#Blud Review - ALMOST a Great Game

when cup came out it was nothing short of a worldwide sensation in a sea of open world RPGs and FPS games we got something that was truly Innovative but ironically takes in a design from something that kind of predates video games altogether it was stylish it had charm and despite its difficulty felt really rewarding to play especially for fans of the old Disney cartoons now I was born in the late '90s and since my family's cable subscription didn't have Disney Channel on it I grew up with mostly Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon so many of the shows I was exposed to include Scooby-Doo Dexter's Laboratory Powerpuff Girls and many others that are too numerous to name the important thing to note is that cuphead style was based on cartoons that I had very little exposure to so my excitement for it at the time wasn't really as big although I still thought the idea was ingenious and unique it's been 7 years since cuphead was released and now I finally got to play a game that takes a similar approach but is a lot closer to what I grew up with this game is called # blood the video game one look at # blood will tell you everything you need to know about the style of this game I was super excited to play it and I'll be giving some of my thoughts on the experience do check out my other stuff as well as I make both reviews and video essays on various games and like And subscribe if you like what you see now I'll keep this as spoiler-free as possible but overall there is a lot to love in this game but also some aspects that might turn off a a few people so make sure to watch until the end before deciding to buy the game or not first let's take a look at the visuals this game is absolutely stunning I can't help but gush at how it looks because the design of the world the characters and the animations for literally everything are freaking perfect I don't want to exaggerate or anything but it's really obvious that the devs gave their heart and soul into ensuring that all the cutcenes combat sequences character reactions and even the random back ground items and animals in the map are like a Saturday morning cartoon it's so charming and nostalgic that I can't praise it enough and taking a quick look at who the devs are we can easily see why exit 73 Studios is actually an animation studio that focuses a lot on cartoons and they've made quite a bit of work in 2D frame by frame animation for people like Jimmy Fallon for Nick Junior and a bunch of other projects hence the use of this type of art style for hasht blood now the art style and animation are spoton but it helps that the characters are also very likable and that the plot all beit a little cliche is quite fun as well your main character is a young freshman in high school named Becky Brewster who just recently moved into her mom's hometown of Carpentersville however it seems like there's some weird stuff about to go down which may or may not involve a vampire Invasion and it's going to be up to Becky to defeat them along the way you meet her warm and loving dad her new nerdy inventor friend named Corey and a bunch of other students in her school that all have very unique and funny personalities I also like how the game references a lot of modern Trends and I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am that they executed it in a way that wasn't cringe as f for example Becky can take selfies with her phone and it's genuinely really cute and can be really funny especially since you can do it mid combat with enemies as well they introduced a social media app called perch which is an oddly familiar bird-based app although I guess the real one isn't a bird anymore but whatever and they also add a little bit of social satire without being too contrived or pushy about it so again it becomes a little bit more entertaining rather than cringy there are some things that might be worth noting though and one is that the pacing of the story can be a little jarring at times especially in the beginning the game is short and although there are a few side missions you can do you can easily finish the main story in around 10 to 12 hours this can be hit or miss for some people because on one hand I personally felt that the main story's length was just fine it doesn't overstay its welcome and it doesn't pad the game too much with unnecessary content and has some great moments however I did find that it did Lean just a bit too far on the concise side of things as I found myself wanting more depth on some of the side characters the world and Becky's life as a high schooler as well we're told that she plays field hockey that her dad works at perch and that there are certain school events that pop up throughout the school year that she needs to attend but a lot of these aren't really explored as much as I would have liked they mostly played as more of a backdrop to the vampire slain part of the story and I would have liked a little more depth to them there was one chapter of the game where it tries to focus on that high schooler aspect a bit more but it ends quite abruptly again this can be good or bad depending on your preference Persona is a good example of a series where some people are a fan of the extensive life similar content that you can do while others don't really like it as much and might prefer to skip all of that to get to the action more again I personally feel like # blood kind of stepped a little too far on that latter part of the spectrum and it could have put a little bit more time into World building and side stories but overall I don't think it's a big deal breaker and it's something that they can work on further should there be a sequel another issue is that the world feels strangely disconnected from the main plot this is linked to my concern around the world building wherein there are major things that happen in the story that you expect should affect or Garner the attention of The Wider community of Carpentersville yet nobody ever really talks about it or reacts and it's not as if the events are all completely secret some create actual fiascos that could warrant media attention or at least some posts on the in-game social media app but there's just nothing the main plot seems to be happening in isolation of the world and it honestly takes me out of the immersion a bit the game play is also a little bit of a mixed bag