It feels a little odd to compare this DOOM inspired first-person shooter to an arcade game, especially considering the genre was barely represented in the world of coin-ops, but I also couldn’t shake the fact that it would be right at home nestled between the likes of Mortal Kombat 4 and Mace: The Dark Age in an arcade circa 1999. Created by Midway themselves, no less. A time limit and a scoring system are all that’s missing.
What I’m trying to say is that Bloodhound feels more like an arcade game than a console one, with little in the way of trying to establish a storyline or induce tension by creating an atmosphere. You’re thrown into its gothic world full pelt, and by the time the first stage ends, you’ll have a weapon wheel comprising of half the available arsenal and will have also seen most of the adversaries that casually line-up to be turned into a bloody red mist. The generic metal music that plays in the first stage is also used throughout, fading in and out whenever enemies appear. You may want to source your own background music for this one.
Keeping with its demonic theme, you’re up against frenzied cult members, gargoyles, fallen angels, and exploding demons. For whatever reason, every female adversary is bare-chested, only with a pixilated filter to cover their nudity. That’s another reason why it feels trapped in 1999. Not because of the filter, but rather that they were bare-chested to begin with.
Bloodhound has you dashing along corridors and entering impromptu battle arenas while relentlessly blasting enemies, collecting coloured keys, and looking out for switches that open doors. All the while, achievements unlock almost constantly – expect over a dozen to unlock per stage, with a resounding 100 in total. Every so often a boss battle will occur, and these bigger brutes go down easily if you use the biggest guns available at the time. Only the final boss provides something resembling a challenge, casting shields and summoning minions.
The weapon assortment here isn’t bad, at least in terms of variety, but the gunplay itself feels considerably loose. The protagonist’s hands are never shown, and as such, weapons are seemingly magically floating. The sword swing is more akin to casting a spell with a wand. Whether you’re using the starting revolver or a later weapon, most enemies can be killed with two or three hits; there’s no incentive or motivation to swap often. The rocket launcher has a large splash damage radius, but otherwise, it isn’t as if some weapons will take down certain enemies more efficiently. Power-ups feature too, including slow-mo and a demonic rage, but these are only beneficial on the harder modes and not particularly exciting to use.
This sloppy feel extends to the level design. I couldn’t tell you how many stages feature, as there’s no clear-cut start or end. You simply enter portals and are transported to new locations. Is it the start of a new stage, or a continuation? You’ll never know, as stages aren’t named and there are no cut-scenes after the tutorial. It flits between themes quite a bit, which isn’t too problematic all told, with environments including hellish landscapes, grey industrial facilities, a fully decorated mansion, and a subway system used for all of thirty seconds. If you ever find yourself backtracking or aimlessly wandering, you’ve likely missed a switch somewhere.
Secret rooms also feature, but as there’s no end of stage breakdown, you’ll never know how many were missed. Or indeed whether they were even there.
It isn’t without merit visually, especially for the £8 price tag. The weapons have some creative flair to their design, and it moves at a fair old whip. The resolution is set to 720p as default and can be increased to 1080p. There’s a 240p setting here too, titled ‘Juicy Retro Mode’ – although this is more of a novelty than anything, as the textures and visual prompts clearly weren’t made with such a low resolution in mind. No matter which resolution you’ve chosen, it can look quite sketchy in places still, with lots of strange white artefacts on screen.
I was able to finish Bloodhound in just under four hours, dying only a handful of times – with two of these deaths linked to being crushed by moving platforms. There’s no unfolding story to become invested in, so it’s fuelled by things such as new enemies and weapon drops, along with the chance to find out which arbitrary location you’ll be thrown into next. If I had to describe it using a single word, that word would be ‘sloppy’ – even the names of its weapons are inconsistent, with its fantasy-style decorative sword referred to as a machete, while the rail gun is also known as the energy gun. By listening to player feedback, Bloodhound could have offered a tighter and more consistent experience – many commonplace elements are missing. But let’s face it, it was never as if a small production such as this would receive an open beta.
Kruger & Flint Productions’ Bloodhound is out now on PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series.