Wolfenstein: Youngblood

There's a lot of cool parts to Wolfenstein: Youngblood. But there are, unfortunately, some really critical design flaws with the game that just make it frustrating to play. It is, in my view, too far off the mark from The New Colossus or any of the prior games, and in some key ways that just make it decidedly less fun. The Pros: I like the new characters. The twins are kinda fun to play as, if a bit thinly drawn, but I don't really hold that against the game. Wolfenstein has entertaining characters, but that's not really why I'm here. There are some cool ideas lurking in the co-op-oriented gameplay, what with boosting your teammate, etc. The thing is, if you're playing solo with a bot companion, the game kinda loses something. Still, I will give Youngblood a tip of the cap for at least trying something different. Many game franchises never do this. The game does continue some structural elements that I like, including the hub system where you can get missions and pick your own pathway forward...kinda. There are some neat skills you can use in this game, too, and I actually like the idea of the RPG elements with gradual upgrading. This happened primarily via perks in the last game, but it's a bit more deliberate now, and I kinda like that. I like RPGs anyway, though. The Cons: I have not had the litany of technical glitches others have, but I have actually gotten a BSOD in the year 2026. That...should not be possible. Probably the single biggest con to the game, though, is the *insane* "difficulty." I say "difficulty" because it strikes me less as difficult, per se, and more as just immensely tedious. Even after balance patches, even understanding the wonky "enemy armor" system, even having upgraded guns to some extent, even at the absolute lowest difficulty level possible, the enemies are simply bullet sponges and fights end up taking *FOREVER* because you're busy just running around scrounging for any ammo you can find. The armor idea is sort of interesting so you don't just Shockhammer your way thru the whole game...but honestly, that was part of the fun of the prior games. This is forced complexity, and I'm not a fan. The complexity I could deal with, though, if not for the fact that even with the right ammo, enemies regenerate armor really quickly, and just absorb so...much...damage. I want to be clear: the enemy health levels SUCK in this game. They absolutely ruin the fun. This is not a challenge, it is a chore. Bottom Line: I really wish I could recommend this game. I really enjoy the series. I like the new characters. I like many of the aspects of the game's design. But if your game is stretching fights out the way this game does on "Easy," you have a badly designed game in dire need of patching. Bullet sponge enemies absolutely suck the joy out of this game. I may try to struggle on at some point and see if maybe there's some tipping point where you level yourself and your gear enough to actually have fun...but I'm not optimistic. My bet is the game "intelligently" scales enemies just beyond your capabilities, so you are forever having the same kind of interminable fights with scarce ammo. As a result, I really, really do not recommend this game, even if you're a completionist. It's a massive misstep in the franchise for these reasons.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3674367017[table][table] [tr] [th][h2]📜 Сюжет[/h2][/th] [th][h2]📚 Сэттинг[/h2][/th] [th][h2]🎮 Геймплей[/h2][/th] [th][h2]🎨 Визуал[/h2][/th] [th][h2]🎧 Звук[/h2][/th] [/tr] [tr] [th][h3]⠀⠀⠀1/5[/h3][/th] [th][h3]⠀⠀⠀3/5[/h3][/th] [th][h3]⠀⠀⠀⠀2/5[/h3][/th] [th][h3]⠀⠀⠀3/5[/h3][/th] [th][h3]⠀⠀2/5[/h3][/th] [/tr] [/table][b]Wolfenstein: Youngblood[/b] — это ужасная игра, которую я лично оцениваю максимально негативно, потому что она умудрилась растерять всё полимеры серии. Сюжет здесь абсолютно отвратный, а главные героини Джесс и..как её там.., в общем дочки Бласковица и их подруга Эбби вышли нереально бесящими и блёклыми, а их поведение и диалоги просто уничтожают ту мрачную атмосферу мира победившего фашизма, которую выстраивали прошлые части. Если раньше в серии трешовый юмор был на грани фола, но держался на харизматичных и крутых персонажах, то здешние героини это какое-то позорище, за которыми просто неприятно наблюдать. Сэттинг переносит нас в оккупированный нацистами Париж 80-х, и чисто визуально город проработан интересно, с этими монументальными бруталистскими постройками и блокпостами, но из-за общего клоунского тона всё погружение летит в трубу, и сеттинг кажется бездарно слитым. Хоть и проскальзывает интересная там темка проскакивает про то что Гитлер после своей смерти запустил механизм уничтожения планеты. Геймплей в целом остался нормальным, так как стрелять в декорациях Wolfenstein всё еще приятно, но его сильно поддушили элементами «сервисности»: ввели уровни врагов, полоски здоровья и необходимость гриндить, что для синглового шутера вообще лишнее. Визуал по-прежнему хорош, детализация и свет на уровне, да и звук с музыкой вполне приличные, но это никак не спасает проект. Отмечу еще отвратительный русский дубляж главных героинь, который для меня ну просто уже добил проект полностью. В итоге это максимально неудачный эксперимент, который вместо развития идей New Colossus превратил суровую драму про сопротивление фашизму в какой-то нелепый и раздражающий кооперативный боевик. Проходить мимо и делать вид, что этого дополнения никогда не существовало. Лучше еще раз перепройти историю Би-Джея, чем слушать кривляния его дочерей в этом «шедевре». Ужасно, просто ужасно. [h1]★☆☆☆☆[/h1]https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3681379597

