Bethesda again replaced the main sequel to the Wolfenstein series with a smaller spin-off, this time picking out of William's stories. J. Blazkowicza. In the deeper future, when America is already liberated after Wolfenstein II, Blazkowicz's twins, Soph and Jess, are almost adult, and he and Anja are retired.
But if it was a peaceful retirement and nothing happened, Arkane and Machine Games would have nothing to do about the game. But one day Blazkowicz disappears. No one knows why or where, until his two daughters find traces that will lead them to occupied Paris. This is where the whole game will take place and the place that will now be the playground of two teenagers. Even inexperienced in battle, even if they have it in their blood, and it won't take long for them to turn from their first murder to murderous machines. In Paris in the 1980s, they had a local resistance movement to work for and help with their father.
The story here is not deep, but mainly from the beginning the authors devote enough time to it. Do not expect so much storyline or even a straightforward style of missions as in previous Wolfenstein games, but it will bring you closer to the atmosphere in America and especially in the Blazkowicz family, on which the story will focus. It's not going to be as focused on war and progress in it as in standard games. The twins have different goals - to find their father while having fun
The game is primarily cooperative, but you can also play solo, where you choose and set up one of two sisters and the other will automatically control AI. He behaves decently, trying not to spoil your progress system and helping you where you can. At the same time, it is noticeably stronger than you, sometimes cheating and moving where you need it. Especially at levers and devices where you have to work together, they suddenly appear. This makes the game easier. If you play two and one gets tangled somewhere, you have to wait for it on such devices. The important thing is that when your character is hurt, just call AI and run to help you. Of course, you can never die both at once or in a cooperative game. Sometimes you can still use extra life, but if you don't have it, you will restart the site with the mission from the beginning. You need to be careful about it, sometimes it's ten minutes of fighting. A nice element is to encourage your co-operation partner with a gesture that adds 50 health points.
You will get to know Paris from its underground where the resistance is located. It is similar to the submarine in Wolfenstein II, but here is a more sensible design and clarity, as well as a system of missions. Thus, the mission system is adapted to a less story-based game. Underground characters will give you both major and side missions and everything without any story scenes or long speeches. You will always be able to collect a few and then use the map of the city to select and fight in each site. There are only a dozen sites, but they are more open with the fact that they gradually open more and more. There will be not only one mission in each, but tens of different goals. The stories will be more focused on a larger goal, the side will be easier, you will have to find and get something. Sometimes they will also take place in several locations across the city, where you have to solve something in each and only then you will get the final goal. Expect to return to the subway corridors every time you go on a mission. It's often quite annoying to do backtracking and roam levels back. And it is especially useless.
The missions themselves are now leveled, and so is the character, you have to increase the power of weapons and also unlock new skills. These are RPG elements that add depth to the game. For the coins collected in the levels you will be able to buy new weapons accessories, while improving the individual parts. Each section will affect accuracy, charge rate, stability and other parameters. You have a variety of weapons and you can improve each one, plus add a skin. In addition to this, as you level up, you earn points in abilities to upgrade your character and her talents in different areas. You are getting stronger and more efficient.
Due to character leveling and mission levels, you'll also need to complete side missions to go to the main and continue the story. So you can go to them any time, but the enemies will be too strong. Playing side missions, however, did not seem to me a problem, as the gameplay and action itself is fun. From basic soldiers, through various armored and special soldiers with flamethrowers, lasers to armored dogs and larger mechanical colossi. Fortunately, you have enough weapons, you can also collect ammunition, stationary machine guns and lasers will also help. But if you wouldn't like to shoot your enemies all the time, this open level design has the advantage that you can avoid fighting if you don't explicitly want to solve anything. You can steal with invisibility or do it without it and go straight to the part of the level where your mission is. There's a real fight. You can play some areas of stealth and try to kill quietly in part, but it's not explicitly designed for a subtle style.
Not missing demanding enemies, who have tons of armor and always above them in addition to the energy marked and level, thickness of armor and what type of weapon you can most effectively destroy. When you get into it, you will be able to destroy them very effectively. Just watch the level, two levels above yours you may have a problem, especially if there are more enemies. Sometimes more demanding bosses appear, mostly in super suits or super guns, and you sweat more.
As for the time of the main story, in 10 hours you have gone through it all with all the missions and side missions. According to the authors, it should take about 30 hours right in the levels. Plus, apparently more content and missions will be added as it is a design that is built directly on it. In addition, you will also find a character in the headquarters who already has daily, weekly and monthly tasks, where there is always a different condition of killing or a target for which you get a bonus.
Visually the game is impressive, the id Tech 6 engine shows that it can still capture the spectacular Paris environment. Maybe the details aren't the best, but the overall scenes look unique. Also, there is still the problem of slower recording of better quality textures, which are sometimes visible in the environment, but especially with details during weapon upgrades. It does not matter too much, but to see that the engine still has a problem in these areas. At the same time the textures are not as good as they could be today. To do this, wait a long loading when entering the levels. Surprisingly long for today.
However, the authors nicely optimized the game, added a number of graphics quality settings and you can really play with it. There is also detailed monitoring of the load. On the GTX 970 the game does not have a problem of 60 fps at high settings, and even ultra is not a problem between 30-60, although there already reminds that it does not have enough memory for the parameters.
One more interesting technical thing, when playing online, you must join Bethesda.net's account where Bethesda stores the characters you create online. This is to avoid having to rely on Steam to work on every store and to keep your characters in mind, while avoiding the crossplatform game in the future. Another pity that the game does not offer split screen mode despite cooperation. On the other hand, the positive thing is that if you have the Deluxe Edition, you only need one cooperation game, thanks to Buddy Pass you can share it with a friend. You don't have to play with just one friend, but always with another friend.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood is an interesting spin-off, where the authors tried out new possible directions for the next series. They hit nicely with the new elements, adding as a collaboration that is well managed even when playing solo with AI, as well as RPG elements that enrich the game very well and add depth to it (which we will probably see in other Wolfenstein). Of course, this is at the cost of a small story that the authors have not tried very hard, but it is still enough to show you where and what you are fighting for. Just wait for the focus on the family and not the war as such. This is the area of old Mr. Blazkowicz. The game with a smaller story is not for every Wolfenstein series fan, but everyone will enjoy the action.
