Bloodroots

Anyone with a brain could tell you that it does not take even five minutes to know this is a good game. Only reason: the devs care. I couldnt see all the names in the brief prologue but like 5-7 people made this game. Daniel, we share a name and I am so happy for it with the work ive already seen in this game. There is style, there is feeling, there is fun. Download the demo and you will agree.

At a basic level it's fun. You run around, grab random things like chairs, knives, rifles, carrots, frozen squirrels, cap america shield (using this one is crazy satisfying) etc. and kill enemies with them. "Weapons" have different moves so at first it's random but later, as enemies get more complex (range, shielded, deadly shielded etc.) you need to choose the right tool to deal with them. Variety is impressive and till the end you'll be finding new things. What also helps keep the game fresh till the credits is level design. I was surprised how varied the challenges were making the whole game feel a bit more than just running and smacking things. Most section also have more than one way to deal with them. Finding secret wolves was super fun as reaching them was always a dexterity puzzle.
Things that keeps the game from being truly amazing is slight inconsistency in attacks. There's an auto-lock mechanism and it feels like all attacks are checking for that and not physical contact. In other words sometimes it feels you should hit but you don't. It's maybe 4% of all actions in the game but in such a fast game where you die instantly it can become annoying. Not to the point you want to stop playing but still. Another thing is the camera. Sometimes it zooms out too much or angle is weird and "platforming" feels more complicated than actually is as it's hard to understand the space you are in. The last thing is the addition of some out of place/time elements that are fun to use but break immersion. For such a cartoony game story is pretty grim and hits some serious tones and those items just trivialize it a bit too much for my taste.
To sum it up it's an interesting take on "one hit" game and if some of the fiddlyness would be ironed out it could become a classic in my book. But it's not so it's "just" a good game that I can recommend if you’re looking for a fast game that won’t feel repetitive even if you get stuck in some area.

Soft recommend and here's why: The gameplay loop is pretty fun and is in the same vein as, lets say Hotline Miami for example, and it can create a good loop. Enemies are always placed the same and will have the same weapons every time, so you can plan accordingly. The classic one hit and you're dead, so it becomes a fast feedback loop of dying and restarting and so on until you pretty much have it mapped out. Plus the art style is really cool and the finishing animation of killing the last enemy in the level is always super cool and dependent on what weapon you have so it can be varied.

The actual story is, well its there. It's a revenge tale and you kill each member of the gang chapter by chapter. You can unlock different hats that change how you play the game(another similarity to Hotline Miami), but the downside with this is that you HAVE to beat the level first before being able to use the hat. Which is okay? I get that you need a reason to give replay value but it feels cheapened by having to jump through a hoop to use it. It feels like it was designed to make you replay it and not give you the choice to. I think they knew this because the story isn't great, but ofcourse you're not coming for a thrilling narrative or nuanced thoughts, just revenge and killing.

While both parts are subjective to my own experience, the soft recommend really comes in at this point because you can have gameplay bugs. Nothing game breaking, but enough to ruin a good flow and it feels dirty. It's actually what inspired me to write this, because twice the main character got stock in an animation of dashing with a sword and dies because he cant attack. Three times my character just freezes and wont move. Did the game freeze? No, only you as enemies run at you and kill you, causing you to restart.

I'd say this game is a 7/10, youre not missing anything you havent seen before if you dont play it, but it can be a fun time if you just shut your brain off and lock in to the fighting.

This is a really good and challenging video game. Obviously, it can be compared to other projects in a similar genre, but it stands on its own. The only minor issue I would mention is related to the control visibility. In the heat of battle, you could lose track of your navigation.

Generally I consider this game to be good. This style of chaotic combat is always enjoyable. It is visually nice. The story is ok, it is serviceable.
I'm just annoyed by the targeting system. It is the reason I'm skipping the game for now.
The lock-on targets the enemies in front of you, but if you have a melee weapon that makes you lunge sometimes it will skip the close enemy and target the far one, and to attack the enemy skipped you should look in their direction. I find this to be an unintuitive, because by time you changed direction you are likely dead. I think it is better to have the controls for aiming separated from the movement. It doesn't need to be free-aim at least provide angle control for your aim.
I may give the game another chance in the future. Maybe with a controller the targeting issue will be less problematic, though I doubt it.
Arabic Review
المراجعة بالعربي
أرى ان اللعبة ممتازة، اسلوب العاب القتال العشوائية ممتع ومضبوط وهو سبب شرائي لها. رسومات اللعبة جميلة. القصة عادية لكن تؤدي الغرض.
أزعجني اسلوب اختيار الاعداء في اللعبة. ازعجني لدرجة اني بأسحب على اللعبة بسببه.
تحصل ان اولوية اختيار العدو تعتمد على اتجاهك، يحصل مع بعض الاسلحة اللي تخليك تقفز انها تعطي الاولية للعدو البعيد على القريب ولو بترجع للقريب لازم تنظر لجهته. أرى ان هذا الاسلوب غير مناسب، لأنك غالبا بتصير ميت متى ما صرت على اتجاهه. ارى ان الافضل في مثل هذه الحالات ان التصويب والتحكم يكونون مفصولين. مو شرط يكون التصويب يدوي بالكامل بس على الاقل تتحكم بزاوية التصويب.
ممكن ارجع للعبة مستقبلا، يدة التحكم ممكن تخفف من المشكلة لكن اشك في فعاليتها.

This game is very fun, has a lot of options for completing most or all of a level and is difficult. VERY difficult. So difficult I almost didn't give a positive review because it annoyed the hell out of me. How difficult is "so difficult" and " VERY difficult"? There's an achievement for dying 100 times in a level and I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ have it. There are a couple portions where it shifts perspective or there's background option blocking your view .and that can throw things off but for the most part it's a good game and the story starting around act 3 made all my annoyance at the game bearable.

Very fun game! There are some accessibility options in case you can't get past some part of the level (or for easier exploration for collectables/wolves) which is always nice. The main loop is getting in an area and using everything in your enviroment, from fishing rods and carrots, to shotguns and giant scythes, to kill a variant of enemies that (mostly) die in one hit (you also die in one hit and you are stunlocked when hitting an enemy with your fists, so the game encourages constant movement and rotation of weapons). There are enemies that are immune to some types of attacks and enemies with ranged attacks and different patterns so the fights aren't dumbed down to mindless button mashing. There are also some platforming sections that serve as a pallet cleanser from the constant combat. The most successful part of the game is that the enviromental design offers ways to chain kills in a way that makes you feel like you perform a blockbuster action movie fight if you plan out your actions, which gives the game a bit of a nice puzzle element and also lightly encourages speedrunning. There is also a combo meter that is tight enough to be challenging to keep going but not so tight that it doesn't forgive a single mistep. There are also different hats that grant an extra ability when replaying a level, although I only used the deer hat (double jump) to make it easier to find missed collectables. Ofcourse as you can see from the trailers the game is very polished with nice art and a great feel when playing. All in all, I don't have to say anything too negative. Yes, the bosses could be a bit more memorable and maybe we could have a bit more challenging rooms and platforming sessions but at the end of the day it's a very fun game to spend a few afternoons with!