A little student project is getting excellent reviews on Steam right now – and if you’re looking for some in-between action, Blood Spear might be just the thing.
I think swords are totally overrated. Even the Frostgrams and Andurils of this world end up being nothing but sharp pieces of metal to beat the beets down with, no matter how fancy they look. The true king of medieval weapons, on the other hand, has to play second fiddle far too often: the spear!
With it you can throw, stab, hit, push, hang wet socks on it to dry, heal gaping wounds with the blood of my enemies… Okay, the latter is probably only possible in Blood Spear.
In this short but very fun student project, the spear finally gets the crown it deserves. All in a surprisingly chic Unreal Engine look – and completely free of charge.
A short, bloody pleasure
In fact, we are a spear ourselves. More specifically, a gooey demon clinging to a cursed weapon and thirsting for blood. A bit impractical, but fortunately we can take possession of a knight who first impales two dozen of his former comrades and sucks their life energy.
This intro serves as a small tutorial to get a feeling for aiming and throwing. There is no real melee attack, but fortunately the spear must have taken a holiday in Australia and learned something from its comrade Boomerang – it reappears in our hand after every throw. This is also very necessary, because we are often besieged by several opponents at once.
Mostly we meet emaciated, rather fragile fighters, as we already know them from the Soulsborne games. More dangerous are the drones that are spat out of mushrooms and attack us with laser beams – which sounds crazier than it really is in the game. Of course, there is also a crunchy giant boss, but don’t worry: even Souls newcomers like me can manage it after a few tries, but it can’t hold a candle to the great genre role models either in terms of visuals or creativity.
An accessible Soulslike
While we’re on the subject of Souls games: Blood Spear’s inspiration is very noticeable. But a few tweaks make it more accessible – which is great for frustration-prone players like me, but may offer steeled veterans too little challenge:
– You heal yourself with the blood of slain enemies
– Standard enemies fall after a hit
– You can often take out a few enemies from a safe distance
– Many projectiles can be deflected with a well-aimed throw
The enemies and environments of Blood Spear spread a very coherent, gloomy medieval atmosphere, if you can overlook minor graphic flaws. The fact that there are relatively few of them is astonishing: after all, Blood Spear is a student project by eight VFX students, so it doesn’t come from a classic game developer. This is also noticeable in the spicy brevity: Experienced players will be done in under an hour, probably no one needs more than two.
On the one hand, that’s a pity, because you can see everywhere that Blood Spear contains great ideas that simply lack polish. On the other hand, it’s exactly the right game if you don’t have much time to play and are looking for entertaining spear action. And who knows, maybe there will be a full version someday? That’s what many players are hoping for in the Steam-Reviews, which are currently 95 per cent positive.
Steam tip for the weekend: Every week, we want to introduce you to a Steam game that is particularly worthwhile at the moment. Do you like this idea? Write us your opinion in the comments!
