Bloodforge

 Xbox 360
Metascore
42

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 44 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 44
  3. Negative: 25 out of 44
  1. Official Xbox Magazine
    Apr 23, 2012
    75
    The recurring annoyances that result don't bleed all the joy from clobbering, but they do keep this third-person action game from devel¬oping a more natural flow and better exploiting its gruesome graphic-novel aesthetics. Luckily, such issues are diminished when you try to chop down massive bosses inspired by Celtic mythology.

Awards & Rankings

96
#96 Most Shared Xbox 360 Game of 2012

User Reviews

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User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 55 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 55
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 55
  3. Negative: 10 out of 55
  1. Xborn74
    Apr 25, 2012
    6
    "Bloodforge" is an XBLA game, which costs 1200MS Points and that is a Hack and Slash, with a Celtic theme, in black / white contrast tones,"Bloodforge" is an XBLA game, which costs 1200MS Points and that is a Hack and Slash, with a Celtic theme, in black / white contrast tones, much like a graphic novel, with red for blood and other minor details.

    The game's story is about Crom, a veteran warrior, who abandons his life of war to have a family and a simpler life: one day, while hunting, he is resting and have a dream, where Gods (Arawn, the major God) appear angry; scared he awakes. While running back to his village, he see it lit on fire, being attacked by barbarians who are attacking his wife, Alena - after defeating them, he enters his house on fire and kills another warrior ... which was actually his wife. From here begins the story of the revenge game against the Gods of Crom, triggered after this event and to meet a mysterious witch, Morrigan in the form of a raven.

    The overall look of the game is cold and serious, due to the location where it is, in some land to the north, and the Celtic theme (the warriors wear Kilts, and addition of the names used, the protagonist uses a helmet made of a deer skull) - the game's graphics are visually nice, and have some good points in some details, mainly because of the contrast of colors, and of the metallic effect of various things, like weapons and armor - and expect to see many blood, from the bloodstains on the floor and the combat (which are a bit exaggerated).

    But in return, the textures of many things are basic and without further detail, with some square corners, basic textures and weak animations. The camera movement in the game is interesting, swaying from side to side, but the general positioning of it in the battles, is horrible, and confusing.

    The Audio of the game is very good: the game features dramatic orchestral music, with choir, which match the style and theme of the game. The sounds and voice-overs are well done, and give a mood, fitting the theme.

    The gameplay, as said, is a typical Hack and Slash, without varying difficulty when starting a new game: I did not think that it is fluid, actually, but it's robotic and generic, without much impact when you hit an enemy, or that nice feeling of the action in other games when you're in battle. Despite having several possible combinations of attacks (you have latter in the game four main weapons), in practice they're not used much. The game have several animations for executions of defeated enemies, with beheadings and dismemberments (a lot of them).

    Your life does not regenerate, for this, you use green drops, that you find in altars, with the LB to regenerate your life - in the fights you should use a lot the LT, to roll over and escape from enemy attacks. And this makes the game a lot harder than it is, especially in the Boss battles.

    As main weapon we have a sword, who by using the X (quick attacks) and Y (strong attacks) combine to make combos - you also have a bow that shoots with B; in addition to these basic weapons, you can use Rune powers to perform special moves together with powers of the Gods, and can use the power of a "blood bar" to enter the Berserk mode, where you have more resistance and cause more damage.

    The game campaign has several mini-arenas, with enemies that are defeated to move on forth, and with a Boss in the end of the stages (including Gods, with combat sequences in a God of War style, with QTE), but the game have a bad orientation of where to go. Many scenarios possess branches and there is no marker of where to go, and the fact that all scenarios are similar, doesn't heal at all.

    To summarize, Bloodforge is a game that has a nice theme and a interesting visual, but is marred by the lack of better graphic detail, poor controls and a generic gameplay, with a horrible camera - for 1200MS Ponits not advise even for those who like the style, because it is a pretty regular game ("Viking: Battle for Asgard" of 2008 was better game in my opinion). My score: 6.4 / 10.0.    … Full Review »
  2. oskie33
    Apr 27, 2012
    7
    Bloodforge is a XBLA game that was released on April 25,2012. After the success of other XBLA games like FEZ, Trials Evo, TWD Ep.1, AmericanBloodforge is a XBLA game that was released on April 25,2012. After the success of other XBLA games like FEZ, Trials Evo, TWD Ep.1, American Nightmare, and I am Alive (debated). It seemed that XBLA games were headed in the right direction with its game breaking standards. Bloodforge IMO holds true to the success to the popularity of XBLA games. For 1200ms points (15.00 dollars) you get a hack & slash game that feels like Ninja Gaiden Black (to me) with a Conan the Barbarian feel to it. The graphics are nice. It was drawn to resemble the cinematic effect that you saw in the movie 300. Remember I said resemble. Gameplay was fluid and the action was non-stop. I experienced no frame-rate issues while in some pretty intense battles with multiple enemies on the screen. I have no complaints in regards to the sounds of this game. Everything sounded great while in battle or while traversing to you next location.The game does a great job at making you feel like a complete BAD ASS! The difficulty it was scored the highest points for me. I found no option to increase the difficulty level before you start playing. With ALL my games I always jack the difficulty level all the way up. Having said that, I find that whatever the default difficult level is it will most def challenge the most ardent gamer! Now I cant give a review w/o telling some things that I didn't like. The controls and camera dont work together like they should. I found myself having to readjust the camera to suit my battle performance more than I would like while fighting 8+ enemies. The checkpoint/save system was very weak. In a game like this where you could spend 20mins fighting normal enemies and mid-level bosses at the same time, dying is a effing drag! It would have been cool to be able to save-as-you-go type of feature. Those are the things that I didn't like, and as you can see the issues I had with the game are neither game breaking or game ruining. Sure there are AAA titles that do the same thing Bloodforge does and does it better but, if you wanted those games you wouldn't be reading this review. Now would you?… Full Review »
  3. kelanflyter
    Apr 26, 2012
    4
    This game is meant to be a XBLA counterpart of great AAA retail games. But length and graphics are not the one things that have been scratchedThis game is meant to be a XBLA counterpart of great AAA retail games. But length and graphics are not the one things that have been scratched down. BlodForge has a very frustating Camera, bad controls and so common gameplay macanisms.… Full Review »
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