Review

Bloodforge

Man when I found out I was going to be able to review Bloodforge, I was freaking stoked out of my mind! I have yet to review an arcade title that has the potential to compete with large budget, hack and slash games! I literally watched the game download until I heard that beautiful sound of the Xbox letting me know my download was complete. As I watched the opening scene I became more and more excited…and then the game began.

Now I’m sure from the start of this review you are thinking “come on Andre. Lay it on us! Let us hear how great it is!” I sadly wish I could.  Here’s the premise (stop me if you heard this before). You play as a warrior named Crom who has given up his fighting days to settle down with his old lady. Even though he put down the sword, he still has dreams of his old battles. One night he falls asleep and dreams that he is killed by a God named Arawn. He is awakened to his village in flames and his wife surrounded by demons. Crom then goes on a rampage to try and save her, dispatching demons left and right. Unfortunately, during his fight he is tricked into killing his wife by Arawn. Crom now rages on a never ending battle against gods and their minions in hopes of avenging her.

I know you probably scrolled to the top of your screen to see if you stumbled upon a God of War review; fear not, you are in the right place. Though Bloodforge’s setting maybe different, the backstory is very similar to that other title. While it’s not the most original idea, that isn’t a complete deal breaker. In a hack and slash action title, there is nothing more important than the gameplay. In many popular titles in this genre, we commonly give the story a pass because the fighting is so epic. That said, the combat elements in this title aren’t as good as they could have been. You’ll eventually wield three weapons, all within the first few minutes of the game. There is a sword, a hammer, and claws, all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses. The unfortunate part is that you barely feel a reason to switch weapons because the characters all seem to fight the same way against you. The boss battles are so annoyingly repetitive and boring that, by mid fight, you already want to turn off your system and walk away. Plus there is no block button! So you have to continuously roll to avoid attacks and that barely works right. So there is no chance for counter attacks; it’s just button mashing without thinking! Enemies aren’t tough because their strong or have long patterns to memorize. They’re tough because of the poor fighting mechanics.

Graphically this game is beautiful. I love the dark artistry as it creates an eerie atmosphere, making every turn feel more and more scary. The effects on the kills also look awesome…at first. My issue here is that the special kills (like cutting someone in half with blood flying everywhere) are repeated so much that you’ll start to get bored by them after a while. The sound quality is mediocre. I am pretty sure if you muted the game and started making music that you think would go with the level, you’d have more fun. The music becomes incredibly repetitive and the voice overs just feel typical. You would think that with the levels looking so good that the music would also flow well into place, but that seemed to fall to the wayside with the gameplay itself.

With such a beautiful game, it’s really sad that it is wasted by really poor gameplay and an overall repetitive nature. I really wanted Bloodforge to be awesome but it didn’t turn out the way most of us would have liked. If it wasn’t for games like God of War I may have rated it a little higher than what I did. It’s just that, those other titles bring more to the table. Not saying that Crom needed to compete with Kratos (Bloodforge is an XBLA game after all), just that he should have been placed in a game that can do the staples of this genre justice. Needless to say, this game is lacking a lot. There was so much potential for this title but the poor homage to God of War would make Kratos very…very angry. While there could be fun found in the button mashing, my gut says this game is a pass; it would be wise to listen!