This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
Although "Blood Knights" may seem like an uninspired mediocre vampire game at first glance, it presents quite a few interesting concepts. Unfortunately none of them were developed well and as a result the whole game feels unfinished and loosely cobbled together. The combat system isn't anything special, but there are actually points, where switching to the other character helps a lot, which I thought was a nice touch,since it adds at least a little bit of strategy to an otherwise shallow system. I didn't really experience much trouble with the controls, except for controlling your jumps, which felt very unnatural (probably as a result of poor animation). Now this wouldn't be such a problem if the game didn't constantly throw these unneeded platforming sections at you and in almost any case falling means certain death, which sends you back to the next checkpoint. The critics really seem to point out this checkpoint system as one of the game's main problems, it didn't bother me much, though, as the annoying platforming sections were thankfully almost always right after a save point. These sections were probably made for padding out the game,as it is quite short (around 5 hours with all side activities done). This and the linear level design is a clear sign that Deck 13 cut the development cycle prematurely,which is a real shame,as I was actually quite impressed by the dark,stylish look the game had, despite the sub par quality of the textures and lighting effects. I'm guessing they originally planned to give you much more freedom, as there are some side quests throughout the game, but no quest log to track them (you wont need one,navigation isn't really a problem). There is also a world map,but it basically restricts you to travelling between the current mission location and the base town,where you can access the trader.He would have been another good element to add more depth to the game,but unfortunately he is nearly useless. He only sells items from the current tier (which you will pick up as loot anyway) plus two ultimate weapons, which you will probably have enough gold to buy near the end of the game. And since they are better than anything you can loot, they are the only thing worth buying from him. There is also another trader, but she sells completely useless garbage. The story actually piqued my interest quite a bit. Mainly because of your main character, Jeremy, who at the start of the game kills vampires with extreme prejudice, but later himself becomes what he hates the most. The developers were trying to make him a conflicted and troubled man and this is reflected by the choices you can make as the game progresses.This was quite a pleasant surprise as these choices were not always purely "pro human" or "pro vampire". Then there is your companion, Alysa, a vampire bound to you by a magic ritual. I'm guessing it was the developers intention to have you bond with here throughout the course of the story. And of course,there's Batholomew, a priest and your close friend who feels regret for what happened to you,but at the same time hates what you have become. Unfortunately non of this works as the developers intended it to, mainly because of the atrocious voice acting (almost as bad as "Two Worlds" or "Ride to Hell: Retribution" and the game's short length, which did not allow for extensive character development. In the end "Blood Knights" feels like a rushed unfinished game,that really could have been improved in so many ways. So why am I giving it a 6/10 after pointing out so many negative aspects? Because the developers actually had good ideas and tried putting at least some effort into this project. And despite it's numerous flaws I still find the game quite enjoyable. It was entertaining and after all,isn't that the main purpose of video games? Plus it doesn't ask for much, only 20$ on steam, unlike many budget games who are much worse and cost nearly full price ("Rambo: The Video Game")… Expand