Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Wolfenstein: Youngblood moves the series' alternate-history war into 1980, shifting the fight against the Nazi regime from the shoulders of a single hero to those of his two daughters. Jess and Soph Blazkowicz head into occupied Paris to search for their missing father B.J. Blazkowicz, shooting their way through streets, catacombs, and secret labs full of robotic units along the way. The story picks up a year after the events of The New Colossus, at a time when the Nazi regime, despite its defeat in the US, still holds occupied Europe firmly in its grip, and Paris becomes one of the last centers of resistance.

The main new feature is a focus on two-player co-op, whether with a friend online or an AI partner, with both sisters sharing a more open, lightly RPG-flavored structure featuring weapon and armor upgrades, side quests, and a freer path through the city instead of the linear levels the series was known for. The open map of Paris gradually unlocks as the story progresses and is dotted with side objectives, hidden weapon caches, and upgrade stations. Perks, collectibles, and an enemy level system give the game a looter-shooter flavor without losing the characteristic brutality and dark humor of the previous entries. Using collected schematics and money, players upgrade their gear between missions at the base, where they can also choose specific weapon trait modifications, while facing enemies ranging from regular soldiers and attack dogs to massive robotic machines that demand a more tactical approach than sheer firepower.

The game was developed by MachineGames in collaboration with Arkane Studios Lyon, which shows in the detailed rendering of occupied Paris covered in resistance graffiti, as well as in the experimentation with a new structure compared to the straightforward The New Order and The New Colossus. This shift away from linear missions toward a more open structure, along with enemy damage numbers, is among the most-discussed changes that set Youngblood apart from the rest of the series.

Why play it: An ideal choice for a pair of players who want to shoot Nazis together and don't mind a more open, RPG-flavored mission structure instead of a purely linear campaign.