrade your weapons. I can honestly say I rarely used it, as I enjoyed just utterly obliterating the Nazis too much.
A nice feature built into Wolfenstein: Youngblood is random encounters. Randomly, while completing missions in an area, Abby will come across your comms with a new side mission for you to complete. Usually something simple like getting an Enigma machine, or setting a car bomb, it’s a nice way to earn some extra experience and silver coins. It usually flows nicely with the mission you’re on as well, so you aren’t typically going out of your way to complete them. It’s just a nice addition the game core gameplay.
Abby also provides you with Daily and Weekly challenges for experience and coins as well in the Catacombs. Retro fans will also enjoy the return of the arcade classic Elite Hans, with Elite Hans 2! Yes, the arcade game has returned, and you even get challenges from Abby to get high scores. I only played through the first four levels, but it’s the classic Wolfenstein you remember.
In terms of core gameplay mechanics, I truly only have one issue on the subject, the AI. Too many times the AI just stood in place and did nothing, not even reviving me while standing directly on top of me. This is a heavily co-op inspired game, and will be substantially better with another player.
Weapon Customization
The developers did something with Wolfenstein: Youngblood that I’ve never seen a developer do before, a buddy pass. If you purchase the Deluxe edition you get something called a Buddy Pass. This Buddy Pass allows you to invite a friend to play with you….without purchasing the game. What’s more, there is no limitation! You can go from start to finish with your friend and they will never have to purchase the game. You tell me of a company that has done this, because this is just simply amazing customer service.
Our code was provided by PR for review purposes.
