They say you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. Those words will forever be true, and in the case of video games, that thing I miss when it’s gone is balance. I can understand how balance can be lost in a game – especially RPGs. Players are leveling up characters, becoming stronger with each fight, and by the end of some of these games you’re damn near god-like. So, with incredible powers, how can you keep the game challenging? What can you do to keep players engaged? How do you keep players grounded as they become very powerful? If you’re looking for answers, I don’t have them. But you know who else doesn’t have them? The creators of Blood Knights: Deck13.
Blood Knights is an Action-RPG where you play as not one, but two vampires. Actually, you start off as a human (Jeremy) and a vampire (Alysa) that were bound together by a priest so that the human could use the vampire’s powers. What sounds like a bad idea was a bad idea, so things don’t really work out and Jeremy ends up becoming a vampire himself. There is an option for co-op, but a single player can switch between Jeremy and Alysa at any time, and you’ll need to so you can complete certain tasks. I thought I would see a lot of this mechanic throughout the game, but besides NEEDING to switch two or three times, the game doesn’t really force you to play either character.
Jeremy is a melee character that wields dual swords, and his attacks primarily focus on connecting combos. Alysa is the exact opposite, as she is a ranged character whose primary focus is to keep enemies away from her. Each character has a heavy attack that can be used to deal great damage or break items like shields, and an alternate attack that can deal damage to a group. I would love to tell you that based on your current scenario you would need to use one character or the other, but in reality, you can almost play this entire game with Alysa.
There are three parts that I can think of that you need to use Jeremy due to a certain move he has. While it’s usually faster to use Jeremy to fight, you can safely take out any group of enemies by kiting them with Alysa. In addition to that, I came across several parts of the game where I could peg enemies from a distance and they wouldn’t retaliate. I also found that if you kite enemies far enough they will turn around and go back to where they came from. The problem is that even if you attack them while they are moving, they won’t turn back around. Challenge is something to enjoy in a game, so I found myself staying away from Alysa whenever possible since playing with her is easy mode.
As you would expect, you drink the blood of your enemies to replenish health. Thankfully Deck13 didn’t go with the Dark style of blood sucking that sounds like someone eating peanut butter directly from a jar and went with the Legacy of Kain “I’m a boss so I’m going to suck the blood out of your neck from a distance” mechanic. This move is called ‘hold’, in which you cause an enemy to levitate while you pull the blood from their body. The move is dual purpose, however, as you can then throw an enemy away from you (Repel) if you’re Alysa, or pull an enemy toward you (Attract) if you’re Jeremy. I found the move to be more useful for Jeremy, since there will be many times where ranged enemies are sitting on ledges above you and you can use Attract to pull them down.
You can also use Repel and Attract on various structures throughout the game (Pulling down bridges, pushing spiked doors open, and a few other scenarios). The problem with using Repel or Attract in this aspect is also the only problem I had with using Alysa: There is no indicator as to where you are aiming, and there doesn’t appear to be a way to switch targets. The whole purpose of using Repel or Attract on a pillar or spike trap is to use them as environmental hazards on enemies. However, if there are enemies on the field, 9/10 times you will target them with Hold instead of the structure. I see where they were going with it, but the mechanic ends up being useless.
When using Alysa’s primary attack, she locks on to enemies as she shoots at them. However, when you use your heavy attack she doesn’t, so it’s very easy to miss with the heavy attack since there is no definitive way to know you are aiming at your target. Camera angles are fixed, so if the target was anywhere besides front of me, there was a good chance I would just miss them.
Most of the game consists of getting from point A to point B and killing everything in between, and at least there are a few classes of enemies. Melee enemies are typically pretty easy to deal with. Later on they get shields that need to be broken before you can attack them, but once you figure out a system to do that they aren’t much of a threat. Some melee groups will have leader enemies that are not only stronger, but are immune to Hold. Ranged enemies aren’t really challenging, and are more like an annoyance. Having an enemy pelt you with rocks or arrows while you are fighting a group of melee units can be irritating, but doesn’t feel very dangerous.
Nothing in the game makes it challenging. Enemies don’t change tactics and the environment doesn’t come into play when fighting. Also, since blood is your health source, if you find yourself low just drink some from an enemy and you’ll be ok. I only died twice while playing the game, and both were due to me falling from a location that was too high. Later in the game there are “powerful” enemies that are introduced that are sort of a joke. Sure, if I let them hit me they would probably do a decent amount of damage, but in order to get hit with some of these enemies I would literally need to LET them hit me. If the game wasn’t helping me enough, I had enemies that disappeared in the middle of fights. They didn’t go invisible and attack me, they literally disappeared and went away…
Perhaps if the game had more RPG aspects it would have helped. Every now and again you will get dialog options in how to respond to certain people and situations, and it felt like every interaction did affect your journey in some way. Toward the beginning of the game you hunt down a vampire and later on you have the option to either set her free or let her be burned at the stake. I let her burn, but later on in the game I met up with another vampire who knew about what I did, so certain options weren’t available with her that would have been available normally. On the flip side of that, I know that if I let her go, certain quests that I did wouldn’t have been available if I would have set her free. You can also set the tone of your character. Do you stay hardened toward the vampires, or go to their side? Do you find out that everything isn’t what it seems on either side of the battle?
Fighting gives you experience that helps you earn perk points. Perk points upgrade moves to either increase their power, make them more efficient, or both. Jeremy starts off only being able to do a four move combo, but if you use enough perk points, you should be able to do a six move combo not far into the game. You can also do things like increase the efficiency of blood sucking, shoot faster with Alysa’s crossbows, and even increase movement speed. You can also swap out your weapons and armor. Those items can be purchased at a trader, but to be honest, you will find perfectly good armor and weapons while playing though the game’s various levels. I like being able to upgrade my characters, but this is where the balance issue comes in.
While the characters are upgraded, it feels like your enemies are not. Every upgrade just allowed me to take out enemies that much faster, to the point where I really didn’t even need to worry much about my health. Then I got the blood shield; They might as well have just told the rest of the game in a cinematic at that point. Alysa’s blood shield absorbs melee damage, while Jeremy’s absorbs ranged, so basically, the only thing that was hurting me on the battlefield as Jeremy (ranged hits) was completely nullified.
The last boss fight, which is supposed to be against this uber, highly respected and powerful warrior, was a complete joke. Apply Alysa’s blood shield, kite, repeat. Forgot to mention, the blood shield recharges so fast that I still have a good 10 seconds left on blood shield currently applied after the move fully recharges. I can deploy immediately after it goes away. The hardest part of the game is toward the beginning, and gets easier as you progress.
Blood Knights isn’t a bad game, it’s just not that interesting. An average player should be able to get through it in a little over three hours, so it’s not the much of a time investment. It’s selling for $15, and I’m not sure I can say that what you get justifies the price. The ending is left open for more games, and I think with the right tweaking they could have a good game on their hands. It just wasn’t this one.
