The TRAGEDY of Wolfenstein Youngblood

gamers they say all work and no play makes johnny a dull boy they're a lucky few who get to play at work and make it pay in fact apple computer was put on the map by a couple of young men employing just such a strategy now a similar story may be unfolding near dallas byron harris reports [Music] widely considered the grandfather of first-person shooters wolfenstein and its lengthy history know both the thriller victory and the agony of failure the franchise's 2009 entry the raven software developed wolfenstein marked a particularly low point for this series leaving many to ponder whether protagonist b.j blaskowitz's nazi killing days had finally come to an end machine games however a swedish studio founded by former starbreeze developers proved approximately five years later that bj still had plenty of fight left in him the team successfully pitched a new direction for the ip to series creator id software and publisher bethesda softworks proposing an alternate history post-world war ii narrative wherein the nazis claimed victory machine games ensuing partnership with the companies culminated in 2014's wolfenstein the new order 2017's wolfenstein ii the new colossus and the old blood expansion in between these adventures cast a darker more serious tone over the franchise that ultimately led to bj's transition into a family man and killing nazis inherently became integral to the proverbial family business thus wolfenstein youngblood dropped players into the roles of jess and soph bj's twin daughters who by the 1980s had grown old enough to infiltrate nazi-controlled paris but remained young enough to embark on a relatively light-hearted coming-of-age journey on paper the premise worked flawlessly in practice youngblood crumbled under the pressure of cooperative gameplay light rpg elements and an open-ended structure all qualities that went unexplored in machine games as previous projects consequently the final product came across as a hollow shell of the wolfenstein experience that millions grew to associate with the brand this is the tragedy of wolfenstein [Music] youngbloody [Music] as far back as the start of wolfenstein the new orders development machine games knew how it wanted b.j blaskowitz's character's arc to play out the creative leads specifically had a trilogy in mind though the old blood and youngblood side projects didn't appear as pit stops on the roadmap early on wolfenstein's old blood expansion worked out well as an interstitial release between the first two titles however prompting machine games to pursue a similar endeavor post wolfenstein to the new colossus senior game designer andreas oyaforce told game central the crew began brainstorming next steps near the end of the sequel's production which resulted in one group splitting off to focus on r d for a third mainline installment while another produced a smaller game based on the systems in wolfenstein ii oya forest admitted the decision to create young blood probably took shape way too late bethesda accepted the pitch nonetheless intrigued by the idea of a story centered around the twins that bj's pregnant love interest anya carried throughout the new colossus as such co-op felt like a natural fit once the blaskowitz twins joined the fray and according to oyaforce and executive producer yet gustavson cooperative play allowed machine games to explore fun fresh challenges by providing a wolfenstein experience that fans could enjoy with a friend such a bold choice forced the developers to revise their approach to storytelling gameplay and level design in addition multiplayer constituted a path machine games wasn't yet equipped to tackle on its own fellow bethesda owned studio arcane leona seemed the perfect partner for expanding upon the wolfenstein universe with a co-op adventure speaking with gama sutra yerk gustavson divulged that discussions about collaborating with arcane leone emerged in the back half of 2017 during the release period for dishonored 2 stand-alone expansion death of the outsider arcane not only added extra personnel to the ambitious endeavor but its prowess with open-ended design also gave machine games license to wade into the domain of non-linearity the swedish studio further prepared itself for the engineering challenges associated with multiplayer games by sending oya force and several engineers to visit other bethesda teams such as elder scrolls online developer zenimax online interestingly youngblood's dishonored inspired nonlinear structure stem from the difficulty of trying to build a co-op title in the same vein as wolfenstein's typical single-player outings the design philosophy that machine games usually employed could not support two players roaming the map independently of one another for example as a result arcane's expertise in open-ended level design informed the multiple entries and pathways that snake throughout each mission in youngblood this decision most notably enhanced co-op allowing players to divide and conquer by approaching enemy encounters more tactically non-linear levels were also a product of the limitations that beset youngblood's predecessors gustafsson explained that the wolfenstein 2 team emphasized the player's ability to complete the game within the game meaning all collectibles were obtainable without restarting the story campaign in pursuit of such convenience machine games devised a system whereby players revisited previously completed maps said system bore flaws of its own though as some fans believed replaying missions for the triviality of collectibles diminished each area's otherwise impactful hold on the overarching narrative gustavson admitted that complete the game within the game as a guiding design principle took a back seat in favor of machine games as story focused priorities in the sequel the open-ended quality of youngblood essentially solved this particular problem yet other aspects of co-op demanded quite a bit of fine-tuning in a pre-launch interview with swiss publication games.ch andreas oyafour spoke of how youngblood's earlier builds almost felt as if two single-player users just happened to land on the same map the ensuing goal consequently pivoted to revolve around balancing a fulfilling cooperative experience turning enemy soldiers into the focal point during hostile encounters served as one solution for instance successfully dispatching the heavily armored superzoydatin troops required sisters jess and soft to work in tandem since the sisterly bond represented a non-negotiable part of machine games vision the ai-controlled companion needed to appear just as adept in combat as a human-controlled character if solo play was to prove a viable option gustavson described developing the ai as an arduous balancing act especially given the high octane combat featured in wolfenstein games the key rested in ensuring the ai character could mirror the actions of the lone player in turn the user's skill determined the success of the ai controlled sister when the player performed well their cpu counterpart similarly held its own meanwhile user-induced mistakes culminated in their ai partners succumbing to enemy fire youngblood's pep signals further enhance the gameplay in this respect regardless of the preference for cooperative or solo play pep signals started