• Publisher: Funcom
  • Release Date: Jan 13, 2011
  • Summary: Bloodline Champions is a PVP game with short, intense matches for up to ten players divided into two teams. Chance is not a factor, spells and abilities do a set amount of damage. Random elements such as critical hits and passive abilities do not exist. Every spell is aimed and can be avoided by enemy players, making every ability dependent on individual player skill. Without mana and creeps, the game has almost zero downtime and is instead based on short cooldowns, this coupled with the absence of elements such as grind and farming ensures that every match is full of action. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 13
  2. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. 85
    Instantly accessible, free for the base game, an active community that's happy to accommodate new players and a combat system that's got plenty of room to grow, Funcom have whacked this one out of the park.
  2. Jan 20, 2011
    85
    A great game let down only by some missing lobby features.
  3. Feb 15, 2011
    74
    A steep learning curve and lack of starting characters will turn many away from Bloodline's fun and frenzied arena battles.

See all 13 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 19
  2. Negative: 1 out of 19
  1. 7
    Nice when you need a quick fill of straight-forward PVP, but not much long-term appeal. Limited variations between different classes and you won't get to see much unless you pay for an account. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. A decent enough game, but it lacks depth (although I suppose that's the point). It gets very boring after a while (there's only 2 game types, arena (deathmatch) and CTF). It takes far too long to grind up enough points to buy a bloodline (a champion/hero), as in, I logged ~50 hours of playtime and was only 60-70% of the way there, including the couple hundred bonus coins for signing up/completing the tutorial and the first few achievements. The balance is mediocre, there are a couple bloodlines that are very, very powerful and quite easy to use. The game has potential, but it needs a lot more content (different game modes in particular) to keep from getting boring rather quickly. Expand
    • 3 of 3 users said yes
  3. TL;DR Avoid this game if you aren't from US/Europe. To be competitive in a game that compels you to be so, yet at the same being crippled, as if in each game you are Russell Crowe at the end of Gladiator in his battle with Joaquin Phoenix, so that each loss feels cheap - and the losses are basically guaranteed. The premise of this game is simple, yet groundbreaking at the same time: PvP arena without the gear-grind, and completely balanced and skill-based. The game itself is instantly accessible. It's a free, small download and upon entering the game, you are met with an excellent tutorial, as well as bot adversaries to hone your skills and become familiar with the bloodlines. Each bloodline, the character you select before each battle, has a unique array of abilities that fit into the WoW player versus player mold of crowd control, avoidance gap closing skills, burst damage or healing spells, amongst others, each offering unique utility to the bloodline. The first impression against these bots is a twitch-based game with a lot of character. It comes as a revelation after the mindless grinds of WoW, or even Call of Duty. It made me want to keep playing, to get better, so that I'd be ready and competitive against some human opponents. Yet, from my perspective, as soon as I forayed into the human versus human matches, Bloodline Champions' meat-and-potatoes, the game fell apart. I have played this game on and off, giving it second and third chances, but the fact remains: there will be very few games that provide fair challenge. Some matches will be against beginners who have just picked up the game (and are an easy win against), or more than likely you will be playing against people with a much lower latency that results in them stomping you no matter what. This is a real shame, because there doesn't really exist any way to to win against someone other than a beginner if you lag. The game, being twitch based, where all spells are aimed manually, and killing someone is based on cumulative damage, rather than 1-shot bursts, can not accommodate anyone with a >100ms latency. The player base won't either - my experience had me, more often than not, banned as soon as I entered, with my 300ms ping, or verbally assaulted in game because of my systemically slow reaction times. Why do I lag? Because I'm not from US or Europe where the servers are held. I'm from Oceania, and my complaint is just as true for those in Asia. To be competitive in a game that compels you to be so, yet at the same being crippled, as if in each game you are Russell Crowe at the end of Gladiator in his battle with Joaquin Phoenix, so that each loss feels cheap - and the losses are basically guaranteed. Expand
    • 3 of 4 users said yes

See all 19 User Reviews