First Report of the year didn't take long even if I do wish it was for a better game. Admittedly, I beat Blood Knights in 2020 and typing the multimedia review was the actual hold-up. Hope you celebrated end of the year famously and you'll stick with me in 2021 as well.
Blood Knights
( PC (Steam) – Action, RPG – 2013 ) + TRAILER
Even though it may not exactly change how you look at vampire-themed games in general, Blood Knights is still a game that left a mark. How does this action RPG fare with one foot in what has become a rather ubiquitous genre mix and with other in a rarely seen bloodsucker game? Well, it could've done better in both departments.
What struck me as the oddest decision was to not set the game in some fantastical homebrew world, but rather our own medieval times with a fantasy spin. Rome, for example, is very much real with their vampire hunting organization running around. It's precisely following one of those where we see our protagonist Jeremy & company in a sticky situation. Seeing as others are warriors it falls on the magic wielding priest of the group to decide there's only one way out – they'll bond Jeremy to a vampiress called Alysa so they can use her powers and get out of the tomb. Why were they there? Looking for something called the Blood Seal as unleashing it would essentially turn the world upside down. What managed to take me by surprise is the fact they FAIL, resident vampire boss has a bad day and turns our protagonist into the very thing he hunted mere moments earlier. With his former compatriots leaving him for dead and bond with Alysa still active it falls on the unlikely pair to chase after the Blood Seal seeing as merely removing it cracked the Moon and it would be a terrible weapon in vampire hands.
While all of the above actually makes for an interesting premise, one that facilities co-op play rather than switching characters if you go at it alone, I'm disappointed to report it fails to deliver on narrative fronts. Perhaps because the game is so short yet you could dismiss that thanks to having no filler to speak of as you're constantly driven to reach your goal. I'm fairly certain both story and characters were afterthoughts here. For a war that's been going seemingly forever the Church isn't exactly in the know about what vampires can do, but they sure have their miracles. Likewise, while there are hints about vampires own society based on comments Alysa and some make, you're left to guessing what “bred for war” and “wild free vampires” mean in this context. Maybe latter was just an excuse to bring werewolves into the story as enemies? Yeah, I'll go with that.
Jeremy and Alysa are our only protagonists and for a relationship that's supposed to almost represent a buddy cop affair that eventually turns into grudging respect we only see intermittent hints of the latter. It's like the writer(s) HAD that very idea, but didn't have enough non-combat and dialog bits to pull it off so you get those sudden “when did you two go from forced servitude to cracking mutual jokes?” scenes. Besides those two there are only a handful of characters that get, well, characterization and rarely overstay their welcome. Even with dubious VA I kinda wish they did, though. Surprising no one, sexy all-female vampire bosses get plenty of screen time. There are some basic attempts to portray jealousy from Jeremy's second-in-combat and doubt from other characters, but like I said – it's all very basic and not enough to carry legitimate character arcs.
With all that in mind it's probably for the best I get to gameplay and mechanics. After all, I don't think Blood Knights really is an RPG in true sense of the word. Rather it is an action game with roleplaying elements aka token stats and gear, along with binary quest choices that encourage committing fully to either human or vampire side.
Figures a crossbow character would go for speed and critical damage over abilities.
Game dolling out just enough equipment for both of your characters as you progress sadly made shopping just a pit stop to sell trash. For the gold I didn't need.
Around vampires never relax, padre!
You could say it's worrisome just how uneven our two protagonists are in their gameplay styles. Even if he IS the main character Jeremy's melee approach almost immediately become secondary to Alysa's twin-stick rapid fire repeater crossbows. Especially once she levels up a bit and you've invested in faster fire, higher critical chance and movement speed skills. This resulted in Jeremy falling into severe disuse, perhaps reserved only if unfortunate camera angle or enemy spawns put me in a position where vampiress would get needlessly damaged. In fact, due to there not really being a block function I'd argue playing as our strapping protagonist would be a very poor choice since he relies on wonky dodges and then striking in retaliation. On the flip-side Alysa's limited grenades and longer cooldowns are, in theory, supposed to be limiting factors, but due to how affordable/avoidable it all is this is a non-issue with some rings you get later on. Seeing as I haven't played on hard I can't comment on how much that changes the base formula, though.
It's like this – go through a level taking out enemies and picking up all the gold they drop. You find chests that provide loot for very elementary stat changes like damage, armor or crit chances, with each character getting their assorted stuff. Only sometimes you will come across a Blood Coin and after pocketing five of them you upgrade you attribute (health, strength or luck). Blood Knights has an inventory system, skill and attribute system. Hell, there's an even shopping in case you want to specifically customize how your characters play or looks as gear alters appearance. Problem here is none of this really matters. Game will provide enough loot to keep you organically going without much hassle so you're just going through the motions to regularly equip pieces that have green arrows pointing up. I only ended up going to the trader to dispose of outdated equipment and looking at stuff like Lucifer's Fang or some such I didn't really need.
Game's major gameplay headache boils down to just how shaky it all feels to play. All those pieces necessary for an action game are here, but overall moment-to-moment impression is almost something released a generation too late. That's not necessarily a BAD thing considering I really liked action games this apes like Return of the King or such, but additional elements bolted on don't add much and just dilute an already short package.
