When publisher-mandated bowdlerization is only one of your worries.
Bloodhound
Platform:Â PlayStation 5, also on PlayStation 4, previously on PC
Developer:Â Kruger & Flint Productions
Publisher:Â Kruger & Flint Productions
Release date:Â June 28th, 2024
Availability:Â Digital
Price: $10.99 via PlayStation Store
The first-person shooter aspect of Bloodhound isn’t its most intriguing feature. Instead, what makes the game particularly notable is how it contradicts conventional wisdom around sex and violence. You’ll be taking down demonic cherubs and turning them into sprays of pulpy viscera in a matter of minutes once the game launches.
Strangely enough, Sony takes issue with two statues on the game’s main menu that have naked breasts. Evidently, hours of weaponized carnage are not as provocative as a topless figure. Get a ticket to Bloodhound on the PlayStation if you want a front row seat to the American Theatre of the Absurd. Here, it is acceptable to butcher bodies, but in an M-rated game, it is not acceptable to show the feminine form in an ambiguous way. Sony’s logic somehow accepts foes who look like members of a hate group.
However, you’re not here for another tirade against PlayStation puritanism—you’re here for a review of Bloodhound. Well, the first-person shooter from Kruger & Flint Productions really does look good. The Unreal Engine developers are able to deliver a smooth 60 frames per second experience on the PlayStation 5. You won’t find anything unique among the game’s seventeen stages in other titles of a similar nature. However, Bloodhound’s visuals are impressive provided you don’t mind disembodied weaponry prowling around realistically drawn settings. Even then, the enemy roster is strong, notwithstanding the unlucky opponent’s mosaiced mammaries.
For better or worse, Bloodhound borrows from the first-person shooters of the previous century in terms of simplicity. It’s practically hard to get lost in any of the game’s stages because to their linear architecture. You may occasionally see some diverging paths. However, these nearly invariably lead to a room or alcove that bestows upon you more health, ammo, or shards that act as defensive shields upon your discovery. Usually, as waves of enemies appear, the game would seal an escape, starting a gunfight. Although it’s normally annoying when adversaries appear behind you, Bloodhound’s opponents usually have poor accuracy, so it’s not too annoying.
While the game opens with comic-panel background, don’t expect Bloodhound to deliver much additional exposition. Instead, the setup provides justification for a collection of special abilities, so you can temporarily increase your damage output or slow down time. And while the title’s ten weapons are attractively drawn, there’s a good likelihood that you’ve used the crossbow with exploding bolts, assault rifle, or grenade launcher in countless other shooters. But between balancing issues, a lack of recoil, and little indication when you’ve actually hit a foe, the game’s shootouts, and boss battles feel far too rudimentary in 2024.
Bloodhound is available for less than three dollars on the PC, even though the PlayStation version costs almost eleven dollars. You might have a semblance of fun at that price point and escape the aggravation that comes with PlayStation prudishness. Please note that the game seems less like a finished retail title and more like an early demo.
On a PlayStation 5, Bloodhound was played using a review code that was sent by the publisher.
Review Overview
Gameplay – 40%
Controls – 55%
Aesthetics – 65%
Content – 50%
Accessibility – 50%
Value – 20%
47%
POOR
Summary: Bloodhound is technically sound, but there aren’t many reasons to play its boring single-player campaign. All of its weapons and main powers have already been used by you. It is not worth recreating the experience of defeating waves of enemies in small arenas unless there is some originality.