No sword, no shield, no problem!
Bloodless is a hack-and-slash and retro delight created by Point N’ Sheep for the Nintendo Switch and PC. It is their third game released in the same retro-fitted style that they seem to enjoy.
As an indie game, we can definitely expect more from it later on since the current desire for any indie game is going wild. Hopefully, this leads to more expansions for Bloodless, as the game doesn’t have an endless amount of things to do.
However, as a passion project, Bloodless is nicely done and achieves the design goal it was aiming for. This proves that sometimes Triple-A studios put less effort into a project than the small-time devs doing it for fun or to build up their skills!
The effort put in is commendable, even with the game’s shortcomings and linear storytelling. Indie is definitely the genre to look out for, as proven by games like Lethal Company or CyberCorp, as the consistent bangers are hard to find from bigger studios who like throwing dev teams out randomly.
While Bloodless is playable on the keyboard, if you’re hopping on with a PC, it is designed for a controller experience and sports a very lacking settings menu, which, hoping you have the right resolution already, won’t be a considerable problem. However, this sometimes means enemies will pile drive you from off-screen and reset you!
Unfortunately, this can be very tilting, as you only have three health in the beginning. The game likes its Dark Souls direction telling since it doesn’t have an indicator of where you’re meant to go. This isn’t the worst, but it does get annoying at times.
Your character you’ll be taking the journey with is an old samurai. This seems fairly bland, except it changes up one key aspect: no killing. That’s right, the samurai now has a Batman policy rather than wielding a sword. You’re equipped with blood-red arm guards, so you definitely can’t miss them in the black-and-white game!
The main attack function of Bloodless is a dash that, when timed right, will parry and disarm your attack, leading them to either change their tactics or run to the hills! Understandably, you’d be freaked out by some random old person smacking your sword out of your hand and staring you down!
Many people avoid this difficulty in other games like The Witcher 3 since parrying can be limited by your reaction time or the game’s input delay. Making it the game’s main point is bold, to say the least, but it is well executed.
While this may seem odd, Bloodless will explore the lore behind why you now choose not to cut down your enemies in the story you’ll depart on from the beginning. Landing back in your old homeland, you’ll be met with some unsavory characters who are causing a ruckus.
After you’ve dispatched the new friends you’ve made, you’ll find an old friend from your past who will swiftly run away to get something that was stolen from them. And it’s not just them, everyone seems to be on a track team to deadsprint from your vicinity when you talk to them.
With numerous bosses to conquer and a few irritating enemies to learn the attack patterns of, Bloodless does sport a decent chunk of content. It may not really have any replayability in its design, but one trip around the sun is good enough.
Killing the enemies in Bloodless does come with rewards, at least as you” be gifted coins you somehow smuggled off of the mobs while they hot-footed it away. You can buy ingredients with this if you don’t feel like shoulder-tackling plants for a while to boost your potion’s reserve. You’ll need the upgrades since the game can get quite hectic with the amount of bodies storming towards you.
Onto graphics: It’s retro; what else is to be expected? The retro-bit art style is the main thing and does it well. Coupled with a black-and-white aesthetic only pierced by occasional red, the red adding contrast, it’s easy on the eyes and reminiscent of arcade-era games.
While the effects are also fairly minimal, it provides a flowing combat atmosphere and a fluid feeling of motion as the screen moves left to right during your scuffles.
Bloodless has a few soundtracks and no characters’ voices. However, it isn’t the worst since the text-based dialogue is interesting enough, and the songs playing are fun. The sound effects for your movements are also fun to spam, as required when playing a game like this.
In essence, Bloodless might just be an indie game, but it was enjoyable most of the time and thought out nicely. The game has a great design and well-thought-out mechanics to entice players who miss the retro era of beat ’em ups. With a few kinks ironed out, it can definitely become a certified banger for the atmosphere alone. Some work is needed on some settings and optimization, but that can be overlooked.
