Wolfenstein: Youngblood E3 2019 Hands-on Preview

Wolfenstein Youngblood has a lot to prove to win back my trust after the disappointment that was Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

I, for the life of me, could not figure out how a studio which made one of the best shooters of the console generation was able to miss the mark so much when it came to its sequel.

One of the aspects that I enjoy is that it feels like each character has certain abilities that they can use to buff their partner. While I was knee-deep in Nazi guts, I had the ability to give my partner and I an armor buff that I practically mashed to keep us alive.

There were also enemies that we were practically required to work together to take down. Larger enemies with flamethrowers attached to their arms would do a massive amount of damage if we attacked them head-on.

So, we worked together to have one of us distract them while the other ran up from behind and unloaded our shotguns into its back, then we’d swap around. Without much thought, we were able to become a cohesive and efficient team, taking out entire groups of Nazis without a hassle.

Youngblood feels very arcadey in comparison to the previous titles, enemies have health and armor bars that you can see when you are targeting them and if they have armor, they feel like a bit of a bullet sponge, which at times felt annoying.

However, as you kill more enemies and accomplish objectives through the story, you will gain experience and levels that you can use to upgrade yourself just like in the previous games. So hopefully, there never will be an enemy outside of a boss fight that feels like it is too long.

I hope that Wolfenstein continues down this path of arcade style shooter without going overboard. If they can find that happy medium that MachineGames hit with Wolfenstein The New Order again, I will be extremely happy.

I was ready to assume that Wolfenstein may be done as a series unless some major overhauls were put into the sequel and luckily it feels like I may be getting my wish, because Wolfenstein Youngblood is pretty damn awesome.

For the first time, Wolfenstein will be completely playable in co-op and it clearly feels like the game was designed exactly for that, from small puzzles that require both players to enemies that need to be tag teamed to be taken down.

The developers have built this game with the core mechanics of the new Wolfenstein games and tweaked them to fit two players. Me and the stranger that I paired up with worked together to bring down the Nazi scumbags together, using positioning, tactics, and teamwork.

It was a blast to return to the game to the gameplay style that I missed so much from The New Order and The Old Blood.

While I was eager to play the game before, as some one has played every Wolfenstein so far, I am now no longer worried that we will see a repeat of the last time.

I think it is awesome to see BJ’s daughters as the new protagonists of this game, their simple interactions help to really flesh out their characters from the short demo that I experienced.

I hope that this is a sign of good things to come and I can not wait until Wolfenstein: Youngblood releases next month.