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#BLUD

While the small-town vampire apocalypse of #BLUD will fail to interest those looking for a serious dungeon crawler RPG, it will satisfy those longing for a simpler zany 90s cartoon experience.
#BLUD Game Cover
75%Game Brain Score
story, graphics
grinding, stability
78% User Score Based on 293 reviews
Critic Score 73%Based on 14 reviews

Platforms

Nintendo SwitchXbox Series X|SPCPlaystation 4Xbox OneXboxSteam DeckWindowsPlayStation
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#BLUD Game Cover

About

#BLUD is a single player hack and slash game with horror, fantasy and comedy themes. It was developed by Exit 73 Studios and was released on June 18, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.

"#BLUD is a single-player Role Playing Game with stellar visuals and mechanics. As Becky Brewster, a vampire-hunting high school student, you save your friends and fight off the vampire apocalypse in this humorous, animated dungeon crawler. Battle mutated animals and possessed townsfolk, and use school supplies to level up your magic skills and take selfies with demonic forces for analysis."

Genres & Tags
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#BLUD screenshot
#BLUD screenshot
#BLUD screenshot
#BLUD screenshot
#BLUD screenshot
#BLUD screenshot
#BLUD screenshot
Skip User Reviews

78%
Audience ScoreBased on 293 reviews
story62 positive mentions
grinding18 negative mentions
  • The game features stunning hand-drawn animation and a charming art style that evokes nostalgia for early 2000s cartoons.
  • The writing is witty and entertaining, with a fun story that keeps players engaged throughout the experience.
  • The gameplay offers a variety of combat mechanics and side quests, providing a mix of exploration and action.
  • Combat mechanics are often frustrating due to awkward hitboxes, lack of invincibility frames during dodges, and animation locks that can lead to cheap hits.
  • Many quests feel tedious and repetitive, often involving fetch tasks that do not contribute meaningfully to the main story.
  • The game suffers from bugs and glitches that can lead to soft locks and other gameplay interruptions, detracting from the overall experience.
  • story
    176 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's story is characterized by a mix of light-hearted humor and darker themes, conveyed primarily through animations and sound effects, reminiscent of shows like "Avatar: The Last Airbender." However, many players find the pacing rushed and the narrative shallow, with side quests often reduced to tedious fetch tasks that lack meaningful contribution to the main plot. While the charming art style and engaging characters are praised, the overall execution leaves some players feeling that the story could have been more developed and cohesive.

    • “The story is light-hearted and has some funny moments, but also has some heartfelt and dark moments.”
    • “The world is charming and the dialogue/storytelling is great!”
    • “You'll have a wonderful time playing through the game's story and seeing every kooky detail it has to offer.”
    • “The story of this game is mainly conveyed through animations, garbled speeches, and sound effects.”
    • “The game just feels like a total rip-off, animation hiding all the problems it has and the story goes very paint by the numbers.”
    • “I've read this was meant to be an animated series before pivoting to a game and that makes a lot of sense with how choppy and rushed the pacing is, with several plot points and character beats extremely rushed.”
  • graphics
    121 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game are widely praised for their superb cartoon-inspired art style and vibrant animations, evoking nostalgia for fans of classic animated series. Many reviewers highlight the attention to detail in the visuals and cutscenes, which enhance the overall experience, although some note that the gameplay mechanics do not always match the quality of the graphics. Overall, the art style is considered the standout feature, making the game visually appealing and enjoyable to watch.

    • “The art style and animation are great!”
    • “The game is a treat to look at; just as everyone says, the art style is carrying the visuals hard, and the bounce, squash-and-stretch and cartoony visuals just leave me happy to watch.”
    • “Amazing visuals and animations; just looking at the game brought me joy.”
    • “Art style and animation clearly has time and effort and love put into it; however, I imagine due to this, attention was neglected on the actual game design itself.”
    • “The only things this game has going for itself are its cartoon homage graphics and the fact that they didn't botch the enemies.”
    • “The bosses receive some of the worst of this with the goat boss, 2nd lieutenant, and dragul boss attack patterns not feeling telegraphed through sound or visuals appropriately, and I had to learn boss patterns by repeated deaths.”
  • gameplay
    113 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its potential but also highlighting significant flaws such as repetitiveness, bugs, and clunky mechanics. While the art style and animations are praised, the combat is often described as frustrating and inconsistent, with issues like ineffective dodge mechanics and tedious traversal. Overall, the gameplay is seen as serviceable but lacking depth and polish, making it less enjoyable than the game's visual and narrative elements.

    • “This is a visually impressive game with solid gameplay.”
    • “Great art style, great gameplay, needs work but overall another testament to how indie gaming is ruling the industry.”
    • “I think this game is great, the gameplay is fun and its art style and animations are awesome.”
    • “At first, I loved the gameplay too, but man does it get repetitive after a couple of hours... not to mention the bugs.”
    • “The gameplay, however, is much more disappointing. It could be that the presentation set my expectations too high, but currently most gameplay elements are either under-baked or have severe problems.”
    • “But sadly, the combat is a mess of jank and incredibly stupid when no matter what you do, you can't dodge without taking damage, which defeats the entire purpose of a dodge mechanic.”
  • humor
    50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is widely praised for its charm and cleverness, featuring a mix of light-hearted moments, dark humor, and nostalgic references. Players appreciate the witty dialogue, funny character interactions, and amusing animations, which contribute to an engaging and entertaining experience. While some humor may not resonate with everyone, the overall tone is described as cozy and reminiscent of Saturday morning cartoons, making it a delightful aspect of the game.

