So Much Blood Review

So Much Blood is a strange variation on the roguelike formula that seems to be very heavily inspired by The Binding of Isaac. Featuring a small, square and probably naked protagonist, you have to navigate around a maze of floors and kill a boss at the end to progress to the next level, though that is where the similarities end.

The game is split into seven levels, each with its own tileset and enemies. I only saw most of these levels once, since I beat the final boss on only my third run, but I think they’re the same each playthrough. Each level is pretty standard: there’s the cave level, the dungeon level, the ice and lava levels - there’s nothing here that is especially groundbreaking.

I had to play with the keyboard, because when I plugged in my Steam controller the game either crashed or didn’t register the controller at all, and I was apprehensive because I thought this game was a twin-stick shooter, like Isaac. Instead, I discovered that you’re permanently firing either left or right, depending on what way the character is facing. You can only strafe up and down, and this caused some real issues on the lava level which is made up mostly of long vertical corridors filled to the brim with enemies. Because of this, you can’t kite enemies - make them chase you while dealing damage to them, sustaining little to no damage in return - properly, since you can’t walk backwards.

Super Meat Boy has been working out

The number of enemies is also a problem. Not from a difficulty standpoint: there are no ranged enemies aside from the bosses and so it isn’t that hard to avoid damage if you can keep your distance. No, the number of enemies on all levels - but especially the final level - tanks the framerate to what I would call “A slideshow”. On the final level, the last boss was only as hard as he was because I had to fight him at 15fps and lower. It’s not like I can go through the level and clear some of those enemies from the game, because every 30 seconds a new wave spawns, further compounding the problem.

There are quite a few weapons in the game, all of which have a different feel. You can only carry one weapon at a time, though walking into the liberally placed crates around every map will switch you to a random one. The problem with this is most of the guns are pretty awful, and I’m not saying this because I prefered playing with one over the others: the guns aren’t balanced at all. The pistol has no range in comparison to the minigun, which also best it in bullet speed and damage. The laser pistol has superior range, but no damage behind it and it’s slow. There’s a shotgun that has good damage and can clear a busy room, but its low range and fire speed kinda kill it. Personally, I only used the railgun and the rocket launcher, because both had high damage, long range and a fast fire speed.

Aside from crates, you can also pick up five weapons from the shop, which is located somewhere in the level. These five weapons are always the same, and you can only buy them once. I have no idea why; the weapon would still cost money to purchase and isn’t greyed out of the shop, it just seems like something that is unintentional. Otherwise, the shop sells health regeneration and boosts, and armour to reduce damage taken for your easily earned blood. You see, the currency of the game is blood, gained by killing enemies. I had full armour by the second level because the first boss let me just farm blood, and had full hearts by the following level.