Bloodshed

About

Bloodshed is a single player shooter game with fantasy and dark fantasy themes. It was developed by com8com1 Software and was released on May 22, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Bloodshed is an exhilarating fusion of Roguelite elements merged with retro-styled visuals and first-person “Survivors-like” frenetic combat action: Face endless waves of undead foes, collect experience points, and upgrade your skills and weapons in a battle to survive the night. Even after death, you keep your hard-earned money which can be exchanged for persistent improvements and unlockable con…

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84%

Audience ScoreBased on 962 reviews

gameplay70 positive mentions

story11 negative mentions

Fun and addictive blend of old-school FPS and Vampire Survivors roguelite mechanics, with satisfying gunplay and smooth movement.
Charming retro 90's aesthetic inspired by classics like Blood, Doom, and Hexen, with witty character voice lines and satisfying gore effects.
Reasonable price especially on sale, with multiple characters, weapons, spells, upgrades, and levels providing around 10-20 hours of gameplay and decent replayability.

Limited content leading to the game feeling short with only two main chapters and a few bonus maps, causing repetitive gameplay after completion.
Upgrade system can feel grindy and slow, with costly consumable items like rerolls and banishes needing to be repurchased each run.
Some balancing issues including underwhelming weapon variety where players usually only upgrade and use one weapon, lack of build variety, and the difficulty ramp can be uneven with some bosses being too easy.

