It’s reasonable to expect a hack ‘n slasher with the word ‘blood’ in its name to be excessively violent. While there is indeed the occasional spurt of ketchup when slashing enemies, its use here appears to align more with the fact that our merciless protagonist seeks revenge. A tyrant king is responsible for taking everything away from Mehran, his daughter included, and the only thing that can quell the brute’s anger is to take the king’s life. It’s a fair trade-off…at least from Mehran’s viewpoint. From the king’s perspective, not so much – which is why every guard and soldier within the city has been ordered to take down Mehran on first sight.
Blood of Mehran takes the form of a third-person hack ‘n slash with frequent stealth sections and the occasional jaunt across rugged terrane on horseback. Somewhat refreshingly, it isn’t open-world, with the action largely confined to small, linear, portions of the king’s palace and its surrounding areas – with the exception being a trek into a nearby graveyard to slay a witch who sided with the king, adding a fantastical slant to the storyline. Being level based rather than open-world gives the experience a rather last-gen feel, especially when so many of its acts end with a one-on-one boss battle.
The plot is outlined in retrospect, with the duel against the king being the opening sequence, ergo the combat tutorial. Mehran is armed with just a sword initially and must counter and dodge special attacks indicated by coloured flashes, aided here by a generous parry window. Mehran will automatically lock onto the nearest adversary and dashes to any in proximity, making combat reasonably fast-paced, and they’re capable enough to take on large groups.
No sooner than the combat tutorial is over, our weary warrior finds himself shackled in prison, commencing the stealth tutorial. Upon entering most areas enemies will be oblivious to Mehran’s presence, making it possible to silently execute them from behind, lure them into blind corners by whistling, or perform a stylish yet fatal leap from above. Once they learn of your presence though – either by filling an enemy’s detection gauge, or foolishly attacking an enemy in the open – you’ll have every guard nearby to deal with. On the easier difficulties, this doesn’t necessarily mean the end of Mehran’s quest for revenge, as it’s possible to churn through numerous adversaries by activating a temporary ‘rage’ boost, and later it’s possible to unlock a 360-degree spin attack that’ll harm several foes at once.
Once these tutorials are out of the way, and now free of his prison shackles, Mehran finds himself on the outskirts of the city and must gradually make his way back into the king’s sizeable palace through its dusty streets, slums, gardens, markets, keeps and more. There are occasional flashback sequences too, filling in the blanks of Mehran’s past. His present-day persona doesn’t amount to much more than simply being extremely angry – resulting in numerous overused revenge-based phrases uttered during combat – although I did find it curiously uplifting that citizens go from fearing this presence to quietly cheering him on.
Visually it becomes more competent and contemporary over time, going from rough and bland environments – including an early cut-scene in which even Mehran’s beard suffers from texture pop-up – to becoming quite alluring, especially during sequences lit by moonlight. It’s a game that only looks good if you catch it in the right light, or whenever an oasis or similar is nearby.
A drip-feed of new weapons and enemy types is in place throughout the game’s entire 15 hour (approx.) duration. That’s in addition to an XP system that gradually unlocks new attacks. Early on a shield is added, not just used to block but to accumulate arrows – as any lodged in the shield can be re-used. This means that sometimes it’s essential to simply raise the shield for a minute or so to acquire a full quill. Archers are common adversaries, even appearing mid-battle, resulting in quickly swapping to the sword and shield combo. The bow isn’t introduced until later, occasionally used to clear a path by shooting explosives. Around the halfway point Mehran then gains a second sword, which makes short work of weaker foes and comes in useful against the hulking brutes and fire-breathing units introduced from thereon.
Most acts introduce a new enemy type, including grenade throwers that’ll haphazardly harm others. For the most part, I found myself provoking enemies to give chase and then attacking them in a group with a special move rather than one-on-one, usually leading them into a dead end. The way that progression is handled is that the next area cannot be accessed – usually by vaulting a wall or climbing a structure – until all enemies are defeated. Said structures/walls are always marked in yellow paint, making them easy to identify, and any door that can be used is also indicated by a glowing marker. Being quite linear, it’s usually obvious where the path ahead lies, especially when navigating indoor locations. Scope for exploration is present, but rather minimal, with just the occasional alleyway or rooftop used to conceal collectables or stashes.
While combat becomes more tactful over time, requiring you to swap between the three weapon sets often, stealth sequences never evolve beyond introducing the bow and arrow – which is added just a couple of hours in. There’s a noticeable lack of puzzle solving too, while the horseback stages are only used to journey to a new location and consequently don’t involve much more than holding forward. Sections involving ballista turrets are a bit more successful at introducing variety, requiring steady timing to avoid their one-hit-kill blasts, although this does call for trial and error while you roll from one piece of cover to the next.
As the hours pass, Blood of Mehran increasingly starts to overstay its welcome, with combat peaking around midway, and boss battles starting to become remarkably outlandish – including a battle against an “Ugly Lord” who performs Street Fighter-style special moves. As you’d expect, the difficulty rises during the final hours, but it’s done so in way that feels lazy, simply introducing greater numbers of adversaries and forcing you to fight in restrictive narrow environments. More infuriatingly, archers will appear on the outskirts of almost every battle arena, proving tricky to deal with while being pummelled at the same time.
Blood of Mehran is a textbook entry into the hack ‘n slash genre that desperately clings onto its revenge filled premise to keep players engaged. It does a reasonably good job of introducing new weapon sets for the first few hours, helping to maintain interest, before letting the drip-fed of new enemy types of take over, which isn’t anywhere near as thrilling. While it’s true that stealth never evolves, it does at least manage to avoid becoming as infuriating as the combat. Together with its lack of freedom and samey looking locales, it has a distinctly last-gen feel, almost akin to playing a remaster from the Xbox 360/PS3 era.
If you miss the days of bi-annual Prince of Persia games from Ubisoft, you may find solace here – and it would be wrong to say its linearity isn’t in some way comforting, forgoing open-world bloat. But even if you fall into that camp, definitely don’t expect an experience as competent as those before it.
Permanent Way Game Co’s Blood of Mehran is out now on PS5, Xbox Series and PC. Published by Blowfish Studios.