Unpopular opinion: Young Blood is actually a very good game

Hi all,

These last weeks, I played the The New Order, Old Blood and The New Colossus. As expected, I had a lot of fun. They are amazing games, and, fortunately, generally recognized as such. But when Young Blood's turn came, I was really unsure if buying it was worth it. More of Wolfenstein gameplay was very appealing, but it has so many negative reviews! It's user score on steam is 43%, 2.6 on Metacritic and almost all videos on YouTube claim it is terrible. Now that I have finished it, I don't understand these reviews. I loved it. I can strongly recommend it.

It's not bad, it's just a bit different, and very much still Wolfenstein. The gunplay is awesome! Unlike what is often said, enemies are not bullet sponges, you just have to use the correct weapon type. Eternal uses the same gameplay and nobody says it's terrible. Enemy levels can just safely be ignored as they scale as you do. Big robots and heavy armored soldiers are indeed harder, but that's exactly like the other titles.

Maps are so well designed! You have lots of options in how to manage a fight and lots of different paths. They are not even repetitive as missions only ask you to explore one part of a map at a time. Streets are big open spaces full of different interconnected areas, sewers are claustrophobic mazes and forteresses are challenging arenas.

Even the companion AI is not as bad as people say. I was really worried about that because I played solo. I was fearing the AI would be annoying. Actually, it was as I wanted it: out of my way. Reviews say it get killed often but it happened only a few times on my play-through.

Sure, it is not a story-rich linear FPS like the others, it's an open-world story-light FPS. But it doesn't mean it's bad. It's actually very good if you accept it as it is.

To improve your experience, here is a small list of spoiler-free tips you should know before playing:

1. Don't try to fully explore the maps at once. Just explore the area you need for the mission. It avoids the repetitive feeling.
2. Don't rush on the main missions. Take the time to do side quests.
3. KraftWreck weapons are located in the beginning of each Bruder areas. Go there early to grab them but leave as soon as you get them. You'll do the main missions later.
4. Invest skill points and weapon upgrades wisely. Carrying heavy weapons in your inventory (and being able to upgrade them) is a must have! You want to the fully upgraded Uberhammer.
5. In the menu you can buy other gestures that the one you selected at character creation. Some of them are way better than others: especially equipping one sister with full armor restoration and the other with full heath restoration.

I agree, me and my sister had a lot of fun playing this online. Together, we beat the entire game. It's meant to be played online with a partner and that makes it very fun

i feel like when people hate on youngblood they’re mostly talking about the writing and the characters

I bounced off this recently. I play games solo, so am not interested in buddying up with someone. As a consequence, I expect to be able to pick up and put down my games. The lack of an ability to save utterly killed my ability to play the game in short bursts like I've done with TOB/TNO/TNC.

It didn't _seem_ too bad in terms of first impressions when I was playing; ideally I'd like to get through it, but the third time I had to restart the level because I'd put my Steam Deck down and YB didn't like it, I quit and started playing something else.

I’d of been fine with Youngblood if it wasn’t so short and didn’t depreciate what makes the prior three games so fun.

I get they wanted to make it an RPG, but I hate bullet spongey enemies and level gating. Shoulda done away with that system entirely.

Have to know that the release version was way worse than what you just played. They patched 2 years to the state it is now. People were very pissed at launch and with that mood they wrote their reviews. Same with ratings from magazines etc. Usually a game is defined by its state at launch. Had technical difficulties, ai was worse, enemies were frustrating…you couldn’t even pause the game in offline mode at start.

Some enemies ARE bullet sponges, even when shooting them with the "correct" ammo type. If you dunk 3 to 4 magazines on an enemy in the very first level, then that is literally the definition of bullet sponge.

And no, Eternal's wasn't the same at all. Every enemy could still be comfortably killed with every weapon. What separates the two games is that one forces you to move, to be skillful and in the other you just comfortably stand still, dumping magazine after magazine.

I've got it but haven't played it yet. If I like it, I will take back everything I said negative about it. The personality of the daughters didn't sit right with me in the trailers and I thought the leveled enemies was a baffling decision for Wolfenstein. However, I saw a clipbwith BJ and that did actually feel like Wolfenstein.

I hated the fact that you couldn't recharge the kraftwerks at all, didn't mind the upgrade system but highly disappointed that there was no way to make the shotgun automatic,and it's pathetic reserve ammo capacity

J'ai apprécié youngblood, j'ai pas trop aimé old blood bien qu'il y avait des passages trippants

My favourite part was where the client player would be doing something like double damage all the time

Now how do you bollocks that up?

This is why I often describe it as a decent game where you can have some fun, especially if you enjoy co-op, but it is however a bad Wolfenstein game.

I took that into account. The steam ratings for the period between January 2022 and today is 39%, which is even worse than the global 43%. Recent video reviews on YouTube are also almost uniformly staying the game is terrible.

At launch, these poor reviews were probably deserved, I can't tell, but even in its current state, it is constantly bashed which is unfair. It is today way way better than what current reviews claim.

When did you play it? The shotgun can be made automatic now. While there is no kaftwreck refillers like in TNC, there is still plenty of ammo everywhere. Almost every crate or door that need a kraftwreck to be opened have ammo for some kraftwreck.

which attachment? ig it can be made automatic but still fires slowly unlike 2's shotgun with rotor attachment, also I liked kraftwerks because they felt super satisfying to play with but im youngblood you can't use them to their full potential