and it's understandable if it ends up turning off some players first in terms of the UI the menu is done through Becky's phone and the objectives are integrated into perch the social media platform that I mentioned earlier unfortunately even though it can be entertaining at times as other followers could kind of comment on the quests you're doing it's not a very good way that track objectives in fact the menu itself can be a little confusing in the beginning but you do kind of get used to it as you keep playing this feels like an attempt by the devs to be creative and that's really commendable don't get me wrong for example I like how the main objective will just have a quest marker but generally it's just to guide you to the location and it's up to you to figure out what you need to do to complete your objectives and that's great I like that approach but some objectives can be a little too vague and sometimes they can be a little tedious as many tasks do require you to kind of run around the location to collect stuff or complete puzzles there's also this tendency to make these puzzles more challenging by sprinkling in enemies that spawn constantly but I'm not a big fan of that approach and fortunately it doesn't happen often I've also felt like I've taken the map button in many games for granted because here you have to manually scroll through the phone menu to get to the map every single time I don't know if I just got spoiled by other games but this should be a given by now especially since the select button on my controller isn't even mapped to anything there's also a lot of strangely misleading tabs in the menu where I thought they would play a significant role in the game play but are mostly just filler with information that's largely insignificant to the game play or to the combat speaking of combat this is where things get truly frustrating the thing is it's not something I can outright describe as bad it's just inconsistent like I love how the the enemy Variety in the game is so extensive by the end you are fighting so many different types of vampires with various attack patterns and weaknesses and when paired with the amazing visuals and animation it keeps these encounters fresh but Becky's range of moves and skills are very limited the game technically gives you more skills later on but they're either limited by ammo or Limited in applicable uses your main weapon Remains the Same all throughout and it only has one three move combo that you will keep using throughout your playthrough which can make the combat feel a little repetitive especially since this is the best way to beat enemies it's the most powerful the boss fights are also incredibly fun and varied both in design and in mechanics making them a big highlight in this game in my opinion but the game does it in a way here where it ramps up the spectacle after each chapter and this makes sense as some skills needed for future in encounters are obtained later on so the initial one or two bosses might be a little me but once you get through those the rest of the bosses are actually quite good the combat is fastpaced because enemies tend to come in large groups or waves but and I think this is the most egregious butt in this game the Dodge mechanic feels flawed for context enemies in this game damage upon contact regardless if they are attacking or not so getting surrounded is a real danger as movement becomes limited so the Instinct here is of course to dodge and create space right fortunately the Dodge does not have eye frames so if your spatial awareness isn't perfect or if you're surrounded you will be constantly dodging into enemies or into boss attacks the latter can be a bit of a problem as bosses tend to be big and have quick attacks that are hard to Telegraph so even if you dodge the attack you will somehow end up dodging into their leg or whatever random body part or appendage or something which I'm not going to lie can be quite annoying the last one I'll mention is that there is a bit of a lag before you can do a Dodge after an attack combo and it's long enough that if you do a combo while in a group of enemies it's highly likely you won't be able to Dodge in time before getting hit now I acknowledge that this may be a deliberate Choice along with the eye frames to make one more careful when it comes to using Dodges and finishing combos but there's just something slightly off with the balancing if the goal is to make one more deliberate and slow down a person's urge to spam attack and Dodge then enemies and bosses need to Telegraph a lot more clearly to allow players to learn attack patterns some enemies do this but some don't or at least act too quickly for players to react which leads to an instinctive Dodge that inevitably leads to contact with another enemy if the goal was to make combat more fastpac kind of like what you'd see in Hades then if frames will be a good addition and having more moves and combos will also make the game's action feel more fun and dynamic now it could very well be that I just suck at the game and I haven't figured out the most effective strategy in which case do let me know if this is just my problem and that you have no problem with this type of combat overall even if I can gush over the visuals and animation the gameplay aspects I've mentioned prevent the game from being great I would still recommend it for people especially those who grew up with these types of cartoons and the price isn't too expensive but of course that's subjective and dependent on your geography and price sensitivity in my eyes though this feels more like a proof of concept and I'm cutting the devs more slack because this is their first game and it's very impressive since their expertise is mostly on animation for various cartoons I still really enjoyed the game but I hope they can smoothing out some of the rough Parts in the future sequel or maybe even in a patch or expansion or whatever future game they want to do do check out the game for yourself though as it's out now on PC Xbox PlayStation and Nintendo switch and do let me know what you guys think down in the comments this is s from the fireplace and I hope to see you all again really soon

Channel: Fireplace Gaming

Views: 27,650

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Id: g3IN4EtmrZw

Length: 12min 25sec (745 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 25 2024