Blasphemous

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
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  1. Worth Playing
    Dec 30, 2019
    73
    If you're into challenging action platformer games, Blasphemous is as good as the next. It isn't perfect or revolutionary, but it doesn't have to be. Its lore and visual direction are disturbingly beautiful and craft an interesting and distinct world. Great boss fights and an enjoyable and challenging combat system ensures that fans of the genre will have enough to sink their teeth into and enjoy.
  2. VideoGamer
    Sep 12, 2019
    70
    A formulaic Metroidvania with satisfying combat and a thick mood in the air, Blasphemous uses its pixel art style and fixation on religious iconography to establish a powerful vision of a forsaken world.
  3. TheSixthAxis
    Sep 10, 2019
    70
    Blasphemous is a great little 2D Souls-like which will definitely appeal to fans of dark and difficult games. It doesn’t have the polish of the likes of Dead Cells and is more linear than true Metroidvanias like Hollow Knight, but follows in the bloodied footsteps of titles like Death’s Gambit and Slain: Back From Hell. It isn’t a game for everyone but there is plenty here to get your teeth into with lots of secrets and some excellent and challenging boss encounters. All in all, it's bloody good fun.
  5. Everyeye.it
    Sep 9, 2019
    70
    The ingredients are all there, but in a nutshell those sought-after situations that could make the title memorable, and so Blasphemous is sometimes crude, poorly finished, and this also applies to the technical packaging; stylistically interesting, of course, but which fails to persist on the quality front, ending up fluctuating between the remarkable and the modest.
  6. PlaySense
    Oct 8, 2019
    65
    Blasphemous represents the vision of a true artist, but remains a diamond in the rough due to technical difficulties and a frustrating degree of unfairness. There's room for improvement, let's leave it at that.
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  1. Eurogamer
    Sep 13, 2019
    A tough, well-wrought action-platformer distinguished by some toe-curling portrayals of sin. [Eurogamer Recommended]
  2. The Jimquisition
    Sep 10, 2019
    Challenging, beautiful, and exquisitely mournful, Blasphemous flavors its methodical pacing with a little influence from Dark Souls and Metroidvanias, while maintaining its own unique voice...From gorgeous visuals to magnificent boss encounters and evocative themes of religion and punishment, Blasphemous is well worth checking out.

Awards & Rankings

76
#76 Best PS4 Game of 2019
56
#56 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2019

User Reviews

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User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 204 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 153 out of 204
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 204
  3. Negative: 25 out of 204
  1. Blasphemousfail
    Jan 16, 2020
    2
    While the visuals and audio are certainly quite appealing, creating a beautiful game to behold, unfortunately that is where the praise ends.While the visuals and audio are certainly quite appealing, creating a beautiful game to behold, unfortunately that is where the praise ends.

    Allow me to tell you a story. There was a time when Team17 was relevant, many decades ago. Back in that era, most games were only 1 hour or so long. To compensate, these games were made ridiculously difficult. Covering the screen with projectiles while severely limiting one's movement being a common practice. This would force the player to take damage, unless they were frame perfect that is. This among other tactics would be employed in order to inflate the play time, making the game seem like it was actually worth the entry fee. However, this isn't the 80s, or the 90s for that matter. The game industry has since matured, by replaced unplayable rooms with actual skill and challenge based gameplay. Team17, clearly is still the same prepubescent child of a developer is was back then. There were dozens upon dozens of occasions, primarily when engaging a boss, in which the entire screen would be covered in death, leaving me literally nowhere to go. It's the primary reason I literally just made this account. Only a simple child would consider the act of pinning the player to a wall and clubbing them repeatedly over the head would be intelligent, let alone enjoyable game design.

    Then comes the clunk. Apparently Team17 has forgotten what competent code looks like, as nearly every ability you gain require a basic attack input. An intelligent designer would have read the input and immediately started the animation for the action. Team17 decided making you waste time doing a basic attack first no matter what the intended move nor the context of the input was clearly the better option. Not to mention the hit detection can be an absolute joke. Multiple enemies are quite literally invincible, ignoring my attacks and input, literally not taking damage, and proceeding to bulldoze through my character like I didn't exist. Multiple times I would phase through platforms to my annoyance as I tried to make a simple jump.

    Dark souls, which this game is clearly "subtly inspired" by, encourages the player to try again. Each failure gives the player pause. Something to think about, be it technique or learning a bit of caution. Blasphemous has no such feeling. Death is merely a joke, in which the game relishes in rubbing your nose in it. It laughs at you, knowing there is to learn. The game merely decided it was bored of being played and has decided that it is time for you to stop. Quite literally, the primary deaths I experienced, weren't my fault. Many times, I would be moving along, when something off screen would knock me into a pit, or a boss would drop delayed attacks on either side of me before impaling his scepter through me, because that is both intelligently designed and fair. Deaths from bosses never felt like my fault, as attempting to avoid one attack would simply drop in the middle of three more instead.

    All in all, the game looks and sounds beautiful, but plays like absolute trash. The developer clearly hasn't learned a thing since their founding, and are merely piggybacking off of a trend far better and more complex then they could ever comprehend, let alone clone.    … Full Review »
  2. Kgrottini
    Sep 25, 2019
    4
    I did it, I ignored all of the reviews that said the artwork was great but the gameplay was terrible. I opened an account on metacritic toI did it, I ignored all of the reviews that said the artwork was great but the gameplay was terrible. I opened an account on metacritic to implore you not to make the same mistake.

    As you explore the world, there is a lot to love: toppling great bosses, exploring new areas, and brutally dismantling your foes. Between every great moment of satisfaction though, there are ugly deaths. Not the type of deaths where you learn some humility and caution from your own arrogance or haste, but deaths due to clunky mechanics, enemies that are literally invisible until they attack, or the constant threat of fatal bottomless pits or spikes. Artificially difficult games like this show a lack of forethought on the designer's end that just go to show there are a lot of people out there trying to cash in on the soulslike and metroidvania 2d phenomenon without having a good idea as to what make those games work. Games like this remind me of how good games like Hollow Knight and Dead Cells are. Do yourself a favor and buy one of those two games instead.    … Full Review »
  3. ace1325
    Sep 10, 2019
    10
    A really cool and bloody metroidvania . With a cool style and killer combat
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