Neon Blood

[h2]Sinopsis[/h2] Neon Blood es un thriller cyberpunk hecho en España, una aventura narrativa detectivesca, con elementos de exploración, combates por turnos y un diseño gráfico de lo más llamativo, combinando escenarios renderizados en 3D con personajes pixelados en 2D y animaciones en 2’5D. Axel McCoin fue antaño un gran policía de Blind City, sin embargo, su discutible comportamiento y su adicción al Spark (la droga de moda), han hecho que se convierta en la oveja negra de la comisaría. Nos encontramos en un mundo donde la gente malvive, la droga causa estragos y las corporaciones tienen el control absoluto. En medio del caos, una serie de asesinatos en serie hacen saltar las alarmas. Al parecer, alguien está tratando de eliminar a trabajadores clave de la corporación Nilkcorp, la industria más puntera en el desarrollo de implantes, dirigida por la bellísima y encantadora Ruby Emerald. Pero si hay algo que al detective McCoin se le da bien es meter las narices donde no le llaman, moviendo cielo y tierra hasta descubrir quién se esconde detrás de los asesinatos y qué relación tiene Nilkcorp en todo esto. [h2]Jugabilidad / Apartado técnico[/h2] Neon Blood es un juego que apuesta por la sencillez a nivel jugable, ofreciéndonos una experiencia lineal y enfocada en la historia. Escena a escena iremos explorando los decadentes suburbios de Blind City y Dust County, entremezclando la exploración rutinaria con la investigación del escenario, ya sea conversando con diferentes NPCs o empleando nuestro escáner para resaltar elementos clave del entorno. De tanto en tanto tendremos que enfrentarnos con algún que otro maleante, apostando por combates por turnos donde podremos escoger entre diferentes ataques y habilidades ofensivas o defensivas. Ciertos eventos de la historia harán que vayamos incrementando nuestra salud y poder, pero no se trata de un RPG, ya que no existe un sistema de niveles ni podemos utilizar o mejorar equipamiento. Además, de vez en cuanto tendremos que lidiar con alguna secuencia QTE que nos exigirá precisión y atención para realizar espectaculares ataques. [h2]Valoración[/h2] He de admitir que Neon Blood es un título que me ha dejado un regusto agridulce tras jugarlo, porque detrás de su sobresaliente apartado gráfico (repleto de detalles, diferentes técnicas y llamativas luces de neón), nos encontramos un juego que pide a gritos un mayor pulido en sus mecánicas y un poco más de complejidad a nivel jugable y de historia. La libertad que disponemos para explorar, contrasta con las pocas cosas que podemos hacer, más allá de mantener conversaciones poco relevantes o investigar el objetivo que nos marque la misión. La historia no está mal, pero es previsible y bastante corta. Los combates por turnos carecen de dificultad y a pesar de disponer de varias habilidades, la mayoría se podrán resolver machacando el mismo ataque una y otra vez. Con todo esto no quiero decir que el juego no merezca la pena, pero antes de probarlo hay que considerar que es una experiencia bastante simple a nivel jugable y no muy larga, que apuesta por un diseño visualmente espectacular, repleto además de multitud de easter eggs y guiños a personajes de muchos juegos conocidos, que seguro que le sacan una sonrisilla a más de uno. ✔️ [b]Positivo[/b]:[list] [*]Gráficamente luce espectacular, combinando escenarios renderizados en 3D con personajes pixelados en 2D y animaciones en 2’5D. Además, ciertas secuencias de video están ilustradas como una serie de animación moderna. [*]Combina varias mecánicas diferentes: exploración, investigación y combates por turnos. [*]Posee muchos guiños a otros videojuegos, como Blasphemous, Aeon Drive o Replaced. [/list] ❌ [b]Negativo[/b]:[list] [*]Aunque el juego nos ofrece una muy buena ambientación, con entornos detallados y varios personajes, la falta de complejidad y la sensación de ir todo el rato de la mano acaba empobreciendo la experiencia. [*]Las peleas son muy fáciles y acabaremos prescindiendo de la mayoría de habilidades, ya que el componente estratégico no está bien planteado. Además, el juego carece de los típicos elementos RPG, como niveles de experiencia, equipamiento o puntos de mejora. [*]La trama no deja de ser interesante, metiéndonos de lleno en un universo cyberpunk donde reina el caos, pero resulta predecible y algo corta. [/list] 📢 [b]Idioma[/b]: Interfaz y subtítulos en español. ⌛ [b]Duración[/b]: 2-3 horas juego base/ 4-5 horas para 100%. 🎮 [b]Steam Deck[/b]: Verificado, funciona perfectamente. Lo salvaría de un incendio! 👨‍🚒👍🔥 [h1]6’5/10[/h1] [quote]🚨 Si te ha gustado la reseña y quieres descubrir buenos juegos, sígueme en mi página de Mentor: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45092978/] Indies ON FIRE [/url]🚨[/quote]

