Bloodroots is a new hyper bloody beat-em-up from indie studio Paper Cult. Paper Cult is an indie videogame company based in Montreal that focuses on innovation and fast-paced action games. You play as Mr. Wolf, betrayed and left for dead. Mr. Wolf is hell-bent on finding his killer and enacting revenge – alone, and vastly outnumbered in a a relentless action game that unfolds across the sprawling Weird West.
Bloodroots is releasing on PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch. I was lucky enough to review the PlayStation 4 version of the game. I have really enjoyed playing through the extremely bloody extremely violent levels.
You take control of Mr Wolf. The first cut scene sees him brutally cut down and left for dead, bleeding out on the ground and it appears that this isn’t the first or the last time this has happened to Mr Wolf. Thus begins Act 1 of the game.
As Mr Wolf starts on his quest after his would be murder, you’re pretty much launched into the game and left to work out things as you go along. As the controls are pretty simple, I like the no tutorial style as it becomes part of the fun and part of the challenge to work out how everything works. Gameplay is pretty simple, grab pretty much anything from around you and smash it into enemies. Some weapons have three uses in them, some two and others only one. Enemies are pretty much hit them once and poof dead… Except bosses and a few who have a little extra protection.
Unfortunately you are also one hit and you’re a goner. Which can be both rewarding and frustrating at times. Each time you die you have to start the area that you’re in all over again, even if you only had one pesky axe swinging enemy left to take down. Luckily there aren’t a ridiculous number of enemies in each area, and 9 times out of 10 after a couple tries you find the right pattern to succeed. A lot of my early deaths were down to not really paying attention to when my weapon was going to break or from just barrelling into an area with 6 enemies, only a 3 hit weapon in hand and no real plan of what to pick up next. If you’re smart with your hits you can take out several enemies with one hit. Some of my favourite in game weapons have been meat skewers, fish heads, ladders and the blue legs or torso of a slain enemy. I really like how each weapon has its own characteristics, bigger weapons for example may take some time to swing, swords can help you move quickly and paddles can help you jump. Of course there are other styles but I’ll leave you to find that out for yourself
Enemies can be tricky to take down as if too many swarm you, you aren’t able to swing your weapons fast enough. You must be clever in some places, enemies will rush towards you and you can use this to your advantage to separate them. For the extra bloodthirsty among you, don’t worry you get your chance to plough through absolute hordes of enemies. It’s quite satisfying.
After each level, you retreat to a fireplace to reflect, here you often have some options: go to sleep or perhaps you’d like to have a chat with the floating boar attached to brightly coloured party balloons before you do. Whatever you decide, have fun with it.
Style wise the game is brightly coloured and cartooney. The top down angle which you play at will change throughout the game depending on the area you’re currently rampaging through. All of the different elements have been designed really nicely which is something I’d expect of a game where most things can be used as a weapon. The attention to detail is really nice, as mentioned before, enemy’s you have slain will drain of colour and turn a ghostly blue. There are a few environmental puzzles to work out but for the most part they are pretty simple. The game is fast paced so you won’t be bored and each section is similar enough that you can use your previous tactics but different enough that you must work out new things. The difficultly level never jumps too dramatically which I think is a bonus. It allows you to naturally adapt and play.
The storyline and characters are suitabley intriguing and weird, but perhaps not the main selling point of this game. They certainly add an extra layer of fun to Bloodroots, however it is definitely an enjoyable game even without it. Good stress relief after a long day at work. Some of you may remember a game called Fairytale Fights which I really enjoyed on the Xbox 360 or PS3, Bloodroots reminds me a lot of that in its style and humour. Although I haven’t been able to slide around for hours on end in the blood of my enemies. What I have been treated to is mortal kombat style death scenes. This often happens when you use and interesting item to kill and enemy or on the last enemy of an area. Its something to look forward too.
In summary, Bloodroots is a highly bloody, fast paced, silly enjoyable game. It has nice attention to detail, a good difficulty and good pacing. It’s very nicely done and I’d give it…