Blood Will Be Spilled

Bugs. They are those glitches and technical problems that make a lot of today's games hard to play. They are also the stars of Blood Will Be Spilled, the delightful new adventure game where mosquitos, ants and fireflies get into shootouts that are straight out of an old spaghetti western. It's basically A Bug's Life meets The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, mixed with a heavy dose of XCOM-style tactical strategy. It's a fun combination that suffers from one major problem -- there are too many bugs. No, I'm not talking about insects, but rather a series of game-breaking glitches that try their hardest to ruin an otherwise enthralling old west adventure.

If you grew up watching westerns, then Blood Will Be Spilled is going to feel awfully familiar. This is the story of Jack, a mosquito bounty hunter on a revenge mission. He's a bit of a mystery at first, but Jack is clearly determined to hunt down and stomp out the nefarious Calaveras gang. If that name doesn't send chills down your spine, then it should. These are some real nasty dudes, and they have recently been enslaving the locals and forcing them to work in the mines. This sends Jack down a road full of twists, turns and, of course, lots and lots of gunfights.

Blood Will Be Spilled is largely split into two parts -- side-scrolling platforming and turn-based shootouts. We'll spend a lot of time jumping on platforms and searching the linear stages for dynamite and health potions. This ultimately leads to a bunch of battles with the Calaveras gang, where the game will switch over to something a lot more akin to XCOM. Jack will have two moves per turn, allowing him to get into cover and take shots at the bad guys. This gives us a chance to manually aim the gun and go for extra damage with a well-placed headshot. The enemies will move around and take shots after you're done, then it's back to Jack and rinse, repeat.

On top of the usual moves and attacks, we'll also be able to unlock new abilities as the story plays out. Depending on how you spec out your mosquito, Jack will be able to play the harmonica to stun enemies, fire a ricocheting trick shot and aim at multiple targets at the same time. You'll also be able to choose whether you want to be good, bad or ugly. This will change the path you take and how everybody reacts to you. And that's not the only choice, because you'll also need to choose whether to kill or spare the life of each target.

When Blood Will Be Spilled is good, it's great. This is an ambitious adventure game with clever writing, a cool setting and surprisingly good voice acting. I'm also a huge fan of the combat and how it's a slightly different spin on the tactical strategy formula. There are all kinds of active and passive abilities to unlock, seven guns to shoot, nine types of memorable enemies, multiple boss fights and even comic book-style cinemas that tell the full story. This is a wildly clever romp that I want to recommend to everybody. There's just one problem -- it's kind of broken.

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Actually, scratch that, it's a lot broken. This game is filled with bugs, and not just those nasty old blood-suckers connected to the Calaveras gang. It's not just a couple of repeating problems, but dozens of technical problems that hinder almost every part of the game. The frame rate, for example, is occasionally so bad that you won't want to play the platforming sections. Things get worse in combat, where you'll occasionally freeze and have to start over after tying to pull off a special move. And that's assuming the combat actually begins like it's supposed to. There were several times when I could just run through the enemies without them even noticing me, which is definitely not supposed to happen. And this is just the start of a long list of bugs they're going to need to squash before I can recommend this without a bunch of caveats.

It's also worth mentioning that the spaghetti western influence cuts both ways. While I like how familiar a lot of the tropes felt, there's also a fair amount of racial stereotyping that comes across as outdated caricatures. To be fair, a lot of that has been baked into the western genre for decades, so I have to imagine that the small, four-person developer based in Slovakia is just trying to be faithful to the source material. Either way, some of it felt out of place and is worth pointing out, even if it ultimately didn't diminish my enjoyment of the game.

One thing that did affect my enjoyment is the clunky gameplay in the platforming sections. I've already complained about the frame rate problems getting in the way, but the side-scrolling stuff isn't done any favors by the stiff handling. Simple things like ducking and rolling are clunky to the point of not working properly. And why is it so difficult to walk down stairs? I was able to overcome these gameplay issues and beat the game, but I'm hoping that all of these problems will be fixed with future patches.

I think it's worth reiterating that I not only like this game, but recommend it. I love the world they've created and the colorful cast of characters. I dig the art style and how ambitious the story is. All of this works on me, even if the rampant technical problems and gameplay issues kept getting in the way. There's a cool story here with multiple paths to take, but it's completely overshadowed by all of the bugs. I suppose there's some irony in the fact that the biggest problem with Blood Will Be Spilled is that it's infested with bugs.