Wolfenstein Youngblood’s 15-hour long quest did not impress. While it had all the basic elements of action and a storyline, the game lacked compelling characters and satisfying free-range gameplay. 

Wolfenstein Youngbloods is one of many games based in a world still ravaged by World War Two. The game follows the two twin protagonists Zofia (voiced by Shelbey Young) and Less (voiced by Valerie Rose) as they struggle against the oppressive Nazi regime.

Set up to be action-packed and wildly entertaining, I expected the storyline to have a captivating backstory from its predecessors. Despite plenty of build-up for the stories of the twins, their actual prominence in the plot was sorely lacking. They had the bland, predictable, and simplistic roles you would see in other game characters, and their character development was both minimal and uninteresting. This was particularly disappointing, as their characters could have been genre-defining, especially because they had a rich backstory cultivated by the previous Wolfenstein games.

The gameplay is satisfactory but could use improvement. One of the main features of the gameplay that I found especially annoying was the reviving system. While your teammates can revive your character, the revive mechanism is not unlimited and your character will eventually die and respond at the last checkpoint. This is bothersome, as it can take around fifteen minutes to get back to the point in the quest that you were at previously. The game respawns the character with minimal ammo, and the checkpoint system places respawn points too far apart. 

That said, I enjoyed the multiplayer mode of the game, which allows the player to invite a friend (who would play as the other twin) to assist with missions. This was a helpful feature and would aid the player in completing, tough missions. Furthermore, whatever progress you and your friend made is saved as your solo campaign.

Regardless, Wolfenstein: Youngbloods is a first-person experience that doesn’t quite measure up to the previous Wolfenstein installments. Barring some of its gameplay and storyline issues, it’s still a tolerable way to pass time with friends. I would rate this game a six out of ten.