Before the game came out and before I got a review key, Youngblood wasn't really on the top of my list of "to-play games". While I enjoyed both The New Order back in 2014 and its stand-alone expansion The Old Blood, the proper sequel - The New Colossus - was, to me, an underwhewlming experience with not a very memorable story and at times horrid level design. For those reason, and some others, I didn't took much interest in Youngblood. And perhaps that's the reason why I find it so incredible in the end.

The new characters of Jessie and Zofia Blazkowicz might not be nearly as iconic as B.J. Blazkowicz himself, but they really fit the the new approach the game took in terms of its basic story telling. Instead of number of well done cut-scenes throughout the game telling the story of Blazkowicz's Nazi-kiling adventure, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, instead, focuses primarily on the gameplay, with its story being told through on-the-move dialogues and banter between the sisters.

Because of that, the game kind of feels fluid and as if you were to never really stop. That is even more apparent when you take in the fact that the two sisters always kill together. Whether you're playing solo and with a competent AI partner or coop with a real player, you're never alone, the game is twice as fast, twice as fast and there's twice as many dead enemies. Which, of course, is excellent.

The level design, which I REALLY didn't like in The New Colossus, has also been 'fixed' and massively improved. With the help of Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Prey), the game's various open-ended locations feature much more ways to approach any and each part of the level and is also much more vertical. While that might scream that stealth is now finally a viable option - especially considering the new cheesy cloak ability - it's sadly not and sooner or later, everything goes back to the mindless-Nazi-killing status quo we know, and, arguably, love.

Of course, not everything is perfect in Wolfenstein: Youngblood and I'd really love if the game was generally longer (playing throug the main storyline takes up about 8 hours), the story was more interesting, the enemies weren't nearly as dumb as they are and there were some tweaks to the new 'enemy armor' mechanic. You see, every enemy in the game now has either a light armor, or a heavy armor. Meanwhile, each of your weapons is either useful againts one or the other type. Shotgun is capable of pretty much ignoring the light armor and just destroy hordes of smaller humanoid enemies, while your assault rifle is more effective againts the harder armor worn by bigger enemies and robots. On paper, and partially in practice, it's a mechanic I really like and enjoy, giving the combat a bit more depth and forcing players to think and change weapons accordingly. The problem is, changing weapons isn't very fast (hurting the tempo of the fights as some deaf moments appear when changing weapons and you're forced to endure the enemy fire without the option to defend yourself) and not nearly as intuitive in the heat of batle.

Although it's kind of a nitpick, really, it does eventually wear the excitement down, and once you learn to change the weapons almost automatically, the combat starts to feel same-y and it goes back to status quo once again.

Through and through, Wolfenstein: Youngblood is, especially for its price, what I'd consider an excellent summer time-killer with mindless action and a little bit of story and lore sprinkled around. Fans of the new Wolfenstein series should love this, but you should not expect any kind of revolution, innovation or modernization.

Before the game came out and before I got a review key, Youngblood wasn't really on the top of my list of "to-play games". While I enjoyed both The New Order back in 2014 and its stand-alone expansion The Old Blood, the proper sequel - The New Colossus - was, to me, an underwhewlming experience with not a very memorable story and at times horrid level design. For those reason, and some others, I didn't took much interest in Youngblood. And perhaps that's the reason why I find it so incredible in the end. The new characters of Jessie and Zofia Blazkowicz might not be nearly as iconic as B.J. Blazkowicz himself, but they really fit the the new approach the game took in terms of its basic story telling. Instead of number of well done cut-scenes throughout the game telling the story of Blazkowicz's Nazi-kiling adventure, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, instead, focuses primarily on the gameplay, with its story being told through on-the-move dialogues and banter between the sisters. Because of that, the game kind of feels fluid and as if you were to never really stop. That is even more apparent when you take in the fact that the two sisters always kill together. Whether you're playing solo and with a competent AI partner or coop with a real player, you're never alone, the game is twice as fast, twice as fast and there's twice as many dead enemies. Which, of course, is excellent. The level design, which I REALLY didn't like in The New Colossus, has also been 'fixed' and massively improved. With the help of Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Prey), the game's various open-ended locations feature much more ways to approach any and each part of the level and is also much more vertical. While that might scream that stealth is now finally a viable option - especially considering the new cheesy cloak ability - it's sadly not and sooner or later, everything goes back to the mindless-Nazi-killing status quo we know, and, arguably, love. Of course, not everything is perfect in Wolfenstein: Youngblood and I'd really love if the game was generally longer (playing throug the main storyline takes up about 8 hours), the story was more interesting, the enemies weren't nearly as dumb as they are and there were some tweaks to the new 'enemy armor' mechanic. You see, every enemy in the game now has either a light armor, or a heavy armor. Meanwhile, each of your weapons is either useful againts one or the other type. Shotgun is capable of pretty much ignoring the light armor and just destroy hordes of smaller humanoid enemies, while your assault rifle is more effective againts the harder armor worn by bigger enemies and robots. On paper, and partially in practice, it's a mechanic I really like and enjoy, giving the combat a bit more depth and forcing players to think and change weapons accordingly. The problem is, changing weapons isn't very fast (hurting the tempo of the fights as some deaf moments appear when changing weapons and you're forced to endure the enemy fire without the option to defend yourself) and not nearly as intuitive in the heat of batle. Although it's kind of a nitpick, really, it does eventually wear the excitement down, and once you learn to change the weapons almost automatically, the combat starts to feel same-y and it goes back to status quo once again. Through and through, Wolfenstein: Youngblood is, especially for its price, what I'd consider an excellent summer time-killer with mindless action and a little bit of story and lore sprinkled around. Fans of the new Wolfenstein series should love this, but you should not expect any kind of revolution, innovation or modernization.