Blade Assault

Review

Blade Assault is a fast-paced roguelite set in a dystopic sci-fi world. After the Red Stone War, society has been divided into three regions: the Lower Grounds infested by mutants, the Undercity where second class citizens try to survive, and then the Sky City of Esperanza, where people live with all their riches and comforts.

You play as Kil, a member of the Undercity’s resistance, who rebels against Esperanza’s corrupted military forces. To help you there is an interesting group of characters and you can even play as some of them after you acquire the necessary level of affinity (by spending currency). The narration is fast, maybe too fast, and doesn’t give much time to familiarize you with the settings, the characters or even with the gameplay mechanics. Soon after the short tutorial intro, you are brought to the first area, and from there you learn as you go. Those who played Dead Cells or Hades will easily understand key elements, but newcomers could probably use a lengthier tutorial explaining all aspects. In any case, despite showing beautiful sci-fi environments (like the Jazz Bar), there is very little narrative left once you have gone through the first conversations.

Gameplay is heavily inspired by Dead Cells, with each run being slightly different and including random power-ups, some permanent and others temporary. You start with only a laser sword in your hand, and as you progress you can improve its stats or assign it different elemental effects (fire, ice, electricity). Then you have a sub attack linked to it and a long-distance laser gun, both requiring the use of mana which can be easily restored by attacking enemies. You also acquire a variety of currencies that you can use to purchase various upgrades and skills (passive and active). You can find and purchase multiple crates that reveal three different power-ups, but you can only choose one. There is a great variety of vendors selling different stuff, and it’s not always easy to see the difference between what’s on offer and what you already have.  After a while you will see a repetition of the same items on sale.

Levels change every time you die, but only with minor aesthetic differences which don’t have any impact on gameplay. Unfortunately, the level design is really basic, involving short linear stages with little verticality that only require you to move in one direction while defeating waves of (repetitive) enemies. The first two waves spawn on their own, while for the third one you need to activate a platform, which honestly doesn’t make much sense. Over time, enemies tend to become harder (on a scale from 1 to 10) showing two health bars and becoming immune to elemental stats (which partially defeats the purpose of weapon elemental stats).

While controls are fast and responsive, there are still some serious problems affecting combat. First, enemies tend to stack on each other, so it’s really hard to see which one is going to attack you despite them blinking. The other problem is the camera being too close to the action. As you move to dodge enemy attacks, they go out of the screen and attack from there without any visual warning. If you add the fact that levels are too small and linear, it can be extremely annoying, especially during boss fights. Speaking of which, I really don’t like that some bosses can heal themselves while you can’t. This way you are basically destined to fail multiple times and grind your way back to them trying to upgrade your stats and equipment as best as you can (since most are randomized).

That said, Blade Assault is still a nice-looking and somewhat satisfying roguelite, but it doesn’t reach its potential due to questionable game design choices. The sci-fi setting looks interesting despite feeling basic and underdeveloped, while the fast-paced action is great, but is also affected by multiple issues that can make it tedious in the long run. The gameplay still needs major updates and QoL improvements, especially on the combat and level design fronts.

Review written by Sonic Punk for Zeepond.com

Blade Assault Steam Store Page