#Blud review

As much as I love a beautiful and colourful game with lovely animations, it’s rare that visuals are able to sell me on a game entirely. I’m generally just more gameplay-focused to fall too hard for the pretty ones, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a gorgeous game. There’s not much of a better first impression that a shiny new purchase can give you than something beautiful to look at though, and I must admit that when I first booted up #BLUD I was a little bit blown away.

In #BLUD you play as new kid in town Becky Brewster, who is charming, outgoing and more than a little bit of a goof. The first day at a new school is a nerve wracking occasion for our hero, and that’s before an outbreak of nasty vampires decide to take over. Armed with the hockey stick of a famous school alumni and her mum’s book of spells, Becky sets off on a brawling adventure where she’ll meet a whole lot of wacky characters and maybe even save the world in the process.

It takes a while for this adventure to really get going though, as you slowly make your way around the various city environments and meet up with your peers and teachers. The charming characters are all worth chatting with though even if you’re looking forward to some scrapping, thanks to the genuinely funny writing and incredible animations that bring them all to life. Even the least important NPCs in #BLUD have a variety of different talking and reacting animations that look better than most of the big budget cartoons you’d watch on Netflix, and I’m not sure I’ve ever played a game I could say that about before.

It’s all well and good being impressed by the visuals and writing, but it’s the combat of #BLUD that I was excited to get stuck into. Sadly, the vampire fighting aspect of the game is pretty basic, with a lot of moving, rolling and whacking enemies. I often found myself taking damage while simply trying to get close enough to an enemy to hurt it too (especially in the early hours of the game) which never feels particularly fun.

Things do get better as you progress combat wise though, thanks to upgrades you receive that make Becky more powerful. Pencils act as small projectile stakes for pesky undead, a shield can be used to helpfully block attacks and counter, and the shovel can dig up buried enemies to make them vulnerable. These new items make the combat feel that little more varied, and also help you access more areas of the map.

Just completing main missions in #BLUD is all well and good, but the fairly sprawling map is also packed with collectibles and side quests. I won’t pretend that the quests especially are anything you haven’t seen before in other games, but completing them helps you learn more about the new town Becky has moved to and the folks who inhabit it – which is probably the most interesting aspect of the game.

Another way you’ll learn more about all your new friends is on the social media site Perch, which is a significant part of the game. All your quests are tracked on Perch, and any time you take a selfie at a specific location (with plenty of selectable poses to choose from) it’ll be added there complete with comments from everyone you meet. It really fleshes out the world of #BLUD, while also being a totally believable part of the day to day lives of its oddball cast.

As much as I love the setting and characters of Becky’s vampire hunting adventure, I can’t overlook the flaws it has. Moving around feels way too slow, and regardless of whether you run or dodge roll to your next location it’s always a little sluggish and unsatisfactory. The combat never quite feels right either, even when it improves. The controls aren’t tight enough to make it truly enjoyable, and it’s such a shame when the game does so much right outside of the gameplay.

#BLUD is a game that has so much going for it in terms of visuals, writing, and overall charm, but the combat really does let the game down. Still, if you don’t mind a little less exciting scrapping and want to check out some stupendous animation and a funny world then you could do much worse than this Saturday morning cartoon vampire ’em up.