Alder's Blood

About

Alder's Blood is a single player tactical role playing game with horror and fantasy themes. It was developed by ShockworkGames and was released on April 9, 2020. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

⚜️FEATURES:⚜️ Tactical Strategy combat Stealth and preparations A sneak peek into twisted world of Alder's Blood Diversity of approaches Prologue - NOT a Demo Hey...

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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64%

Audience ScoreBased on 143 reviews

story39 positive mentions

stability11 negative mentions

Unique and immersive dark gothic/Victorian Lovecraftian atmosphere with excellent hand-drawn art style and haunting soundtrack.
Innovative and tactical stealth-focused turn-based gameplay with mechanics like scent, sound distraction, and stamina management that offers meaningful challenge.
Engaging story and lore with philosophical and cosmic horror themes, supported by a rich world and a camp management layer that adds depth.

Numerous bugs and technical issues including save file corruption, mission freezes, UI glitches, and game freezes that hinder player experience.
Repetitive and sometimes tedious gameplay loop with limited enemy and mission variety, leading to a lack of depth and eventual boredom.
Unpolished UI/UX design causing misclicks and frustrating controls; some mechanics feel clunky or unevenly balanced, such as stamina and corruption systems.

story
133 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
66%
5%
The game's story is praised for its dark, Lovecraftian atmosphere, intriguing plot, and well-crafted worldbuilding, which captivates players despite its linear progression and lack of meaningful choices. However, many reviewers note that repetitive, often buggy missions and limited character progression dull the narrative impact, making the overall experience feel uneven but still worthwhile for those primarily interested in its story and ambiance.
- “Engaging dark story that held my attention throughout.”
- “The story and world feel vibrant, alive, and well-thought-out.”
- “The story, which is both extremely - surprisingly really - well put together and written.”
- “Many of the story missions are just a process of moving 3 characters from point A to point B, plus the story forces you to backtrack often and waste resources for nothing.”
- “The story thus far (100 turns in) has been entirely linear, and you as the player have no meaningful choices or dialogue options.”
- “Very little in the way of meaningful dialog choices, so the story can be clicked through leaving the plot feeling hollow.”
gameplay
109 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
28%
68%
4%
The gameplay of Alder's Blood offers a unique blend of turn-based tactical combat with a strong emphasis on stealth, positioning, and avoidance, enriched by innovative mechanics like sound and scent tracking that add strategic depth and immersion. However, it suffers from complexity overload, repetitive encounters, unclear or underdeveloped systems (e.g., corruption, darkness), and numerous bugs and UI issues that detract from the experience. While the core combat and atmosphere receive praise, the gameplay is often seen as rough around the edges and may mainly appeal to dedicated fans of hardcore, stealth-focused tactical RPGs.
- “✔️ Interesting and innovative stealth-based gameplay mechanics in a tactical RPG centered around avoidance and assassination.”
- “The gameplay revolves around the overworld travels of your misfit band, meeting numerous factions, gathering resources, supplies, and tools, and pursuing quests - and the turn-based top-down hex-based tactical squad missions, which are often stealth oriented: positioning is key here, for your hunters are outnumbered most of the time.”
- “The game has an elaborate mechanic revolving around sound and smell: you can distract foes by tossing stones around the map, but watch out for the trails of odor following the hunters.”
- “There are many gameplay systems, perhaps even too many.”
- “The number of mechanics introduced can feel excessive and may increase difficulty unnecessarily.”
- “Gameplay starts off strong but does not build on it at all; you face the same few boring mobs that basically play the same, with very little depth to the combat.”
graphics
53 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
74%
20%
6%
The graphics of Alder's Blood receive consistent praise for their unique, hand-drawn, dark, and grim art style, strongly evoking Lovecraftian and Victorian gothic atmospheres. While the artwork is considered beautiful and a major strength that enhances the game's mood and storytelling, some criticism points to a lack of variety and bare-bones graphical detail. Overall, the visuals effectively create an eerie, immersive world, making the aesthetic a key selling point despite occasional graphical limitations.
- “The hand-drawn art style represents the dark and grim world extremely well, with dull colors that make you feel like this world is dying and getting overrun by beasts.”
- “The graphics are top-notch and the character design is ominous and foreboding.”
- “The art style is absolutely gorgeous, and the world seems to hold enough mysteries for you to reveal.”
- “Graphics are... meh.”
