Metascore

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 44 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 29 Ratings

  • Summary: Bloodforge is a dark and brutal action combat game set in an ancient Celtic world. The fate of the ruling gods will be decided at the hands of one man - our hero, Crom. With an empowering brutal combat system, stunning standout art style, driven by a deep and compelling story, Bloodforge thrusts the player into a viciously dark world where Crom must fight his way through hordes of twisted servants and evil followers of the gods to seal his fate. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 44
  2. Negative: 25 out of 44
  1. 75
    The recurring annoyances that result don't bleed all the joy from clobbering, but they do keep this third-person action game from devel¬oping a more natural flow and better exploiting its gruesome graphic-novel aesthetics. Luckily, such issues are diminished when you try to chop down massive bosses inspired by Celtic mythology.
  2. Apr 24, 2012
    70
    Bloodforge isn't a game for anyone, starting from its gory, desaturated visuals to its highly difficult gameplay. Too bad that some flaws, like a bad saves management and imprecise controls, help to steer it more towards a frustrating experience rather than a challenging and rewarding one.
  3. May 5, 2012
    45
    Bloodforge is too hard and too frustrating to enjoy. It's impossible to change the difficulty of the game, there aren't enough places to heal and the gameplay keeps repeating itself. The graphics are great, but the camera is not. Another great part of the frustration is the boring music, that starts when there are enemies on screen and ends when they have been eliminated.
  4. May 3, 2012
    42
    I cannot stress this enough, Bloodforge is a game that could have been absolutely amazing and could easily have been a contender for the top game on the Xbox Live Arcade, but sadly this title gets ripped limb from limb with everything that is wrong with it and then it gets impaled on the massive 1200 MS price point and has nothing to help it recover.

See all 44 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 8
  2. Negative: 1 out of 8
  1. 10
    Gloomy worlds, seas of blood, oppressive atmosphere of hopelessness This is a time lying gods and great heroes. The time has long pushed into oblivion.

    This game is very unique. It will take you out and bring yourself into a frenzy, it will turn you into a true berserker.

    Nowise do not buy this game
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  2. this game cost 1200ms so dont expect dante inferno or castelvania. For that price u can have really nice slasher but remember that this is not AAA game Expand
  3. "Bloodforge" is an XBLA game, which costs 1200MS Points and that is a Hack and Slash, with a Celtic theme, in black / white contrast tones, much like a graphic novel, with red for blood and other minor details.

    The game's story is about Crom, a veteran warrior, who abandons his life of war to have a family and a simpler life: one day, while hunting, he is resting and have a dream, where Gods (Arawn, the major God) appear angry; scared he awakes. While running back to his village, he see it lit on fire, being attacked by barbarians who are attacking his wife, Alena - after defeating them, he enters his house on fire and kills another warrior ... which was actually his wife. From here begins the story of the revenge game against the Gods of Crom, triggered after this event and to meet a mysterious witch, Morrigan in the form of a raven.

    The overall look of the game is cold and serious, due to the location where it is, in some land to the north, and the Celtic theme (the warriors wear Kilts, and addition of the names used, the protagonist uses a helmet made of a deer skull) - the game's graphics are visually nice, and have some good points in some details, mainly because of the contrast of colors, and of the metallic effect of various things, like weapons and armor - and expect to see many blood, from the bloodstains on the floor and the combat (which are a bit exaggerated).

    But in return, the textures of many things are basic and without further detail, with some square corners, basic textures and weak animations. The camera movement in the game is interesting, swaying from side to side, but the general positioning of it in the battles, is horrible, and confusing.

    The Audio of the game is very good: the game features dramatic orchestral music, with choir, which match the style and theme of the game. The sounds and voice-overs are well done, and give a mood, fitting the theme.

    The gameplay, as said, is a typical Hack and Slash, without varying difficulty when starting a new game: I did not think that it is fluid, actually, but it's robotic and generic, without much impact when you hit an enemy, or that nice feeling of the action in other games when you're in battle. Despite having several possible combinations of attacks (you have latter in the game four main weapons), in practice they're not used much. The game have several animations for executions of defeated enemies, with beheadings and dismemberments (a lot of them).

    Your life does not regenerate, for this, you use green drops, that you find in altars, with the LB to regenerate your life - in the fights you should use a lot the LT, to roll over and escape from enemy attacks. And this makes the game a lot harder than it is, especially in the Boss battles.

    As main weapon we have a sword, who by using the X (quick attacks) and Y (strong attacks) combine to make combos - you also have a bow that shoots with B; in addition to these basic weapons, you can use Rune powers to perform special moves together with powers of the Gods, and can use the power of a "blood bar" to enter the Berserk mode, where you have more resistance and cause more damage.

    The game campaign has several mini-arenas, with enemies that are defeated to move on forth, and with a Boss in the end of the stages (including Gods, with combat sequences in a God of War style, with QTE), but the game have a bad orientation of where to go. Many scenarios possess branches and there is no marker of where to go, and the fact that all scenarios are similar, doesn't heal at all.

    To summarize, Bloodforge is a game that has a nice theme and a interesting visual, but is marred by the lack of better graphic detail, poor controls and a generic gameplay, with a horrible camera - for 1200MS Ponits not advise even for those who like the style, because it is a pretty regular game ("Viking: Battle for Asgard" of 2008 was better game in my opinion). My score: 6.4 / 10.0.
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  4. This game is meant to be a XBLA counterpart of great AAA retail games. But length and graphics are not the one things that have been scratched down. BlodForge has a very frustating Camera, bad controls and so common gameplay macanisms. Expand

See all 8 User Reviews