Bloodshore is a narrative-driven live-action survival game. It was released on the Xbox on such and such a date.
The Plot
You are Nick Romeo a washed-up child actor who wants to revitalise their career. He signs up for kill stream, the Hunger Games-like Gameshow which is broadcast across the world. As Nick, you need to make choices in order to survive. There is a wide cast of characters and lots of gore and action. Upon entering the game, the contestants realise that this one will be a lot different to the previous kill stream games. Players can no longer tap out and can only survive or die. Only one winner can survive.
The Gameplay
The gameplay in Bloodshore is very limited. During the game, you are given multiple choices to make drinks seem. Once made this affects the way either story gates. Each decision affects various stats such as team morale, romance, and insight. By making the correct choices you can ensure that your character makes it all the way to the end and survives. Unlike the tell-tale games, there are no extra elements to the narrative. This can make it a bit of a slog by the couches are interesting and the way the action unfolds it’s also amazing. I think the best way to play this game is with a group of friends or streaming with an active audience. There is a streaming mode that puts a pause on the timer so that decisions can be made amongst the group.
Presentation
Since Bloodshore is live-action there is very little in the way of graphics to comment upon. However, the gore in the action sequences is highly detailed far more than I would’ve expected from a small developer. There are 294 scenes that have been recorded. The scenes you see depend on the choices you make. Each is acted out by the cast and the acting is well performed. They are a believable cast and events that unfold are very believable.
Again since Blood Shore is live-action there isn’t much to comment on regarding the sound quality. If music was playing I hardly noticed which just shows how great this was produced. The sound effects of guns are very believable and generally, it was just a well-produced show.
Replayability
Like I said before there are 294 scenes so once you’ve completed it once you can go back and try and discover the rest of the scenes. During one Playthru I managed to see 54 scenes which means there are many many more routes to go down. But, at playing it just once I feel like I need to give it a couple of weeks before playing again as a drama is very intense. And really things start to make me lose interest quite quickly.
Final verdict
If you are to compare this to a TellTale‘s game when is very little in the way of choices even though your decisions by great impact on the story. It’s very limited on the interaction front. But the live-action itself was produced to a high standard much better than expected. Again if you were to play this with friends or with this audience turn on stream I think this be a great game to play. For that reason I will give it a 6 out of 10 it’s worth playing and hopefully it’s worth it will come up with a sequel with more options to the gameplay.
