Bloodroots Review

Bloodroots tells the story of Mr. Wolf who has been betrayed and left for dead. As he comes to, he has only one goal on his mind: find the one who attempted to kill him and get some sort of revenge. Unfortunately, our hero, he’s alone and vastly outnumbered. But on the flip side, the world is his weapon.

Bloodroots is a one-hit kill fast-paced action game where you need to be quick on your feet to avoid certain death. Dying in one hit increases the tension, but thankfully Mr. Wolf can defend himself quite efficiently. While the does have his trusty fists, which are more or less efficient, he can pick up almost anything lying around; swords, axes, carrots(!), stuffed raccoons, and wooden planks; just to name a few.

Most of the weapons do have a limited number of usage varying between one and three. Once it’s done, it breaks and you need to scramble to find a replacement weapon. There’s an exception with the barrel as once you pick up and attack with one, you’ll find yourself walking on the barrel to make it roll around the terrain and kill everything.

Having a weapon equipped will also make you dash and zip around the area. Not only is it quite useful in order to rack up a combo, but it will allow you to dash through death traps such as moving spike walls or dash hover bigger gaps that cannot be jumped. Also, if you’re tired of dying, you can always enable the Invincibility mode.

The game looks great. The environment and character have a unique paper visual aspect to them which is something that’s not used very often. Areas are colorful and thankfully weapons are highlighted when you’re near them. The enemy design does leave a lot to be desired as they often repeat. The camera does change perspective to a top-down view sometimes, which is a bit helpful. The soundtrack is an interesting, slightly over-the-top, score that matches the light comedic tone of the game.

Mr. Wolf’s default attack is a crapshoot; they have such short range that you need to be very close to enemies for them to hit, but the closer you are to enemies, the higher of chances of getting killed because enemies are as fast as you. And unfortunately, this will cause a lot of cheap deaths. Also, sometimes the camera is so panned out that you can’t spot enemies until they’ve killed you. The Diablo isometric camera is a problematic issue given the one-hit kill mechanic and some enemies seem like they pop out of nowhere for unfair deaths.

Bloodroots is an enjoyable, fast-paced, albeit frustrating gaming experience. The diversity of weaponry is surprisingly deep; players need to be think quick on their feet to avoid instant death. It does feel like they developed to encourage players to use weapons and not bother with their fists. Unfortunately, the Diablo-like camera angle kinda ruins it a bit as it makes some enemies harder to see, so you’ll die often (thank god for the Invincibility mode). I recommend Bloodroots to anyone looking for a tense, fast-paced action game. There are worst ways to spend time and money.