Recent reviews by TheDKOPC

Blood of the Werewolf is a difficult game to say the least. Being an action platformer the majority of the game will be compromised of mostly jumping on platforms and either shooting your crossbow as Selena or using your werewolf form to cut through enemies. Now you might be looking at the mixed reviews that the game is getting and wondering why this is occurring. This is mostly due to the fact that Blood of the Werewolf is an extremely hard game and requires a lot of patience and timing to get through the difficult levels. It’s the type game that you will either love as a fan of the action platform genre or hate due to its level design.
Gameplay mostly consists of switching between Selena who wields a crossbow that can aim that is great for long distance combat and her werewolf form which gets a double jump and uses a claw swipe for its primary melee attack. The player will mostly play Selena in the indoor sections of the game and the werewolf in the outdoor portions due to the werewolf only coming out in the full moon. This can be seen as either as a negative or positive as some players would like the ability to switch freely between the two characters Upgrades can be found throughout the different levels which can either upgrade Selena’s crossbow, giving her different arrow types, increase the amount of arrows she can carry and increase the firing speed of the arrows, or upgrade the werewolf’s abilities, giving it a forward dash attack, ability to shoot projectiles from its body and the ability to regain health. Selena’s crossbow is powered through arrow drops and the Werewolf powers are obtained through the dropped hearts of dead enemies. Overall the combat system is pretty good for this type of game as it doesn’t need to be too complicated and is simple enough to which power ups can be switched with ease. The game does feature an upgrade tree for the three types of arrows that Selena has and that the three powers of the Werewolf. The only way to reach full power is to find all the upgrades. Aiming is a bit of a challenge when on controller as Selena aims using the analog sticks and this is especially prevalent in areas where platforms can only move if the switch is shoot at. I recommended switching to mouse in areas that require shooting and using the controller for the rest of the game. Life in the game can be increased by collecting sigils which are scattered throughout the levels and can really test the player’s platforming skills.
The platforming ranges from easy to extremely difficult. Veterans of the action platform genre might not find the platforming to be that big of a challenge but for newcomers, it will most likely get really frustrating. There are many call backs to older platformers and the game is a love letter to those old school hard platformers. The checkpoints in the game help relieve some of the stress that the platformers give you and there is no life system so when you die, you go right back to your previous checkpoint. The tight controls of the game mean that jumping and landing on platforms is super smooth and easy which means that the challenge comes from the actual design of the levels. The enemies in the game can be killed pretty easily and they are mainly used as a hindrance when it comes to the platforming. The combat is not the most advance but it’s really great for this type of game as the shooting of the crossbow can take out enemies from a far while the werewolf can have a variety of attacks depending on the upgrades the player finds. Killing enemies really depends on the level design as it can either important to kill the enemies before progressing or just simply ignore them and avoid their attacks. The enemies are varied in appearance but the majority of them will be melee or long range types. There are boss fights which can either be really easy or require upgrades to defeat.
The best parts of Blood of the Werewolf are in its tight controls and platforming which allows the player to plan ahead to finish levels of the game and the checkpoint system is fair and allows to take multiple deaths. The game is designed for the player to die a lot in the beginning but it allows replay ability by giving scores at the end based on time and amount of deaths received in the game. There are also two other modes in the game which are Score Run in which the you are trying to get the highest score and Endless Runner which times how long can the player survive. I personally do not have that much experience in these modes since the majority of my time is spent in the story mode but the story mode does make great practice for the other two modes. There is a leader boards for all three modes for the really experienced players looking for that extra bit of challenge. The story mode is great call back to the old B movie monster movies and the soundtrack helps compliment the overall aesthetic and mood of the game. The story revolves around Selena trying to get her baby back and it really gives a feeling a satisfaction in completing each level as Selena gets closer to saving her baby boy. The ending can be seen as sequel baiting which is both disappointing and great since I really want a sequel to this game. There is defiantly a ton of love poured into this game from the art design, level design, music and just the overall experience of the game. The sigh of relief you get from completing the levels already makes up for its really low asking price. This game is a definite recommendation and for only $2.00, it’s a steal especially when it goes on sale since I bought the game for a dollar. I think I can live without a dollar menu item for one of the finest examples of indie platforming right now on Steam and I look forward to their next project.