Have you ever seen an old cartoon where a fight breaks out
and the brawlers turn into a cloud of punches that flips tables and
breaks everything it touches? Bloodroots,
a breakneck action-puzzle game from Quebec developer Paper Cult, lives
inside that cloud. A short, speedy tale of mayhem and revenge,
Bloodroots dares you stab, bludgeon, squash, and otherwise murder dozens
of thugs with the ruthless efficiency of the Wild West’s greatest
outlaw and the zany gusto of Bugs Bunny trolling Yosemite Sam. Whether
you do this for the sake of its well-written story and/or the thrill of a
score chase, Bloodroots can be stylish, graceful (once you know what
you’re doing), and surprisingly easy to pick up despite demanding a
tremendous attention to detail. In its pre-release state, however, its
most elating moments are easily and frequently disrupted by technical
issues, keeping you from really hitting your stride as often as you
should.
Bloodroots puts you on the warpath with the Wild
West outlaw Mr. Wolf, who’s out for revenge against his gang, the Blood
Beasts. The Beasts, who all wear animal skins and go by Reservoir
Dogs-style code names like Mr. Boar and Mrs. Crow, betray and nearly
kill him after murdering an entire town in the name of their new leader,
Mr. Black Wolf. From the moment he recovers from his attempted
assassination, Mr. Wolf has one goal: to kill his former gang and anyone
who gets between them.
The story, though simple and predictable, is made
compelling through strong dialogue that forges complex characters.
Though Mr. Wolf rarely speaks, you learn a lot about him; his story and
the history of the gang are told in carefully constructed interactive
flashbacks and through his encounters with the Beasts. You don’t spend
too much story time with any one character--this is an action game and
the gameplay comes first--but in tracking down each former partner, you
come to understand and savor your time with them. Everyone, and I mean
everyone, in Bloodroots is a bad guy, but you come to see that every
character has their own perspective on how the gang rose and fell. In
hearing about Mr. Wolf’s past from the Beasts, in their own unique
voices, you not only understand the situation better, but come to
understand that there’s more in their lives than a single act of
vengeance. That isn’t to say you won’t have reservations about your
mission--they’re bad guys through and through--but you understand why
they made their choices, which makes your hunt more satisfying.
That
hunt is really more like a series of wild bloodbaths. Each of the
Bloodthirsty Beasts has their own gang now, with camps and forts full of
henchmen. These henchmen are easily dispatched: Often a single blow
with a weapon or even a punch will do, but there are a lot of them and
Mr. Wolf is just as fragile, so you need to work fast and keep moving,
otherwise they’ll take you down. Each challenge in Bloodroots boils down
to an improvisational whirlwind of violence. You run around each arena,
grabbing whatever you weapons you can find that will give you an edge
over the opposition, and clear it out as fast as you can.
While
there’s nuance to the story, Bloodroots is, at its heart, a challenge
meant to be mastered. You build up a score multiplier for killing
enemies in rapid succession, pushing you to prioritize speed and
efficiency. Each level--which strings together a set of challenge
rooms--ends with speed and high-score leaderboards, encouraging you to
retry levels in the hopes of improving even further.
Whether
you make a precise plan or simply go with the flow, the key to
navigating each arena revolves around finding a path from one weapon to
another. Most weapons break after anywhere from one to three kills, so
you are constantly swapping out one for another, and finding a path from
the most effective weapon to the next is just as important as finding a
quick path between kills.
Luckily, every level is
littered with killing tools. Nearly every benign object, from a fence
post to a giant fish, can be a weapon. You can jump on rolling objects
like wagons and barrels, both conventional and red explosive, to
bulldoze your enemies until you crash. There are conventional, Wild
West-style weapons like hatchets, knives, and pistols scattered
about--plus unconventional weapons like golden spears, flamethrowers,
land mines, snowballs, and cannons that shoot you up in the air so you
can fall back to earth and clear out an area like a human mortar shell.
The feeling of flying, bouncing, dashing, and jumping from one weapon to
the next creates a wild, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants energy.