Se meu tempo REAL de jogo passou de 3 horas eu me surpreenderia (deixo o jogo aberto enquanto faço outras coisas as vezes), porque Neon Blood é uma experiencia curta e quase totalmente linear (salvo por duas conquistas por interagir com algo) que poderia totalmente ser uma visual novel. O jogo é elogiado pela beleza da arte e realmente é bonito, eu também achei as musicas do jogo bem boas (me lembrar da icônica musica do filme Drive) e têm uma história até que interessante, mas sua execução é bem fraquinha: você praticamente só anda pelo cenário, interage com pessoas e objetos, as vezes se envolve em um combate de turnos tão simples que parecem que está aqui só pra dizer que o jogo têm algo diferente, fora alguns QTE que são as únicas cenas onde o personagem realmente faz algo diferente. Apesar de tudo da pra ver que têm amor por trás desse jogo, o mundo é em detalhada, têm várias referencias a outros indies famosos e algumas vezes no jogo uma animação mostra qual a verdadeira visão dos desenvolvedores desse mundo pixelado. No geral eu gostei da experiência principalmente pela história, arte e musica, mas se não fosse esse nível de qualidade dessas areas, não dava pra recomendar pelo gameplay simples e linear, então se estiver atrás disso, procure outro jogo cyberpunk. --------------------------------- If my REAL playing time exceeded 3 hours I would be surprised (I sometimes leave the game open while I do other things), because Neon Blood is a short and almost entirely linear experience (except for two achievements for interacting with something) that could totally be a visual novel. The game is praised for the beauty of its art and it really is beautiful, I also found the game's music to be quite good (it reminds me of the iconic music from the movie Drive) and it has a fairly interesting story, but its execution is quite weak: you practically just walk around the scene, interact with people and objects, sometimes you get involved in turn-based combat so simple that it seems like it's just there to say that the game has something different, apart from a few QTEs that are the only scenes where the character actually does something different. Despite everything, you can see that there's love behind this game, the world is detailed, there are several references to other famous indies and sometimes in the game an animation shows the developers' true vision of this pixelated world. Overall I enjoyed the experience mainly because of the story, art and music, but if it weren't for the level of quality in these areas, I wouldn't recommend it because of the simple and linear gameplay, so if you're looking for that, look for another cyberpunk game.

７時間強でクリア 同胞、美しいビジュアルこれだけで買い。 ストーリーは一本道、難易度は低い、QTEあり(同様に難易度低め) 日本語化はされているがそこは微妙、脳内補完でなんとかなるレベル。一部、何故か中国語が交じる。 戦闘もあるが、何故入れたの？レベルの難易度低めで運で決まる戦闘（ほぼ負けない）、同様にQTEも易しい。 ストーリーは陳腐と言わざると得ないが、ちゃんと微妙なサイバーパンクしてる。 難点は耐えれるレベルの操作性 繰り返すがドット絵が素晴らしい。 最後にスパークは程々に、同胞。

I don't remember how I first came across the trailer for Neon Blood, but ninety seconds of footage was enough enough to have me put it on my wish list pre-release. Then it launched to largely negative reviews and it came right off my wish list. I probably would have continued avoiding the game until it was included in a cyberpunk themed Humble Bundle. After completing the game, I would say this is a deeply flawed game that I love anyway. A lot of it has to do with how pretty it is. Neon Blood sports some of the most gorgeous pixel art I have ever seen. If nothing else, this is a treat for the eyes as hard boiled Detective Axel McCoin traverses the rain-slick streets and dimly lit dive bars of Blind City as he investigates grisly murders that are the tip of the iceberg in a much more sinister criminal conspiracy. Neon Blood garnered a lot of bad reviews due to launching in pretty rough shape. In the roughly six months since release, it looks like it has been patched up, but I still ran into the previously noted bug one time where the game froze up after talking to an NPC. Since the game auto-saves at set intervals, I lost about twenty minutes of progress, but it only happened once. However, there are still a lot of issues here that are just baked into the core of the game's design. Neon Blood is a pretty short, linear game. Even losing progress to the freezing glitch, I still managed to beat it in about three hours total playtime. If you chart the story, some of the sequences have an almost patchwork feel to it. Based on first thirty minutes or so, the game feels like it is going to be a a plot-heavy point and click adventure game until it introduces the JRPG-style turn based battle system halfway through the first act, but all encounters are scripted and it has no leveling system to speak of. Stat boosts are granted at set intervals and there is no restriction on skill usage. These battles become very prominent in the second act (and onwards) when Axel traverses two areas that feel like dungeons as he gathers together a bevy of allies. I really suspect that Neon Blood was at one point a much larger game that was intended to be a full-on JRPG, and these characters that are only here for story purposes in the final version where supposed to be party members. I actually was quite intrigued by the story despite its weird pacing. While the over-arching narrative is decent, the moment to moment writing is not. I suspect English was not the script writer's first language or whoever did the translation work was not a native speaker. There are lines of dialogue that make absolutely no sense like the translator needed to convert a colloquialism into English, didn't know how, gave up, and went with the literal meaning of the phase even though it makes no sense in English. There are bizarre inconsistencies in terminology like a character who refers to everyone as her "kin" 90% of the time only to occasionally start them her "relatives" at various intervals. Even the lines that are perfectly understandable just feel lacking in polish compared to your even you typical uninspired, perfunctory video game storytelling. I would say go into Neon Blood with an eye for admiring its gorgeous art. This was clearly a project that despite the intentions, the artistic vision was the only thing fully realized. It's relatively short enough that if the visuals appeal, you won't have to suffer through the gameplay that long. I would wait for a pretty steep discount though.

