It's a good time, genuinely. Took me about 28 hours to 100% everything with all achievements, but I also wasn't rushing. Very likely you'll at least get 18+ hours out of this if you're aiming to do everything, which is on the lower end of Survivor-likes, but just right for a boomer-shooter, which this leans more into. This isn't a perfect experience. *There's are six possible slots for weapons, yet not a single character is capable of equipping six. *There are a few secrets on some maps, but not many, and not on every map. *There is no independant character upgrading from the shop, only universal upgrades. *There are no evolutions, a staple of Survivor-likes where you combine a perk/weapon combo for a powerful new item. *Consumables cost WAY too much for the amount of gold you earn in any given level, and worse still, Item Lock, Reroll and Banish are all consumable only; they're not permanent upgrades. For a Survivor-like, that's a significant detriment to the longevity of the title. *Finally, all characters are simply not viable for longer levels; some are very clearly better than others, leaving you to replay the same characters over and over because you'll die using, for instance, the Asian chick with the sword, the starting character or the crab guy. That, however, is about it for the negatives. The pacing of the levels is wonderful, the shooting feels so great, the maps, secrets or not, are a joy to explore, the music is uniformly awesome, the enemies are varied, boss battles are wonderful and you're constantly encouraged to keep moving. The amount of variety in weapons, spells and perks is great. Despite the negatives, Bloodshed is still a terrific time overall. I highly recommend it, just with those caveats. If you love Survivor-likes but you're not that crazy about Boomer Shooters, there's a chance this won't scratch the itch. But if you love the latter more and can enjoy the rogue-lite elements and RNG that comes with Survivors, it's worth it.
The game CAN run on Win 11, but currently NOT in Fullscreen. Do not buy if playing in Windowed mode would be too much of an eyesore (no judgment from me, I understand). Got to the GOG Forums, in the top threads you'll find the solution topic. You need a file from Nexus, the link is in the topic, follow the very simple installation instructions; the game runs no problem, and without the obnoxious Kalypso launcher the Steam version is saddled with. It's not a perfect solution, and for a game GOG touts as part of its Preservation program, it's not exactly acceptable that these hoops are required to get the game to even run. That being said, the game itself is great. Unique story, fun combat, dialogue choices that alter the flow of the story, it's a very enjoyable game. If you are a fan of sword and sorcery, Eurojank and Mass Effect styled AA games, and if you're willing to play in Windowed mode, please give this one a chance. It's worth your time, and the two minutes it takes to get it running.
Frontloads content with an enjoyable and in-depth shipbreaking simulator with a wry, satirical view of corporate malfeasance. After the first few hours, however, it reveals the gangrenous, commie underbelly. You're introduced to the 'rest of the crew', an improbably diverse crew of communists looking to unionize, your shifts are limited, you're overcharged for everything. You barely have time to actually engage with the simulator you bought, because the point of the game is not to have fun with a simulator, the point is to make more communists. Not recommended, unless you're into that sort of thing.
When you start the game now, it tells you it's officially released and out of development. But it's still listed on the store as 'In Development'. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a finished project. You can't even turn down the sound of the engine despite putting 'Sound Effects' and 'Voice' to 0 in the settings, so that 'relaxing' music can barely be heard. I paid $1.50 for this on sale. I will be requesting a refund. This does get an additional star for the framerate and actual driving mechanics. It felt good and was very smooth, but it's not like there were any tight corners to test out the driving. It was mostly driving in a slight curve through Tron.