To
really master Bloodroots, you need to not only recognize each weapon on
sight, but have an intimate understanding of what they do. Every weapon
works a little differently; the axe is simply a quick strike, while the
cavalry sword is actually a short dash attack. Some weapons also give
you traversal options: Long weapons like ladders and fishing rods, for
example, let you pole vault to a higher area by pressing jump. There’s a
fair amount of overlap, especially among “families” of weapons--swords,
axes, etc.--but each one moves a little differently, lasts a different
number of strikes, or swings at a different speed. There are no bad
choices, so moving from weapon to the next is always thrilling. Every
new weapon creates a slightly different situation and a new point of
view, and the constant changes make each moment feel like you’re
teetering on the edge of control... in a good way.
Though
killing quickly is key, there’s a fair amount of platforming involved
as well. Many of the levels are multi-layered, with gaps to hop and pits
for you to fall into. Since many weapons also give you extra movement
options, choosing the right weapon for the next few seconds may have as
much to do with reaching an enemy as it does killing them. To be
efficient, you need to grab and use a series of weapons in an order that
lets you make progress without hoarding or backtracking. At the same
time, there’s very rarely a time when you’ll be limited to a single
tool, so it’s always easy to try a new approach. There are also
occasionally literal rewards--useful weapons hiding in out of the way
places. Playing around with different paths through each space can be
just as fun as going for a high score or fast time.
The
levels also benefit from a camera that’s primed to maximize the impact
of your killing choreography. The majority of the challenge areas are
shown from an isometric perspective, with the camera panning in or out
in spots to show you more or less of your surroundings. Sometimes that
means getting up close so a specific path fills the screen; other times
the camera moves out to show the wider scope of an area, which may help
you see the chaos you create more completely. From time to time, you get
something a little more playful--one early room shifts to a top-down
perspective as an homage to Bloodroots’ design ancestor, Hotline Miami.
The camera always seems to shift with intention and helps you get the
most out of the chaos you create.
You’d think it would
be very difficult to get a handle on dozens of different weapons and how
they work, but moving from one to next starts to feel like second
nature very quickly. It helps that every level in the game from start to
finish introduces new weapons, often one or two at a time, so you’re
learning at a steady, digestible pace. And as you learn their quirks,
paths through the levels start to form in your mind. When everything
starts clicking, planning and improvisation almost feel like the same
thing.
Every new weapon creates a slightly different situation and a new point of view, and the constant changes make each moment feel like you’re teetering on the edge of control... in a good way.
Of course, you’ll only get to
that point after dying many, many times. Bloodroots is very difficult.
It’s one touch and you’re dead, so a single mistake will kill a run more
often than not. Luckily, Bloodroots is saved by the fact that it resets
almost instantaneously. It is almost too easy to die and immediately
throw yourself into the fray again.
While it is easy to
just keep playing, death can often be very frustrating in Bloodroots.
Whether because of input lag or technical issues, it sometimes feels as
if you’re moving faster than the game can. There were many instances
when I pressed a button to grab a weapon only to discover that I didn’t
pick it up and didn’t have the attack and/or movement I expected to. And
with long-range weapons like guns and bows, you have to rely on an
inconsistent directional auto-targeting system.
There
are also times when Bloodroots’ penchant for cinematography can actively
put you at a disadvantage. At times, the camera will pan out too far,
making it hard to see where a jump will land. From time to time, the
camera will shift to a horizontal view that appears to be a 2D plane but
isn’t, which can cause you to take a poor angle when approaching an
enemy and miss an attack. This game demands precision, so it can be very
frustrating when the camera and level design add extra hurdles.
And
yet, like so many challenging score chases, Bloodroots is still
incredibly satisfying when you’re eventually successful. At its highest
heights, you’ll find your way around, bouncing from weapon to weapon,
kill to kill, to string together a perfect run. Better yet, there are so
many ways to approach each area that, no matter how well you do, you
can always do it better, faster, crazier. Even when playing Bloodroots
is painful--like throw your controller so hard it bounces off the
ground, hits you in the head, then breaks your TV painful--there’s
always a wildly fun run within reach.