Look how they massacred my boy. I played the game for about two hours and I don't think I'm ever coming back. The game kicks off on a high note by forcing you to make a Bathesda account, sure take my personal data, I don't care. Then you're met with the two most insufferable protagonists, like stfu and bring back Blazkowicz. From the little gameplay I experienced, I can safely say this game is confused about its own identity, why does it lean heavily into the rpg aspect when it's supposed to be a simple fps. Also, why are the enemies so beefy, it takes a lot of ammo to kill them to the point you'll find yourself running out of bullets quite often and as a result of that dying. Not to mention how grindy the whole thing feels. Whoever was in charge of making this atrocity deserves to be fired, by far the worst Wolfenstein out there.

A positive review? Hell yeah. I played this cooperatively with a friend from start to finish which I believe was the way the game was intended to be played. We both went into this game reading and reflecting upon the negative reviews and so we had low hopes. Thinking it was not going to be fun and cringe. Expecting a huge grind that would make us tear our own luscious hair out their happy little pores. Yeah, nah that wasn't our experience at all. We enjoyed the game from start to finish (on the hard difficulty). While there are some nitpicky things, the overall experience was positive. We laughed, we killed Nazis, we smirked and groaned at certain things in positive, negative and cringey fashion, but never did we feel like the game was holding us hostage to complete the story. Hell, we even did most if not all of the side missions. The movement and gunplay? Fun overall. You have what is basically agile power armor and can zip around the map pretty quickly. I will say that on hard, you can get downed pretty quickly which I would say is to be expected. As you level up though you do get points to spend on suit upgrades so you know, it gets easier. We didn't max our characters when we finished the story, but we did look at some of the things and they seemed pretty neat. The weapons all feel nice but you can only dual wield three types of weapons (pistol and two SMGs) which is kind of a shame but didn't really detract from the overall experience. There is a weapon upgrade/customization system that feels a tacked on as attachments just allow you to increase damage, accuracy, rate of fire while some upgrades may detract from another stat and if you have three from one category, you get a major buff to one of those stats but I believe you're only allowed at max, five customizations per gun? I could be a little incorrect, but that's mostly how it worked. A few weapons can have a secondary unique attachment like an X-Ray scope for the assault rifle with such a niche use that I just switched back to a traditional optic. Some attachments can also change how a weapon behaves. Like shooting slow projectiles that do more damage. Changing the explosive shot from a weapon to do perform as a cluster bomb. A flashlight (because your suits don't have one). Having your gun maybe do something as the secondary. All in all, it's neat and can help players mix up their gameplay a little if they so wish. One silly thing is you can purchase (with in game money) suppressors for some guns which would supplement stealth gameplay...except enemies have health bars and there really isn't a one hit kill with pistols for example...so it just turned into "shoot them a lot before their alert meter goes up" which we found hilarious AND ridiculous. Players do eventually unlock the ability to one-hit certain enemies with throwables and you can do stealth melee kills but performing the formers? Hilarious. I will also note that we were not fans of enemies having light and heavy armor and each weapon their own affinity for what armor they're proficient at destroying. Certain enemies can have their armor chewed through regardless of what armor as it basically turned into a DPS thing, but we just wanted to use a gun and pew pew. Was annoying having to see enemy armor mid-fight and switch to another gun. The RPG-style health for enemies was basically of no source of contention