For someone who grew up playing vintage first-person shooters such as the original Doom, I was most intrigued by Bloodshed when it first strafed its way onto my radar earlier this year. It’s now months later and I’ve had a chance to play the Early Access build, and I have some thoughts to share.
What is Bloodshed all about, then?
Bloodshed is a first-person shooter, similar to the likes of Doom, Rise of the Triad, and even Duke Nukem. That is to say, it’s a shooter inspired by the classics of the FPS genre, and it comes complete with hooded cultists and demonic zombies. And shotguns.
Yet despite its reverence to the old guard, Bloodshed is also a survivors-like or an auto-shooter, in many respects very much like Vampire Survivors or any of the other myriad games out there that follow the same rules. Kill. Collect. Level. You know the drill by now.
Here, playing as one of the four characters currently available in the game, you must work through one of four stages (one of which isn’t very big), blasting your enemies away with a combo of bullets and magic, collecting any XP that they drop, and then spending your experience points on upgrading your abilities.
Chapter 1: In the Bag
It didn’t take me long to play through the levels already in game and I was hoping for more content that never really arrived. As mentioned, there are four playable characters, which you unlock as you go. I think my favourite was the mage with her staff, which had me recalling Hexen as I wafted around the place, firing bolts of magic at my foes.
There is a selection of magic spells that can work alongside your weapons. You might fire spectral skulls, or throw down phantom bear traps, or direct a swarm of killer insects – or unleash all of them at once. You’ve got options, and it’s fun to experiment with the different spells, which fill up the screen with their otherworldly animations, contributing to the on-screen chaos.
The level design in Bloodshed is intended to keep you moving and the pace high. You’ll constantly be hunted by swarms of the undead, deadly cultists, and demonic creatures. In fact, they come from all over the place. I found myself creating bottlenecks and using the natural geography of each area in order to stay on top of my enemies.
Worth shedding blood over now?
Despite the low-fi graphics and PSX-era 3D environments, developer com8com1 Software has managed to create a lot of atmosphere. You can even turn the auto-firing mechanic off and that immediately transforms Bloodshed from a first-person survivors-like into a classically-trained boomer shooter with a twist. It clicked for me, but I’m very much of that generation, and I’ll be interested to see how other people gel with the mix of ingredients.
The Early Access build only includes one chapter, and as such I’ve been left wanting more. Happily, there is new content on the way, with the game’s roadmap pointing to several new stages over the next few months. Apparently we’re getting a two-part second act with a new boss battle at the end of it, along with more of everything else.
There are a couple of other things that I feel need attention. The main one is the lag in the menus, with micro-second delays that create an element of doubt around your button presses; they’re just not responsive enough. I also thought I saw a bit of screen tearing, but with no options to address this in the menus.
Otherwise, I very much like the spirit of Bloodshed, and when more content lands I think I’ll take that down too. The Early Access build might feel a little bare bones, but I look forward to having new environments to explore and new enemies to aim at. The fusion of ideas works better than expected, now we just need to see more of it.
Bloodshed is out now on PC (Win) and I played the game via access kindly provided by the developer and their PR friends. Thanks!
