I don't want to be that guy who writes 'I really wanted to like this game but...'
Well, I, fundementally want to like every game. Why I wouldn't? I am not looking on sth to trash. Also, even in the best ones there always will be 'but's. However, there are some games that really bugs you out to not finish or even give negative. This is more common in indie games because meanwhile they are great in some aspects, if they execute something subpar or *in a even worse case* terribly, they become a chore way too fast. This is usually associated with core game mechanics.
So all in all, I feel like game's design choices is what lets it down. It feels unbalanced, though I cannot really measure. It definitely feels old, clunky and uninspired. Although I am open to mixture of genres and ideas, platforming, being able to aim yourself and moving/shooting requiring action points, mixed altogether doesn't feel right. If it was a cover-based strategy with more elements like xcom without platforming stuff, it could have been better. If it was just a shooter (with abilities and stuff), it could have been a lot better. Narrative would be enough to keep it going. If it was only a platformer with some action tweaks, it could have been good again. But mixing all in one package, it damn fails and I am sad to see that.
Luckily, Blood will be Spilled is not an terrible game. And not gonna lie, I really wanted to like it more and carry myself to finish it. The main two reason was; 1. The game both esthetically and narratively looked good and 2. Main protagonist is voiced by Adam Jensen's voice actor which is one my fav. main protagonist in one of the fav. series.
So, I was biased towards to like it and in all honesty I am ultimately disappointed.
The game does what it does, the problem is it does not do them any good. It feels like an early '10s game. Its uniqueness dies where the gameplay begins. Meanwhile graphics are not in the levels of heaven, they look dazzling. Voice acting and narrative is definitely interesting although they were definitely not enough for me to finish the game in my case.
Gameplay is turn based but your it rewards your skill (i.e. aim) highly. That's a confusing point for me. I don't want to criticize the game for sth that clearly is not meant to be. But I may still question why it didn't meant it to be in the first place? The game could have been a great 2D shooter with some well-thought tweaks. It could have been a great indie counterpart for Call of Juarez. Meanwhile I see the love for the strategy/turn base genre of the dev (he does seem to like Darkest Dungeon as well), if not executed in such a brilliant way, turn-based games become a big chore for me. You can make subpar run and gun games as for an instance but when it comes to strategy it all boils down to one thing; the limitations of core game mechanics and how far they can go in the terms of complexity.
I am a guy used to play XCOM, Darkest Dungeon, some of the older FFs and Banner Saga. Meanwhile, turn-based strategy is not quite my taste (and I ultimately fail at Darkest Dungeon as well), I can appreciate a good strategy. Most of the games come with somewhat rng elements. In Blood will be Spilled it didn't seem like to be the case. Meanwhile there would be chances for the enemy to miss a dynamite throw or just miss shooting at you, that mostly seems to relevant where do you stand. As long as you are behind a cover, you can just aim for a headshot. The problem begins when you have only 2 AP and you are swarmed with enemies, especially when they blew out your cover and dynamite guy pressures you to find new covers, you would think it'd be fun because just like in XCOM the AI tries to pressure you. But actually no, it becomes a chore because the does not pretend like it meant to be a turn-based strategy. There are skills you can buy (in both strategetic and ability manners, e.g. reloading does not require action points or your bullets can ricochet etc.) and in the battlefield you can make use of them, plan your strategy, move behind covers and throw dynamites to take close bundle of enemies, take risks and go for headshot (it is your pure skill wink), all sounds good but they ultimately die off when you are swarmed with enemies, does not have a great portion of hp and left with very limited places to move. I am not saying battles are unbeatable, AI is not godlike. You probably can always find a good cover and blast a few off then chase the rest. But your arsenal is limited (at least it was where I left the game). What matters the most is to headshot the enemies. In order to do that you must position yourself, the heart of the cover-based strategy games like xcom. But unlike xcom you fight in a tight map with one character that is incredibly limited in terms of ability and when enemies swarm you and you wait for each one of their turn, it becomes a mess that you don't want to deal with. It becomes a chorefest. It becomes boring, you don't want to repeat somewhat long fights (they are not long but again you need to account for the position of enemies, it's almost a run and chase game and it's annoying). Even it feels like a hs game, from time to time, does not register it as a hs. Sometimes you really need slick camera direction to get a hs. Controlling the camera in battles becomes annoying. Furthermore, it is also not efficient to take actions within a submenu. We should have been let choose actions and assign hotkeys for them, execute them quickly.
There is also a platforming part of the game, but it is as deep as any shovelware 2D platformers I must say. However, there was a sequence when you were chased by a spider while trying not to get caught up in webs, it was mostly fun. Maybe there are more sequences like that, if there are, it's alright but anything other than that sequence felt blatantly uninspired and clunky.
Bugs are still there, despite the game being 2 years old. I've seen enemies not moving to take action in an active battle. I've seen where keyboard inputs were not registered so I had to quit the game. I am not hating on minor bugs but these are big downs unfortunately and seem to be not fixed.
