The moment you start your first mission in Youngblood, you will realise a lot has changed. The most obvious being that you are no longer the sole protagonist, but one-half of the twin Blazkowicz sisters, while the other half will be controlled by the CPU or, preferably, your co-op partner. Hence you get the idea, that it is a co-op game, the very first of its kind in the Wolfenstein franchise. The core gameplay is still a fast-paced, all guns blazing, gory Nazi shooter with more weapons that you are comfortable knowing you are carrying, but the introduction of a partner changes things up considerably. You will be fighting a lot in open spaces where both you and your partner will get adequate verticality in the combat because the Exo suit you are seen wearing all the time functions best in open spaces. Extreme high jumps, sprints and slides, lateral evades work seamlessly with the gunplay when you have enough space to exploit. As you will realise eventually the girls are not physically built like a tank much like their father, they cannot dual wield large weapons, the addition of these Exo suit capabilities make up for the difference in combat and makes it very exciting. The next thing you will notice is the progression system. Although you still a base of operation like the previous two games, it feels much more like an RPG this time around. There are plenty of side missions to do in between the very few main missions available in the story, and they will take up most of the time. Although called side missions they are very much entwined with the story of the game as a whole, encouraging you to go the extra distance travelling back to places you have already visited to help the conditions of the local people or to gather useful information for the fight against Nazis. But the main reason you will be invested in these missions is that they will provide you with useful EXP points, which will level up your character, give you point to spend on active or passive abilities and coins to spend on upgrading your suit and weapons. All this must sound too much for a Wolfenstein game, which was thus far about normal men with normal abilities having big weapons. But the world has changed, so have the rules of combat.
Enemies now have armour types, which can be damaged by different ammunition found in different weapons. This will make you switch up the weapons and not stick to your favourite one for most of the game. This enables very fast-paced combat as later on in the game you will face hordes of reinforcements with different types of enemies where you will have to find cover, switch up your weapons and continue to fight. Upgrading your guns also become important now as the enemies will get better as the game progresses, forcing you to up your game as well. The only difference is that you won't have to search for upgrades in the levels, they will be made available to you once you have sufficient coins to spend. The weapons can also be upgraded in various ways, bettering one of 5-6 different stats which makes up for a good time spent thinking about how to customise your weapon to suit your playing style. Whether to go for maximum damage, or having more magazines to last you the battle, or have more DPS to quicken combat. This additional depth to the game enriches the experience without taking away too much from the core FPS experience. Adding further customisation to the gameplay is the use of signals by each of the characters to boost health, armour or damage inflicted for a small period of time for both the sisters. These additions to the game only make it better as it preserves its core identity as a fast-paced shooter with plenty of blood, gore, explosions and flying mechanical parts.
But it's not a game without faults. Even after almost a year of its release it still has bugs which freeze the game, levels where you can fall to your death if you aren't careful enough, and occasional contact-problems where your rush ability might not be properly executed, and instead of sending your foe flying you might find yourself standing face to face with him on a standstill. Outside gameplay, the story lacks the punch and seriousness present in the previous games as the revolution is well underway and now it is merely about taking small steps towards independence. It lacks the vociferousness of the previous titles, and the lighter younger tone might not sit well with hardcore fans of the series. Yet it is that which gives it a new identity. This game shows how younger, newer characters can still drive a story of this magnitude and importance to the game world, by showing adequate growth during the span of the game, while retaining the signature violent combat made popular by its previous generation.
It is very much a story for the newer generation, of the newer generation following an excellent trail laid down by its forefathers, changing only for the better, yet let down by some of its execution.