gameplay
192 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
60%
4%
The gameplay of Bloodshed combines fast-paced, old-school FPS shooting with roguelite survivors-like mechanics, delivering satisfying combat, smooth movement, and engaging hordes of enemies. While the core loop is addictive and fun, it can become repetitive due to limited content, simplistic progression, and some balancing issues. Overall, it offers a solid, nostalgic experience worth playing especially at a discounted price, with strong potential for expansion and refinement.
- “Bloodshed blends retro FPS gunplay with roguelite survival mechanics, creating a fast-paced loop built around movement, crowd control, and escalating chaos.”
- “The moment-to-moment gameplay is satisfying: blasting through hordes of cultists, monsters, and undead with chunky, old-school weaponry feels immediately familiar to fans of classic shooters.”
- “Each weapon, spell, and ability feels unique and well-balanced, and the maps are pretty, easily navigated, and promote engaging gameplay.”
- “The core gameplay loop is pretty mediocre and gets stale very quick (in under 30 mins).”
- “While the game's 3d old style shooter aesthetic is executed well and sets the perfect stage for a frantic experience, the central gameplay elements fail to deliver; the core mechanics, specifically the bland, non-synergistic item system, result in a repetitive and ultimately boring horde survival experience.”
- “There's an 'anti-camping' mechanic that starts dealing damage to you whenever you stay in one place for too long, and I am not sure I understand the purpose of limiting a player's expression like that, other than covering up the giant hole in the damage and enemy spawn and health balance.”
graphics
123 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
46%
52%
2%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their authentic late-90s retro aesthetic, evoking classics like Doom, Blood, and Hexen with pixelated textures, low-poly models, and a dark, gory atmosphere that fans of old-school shooters appreciate. The art style is regarded as stylish, cohesive, and charming, enhancing the game's nostalgic feel and complementing its fast-paced gameplay. However, some users note performance issues, particularly on devices like the Steam Deck, where the pixelated visuals do not scale well and cause frame rate drops.
- “It is a very enjoyable, dynamic, reasonably intense and chaotic single-player FPS built on the familiar foundation of run-based roguelike horde survival, all coated in a pleasant, simplistic late 90's throwback visuals that bring back memories of games like Hexen, Blood or Heretic.”
- “The low-poly art style and pixel-filtered textures recall the raw brutality of early 3D shooters, but the lighting, particle effects, and camera work bring it firmly into the present.”
- “The retro visual aesthetic is spot-on, and the quippy characters add just the right amount of charm.”
- “Drops below 30 fps with terrible pixelated PS1-like graphics.”
- “No amount of tweaks with the graphics settings made this run well on my Deck.”
- “Main negative is performance is poor even though it shouldn't be given the graphics it uses aren't the kind that should be demanding.”
story
99 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
80%
11%
The game's story is minimal and largely serves as a backdrop for survival-focused gameplay, with little lore, character development, or narrative depth. Missions primarily consist of extended survival objectives that can feel repetitive and sometimes overly long, offering limited progression beyond unlocking custom modes and bonus content. While the action and pop culture references engage players who prefer mechanics over narrative, those seeking a rich story or meaningful plot may find it lacking.
- “There are 2 episodes (chapters) in the game, and each episode has 4 main missions and 3 bonus missions.”
- “The goal is to outlive the time limit, ranging from 5 to 30 minutes depending on the level, with a handful of boss fights and some unlockable challenge missions to flesh-out the experience, giving the game some variety.”
- “Lots of characters to unlock, secret spiders to find to gain coins to unlock bonus missions, lots of unlockables and weapon choices.”
- “Fun and reasonably fast-paced action (honestly nothing too crazy or challenging), a metric ton of references to horror franchises and pop culture, but sadly nothing much of a story or narrative or original character on its own.”
- “With only 2 episodes as the time of this review, a few custom missions, there is not really too much meat on the bones, there isn't even much story here, I mean you would expect some lore or background or an ending for the very colorful characters in the game.”
- “Main story missions being obligatory 20 to 30 minutes defeats a lot of the purpose of the survival genre.”
optimization
45 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
71%
22%
Optimization in the game is inconsistent, with several users reporting stable performance on mid-range PCs, while many others, especially on Steam Deck, experience severe frame drops, stuttering, and overheating issues. Despite some recent updates improving performance, significant optimization problems remain unresolved, particularly affecting sustained gameplay and hardware compatibility. Overall, while the game is enjoyable, its technical performance detracts notably from the experience and needs further refinement.
- “Performance remains stable even during intense enemy waves.”
- “It seems like they fixed the performance issues I was having before, so now I can recommend this game.”
- “Latest update improved the overall performance.”
- “However, despite being marked as "verified" for Steam Deck, the performance is simply unacceptable.”
- “There's no excuse for that game having such a poor performance on Steam Deck (how in the world is it verified?), I get 23 fps with 15 fps dips on stage 3 with max TDP.”
- “Performance gradually worsens until it becomes unplayable after 20 minutes (~10 fps).”
music
39 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
51%
8%
The music received mixed feedback, with some praising its aggressive metal, dark ambient, and retro-inspired tracks as fitting and energizing, while others found it generic, inconsistent with the trailer, or not well-matched to the game’s tone. Several reviewers appreciated the soundtrack’s contribution to the intense gameplay, though some preferred to mute it in favor of personal playlists. Overall, the soundtrack is solid but not universally acclaimed.
- “The soundtrack delivers aggressive metal and dark ambient tracks that complement the relentless action.”
- “The soundtrack is a relentless mix of heavy metal riffs and industrial tones, perfectly syncing with the rhythm of combat.”
- “Artstyle and music are superb - whoever came up with the designs and sound kudos to you.”
