The rebooted Wolfenstein franchise is easily one of my favorite FPS games of the last few years, mainly due to their mix of tight and fun FPS gameplay with a compelling plot, world, and characters. They managed to create an absolutely insane alternate reality in which the Nazi's won WWII, and thus took over the world. Throughout the first two games you played as BJ Blazkowicz as he leads a group of resistance fighters towards victory, no matter how hard or impossible it seems.
I'm just rambling on with how much I love the story of these games, but it shows how excited I was for this new game, though I was worried about a few things. The fact that the game was only $30 suggested that maybe it won't be as story driven (like Far Cry New Dawn,) also the focus on multiplayer worried me, seeing as I definitely don't play with anyone when I play games. Still, I held on to cautious excitement as the game came out.
Looking back at the previous Wolfenstein games, especially New Colossus, Youngblood definitely adapted the absurdity of the world within the game, as well as tight, action packed, and fun as hell FPS gameplay. At no point throughout this game was it not a blast to play.. killing Nazis in video games is always a blast.
That being said, it's absolutely clear that this game was meant to play with another person, especially before the latest patch. This game is next to impossible without another person. The enemies are bullet sponges, and in general hard as hell to kill. Don't get me started on the boss battles, I shouldn't be dying over and over again at the beginning of the game. And this is coming from somebody who frequently plays FPS games, it was absolutely absurd, I had to stop playing until the new patch came out. None of this helps with the absolutely ridiculous checkpoint system, if you die at all during a mission, no matter where you are, boom.. back to the start.
But most importantly, for me personally, the story was NOT up to par with Wolfenstein. I absolutely loved the Blazkowicz sisters, they were funny, charismatic, and just a blast to play as. The story itself sounded great on paper, their dad is missing in Nazi infested Paris, and they drop in to rescue him. How could it be bad? In all honestly, it wasn't that bad, but it was incredibly half baked. I feel like half the game was actual story, and the other half was fetch quests in repetitive maps. There was not enough care and attention payed to the story, it felt rushed, and that was incredibly disappointing.
So, to wrap it up, there were elements of this game that I enjoyed. It had the action packed gameplay of the past games, but in the core of the game, it just didn't do it for me.