boring simple combat forgettable cast uninteresting plot boring main character and bugs that force you to reload your last checkpoint

Bad. Very bad. The plot is uninteresting and idiotic. boring retelling of usual repertoire, it's stale as ♥♥♥♥. The character you control as has no personality and unlikeable, he got a headache and memory loss as an obvious plot points but generally the guy is a sore loser and piss drug junkie(literally, the drug he's addicted to is made from human urine) who's dumb as a rock equipped with a scanner mounted in his eyes. whatever happens in the story just... happens because it has to happen to make the Mr. headaches man save the world from an evil megalomaniac corpo. It sets a whole new meaning to the word lazy. I would believe it if it's written by an AI. JRPG combat, trashhhh. It lacks options, no character level/EXP system to gradually scale up the difficulty. Most useful skills come with no cooldown or cost(no MP system in the game either), and the numbers are pure RNG. In one battle I had critical offensive headshot skill dealt 4 dmg and 9 dmg and the normal attack I casted next dealt 18 dmg. Your only healing skill is literally the same as rolling a D20, as it heals anywhere between 1 and 20. No minigame to narrow down the amount either. What is this. I can't even say if it is easy or hard, as in here difficulty is not an applicable metric. But to give you something it took me 4 turns, 45 seconds to beat the final boss. There is an annoying bug that makes you want to drop the game too, talking to NPCs and passing on their dialogue too fast immobilizes you, requiring a restart that causes you to lose progress all the way back to your last checkpoint. And no. You can not manually save your game to prevent this. At the end like many other similar projects atmosphere and the visuals are the only saving graces. Animated cutscenes are crazy impressive, and pixel sprites are masterfully drawn, you can see the talent of the artists in game's QTE sequences(but they didn't bother to put any SFX greatly sabotaging the dramatic effect). Neon Blood is a game that doesn't even try to stand on its own feet and to be itself. It has no substance to offer, yet it acts like it lives on the upper side of the town with the big hitters. $19.99? Get outta here. All sorts of references to other materials are lazily thrown around, even the achievement icons are ripoff of CDPR's game. Cyberpunk is dying fast, partly because it's beginning to resemble the real life too much, sure. But uninspired copycat projects like this flooding the market are contributing more to the decline is what I am thinking. Don't play this. There's so much else to do in this world.

Neon Blood is a 2.5D cyberpunk adventure game where you play as Axel McCoin, a cop trying to unravel the mystery of murdered engineers and his own blank memory. Like its title, the game is set in a futuristic, neon-lit city. The game starts out great, but as you progress, the game feels very rushed. Everything is revealed really quickly, which considering the type of game and story, it shouldn't be, as it needs more clue and buildup. It's a short game that can be finished in around 3 hours. There are several unique features I like, such as some beautiful, anime-inspired cutscenes and a pretty fun (though kinda monotonous) turn-based combat. The game also needs an autosave icon, it usually saves during a new area, but no notification whatsoever. Though I'd still recommend Neon Blood, honestly I feel this game is a bit too expensive for its length and its story is too rushed. It has great potential, like it would be much nicer with more open, less disjointed levels, but near the end the story and levels feels narrow and railroaded.

Arte muito bonita

I didn't have much faith after seeing some reviews, but it's definitely worth it. The art is a delight; I've spent many hours exploring its streets and secrets, charmed by the exquisite 2.5D they use. Furthermore, the cyberpunk aesthetic is incredibly well-executed, with extra emphasis on the 'punk' part of cyberpunk. The story, although short, is very well-executed with the tropes expected of a good cyber-noir story. It has good twists and leaves you feeling very satisfied. While it's true that some things could be improved, considering it's the first project from this new studio, it's incredibly good. For playing it in an afternoon and enjoying its rich atmosphere, art, and story, it's a safe buy.

The story tries to go deep on themes of inequality and rebellion, but occasionally leans so hard into noir tropes it risks slipping on its own fedora. Gameplay-wise, it’s a bit more... meh. The turn-based combat is serviceable, but don’t expect any groundbreaking mechanics. Fights can get repetitive, and you’ll sometimes wonder if MC's biggest enemy is the system or just clunky pacing. Still, this game has charm. It’s the kind of game that might not blow your mind, but it’ll definitely make you say, “Okay, that was kinda cool,” at least once per hour.