BlightBound Review

Publisher: Devolver Digital| Developers: Ronimo Games| Release Date:  July 27, 2021, | Genre: RPG| Reviewed On PS5

A review copy was provided by Devolver Digital

Introduction

Blightbound is a dungeon crawler developed by Ronimo Games who created the great Awesomenauts and Swords and Soldiers 2 games. In it, You and two other heroes are tasked with fighting The Shadow Titan in the dungeon laced with traps, and some easy puzzle to prevent its resurrection.

Gameplay

Here, the gameplay has a solid feeling with a lot of depth thanks to the three classes of warrior, assassin, and of course the healer.

The combat is the meat of the game and pretty intuitive with one caveat. The game is designed with multiplayer in mind, and the single-player experience needed a bit more love. It’s a mixture of a beat em’ up and a hack and slash game like Dragon’s Crown. The difference it has a slower pace compared to the frantic speed of Vanillaware’s catalog.

When played with either matchmaking or a friend is where the game shines, but if played as a single-player experience is pretty tough. Having the AI as the healer isn’t ideal, and in other roles can be inconsistent from being overpowered combat-wise to slowly following the player as they’re hacked to bits by the enemy.

The positives for the game is the loot system which is based on the difficulty of each instance the game provides. As usual, there is a hub which is called an encampment where you can upgrade weapons, talk to NPCs, and even trade with them.

Graphics and Presentation

The graphics and presentation give it a dark fantasy look and looks like something out of an Adult Swim cartoon that’s an action game. The sprite work is reminiscent of VanillaWare games such as Dragon’s Crown or Odin’s Sphere. They might be as fluid but give it a unique Western flair.

The performance of the game was solid on the PS5. PS4 would probably run the same but wasn’t able to test. The music was appropriately gloomy.

Story

The game isn’t particularly story-heavy but is much more about lore/atmosphere. To unlock a particular class’s story you will need to complete missions in a certain order where you will learn each of their motivations and background.

There is some lore on the game’s official site, but the overall focus of it is on its flavor.

Conclusion

Overall, Blightbound is a good time with other players. The single-player experience has nothing to write about. It has a lot of potential and loot to grind for. It’s just that the AI issues and lack of narrative may not be for some players. This game is where mechanics are king.

Frederick Guese is a video creator and editor at PlayStation Haven. A QA industry vet and has worked at Respawn Entertainment, 2K Games, and Activision-Blizzard. Frederick is working on being a narrative designer, writer, editor, and video producer. You can visit his Twitter, Youtube channel, and Instagram. He’s a big fan of Hideo Kojima games and JRPGs.