Wolfenstein: Youngblood has been out for a few weeks now, and, following in the footsteps of 2017's The New Colossus, it's proven to be controversial, to say the least. However, while the former game drew ire for its handling of extreme, adverse political themes, the latter suffered for being a buggy, co-op focused looter shooter in a series known for none of these elements.
That's not to say Youngblood is all bad; it does highlight more than a few interesting ideas, and the shooting and basic world exploration is still entertaining. In fact, here are things you may not have known you could do in Wolfenstein: Youngblood.
10 Use Both Cloak and Crush
When initially setting up their characters, players will be asked to make a few aesthetic choices and decide on one of two special abilities: cloak and crush. Cloak enables Jess or Soph to crouch down and become invisible for a brief period, while crush can be used offensively to stun enemies, but it can also access certain otherwise-unreachable areas.
While the game makes it seem like it's one or the other, you can actually equipt both abilities fairly early on in the game. Whichever ability you didn't choose to start with can be unlocked and upgraded in the character tab in the journal.
9 Rely On Melee
Just about every big-budget FPS game these days introduces the melee mechanic by having the player stalk up to their backside and take them down. This is quite literally the first thing Wolfenstein: Youngblood does once the introductory cinematic has concluded, though it doesn't emphasize just how powerful the melee attack can be in this game.
Most human enemies can be taken down in one to two hits in Youngblood, and, in most cases, melee can be even more effective than a shotgun at close range. This was likely implemented to make the stealth option seem more viable, but it almost comes off as broken in some cases, especially during the first few missions.
8 Complete Weekly Challenges
The game doesn't seem interested in bringing this up, but players can return to the catacombs in between missions and visit Abby, the girls' clichéd nerdy hacker friend. Though she mostly sticks around to advance the plot in some cutscenes, she offers up a few daily and weekly challenges for Jess and Soph to take on.
This mostly revolves around killing a certain amount of enemies, using certain weapons, or using certain abilities. Though they aren't particularly interesting or varied and feel slightly shoehorned in to keep up with trends, they do offer XP and in-game currency for players to spend on enhancements and new weapon configurations.
7 Rock Out
This has been a staple of the new Wolfenstein games, but players can actually listen to some of the cassette tape collectibles they pick up along the way. That's right, while they may seem like totally innocuous busywork for obsessed completionists, they can actually be played when viewed in the journal.
They're all weird, dystopian German versions of famous real-world pop and rock songs, and it's super interesting to listen to these tracks and wonder just how differently world events would have played out had the Nazis maintained their occupation of Europe into the 1980s. It's a neat bit of world-building that you don't get with every game.
6 Sisterly Love
The game never goes to much trouble when it comes to explaining the nuances of the co-op mechanics, but the Pep system by which the two sisters can offer each other temporary boosts and stat upgrades has a range. Wander too far from each other, and you and your partner won't be able to gain additional health and armor alongside some gnarly 80s dance moves.
Buy the Sisterly love upgrade, however, and you can double the required distance. Though it was implemented to encourage cooperative play, these limitations are annoying, and players may want to quickly earn enough silver to buy this perk and lessen the limitations of the system.
5 Play With Anyone
As previously mentioned, Wolfenstein: Youngblood wasn't particularly well-received, and this could make coming up with a co-op buddy especially difficult. However, for those who don't want to have to rely on some internet random, it's possible to drag a friend into the action without forcing them to buy the game.
Unfortunately, this requires the deluxe version of the game, which obviously not everyone owns. Still, those who do need only convince their friends to download the game's demo, and from there they can be invited to the full experience via the buddy pass. It may be a little convoluted, but it's a nice option for those who desperately want to play with someone other than the AFK dude with the slightly offensive username.
4 Totally Avoid The Microtransactions
The microtransaction options in Wolfenstein: Youngblood have been a particular point of contention, so much so that a dev was actually forced off Twitter after facing a tirade of harassment as a result of the controversy.
That said, the microtransactions available in the game aren't anywhere near as heinous as they've been made out to seem. In fact, it's entirely possible for a player to make it through the entire game without even realizing that they were there to begin with. While that shouldn't excuse the underlying corporate greed clearly at play here, it should be noted that, no, microtransactions are far from required in Wolf: Youngblood.
3 Buff Your Weapons With Set Bonuses
The game's tutorial never so much as mentions this mechanic, but those who paid close attention to the journal will know that weapons can be made more efficient through the use of set bonuses.
The weapon customization in Youngblood is robust enough, though it offers a fairly standard suite of upgrades. What's most important, however, is that each new piece comes attached to a certain set, of which there are three: Nadel, Tempo, and Stier. Each set increases a specific stat, and players will need to have a total of three items from the same set to get that bonus. It's a small detail which some players won't have noticed, so take advantage of it!
2 Level Up Your Weapons
Once, again, though the game only briefly mentions it, there's a mechanic by which players can level up their guns. It's not nearly as involved as most games, but it's totally possible to cruise through the entire campaign without even noticing it.
It essentially just boils down to getting kills with a certain gun, but, once that's done, the weapon mastery will increase, and it'll buff the guns damage. It feels a bit like a weak attempt to implement proper RPG mechanics, as, though the sisters each have levels of their own, they aren't really indicative of how much damage they can do. Weapon mastery levels, however, will more accurately convey the twins' lethality.
1 Upgrade Every Weapon
One major fault of Youngblood is that it doesn't introduce any new weapons; each and every firearm seen in the game was present in some capacity in The New Colossus. While it's a huge disappointment, Youngblood does at least allow players to upgrade and customize every gun they get their hands on.
While this was a shallow mechanic in the former game, the latter allows for every gun—even the big, scary ones you get for completing the Brother raid missions—to be modified and enhanced. This may sound obvious, but, toward the end of the game, it's likely that some players opted to focus down the objectives rather than enhance their newfound weaponry.