Final Thoughts and Rating?
Dubious production values as well as stripped down storytelling really mar what could otherwise have been a decent vampire-centric action RPG. As you embark on a quest to recover the fabled Blood Seal this unlikely pair of protagonists never develops that required character chemistry to seal the deal in order for story to click. Not helped by the fact gameplay blatantly favors ranged combat, in a co-op game, and tacked on progression systems like equipment and skill unlocks add little beyond ticking imaginary check boxes to pursue some idea of increase dplay time longevity. Which is a problem because serviceable base gameplay doesn't get much time to shine due to game's short length clocking under four hours for yours truly.
Sung in Blood ( Fantasy – 1992 – 200 pages ) + GOOD READS
Considering this is Glen Cook we're talking about here, man with experience writing both fantasy action and detective stories alike, I was surprised to see how half-baked both of these elements turned out in Sung in Blood. As I hope to explain below I think the problem may be his writing style not complimenting a fast-paced story like this one.
City of Shasesserre is protected by its, well, Legendary Protector Jehrke Victorious who is essentially this Gary Stu keeping tabs on the city in unofficial capacity simply because A) he's so badass that no one, not even kings, can really out-maneuver or overpower him, and B) he seems to be immortal considering he's been running the gig for centuries. Well, that changes in the opening as he fall victim to an elaborate murder scheme that gets him literally nailed to the very wall of his tower. In steps Rider and his posse of friends as it falls on them to gradually unravel the mystery of WHO got his old man, seeing as WHY isn't really a mystery considering he was ultimately a beloved stabilizing influence. There's also a matter of whether Rider now inherits the title of Legendary Protector or whatever else he actually wants to do.
Problem is that last part is kind of lie on my end.
Rider, a power house in his own right or else the magical protective Web Jehrke maintained would just go poof without someone to mend it, settles naturally into solving the mystery. Not overtly out of any love for his father because he is that stoic, distant and all-competent protagonist type, but more due to it needing to be done as these perfidious easterners involved are looking to take out even more key figures in the city to destabilize and take over. Now I've matched everything that Sung in Blood feels inclined to tell you about Rider himself. Same really applies to his companions who stick to Cook's reliable nicknames routine so you have the likes of Preacher, Soup, etc with standout being a shapeshifting Imp Su-Cha who definitely gets mileage in this story. Out of all of those I'd argue maybe only Su-Cha and barbarian Chaz get some further identities beyond one line summaries, those of comedic relief and straightforward northerner. That's not to say Sung in Blood is above having them do whatever story requires at the moment, but I'm left puzzled as to whether that speaks of depth or sheer convenience.
Reason why all of the above does not click for me is simply because you have a story that stops being a mystery about a quarter or so in only to turn into this prolonged parry and riposte scenario as the “real” antagonist is revealed. Secondly, due to Rider being the one who primarily does things while others seem to just get kidnapped or fail at their tasks with their feeble recoveries always somehow factoring into Ride-master's plans. What we have at hand is an extended case of dick measuring if I ever saw any, albeit one adapted into unexplained magical workings wielded by key figures.
At the end of the day you have a story with basic stereotypes for characters playing out at breakneck pace with signature author focus on keeping it flowing without being bogged down by details. Result is a very lean novel that could have honestly benefited from a higher page count if only to expand on a cliffhanger ending that never gets resolved as tale of Rider and Shai Khe is never re-visited. Airships are cool, though.
I’m having trouble figuring out what you mean by this. I know you say it’s “not necessarily a BAD thing,” but you also don’t really explain what “it” is. If it helps, I’m of the opinion that nothing is “dated”; if it’s bad today, it was bad back then as well. For example, you don’t really see the “constantly spawn 1 or 2 of the same enemy type until the player leaves the room” outside of NES games not because people used to like it and changed their minds, but because devs were still experimenting back then and course-corrected from feedback.
So…what’s this game’s actual problem? Is it really just the progression system and story? How does that relate to it being more fitting for the previous console generation? Furthermore, how does the progression system alone make the game bad? There are plenty of games with no progression system or story that are well liked, so what’s different about this game? Does it have bland level design and/or low enemy variety? If so, I don’t see how a different progression system would fix that since you’d still be approaching and dealing with enemies the same way.
I’m sorry for taking so long to respond.
In my opinion these two are very much tied to the same thing. Game being dated wasn’t really a negative point so much as how I wished it actually stayed true to that more honest action adventure formula. Realizing story and such may not matter to someone at all, what I played at the end of the day was a simple game where it was decided to graft utterly braindead loot/equipment systems and initially limiting skill progression simply because it was a thing to do to add more RPG bits. In fact, game should’ve committed wholesale to what it actually does at multiple points - it grants you abilities when it suits the narrative. What makes these these particular progression systems off-putting to me is them adding absolutely nothing to the game except fiddling for its own sake. Every new piece gear you find is better so you just go through the motion of replacing the old one, for example.
Game didn’t require any tacked on progression systems to begin with. It’s not something I need to keep playing if the game is engaging enough on its own.