Wolfenstein: Youngblood was one sour batch of sauerkraut. Marinated in a noxious and ill-fitting live-service-adjacent brine, this troubled spin-off (and the mediocre virtual reality title it launched alongside) left a bad taste that has lingered for almost seven years. Developer MachineGames’ adventures with another famous Nazi-killer and increasingly longer AAA development cycles have meant Youngblood’s aftertaste has stuck around longer than it should have.
This drought is reportedly almost over, though, since reports forecast the streets will once again run red with Nazi blood sometime soon in a new Wolfenstein game, further backing up light teases from the MachineGames team itself. There’s a lot riding on Wolfenstein 3: a game that has to meet the moment in more ways than one–and can’t follow in Youngblood’s footsteps.
Wolfenstein: Youngblood is the fourth entry in MachineGames’ alt-history Wolfenstein series and sets the franchise in the 1980s. But instead of controlling longtime series hero B.J. Blazkowicz in a single-player adventure, Youngblood puts players in the power armor of his twin daughters, Jess and Zofia, and, to its downfall, focuses more on co-op and RPG mechanics.