for us. In the early part of the game, we did attempt to do some missions that were way above our pay grade, and we learned quickly to not do that again. While yes that is "not a normal Wolfenstein gameplay mechanic", this isn't a "normal Wolfenstein game". So we just did missions at or close to our level, got on with our gameplay session. If you don't like that style, aite. The protagonist sisters? Quirky, funny, and a little cringe but not in anyway that detracts from the game at all. In fact, we both loved the elevator camera loading scenes. We both wish there were more. Their banter wasn't annoying to us at all. In fact, nothing about the protagonists bothered us at all. Graphics and performance are good as well. There's definitely a lot less destructible things in the world but the game runs pretty smooth. We did get an occasional crash. Maybe once every two or three game-sessions but it was usually on their end, who was using the Buddy Pass. I myself maybe experienced one or two? If we had to complain about anything else, it would probably just be the keybinds and maybe how some things activate. If felt a little clunky with dual-wielding and operating the flashlight while dual-wielding. The only other thing would be the sound of the other player's footsteps while running. They are hilariously mismatched in tempo from what you hear versus the player. Overall we had fun playing through it from start to finish. Does the game really deserve a mixed review? Yeah, I'd say so. Is it as horrible as people say? No, not at all. Is it better with a friend, playing it the way it was intended? Yeah, most definitely. If you're expecting gameplay from the previous Wolfenstein games, skip it. If you bought this title expecting that but knowing that wasn't going to be the case then the fault lays on the consumer. But hey, two people had fun playing it. Vote with your wallets or whatever.

Wolfenstein Youngblood is far from the game you are expecting or were hoping for from the franchise, but is it bad? Surprisingly, no. I was very anxious when I initially got the entire modern reboot series on steam, including this one. Its staggeringly offputting "mostly negative" rating made me think that this was going to be an IP destroying flop, only to find out that it actually sold very well and was one of the best selling retail games in the UK and Japan, ever. Not only that, overall, most people hate it for the fact you do not play B.J and its clear people were wanting, earnestly, a true sequel. The virtual reality game, Cyberpilot, got the same treatment. The studio is obviously a bit fatigued with the high value, cinematic, singleplayer games and were also obligated to shift focus on the Doom reboot series, as well as make some gimmick games to keep the IP alive. The VR game and co-op game, this one, are the obvious results of the 'necessary evils' that come with being a major developer in this industry. But Youngblood, even though it does act as a direct continuation of Wolfenstein II, as well as playing into one of the last unexplained story hooks from its conclusion, was never marketed as being the be-all, end-all conclusion of the Wolfenstein trilogy. We know now, that Wolfenstein III is coming and it was not Youngblood. We have no idea if it will be immediately before Youngblood, during or after, but overall, Youngblood is certainly an overhated game for almost no reason. It definitely is a bit grindy, but you can get a remarkably good single player experience on lower difficulties and the co-op AI is actually pretty competent. In the end, I only did a few other side missions besides the necessary ones that assist greatly in the main ones, which still barely brought me past the six hour mark. One extra hour of my playtime exists merely because I had paused a mission and made dinner. All around, this is a game that can be beaten competently in a single sitting session. But it can also, easily, become a dozens or more hour game with the amount of side missions and co-op shenanigans that can be afoot. Honestly, this game does have some story and the cutscenes are sadly, not up to snuff of the series' incredible and well known pre-rendered cutscenes. But overall, the humour is there and seeing what became of some characters, actually is pretty interesting. The gameplay is very un-Wolfenstein like, but honestly it definitely felt more like Old Blood's never ending waves of infantry. A lot of the complaints regarding the gunplay and bullet sponge-enemies exist fully in the base games as well. My biggest complaint (which is still a minimal one) about the Wolfenstein reboot series overall, is that it has some of the best gunplay in any game and it unfortunately devolves into straffing around bullet-sponge enemies with machine guns, which considerably kills the pace and at times, robs you of the momentum we see in the Doom reboots. So while this game is not narratively as strong and