Also on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch
Publisher: SNEG
Developer: Seawolf Studio/General Arcade
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: Not Rated
The story behind Captain Blood is probably more interesting than the game itself. It was first announced in 2003, featured at E3 2004, and then retooled and revamped multiple times over the following years. It was set to be released on the original Xbox before having its development moved over to the Xbox 360. It got a trailer in 2008, had a playable version around the same time, got a website in 2010, only for its publisher to declare bankruptcy.
Fast forward to 2020 and a pair of GOG alumni decided to try and revive the game. Over the ensuing five years they tracked down all the rights holders, finished its development, and finally, more than two decades after its initial announcement, managed to put the game out into the world. If nothing else, it’s a testament to persistence.
So, after all that, how is it? Essentially, it’s exactly what you’d expect a game to be that was in development hell for the better part of a decade and then planned for release at the height of God of War’s popularity. It’s drenched in blood and brimming with Quick Time Events, and has more than its share of quirks and bugs.
I’m not going to lie, though: I kind of love it.
Admittedly, this is largely because I kind of loved that late-’00s era of action games. Where some people get hit right in the nostalgia by 8- and 16-bit graphics and chiptunes music, for me those same feelings apparently get triggered by PS3-era visuals, gameplay that rarely demands more of you that mashing the attack button, and boss fights featuring lots of QTEs. Captain Blood is undeniably dumb, sure, but it’s undeniably dumb fun.
To be sure, if you don’t have fond feelings for, say, 2010 gaming, then Captain Blood may be a little less essential. For that matter, even if you think God of War III is the height of gaming, you may think that Captain Blood is little more than a GOW clone with a pirate theme – and you’d be wholly justified in thinking that. The visuals definitely look like they were created for a PS360 game, so the game will look kind of ugly if you want something more than that. The gameplay is, as I said, pretty repetitive; even I’ll admit that it feels weird to play a game that places so little emphasis on parrying and countering, and I’m not nearly into Souls-likes as most people. Captain Blood even manages to screw up its audio: no matter what you do in the settings, the music and environmental noises will be really loud, but the voices will be so far down in the mix you can barely hear what the characters are saying.
Not that you should be playing Captain Blood for the dialogue. Or the visuals. Or complex gameplay. Really, it’s just worth playing if you want a love letter to late 2000s action games – or, I guess, if you want a time capsule from the same era that never saw the light of day due to a confluence of crazy factors. Either way, if that applies to your very specific gaming interests (and, weirdly, it does mine), then Captain Blood is a game you need to play.
SNEG provided us with a Captain Blood PC code for review purposes.