- “Whilst the game still has a distinct 'early-access' feel despite being fully released, notably lacking many quality of life aspects such as hotkeys for controls as well as balance issues (high stamina hunters with stamina boosting items are very op) the aesthetic of 'lovecraftian western' and the gameplay cleverly avoiding the rng which is pervasive in this genre of turn-based strategy makes the game worthy of attention for strategy veterans looking for a unique story or newcomers looking for a more methodical turn-based game.”
- “The hand-drawn art style represents the dark and grim world extremely well, everything is drawn out with dull colours to make you feel like this world is dying and getting overrun by these beasts.”
atmosphere
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
30%
11%
The atmosphere of Alder’s Blood is widely praised for its dark, Lovecraftian and gothic tone, supported by a haunting soundtrack, striking art style, and immersive worldbuilding. It effectively creates a tense, eerie, and brooding environment that enhances the narrative and thematic depth. While the atmosphere is a standout feature, some note that gameplay and other elements occasionally detract from the overall experience.
- “The atmospheric design and haunting soundtrack plunge you into a realm of terror, while the turn-based combat system keeps you on edge with every move.”
- “Music is far and few between in Alder's Blood; you’ll only hear a small amount of music every now and then as the majority of the game features ambient sounds that just add to the dark and eerie atmosphere of the world.”
- “I really wanted to like Alder's Blood - thick, Lovecraftian atmosphere mixed with a bit of western feel, mostly wearing Bloodborne's gothic/Victorian influence on its sleeve, with commendable lore, worldbuilding, and story.”
- “It fails in a slew of other things, however, among which atmosphere, exploration, RPG system, and enemy intentions UI (which is absent).”
- “Music is far and few between in Alder's Blood; you'll only hear a small amount of music every now and then, as the majority of the game features ambient sounds that just add to the dark and eerie atmosphere of the world.”
- “The atmosphere is dark and creepy.”
music
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
37%
19%
The music in the game effectively complements its dark, gothic atmosphere with a haunting and moody soundtrack, though it is sparse and often replaced by ambient sounds to enhance tension. While praised for fitting the setting and contributing to immersion, some players find it repetitive or underwhelming compared to richer indie OSTs. Overall, the music is understated but adds significant value to the eerie and unique world.
- “The atmospheric design and haunting soundtrack plunge you into a realm of terror, while the turn-based combat system keeps you on edge with every move.”
- “From its dreamlike, surreal imagery to great moody soundtrack, cool monster designs and digitally hand-drawn animations, there's a lot good to see.”
- “The atmosphere, music and artwork is all amazing.”
- “Music fits the setting but becomes repetitive fairly quickly.”
- “Soporific background music doesn't help.”
- “The music is okay, but not earth-shattering (been spoiled by lots of indie games with rich fantastic OSTs for the last few years), and some systems could use a bit more fleshing out still, which might be planned on a roadmap.”
stability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
92%
The game suffers from numerous bugs and glitches, ranging from minor irritations to critical issues like save and quest-breaking problems, severely impacting stability. While some players find it playable and enjoyable despite these flaws, others consider it unpolished and frustrating, with stability significantly detracting from the overall experience.
- “It's completely playable but choke full of small, irritating bugs and glitches which slowly chip away at your sanity.”
- “Play this buggy mess on ironman and you'd not feel punished by the difficulty, you'd feel punished by the train-wreck of its programming.”
- “But game is buggy as hell: saves are bugged and quests too, with a quest bug you can lose all your hunters; I hope they fix it.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is widely regarded as tedious and formulaic, leading to a repetitive and unenjoyable experience. The lack of strategic depth in combat further exacerbates the feeling of monotony.
- “Everything the game does is tedious.”
- “Additionally, the game is very formulaic and feels quite tedious after a while.”
- “However, the combat lacks the strategic depth of the aforementioned titles and is more tedious than fun.”
character development
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
Character development in the game is minimal, with players controlling a nameless chief and generic hunters lacking distinct personalities. While the ominous character design and graphics are praised, the overall variety and depth in character growth and customization are limited.
- “There isn't a lot of specific character development, as you only play a nameless chief of a band of randomly named hunters that have zero personality.”
- “Weapon choices, trading, and character development are all a little thin; don't get attached, your hunters must sacrifice themselves to benefit the experience of others.”
- “Lackluster variety in character design and enemy design.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers an engaging experience for extended initial play sessions, but overall replayability is limited.
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is well optimized to allow immediate use of new recruits, as low-level hunters perform adequately in combat, minimizing the impact of hunter level on effectiveness.