I always love running into an indie game like Bloodroots that I know nothing about and being generally surprised at how good it is. This game takes everything I loved about Hotline Miami and puts a Quentin Tarantino film over the entire experience. From edgy cinematics with a unique art design to wacky killing moves that you would expect from an over-the-top action flick. Pairing that with great controls and tight movement this game is drenched from head to toe in style.
The game’s story starts with strong emotions, the village you come back to has been destroyed and its people slaughtered. You come to find the Blood Beasts responsible. They leave you to die with a bullet and an axe to the chest, only to find yourself awake again. The story throughout the game explores your journey to get this ragtag gang together to destroy the man who killed you. I found myself quickly putting together theories on what was happening as it leaves a lot to speculation. I won’t spoil anything here but the ending ended up being exactly what I thought was going to happen but in a good way.
Combat is responsive and fun with lots of tools at your disposal to make waste to those who stand before you. From carrots to giant swords, almost anything can be grabbed, wielded, or used as an object to kill your opponents. There is a scoring system associated with each level, this functions as a way to unlock new hats or just compete against others for the highest score. I found myself mostly grabbing weird objects just to see how I could interact with them or jumping on barrels to run down enemies for cool combos. When you finish off the last enemy in the area you get a specially highlighted takedown with whatever you are using. These are cool and make you want to see what each weapon does. The combat can get a little repetitive later on even with enemies gaining new ways to slow you down. There are hats in the game that allow new abilities and modifiers to be used but are only active on levels you have completed before.
Bloodroots was a short and sweet surprise with a lot of character and a prime example of why indie titles seem to have more personality. I picked up this game on Xbox game pass as it was added recently but if it went on sale on steam I would recommend picking it up. It’s not a perfect game but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
Bloodroots is available on steam for $19.99
