Nearly two decades after tracking down and eliminating General Frau Engel in Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, B.J. Blazkowicz is still fighting to exterminate the remaining Nazi forces over in France; but, his whereabouts are unknown. This is our official review of Wolfenstein Youngblood that will cover what to expect in the game-play to other key points to the game…
Meet the Blazkowicz Twins…
Starting out as natural-born Nazi killers in training, Soph and Jess Blazkowicz are not just typical teenagers that pick up character traits like their old man and his fighting ways; but, they are considered “Terror Twins” that are equally destructive to any Nazi who chooses to get in their way.
Trained by both Anya and B.J. on not only how to defend and go on the offense against a sizable Nazi force, the twins are forced to put their training to the test on finding their father behind enemy lines while also putting the pieces together of a new secret uncovered beyond the walls of Lab X where the Nazi’s are secretly working on something that would threaten mankind around the world.
To put it, the Blazkowicz Twins could be the next generation fighting force to defend and liberate more countries around the globe from the Nazi stronghold just like their parents have accomplished the past 40 years since the end of World War II…the Twins would keep it running in the family (despite their parents eventually retiring) to fight for freedom and fighting back against any other Nazi’s with the help of a local Resistance movement in preventing the potential for a Fourth Reich and another wave at destroying the World.
Uncovering More Secrets – Wolfenstein Youngblood Gameplay
Wolfenstein: Youngblood keeps the same first-person field of view interface as Wolfenstein: The New Colossus while there are some slight changes to the game-play from the previous game.
The first change not found in Wolfenstein: The New Colossus that is in Youngblood is that this game is played co-op style whether you and friend play through the main campaign together or play solo with an AI partner…who wouldn’t want double firepower over the Nazi’s or even pulling the strategy of causing a distraction when in combat.
The problem with having a partner is that your partner can get into some trouble to the point they are down and bleeding out…this is where you will be forced to fight through any Nazi’s guarding your downed partner to reviving them (it’s easy to be taken down on the Challenging difficulty…just be mindful of using cover).
From the start of playing Wolfenstein Youngblood, you have a choice of a perk that you would want to your advantage…these include a cloak ability that would be helpful if looking to bypass a
The sisters can gain extra lives by opening Shared Life Crates as pictured here
number of enemies stealthy or the crush ability if you don’t mind running through some Nazi’s that never have experienced a defensive tackle similar to getting thrown through a wall by a 300 lb. football player.
On the same subject with the perks in the game, the health and life support system in Wolfenstein: Youngblood has some slight changes where if you or your co-op partner bleed out and dies then it will not restart the game from the previous save point/checkpoint as before.
Instead, Soph and Jess will have 3 lives to spend with each life being spent when either bleed out at which point the downed sister would be revived automatically.
To prevent a life from being lost, each player has between 30 to 45 seconds to fight through any guarding Nazi’s nearby the downed partner and revive the partner to save a life.
When and if you find yourself down, your partner is put in the same position to get to you before you lose a life…just remember to try to stop the bleeding before the timer runs out.
General Lothar is one of the main antagonists found in Wolfenstein: Youngblood
To add on an extra life, a “shared life” box can be found through different areas around each location in Paris which can be opened only with both sisters present at the box.
Another change found comes within the perk system where weapon upgrades, attachments, boosters, and improvements to your character. These upgrades can be redeemed by finding silver coins/coin cache crates…the upgrades would be needed as always to defeat tougher and heavily armored enemies as the game progresses.
Going further into the game-play of Wolfenstein: Youngblood, there are possibilities of having optional or opportunity objectives like to plant a bug/microphone on a phone or finding certain documents to gain an XP award and some bonus silver coins (completing these opportunity objectives will not count towards 100% completion of the game).
When looking at the campaign in whole, there is not much of a campaign with the main priority being finding out where B.J. Blazkowicz is held up at while a majority of the game is made of side ops or side missions that take smaller chunks of dismantling the Nazi army around Paris.
Decoding & Concept Art – Youngblood Collectibles
The changes to the collectibles are somewhat different from The New Colossus with the first collectible change being with the concept art which can only be located through the floppy disks that would provide location within each area on the map as well as key-codes to the crates they are located in.
In addition to uncovering codes on the Floppy Disks, the floppy disks may uncover other collectibles such as secret weapon schematics to hints on hiding spots where you could find some of the collectibles.
UVK covers are another type of collectible brand new brought into Wolfenstein: Youngblood that are basically German movie classics from the 1940’s to the 1970’s that can only be played through a UVK cassette player (sorry can’t watch any of the movies). There are 25 of these scattered across Paris!
If looking to find a 3D model physically, then it won’t be possibly since the only way to find something 3D in this game is through a pair of 3D glasses (the same glasses with the red and blue lenses given out to watch a 3D movie back in 1980’s).
Finding a pair of 3D glasses will unlock and uncover a model of an object, weapon, or one of the characters featured in the game. The 3D glasses make up the majority of the collectibles with 72 to be found.
Finally, there are some readables (not really collectibles in any of the Wolfenstein games especially this game) in the form of letters, notes, and newspaper articles that can also be found around Paris to offer more hints into the backstory of the game, history before the current events in Youngblood, and general communication intel from two or more Nazi personnel. Finding all of the readables still counts towards 100% completion.
Personal Views about Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Wolfenstein: Youngblood is just like Wolfenstein: The Old Blood as an average spin-off to get prepared for the next upcoming chapter in the Wolfenstein series.
There are no interesting moments in the game, just the matter in this case of the Blazkowicz Twins finding their dad in the middle of Paris.
The game in whole is drowned out with side missions; but, Wolfenstein: Youngblood gives a preview of what to expect as Wolfenstein 3 closes in on it’s release date either sometime in 2020 or beyond.
