Ranking All Games Published By Bethesda Softworks From Worst To Best

For MachineGame's reboot of the Wolfenstein franchise, Bethesda put no obligatory online mandates for either of the recent installments, which is uncalled for in the FPS genre at present.

So the idea to do a full co-op spin-off was intriguing... and a little different.

At first glance, Youngblood looks and feels like a modern Wolfenstein game, with the retro-tech Nazis, the heavy pulp cinema influence, and breakneck shooting action... but the co-op is not the only new addition, the structure is also weirdly shoehorned into RPG territory.

Enemies display energy meters and varying levels of toughness depending on your stats. Also (in collaboration with Arkane Studios) the levels take on a semi-open world layout, with a layered labyrinth sprawl, instead of the straight forward face-offs.

The shake-ups are not bad, but just feel a little odd... and maybe unnecessary, as they distract from the main appeal of these games: the tense and exhilarating action. It doesn't help that the new protagonists are basically female variations of Beavis and Butthead, making B.J Blazkowicz missed.

Regardless of this though, if die-hard fans can tolerate the few changes, this is a blast to play in co-op with a buddy, but it would've been better, and likely, more embraced, if they had made it in a more traditional manner.