- “The music in the trailer smacks, but the music is not the same in game, likening its Steam page to a gold-foil wrapped turd.”
- “The soundtrack is also lacking; it's a bit generic-sounding and with too few tracks overall.”
- “Music is fine, sounds can be a mixed bag (the sword has such an awful clanging sound no matter what you hit), the aesthetics are nice but not very memorable, and overall, the game feels 66% done.”
grinding
29 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is a mixed experience: while progression feels rewarding without requiring extra tedious tasks, the mid-to-late game often becomes repetitive and time-consuming due to expensive upgrades, slow progress, and frequent money grinding. Some players find the grind engaging and fitting for the genre, but others criticize the lack of build variety, balance issues, and monotonous farming that can border on chore-like. Overall, it offers a somewhat grindy but enjoyable experience, especially after pushing past the initial slow start.
- “After completing three missions, I could afford only one upgrade, making progression feel grindy and unrewarding.”
- “When you still want or need an upgrade, they are extremely expensive and grinding money is a boring time-consuming mess.”
- “Enemies are way too tanky, it's extremely tedious and not fun. Low-level thrall/horde enemies require multiple shotgun shots and come after you in overwhelming numbers, making crowd clearing and XP progression frustrating and monotonous.”
replayability
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
43%
14%
Replayability is generally considered solid due to varied weapon loadouts, upgrades, meta progression, custom modes, and unlockables, providing many hours of engaging gameplay. However, some players find the campaign short and progression less impactful on playstyle variety, with a desire for more maps, characters, challenge modifiers, and modes like an infinite horde to enhance long-term appeal. As an early access title, ongoing updates are expanding content and replay value, though optimization and control settings still need improvement.
- “As a roguelite, replayability comes from experimenting with different weapon loadouts and upgrade combinations across multiple runs.”
- “With this new update and release there are plenty of improvements with adding more weapons, abilities, and custom modifiers for levels to tailor your own experience to your liking, which adds a lot of replayability.”
- “There is a custom mode now which really helps fuel the replayability, but ideally I'd like to see some challenge modifiers for that mode in the future to really make the most out of the content and encourage trying different playstyles.”
- “No replay value.”
- “Game's not exactly wildly replayable roguelite genius.”
- “Because it is still in early access, there is little replayability.”
humor
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
92%
8%
The game features a humorous tone with witty one-liners, funny character quips, and engaging dialogue that many players find entertaining and full of nostalgic references. While most find the humor enjoyable and a highlight, some consider certain voice lines annoying or unfunny, though this seems subjective. Overall, the humor complements the fast-paced gameplay and diverse, charismatic characters, enhancing the game's appeal.
- “A boomer-shooter x Vampire Survivors mash-up with funny one-liners from a charismatic and diverse roster of characters.”
- “Some funny one-liners and quips alongside fun retro-style gore and gameplay make this game a must-buy for any fans of roguelites or FPS!”
- “Good game/movie references and jokes – I spent a good time laughing at some voice acting phrases.”
- “Decent and engaging main gameplay loop held back by illogical level-up system, poor weapon balancing, and painfully unfunny writing.”
atmosphere
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
30%
30%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its distinct, retro-inspired dark fantasy style that evokes nostalgia for classic shooters like Doom and Heretic. While the visuals emphasize style over technical fidelity, the engaging map design and fast-paced action create a compelling and immersive experience. Some thematic inconsistencies were noted, but overall the atmosphere is considered a major strength.
- “Overall, the visuals are less about technical fidelity and more about style and atmosphere, which the game has in spades.”
- “On the plus side, the maps in Act II are a big step up in both design and atmosphere.”
- “It's incredibly fun, fast paced action, the level design is really good and atmosphere and visuals are spot on.”
- “In short: it is like survivor games but it's FPS, with old school Heretic-like graphics, physics, and atmosphere.”
- “In the atmosphere of the old, first Dooms 1 and 2.”
- “I get what you're going for there, but it presently comes off pretty corny compared to the rest of the game's atmosphere and could definitely be improved.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
Users report frequent random freezes and stuttering issues during matches, significantly impacting gameplay, though some note the game runs smoothly on certain PCs and older laptops. Overall, stability improvements are needed to enhance the experience.
- “I also played it on my PC where it runs great.”
- “The game runs great, even on my older laptop.”
- “I've had multiple random freezes.”
- “The game freezes a lot during the match for no apparent reason.”
- “Just a bunch of fixes on the stuttering and screen freezes and it would be 100 percent a win game.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The game prioritizes action over story, offering minimal character development and lore. However, it features enjoyable voice acting and impressive character designs with a retro aesthetic that keeps encounters visually fresh.
- “Voice acting is really fun, and character designs (thus far) are awesome.”
- “The graphics are great with the retro vibe and the character design is so nice to look at and be surprised for each new enemy type that spawns as you get through the horde further and further.”
- “The game focuses on action rather than plot progression, so players looking for deep lore or character development won’t find much here.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect elicits mixed feelings, with some appreciation for the nostalgic homage to Resident Evil 4's village, though this is dampened by a sense of unoriginality in the rest of the game. Additionally, minor gameplay frustrations, like getting stuck on staircases, somewhat impact the overall emotional experience.
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users criticize the monetization for offering short, unengaging missions and underwhelming upgrades, questioning the game's claim of being a roguelike due to the lack of an endless mode.