Xbox One Review: Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Can the Blazkowicz twins do better than their dad?

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a brand-new co-op experience from MachineGames, the award-winning studio that developed the critically acclaimed Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Set in 1980, 19 years after BJ Blazkowicz ignited the second American Revolution, Wolfenstein: Youngblood introduces the next Blazkowicz generation to the fight against the Nazis. Play as one of BJ’s twin daughters, Jess and Soph, as you search for your missing father in Nazi-occupied Paris.

Youngblood is your typical FPS but it allows you to either play with an AI companion or online. When I first started playing, I started offline but was shocked to find that you can’t actually pause the game, which got me caught out when following guides for the many collectibles scattered throughout the levels, but I did see some upcoming patch notes to see that being able to pause is being implemented, as well as other fixes and it’ll be apparently easier to obtain 100%, something that was a problem for even the most achievement hungry gamer.

In terms of a shooter, Youngblood follows the standard Wolfenstein pattern and does it well. Having a co-op partner does help and the idea works for the most part, but it somewhat lacks the charm of the past games. I think that has something to do with having two different teams develop the game, even though both teams (MachineGames and Arkane Studios, respectively) have done great things before, it doesn’t quite match the quality of the past Wolfenstein games. I think it’s a case of too many cooks spoil the broth, but that’s not to say that the game isn’t fun regardless.

Visually, Youngblood looks great in 4K and runs smoothly throughout. The levels are nicely designed and the character models are well animated and detailed. The story is a bit of a mixed bag overall, which doesn’t help with both Jess and Soph being irritating and cringy.

The Verdict

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a good idea on paper, but it sadly doesn’t live upto the past games and has a mixed bag for a story and characters. It is still fun to shoot Nazis though and even a mixed Wolfenstein game is still enjoyable overall.

Score: 8.0