as standard emotes before gustavsson proposed the idea of adding gameplay functionality to the feature when one sister activated a pep signal mid-fight the bot character included they or their companion gained health or armor boost that if used strategically could turn the tide of battle the developers also added rather rudimentary rpg elements and customization options hoping to encourage user choice in terms of play styles oyaforce noted as much in a quakecon 2019 interview with gamemania gustafsson provided extra insight while speaking with usgamer revealing that character and weapon customization evolved so co-op partners could complement each other in combat all in all these additions to the rebooted wolfenstein franchise held plenty of promise from the outset but new styles of play meant only so much to a brand that regained prominence on the market thanks in large part to its developers storytelling chops while non-linear design dual protagonist and customization strengthen the core pillars of machine games's tried and true wolfenstein formula the storytelling in many respects played second fiddle even as the studio's biggest project at the time youngblood featured less story content than the new order and the new colossus which explained the lengthy cutscenes in the spinoff's opening sections the developers had plenty of exposition to convey too considering the narrative setting several years after the conclusion of wolfenstein's incomplete trilogy as fans later discovered much of the exposition in youngblood was front loaded into the first act a far cry from the thoughtful manner in which wolfenstein 2 drip-fed bj's backstory writers also felt the need to reevaluate the franchise's approach to character and tone jeric gustafson specifically acknowledged the difficult tasks that writers grappled with while attempting to infuse levity into a tale rife with serious themes wolfenstein ii despite its darker tone succeeded on this front however machine games and arcane approached the story of youngblood with a far more lighthearted slant from the outset their infamous father harbored brooding qualities sure but jess and so for teenage girls who viewed the world through a different lens this naturally informed each sister's lively personality something players may have found jarring given the restraint machine games previously showed by ensuring bj's perceived action hero persona never undermined the grave state of the world around him on top of the tonal shift wolfenstein's specially crafted events failed to make the cut gameplay director frederick youngdahl clarified in a bethesda.net blog post that such gameplay instances generally hinged on known constants like player location and progression ultimately this design framework didn't translate well to the cooperative open-ended nature of youngblood many of the newer ingredients came at a cost compromising what made machine games revival of the once abandoned shooter series so special that youngblood's scope significantly expanded during production only exacerbated the growing pains especially for a team that according to production director john jennings had to manage technical learning while simultaneously juggling gameplay learning in unfamiliar territory worse still the developers only had so much time to overcome these obstacles due to a shorter than usual production window that lasted less than two years time limitations unsurprisingly affected key facets of the creation process namely level blocking and testing because of how long it took to implement the second player in game wolfenstein youngblood's hardships didn't end with development woes either from an optics standpoint news about wolfenstein youngblood hit the world stage under less than ideal circumstances bethesda softworks announced the co-op title during its e3 2018 press conference the very same event that debuted details concerning the online focus status of bethesda game studios is fallout 76 the public wasted no time contrasting these unpopular multiplayer reveals against the publisher's promise to save player one at the 2017 game awards pete hines senior vice president of global marketing at bethesda later told vg247 the save player one ad campaign poked fun at fears that single player games were dying heinz said the company had no intention of leading fans to believe its studios would exclusively develop single-player titles insisting internal aspirations included online and offline endeavors but unfortunately the first multiplayer outing by machine games failed to hit the mark receiving divisive reviews and an equally mixed response from fans on one hand the action-packed romp further invigorated the brand the moment-to-moment gameplay felt as refined as ever and the blaskowitz girls held their own indicating that wolfenstein could thrive without bj at the helm not everyone felt that way though while the gunplay of youngblood managed to capture wolfenstein ii celebrated controls and general feel the 2017 sequel offered an experience above and beyond a stellar shooter its characters and narrative proved similarly captivating from start to finish a tall order the spin-off couldn't fulfill proof of machine games and arcane's inexperience with multiplayer littered youngblood's various shortcomings too the absence of a pause function counted among the most notable criticisms leveled against the game even those who played offline were unable to pause until patch 1.0.4 went live nearly one month after the july 2019 launch youngblood's frustrating checkpoint system which forced players to restart missions after losing a boss fight constituted another major hiccup that went several weeks without a fix the thirty dollar price point and forty dollar deluxe edition complete with a free buddy pass softened the blow to a degree in november machine games sweetened the deal by deploying a free contact update featuring new maps abilities skins and endgame activities the studio never confirmed as much but the november content drop seemingly represented an attempt at the post-launch support year gustav's previously teased as contingent upon the success of youngblood it stands to reason that the developer and publisher consider this level of ongoing support of fruitless endeavor though a consequence of circumstance time constraints and inexperience the tragedy that is wolfenstein youngblood may not itself warrant the label of fruitless machine games learned a great deal from the cooperative shooter knowledge some developers have said could inform future adventures in the wolfenstein universe and despite the shortcomings of youngblood the brand may benefit from giving jess and soph another chance at leading the charge [Music] thank you for watching we'd like to take this time to think by name the generous patrons who have pledged to our hall of fame rewards here caleb shishkivich fernando lopez ojeda maktoum saeed almaktum paul coozino and those currently subscribed to our producer rewards here dario emumovies.com lame game man milkshake schizo lingvo if you enjoy our content please consider subscribing to our channel and backing us on patreon you

Channel: GVMERS

Views: 294,184

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Id: mP7q7_gkR5A

Length: 16min 9sec (969 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 26 2021