    • “The art style is so nostalgic and the writing is hilarious.”
    • “It's cute, charming, and genuinely funny at times.”
    • “The animation is fun, the art style adorable, the characters are written well, and the dialogue is smart, believable, surprisingly mature, and consistently funny.”
  • music
    42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its atmospheric synthwave style and catchy tunes, while others find it repetitive and forgettable. Many players appreciate how the music complements the game's art style and overall charm, though some feel it doesn't always align with the gameplay experience. Overall, while the soundtrack has its highlights, it may not leave a lasting impression for all players.

    • “It's a lovely art style and has great music.”
    • “Most if not all the music is fantastic.”
    • “The synth-y music also really helps the feeling of the environment, even if it can be repetitive at times.”
    • “The music also just ends up being 10-second loops of generic beats, ala Binding of Isaac.”
    • “I also think the John Carpenter-style synth soundtrack is a bit at odds with the art style and nonstop Hanna-Barbera sound effects you hear while playing.”
    • “The music is pretty much what I would describe as background cartoon music.”
  • grinding
    18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players frequently describe the grinding aspect of the game as tedious and frustrating, particularly due to excessive backtracking, repetitive quest designs, and a lack of satisfying rewards. While some appreciate the art style and concept, many find the gameplay marred by irritating combat and numerous glitches, making the experience more of a chore than enjoyable. Overall, the final stages and boss encounters are often seen as time-consuming rather than challenging.

    • “Then there are the hellishly tedious main quests where you are looking for 8 pieces of quest items and you have to backtrack and re-scan the whole area multiple times... the buggy main quests where sometimes you have to die in order to be able to get back where you need to.”
    • “An incredible art style and interesting concept overall brought down by irritating combat, tedious backtracking, and tiresome quest design.”
    • “The presentation elevates it somewhat to make it a not-awful experience, but the tedious gameplay, lack of satisfying rewards, and laundry list of glitches make it more frustrating than fun.”
  • stability
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is marred by numerous glitches and bugs, particularly during main quests, which can lead to frustrating experiences such as soft-locks and problematic movement in combat. While some players report that the game runs well overall, the tedious quest design and frequent technical issues detract significantly from the enjoyment.

    • “Good game runs great”
    • “It's a bit buggy; I got softlocked in one of the final missions and had to mess with my save file to fix it.”
    • “The presentation elevates it somewhat to make it a not-awful experience, but the tedious gameplay, lack of satisfying rewards, and laundry list of glitches make it more frustrating than fun.”
    • “You lose a lot more health to glitches like that.”
  • atmosphere
    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its charm, enhanced by beautiful visuals and a captivating synthwave soundtrack that effectively shifts the mood from day to night. Reviewers highlight the engaging characters and world-building, despite noting that combat mechanics are somewhat clunky. Overall, the atmosphere significantly contributes to the game's appeal.

    • “Charming atmosphere, characters, and world in general.”
    • “Atmospheric soundtrack that effectively makes use of synthwave to change the mood from day to night.”
    • “Beautiful visuals, some great boss battles, and it nails the atmosphere.”
  • optimization
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is highly praised for its optimization, particularly on the Steam Deck, where users report exceptional performance, consistently rating it 10/10.

    • “When I played it on the Steam Deck, the performance was amazing.”
    • “Performance: 10/10”
    • “Performance: 10/10”
  • character development
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development in the game has received mixed feedback, with some players finding the ending unsatisfactory and lacking depth. However, the character designs and writing are praised for their quality, contributing to an overall positive impression despite the shortcomings in character growth.

    • “Visually stunning, character designs are neat and the writing is superb.”
    • “The character design and animation are great.”
    • “The fighting can be clunky, but not enough for me to give up on the game. The ending might have been less than satisfactory in terms of character development and effort.”
  • emotional
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players appreciate the emotional depth of the game, drawing comparisons to "Avatar: The Last Airbender" for its effective blend of light-hearted and heartfelt moments. However, some express frustration with gameplay mechanics that detract from the emotional experience, such as the risk of getting hurt while attempting to engage with enemies.

    • “I’m reminded of my favorite show Avatar: The Last Airbender, which balanced both light-hearted and heartfelt moments in its story.”
  • replayability
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game has a moderate replayability score of 7.2/10, suggesting that while it may appeal to certain personal tastes, it is often overshadowed by more enjoyable, cost-effective, and replayable alternatives.

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73%Critics’ scoreBased on 14 critic reviews
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5h Median play time
8h Average play time
5-15h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 3 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

#BLUD is a hack and slash game with horror, fantasy and comedy themes.

#BLUD is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 4 and others.

On average players spend around 8 hours playing #BLUD.

#BLUD was released on June 18, 2024.

#BLUD was developed by Exit 73 Studios.

#BLUD has received mostly positive reviews from both players and critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

#BLUD is a single player game.

Similar games include ANNO: Mutationem, Born of Bread, Ocean's Heart, Biomutant, Bloomtown: A Different Story and others.