Bloodforge sees you playing the lead role as a warrior named Crom. This warrior has given up the battle in favour of his family yet the Gods have a different side on things and bringing chaos to the village in which Crom and his family resides. Crom is forced into conflict with demonic soldiers in order to protect his wife. Successfully doing so he approaches the burning shelter in which his wife was out of sight. Another demonic soldier appears, staggering towards Crom. Rage sees Crom force his sword straight through the soldier only to find this was no demon. It was his wife in form of a demon presence. Infuriated and enraged Crom now seeks ultimate revenge.

First impressions can absolutely ruin a video games reputation and more than ever for Arcade titles which every Xbox owner can download a trial and get a real taste of what to expect from the full version. Unfortunately for Bloodforge, there will be many who utter the resemblances of Conan and God of War within this particular title.

With all that said, Bloodforge was an interesting start up to say the least. The graphics are pretty top notch for an arcade game and getting straight into the battle felt good because of similarities to the Arkham games combat where you find yourself stringing many combos to gain a much higher score and that moment when you are struck by an enemy, only to end up one combo short of an achievement/high score, it enrages you in a way that Crom himself would flip in deep anger. Then again you’ll gather yourself in another attempt to rack up a high combo.

BLOOD! Blood is the key element to the game. The more blood you can sap out of your enemies the more points that are awarded. These points can be used for certain ability unlocks and upgrades as you progress through the game, aiding you in further battles which ‘WILL’ progressively get harder with only very few health pick-ups to find along the way. The ability menu (Rune Shrine) is a nifty feature allowing full control of your left stick to hover over specific actions. To get extra blood (points) out of your enemies you’ll have to find more experimental ways of killing them through finisher moves. These finisher moves could have been proudly seen in Mortal Kombat. You’ll never get tired of finishing the enemy in many more ways than one. As you progress through the game you’ll stumble upon many new weapons that provide a manic array of new moves to muster within combos against your foes keeping the combat fresh and exciting. Another thing you’ll notice is after each battle you are awarded a rank of A, B, C etc. Whether this is beneficial at all to the games point system, it seems pointless but after obtaining a rank of C or lower, It leaves you feeling unsatisfied with your skills, only to be improved on in the next battle.

Within battles you’ll notice a red bar filling in the corner. This bar allows for Crom’s rage by pressing down both LB and RB. Rage killing is enjoyable and entertaining especially when near death because the rage allows for Crom to become more powerful in attacks finishing off a horde of enemies within seconds. Certain rage kills on many of the heavy hitters you’ll encounter requires a button bashing moment to fill the on screen circle to perform a devastating kill and showering Crom in blood. This is handy for instant finishers on larger enemies which you’ll definitely struggle with.

The multiplayer features in Bloodforge. There is none, but Bloodforge offers a feature called ‘Blood Duel’ in which you can compare the amount of blood spilled within each stage and if your hearts in it you’ll find yourself going back to previous stages to further increase blood spillage and see yourself above the rest on the leaderboards. You can also take on waves of enemies in a survival mode. Once you’ve survived the required amount of waves, you can then forward a challenge to Xbox live friends and see you and your buddies one-upping each other along the way.

Anyhow, we’ll conclude on a few delicate matters which bring this game to a slight disappointment. The first thing you’ll be irritated by is the camera. Although bobble effects can give certain games a feel of panic and stagger and generally can come off pretty well. Bloodforge doesn’t do this. Instead it leaves you feeling sick and disorientated when locating your next target and the rapid zooming when finishing the enemy puts you off the string of combos. You’ll find it immovable with objects and enemies which is a shame when Bloodforge offers some very decent artwork and design which shines above most other features. Finally, you may or may not come to a point where you’ll need health, desperately and at times hopelessly trying to find some. Depending on your skill you’ll either find it a struggle to continue with very little health on your bar and having to take on an immense boss battle only resulting in a stage restart if you choose to do so, which is frustrating and a real shame. Other than that it’s a really good effort on the games ‘Hack ‘n’ Slash’ genre with excellent work from the art division and the characters/enemies are fantastically created and has proved to be the stronghold of this title. We’ve enjoyed it while it lasted, despite the camera issues and the lack of adjusting difficulty the story itself is there to enjoy. You’ll pick up a few avatar items with the playthrough which are pretty neat but for 1200msp, be sure to trial the game and make your decision from there.

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