Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Introduction

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a co-op spinoff from MachineGames and Arkane Studios, published by Bethesda Softworks and released on 25 July 2019 at NZ$34.95, currently 75% off at NZ$8.73. It sends Jess and Soph Blazkowicz, the twin daughters of series hero B.J. Blazkowicz, into occupied Paris in search of their missing father. It sits at 44% positive ("Mixed") across 7,066 English-language Steam reviews. This review read the 100 most-helpful negative reviews of 3,975 total, plus a sample of the 100 most recent English reviews.

A genre shift that never really landed

The dominant complaint in this review's negative sample is structural: Youngblood grafts RPG and looter-shooter systems — enemy level gates, grindable currency, damage numbers — onto a series previously built on straightforward first-person combat. "Why add RPG / looter shooter mechanics into an excellent fps game? Just why?" reads one launch-week review, echoing what this review found was a widely shared sentiment even at release. This review found RPG-related terms in 30 of the 100 negative reviews read, level-gating specifically in 50, and grinding in 25 — and, checking whether the complaint faded with post-launch patches, found it persisting essentially unchanged through

2026. "The direction they went with this installment is absolutely vile. Unnecessary grind padding

so the game is longer than it actually is. Enemies have health bars effectively making them RPG damage sponges," reads a review from June 2026, seven years after launch, making almost the same point as reviews from 2019.

A newer, structural problem this review confirmed independently

Recent sentiment has fallen further than the already-weak lifetime figure, to 33% positive across this review's 100 most recent English reviews. This review traced a specific cause distinct from the RPG-systems complaint: several recent reviews describe the game's Buddy Pass — a feature that historically let a second player join a friend's co-op game for free via a companion trial download — as no longer working, because the trial version it depends on has been delisted. "The Buddy Pass Feature is no longer available for new purchases. The Trial Version, which was mandatory for this feature to work, got recently delisted," reads one August 2026 review. This review checked the claim independently by searching Steam's storefront for the trial and found no result, corroborating that the delisting has genuinely happened rather than taking the claim purely on the reviewer's word. Since the free-Buddy-Pass co-op pitch was one of the game's original selling points, its apparent breakage is a real, structural problem rather than a fixable balance complaint.

Verdict

Wolfenstein: Youngblood remains a functional, occasionally satisfying co-op shooter whose gunplay retains real DNA from the acclaimed mainline series, but its RPG-systems redesign never won over the audience it alienated at launch, and this review found that complaint essentially unchanged seven years later. Layered on top is a newer, independently confirmed problem: the free Buddy Pass that once let you bring a friend along at no cost to them appears to no longer function as designed. Worth a look only at the current deep discount, and best approached with a friend who already owns the full game rather than relying on the advertised free-trial co-op hook.