Bloodforge

 Xbox 360
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

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  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, 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    "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.    … Expand
  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, 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 aBloodforge 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?… Expand
  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 scratched down. BlodForge has a very frustating Camera, bad controls and so common gameplay macanisms.
  4. Barabus
    Feb 3, 2013
    10
    Gloomy worlds, seas of blood, oppressive atmosphere of hopelessness This is a time lying gods and great heroes. The time has long pushed into oblivion.

    This game is very unique. It will take you out and bring yourself into a frenzy, it will turn you into a true berserker.

    Nowise do not buy this game
  5. Locimento
    Apr 27, 2012
    6
    An ok hack and slash that is worth your cash if you enjoy the genre. The games visuals are very nice for an arcade game, but Bloodforge is slowed by a fidgety camera, clumbsy attacks and underwhelming bosses. Bloodforges plot is un emotional when it should be and the gameplay uninspired.
  6. eastrazor
    Apr 26, 2012
    7
    this game cost 1200ms so dont expect dante inferno or castelvania. For that price u can have really nice slasher but remember that this is not AAA game
  7. harry5388
    Apr 26, 2012
    9
    Sure there are similarities with older AAA titles but bloodforge is XBLA and should be treated as such. The camera can be clunky and the combat is a little repetitive but for $15 you really can't go wrong.

    I had a great evening playing bloodforge and recommend it to most.
  8. MegWhiteley
    Apr 30, 2012
    5
    Bloodforge, ok the game have some good ideas, but the bad part is the development of the game, is really boring, I wait much this game, but is a regular game, boring. The game have great graphics, and is all, the rest is terrible. A big deception.
  9. WyattTheAwesome
    May 29, 2013
    6
    I really don't understand why people hate this game. I thought it was very fun and unique. Sure, the camera was an issue, but you get used to it after a while. Probably the dumbest thing people hate this game for is the difficulty. Difficulty doesn't mean a game is bad, it means it wants to be a challenging experience for gamers. The NES Ninja Gaidens were insanely difficult but were gems.I really don't understand why people hate this game. I thought it was very fun and unique. Sure, the camera was an issue, but you get used to it after a while. Probably the dumbest thing people hate this game for is the difficulty. Difficulty doesn't mean a game is bad, it means it wants to be a challenging experience for gamers. The NES Ninja Gaidens were insanely difficult but were gems. Overall, this game is worth a look and is pretty fun. I do have to give it a low score for problems with its combat system at times, but it's still very appealing.… Expand
  10. iamTylerDurden
    Jun 30, 2013
    7
    Beautiful art style and interesting celtic mythology along with a sheer brutal protagonist aptly named "Crom". The main critique of this game is that it is brutally difficult ala demons souls. I rather enjoy a challenging game due to the extra gratification of conquering it however there were some poor strategic choices made by developers and the 1200mp asking price is a tad steepBeautiful art style and interesting celtic mythology along with a sheer brutal protagonist aptly named "Crom". The main critique of this game is that it is brutally difficult ala demons souls. I rather enjoy a challenging game due to the extra gratification of conquering it however there were some poor strategic choices made by developers and the 1200mp asking price is a tad steep considering Microsoft already pillages you for everything you got (and people still think xbox live gold is a better deal than PS plus, PS plus actually gives you something for your $....like a TON of free games and exclusive discounts) but i digress, more games need to add a little edgy style and interesting mythology like bloodforge has (yes Halo i'm talkin to you for one, with your bland and sterile environment). The game is not perfect but worth a look if you like beautiful art style and celtic mythology....oh and boiling rivers of blood.… Expand
  11. TheNPC213
    Nov 24, 2014
    4
    Right, so I haven't really played the full game yet, but I can already tell just from playing the demo that this game isn't that great.
    For one, you character slides whenever you move him. While moving in one direction, it's not noticeable, but trying to change his direction makes his slip-slide all over the place.
    Combat feels incredibly stiff. His animations essentially look the same,    Right, so I haven't really played the full game yet, but I can already tell just from playing the demo that this game isn't that great.
    For one, you character slides whenever you move him. While moving in one direction, it's not noticeable, but trying to change his direction makes his slip-slide all over the place.
    Combat feels incredibly stiff. His animations essentially look the same, so it doesn't really feel intense. Light attacks feel stiff and Heavy attacks don't really feel like they have an power behind them, it's pretty much a slower Light attack.
    The graphics aren't too bad, but for a later Xbox Arcade game, they could've done a bit better.
    Story, it's a bit interesting from as much as I've seen. If anything, I say that's probably the only reason I'd want to buy this game, just so I can know the story. Then again, I could just look up let's play videos, if any exist with this game.
    All I can say is, if you want a bloody hack-n-slash style of game, I'd recommend Darksiders.    … Expand
  12. HannahLittle
    Apr 21, 2014
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Bloodforge, the tale of avid mask-wearer Crom, admittedly has its moments of disappointment (though I am personally an avid fan of the game as a whole).
    While I see nothing wrong with the tried-and-tested hack'n'slash format, it can feel tedious at times when forced into areas consisting of identical warriors and monsters. It is perhaps towards the ends of levels that the game developers seem to have run out of big baddies, so begin to spawn minorly-altered old enemies and an over abundance of the same monsters. Though none of it looks bad, certainly. I have heard issues with the camera, but I was lucky enough to not experience any minor issues more than once or twice.
    The filters share the same gory tones of 300 or Gladiator, but I wouldn't say it necessarily rips off the composite outright. It is worth mentioning that the godly worlds experienced towards the end of the game (especially when going to Fate's Loom itself) offer spectacular dream-like environments that completely absorbed me. I would have perhaps liked to have had a little more free-roaming, but the open feel of the later levels seems to compensate, perhaps showing the game developers learning a little in atmosphere as the game progressed.

    Dialogue is typical gravely voice vs. exotic woman (who's accent seems to fluctuate in intensity and region at the best of times), but the banter between them is rather amusing at times. It's nice to see a half-dressed, quintessentially fantasy woman turn up and the main character not only lack attraction for her, but also spur her advances, insult her, even show open revulsion of her. It's what makes his finishing of her so intensely satisfying. A good little bit of writing in that respect.

    Overall, not a bad game, a visually appealing game, and certainly a game that leaves a lasting impression. Perhaps not the most ground-breaking of games, but not something that isn't worth a play. I personally fell in love with the artistic style, which often made up for any issues in the lack of variation in combat. I recommend it to those who are fans of artistic visuals and mythology, but perhaps not to those looking for revolutionary game mechanics.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

96
#96 Most Shared Xbox 360 Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

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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. Hyper Magazine
    Jul 19, 2012
    20
    The style is problematic and the substance is all but absent. [Aug 2012, p.78]
  2. Games Master UK
    Jun 25, 2012
    51
    Snore. [Aug 2012, p.77]
  3. GameCritics
    Jun 21, 2012
    20
    I slogged onward in the hopes for some spark, but at no point does the game get better, more polished, or less uninteresting. Bloodforge is just one meaningless fight after another, listening to the lines of banal dialogue and post-mortem one-liners.
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