#Blud Review - ALMOST a Great Game

#Blud is a great looking game that follows a classic cartoon artstyle similar to ones made by Cartoon Network in the late 90s and early 2000s. There are some great things and also some bad things and I'll review and give my thoughts so you can decide if this game scratches that nostalgic itch.

[zacharymacleod]

Maaan it's funny because I played through most of this game and felt "man it feels like this game was made by a talented animation team with no game design experience"

[MegabombGamer-rbkh]

one thing I'd like to add that put me off from 100% completing the game is the amount of permanently missable content in the game. Enemies that only appear during certain chapters, so you have limited chances to take selfies with them (which does count towards completion) which is disheartening because they clearly put effort into unique animations for each enemy. There's also a few heart pieces that are located in chapter-specific areas that can't be returned to after those chapters are completed, which is also disheartening because the environmental puzzles are pretty clever. And there's no chapter select or new game plus to counteract this, either. It's egregious because they have a "Point of No Return" prompt before the final dungeon, except that by the time you've reached it there's already stuff that can't be completed.

They clearly had some clever ideas, such as the shovel being mostly utility but being able to dig up the underground vampires, but there are also some underused mechanics, like you mentioned with the dodge roll, but also the uppercut attack which is never actually required, as far as I know.

[Waffletigercat]

12 hours for a $25 game seems pretty reasonable TBH.

[XX-sptt]

10-12 hours.
BETTER THAN MOST VIDEO GAMES THESE DAYS THAT TRY TO CRAM THE GAMES TO ABSURB LENGTHS!
I honestly think we NEED more games that you can finish at such a length. Instead of the 1000+ hour nightmares or the like.
Give us games that are short, that means everything in there holds meaning.
The problem is when the creators are forced to compromise their vision and it DAMAGES the game.

[toongrowner]

nah, I sadly have to agree with the dodge mechanics problem, though it wasn't enough to ruin the game for me. As a fan of classic cartoon network cartoons, I freakin love the game.
This doubled by me being a fan of john carpenters the thing, which this game clearly toke at least some inspiration from, like some of the crotesque boss transformations, the town littereally named Carpenter vile and becky having littereally a poster of the movie in her room XD
Also even with the flawed dodged mechaincs, this game has some of the best and most fun boss fights I had in a long while, in terms of mechanics and representation

[Lover_of_ebrietas]

It got that teletoon style (camp lakebottom, sidekick, total drama island, etc.)

[didjargo]

Another flaw with the combat, I found, is that you cannot cancel out of finisher animations into a dodge roll. Finisher animations happen automatically at the end of a combo instead of being mapped to a "heavy attack" button, and they don't have I-frames. Because these animations are lengthy, you are likely going to take damage from surrounding enemies during them before you can move or dodge.

[theotherjared]

This is a certified "watch the cutscenes on youtube" banger.

[Krmttack]

It's very immersive in terms of animation and aesthetic, but I'm really hoping they go more in-depth on the mechanics in any sort of sequel. Having neither health items nor money actually come from the enemies in a beat-'em-up doesn't feel great, it leaves very little incentive to actually fight anything that isn't part of a required gauntlet or boss battle.

[XanderGurkin]

10-12 hours is perfect for a game though? How is it short??

[Vlyg]

from this video alone I can tell that the problem with this game is the fact the roll does NOT carry your momentum and those types of "mobility options" are so unsatisfying to use

[viberum]

Just finished the game and yeah i definitely agree with you! I always felt like something is missing here and there to really get me immersed but yeah it's all the little things with the combat and traversing through the areas that made me think there should be more stuff to spice up the gameplay or something idk. I do love the hand-drawn animation everywhere I really appreciated the whole aesthetic.

[toddileelee]

''It's a little hours!!!!'' LOL. That's short?

[Xeorboom]

my first thoughts playing Blud was: ok... brilliant animation, great characters and decent boss fights but it's very obvious that the devs are EXTREMELY new to this!
overall, it's like if Cult Of The Lamb combined with Hollow Knight but with Cuphead-style boss fights and a plot straight out if Strange Hill which I, of course, love!

[Pokefan]

I hated the ice block section! Those flaming vampire lady’s were so annoying in the big heater room!!! And not being able to heal during the final fight was super annoying! Besides those issues I really did like this game the art style was really nice.

[ETcraftingChannel]

Really great review! Love that you don’t just tell what you think would need improvement, but also offer a few “solutions” to the problems

[SOJITZL]

Maybe they'll look at the feedback they get and inprove the game based on its flaws. Better combat, more combo moves, etc.
It seems the biggest focus of critique is just combat from the user's side.

[bwmpii_yt]

I still plan on getting it cus of how visually pleasing it is as an animation fan

[Delifte]

were getting way more stylized cartoony games recently, first it was cuphead, then pizza tower and now #Blud

[mathieubordeleau]

Looks fun, kinda reminds me of Cult of the Lamb.