B.J's kids, the Terror Twins, are somewhat intolerable at first, it is hard not to like everyone a little tiny bit, if not just because they do grow gradually, just enough, to reveal they do in fact have personalities beyond their archetypes. Honestly, this game is definitely an experiment in minimalism in many factors because it was meant to be played between two people, who are in frequent communication. So, if you come into it as a singleplayer Wolfenstein experience, you may be disappointed, but I think the co op aspect, the way it is meant to be played, is very competent. I like the prep system a lot and I think that even though the gore has been toned down a bit, there is still great satisfaction with how it feels breaking into a Nazi lady's office and then rendering her sunglasses-clad corpse limbless as pools of blood stretch into her personal study. Her dead, Vichy-Fascist Frenchie guardsman being organically reassembled to act as entrail and gib-decorations around her entire flat. The hub movement and some of the mission dynamics reminded me of Homefront: The Revolution, a game that I actually enjoyed a lot that is also overhated. In the end, these games are best bought on sale for cheap and with full awareness of what experience you are walking into. You don't have to do every single little mission, nor should you, the game truly lasts as long as you want it at a certain point. It is interesting to see what decades of German occupation has done to France. Croissants are no longer publicly available, German upper class nobles have guilty pleasures like sushi rolls and of course, every other city block is a cigarette advertisement, a cafe, an exhibition for some major movie and finally, a bavarian pretzel diner. Meanwhile, deep in one of the Brother towers, we see Vichy-fascists continue to eat their croissants in silence. There is a huge potential here for the next game, a Vichy France setting is so unique and unexplored, considering the absolute willingness of the real life, short lived Vichy regime and the fact its own harshness surprised even the Germans, Wolfenstein Youngblood finally indulges us in one of humanity's greatest fantasies, fighting the French. And of course, the French Nazis being wine swigging, turncoat partisans, noble blooded collaborators and generally just terrible people, makes for the gameplay to be entirely guilt free. However, most of the forces you face are still going to be German. Even the Vichy coded troops are speaking German. It almost implies that French itself has been eradicated as the lingua franca, ironically. The hub world is pretty cool, taking place in the Paris Catacombs. The French Resistance is realistically portrayed as a multi-skilled, multi-ideological partisan effort composed of not only those resistance to fascism, but actual communists, including an outright Soviet. This is always something that the reboot series has gotten flak for, the presence of radical leftists and outright, revolutionary socialists among the resistance groups. But this is a hard coded reality of these groups in history. The Nazis had made themselves the sworn enemies of Bolshevikism and had ordained themselves as the vanguards against the "Communist conspiracies" along with a certain other group of politically prevalent individuals. It was only natural that communists and all sorts of leftists, also Christians, rival fascists and rival monarchists, even liberals and reluctant reformers, would align themselves with the distinction of being fascism's eternal enemy, as fascism had already dictated this for them. And honestly, if the politics of the game bother you, why? Rightists and Leftists continuously engage with content made by people who hate and demonize them. Its usually the boneless liberals that get insanely and utterly mad at there being anything related to either extreme of the spectrum, while liberals themselves cannibalize talking points from both. But I suppose it is better than reactionary pouting or socialist sabre rattling. At least those guys have an aesthetic. Wolfenstein Youngblood is pretty good, even as a single player experience, just don't think of it as Wolfenstein III because it isn't and it never claimed to be. Buy it cheap, play it with a friend or otherwise, wait patiently for Wolfenstein III's inevitable great return.

Honestly, this is a pathetic entry into the Wolfenstein series. I don't know who owns the rights to this IP, but they need to get back to work and give us more BJ Blazkowicz and stop messing around.

I genuinely liked the game, solid character and weapon progression / upgrades, once you get the hang of the way to traverse maps and upgrades you'll be golden. Don't take every review as facts, try it for yourself. Edit: Based on Steam's public viewable milestone in-game achievements, only approximately 27.3% of players got far enough in the game to even form a reasonably fair opinion for a review.