Blood Reaver

Has a lot of potential, but as of rn pretty chunky. When the game gets more content and stuff Ill go back every update to play a bit but HR is (imo) not really viable rn, and theres no EE yet so nothing to do really. All in all, looks promising, and so far a good love letter to CoD Zombies

(version 0.25) As is this game is pretty fun. I remember back in like 2012 I wanted a CoD Zombies game that would solely be Zombies. Blood Reaver so far is looking like it can be that. If you've never played CoD Zombies, it's main function is pretty basic. You start off with nothing but a weak pistol in a relatively small room and you have to kill zombies to gain points to unlock more areas as well as access to stronger weapons and perks. Zombies spawn in a wave based fashion, and each successive round there are more and stronger zombies. Basic mid to lare game strategy is to find an open enough area to circle around and let zombies pile up and start blasting them as much as possible before more started spawning, this is also known as "training" or "running a train" because the zombies file behind you like a long train. Blood Reaver is exactly this same formula, except with demons instead of zombies, which is more just a reskin. I'll be making a ton of comparisons to CoD Zombies because that is what this game is ultimately trying to be, except on standing on it's own. It separates itself from CoD by making loadouts with unique abilities that you can unlock as you play. You start off with some unlocked already so even without playing a game, you still have decisions you can make based on your build. These abilities use blood as a resource to cast them, and instead of a cool down, you have to obtain more blood to recast. Blood comes from shooting and killing demons so just doing the main thing you'll always be doing feeds into it. Personally, I didn't like these that much. Maybe it's because of CoD, where things like your grenade and claymores became borderline useless by like round 15 so I don't see these abilities as all that helpful. I will say that I was surprised to see that the fire grenade was still one-shotting in the 20s. For things that I like about the game outside of the core gameplay is that the game is a bit harder than a typical CoD Zombies. Map design (only one map) has a lot of tight areas, as well as like medium-ish areas where it's not open enough to wander around in big circles and train zombies easily, but not tight enough where one demon cutting you off can spell disaster. Even in those medium areas the spawns are littered enough that there is almost no area that you can easily train in. I like the challenge as it forces you to be more aware. It was easy in CoD to get really complacent running the same 15ft circle over and over again and it made runs boring. I also really like the aesthetics, the whole demons from hell is something I love in other games and it always feels right for an fps. For the things I don't like: Demons have a weird lunge when they try to hit you and I think it's giving them an extra speed boost. Many times a running demon would hit me once, and then for like the next 30 seconds, I keep getting love tapped despite me sprinting as much as I can to try to create distance. In CoD, walking speed was either slightly faster than a running zombie, or the same speed which admittedly made kiting really easy. I don't mind runners being a little faster than walking speed, but something feels off if I am full sprinting and as soon as I run out of stamina I'm getting tapped by the same demon i was running from. I know they are doing something to go faster than normal cause the one demon will be the only demon near me while all the rest are grouped up far behind us. If I break enough distance from the one demon, then it can't keep up the same way. For things that I think need to be changed or fixed: a buffer needs to be added. It's a practically universal necessity for making shooting guns feel much better, more specifically semi-auto guns. Without a buffer, it leaves the game feeling clunky. I know for a fact that Destiny 2 has practically an unlimited buffer. You can do just about any action and hold M1 and will fire your gun on the first available frame. D2 also gets a lot of praise on it's gun feel. Linux support needs to be better. Idk how it is on the Steam devices, but I was on CashyOS and a game would start at 20fps and by round 5 it was down to below 10 and automatic weapons would not shoot unless you held down the trigger for a couple seconds straight where it would instantly dump half the mag all at once. Last is making the dog -like demons stand out a bit. It's a problem with the "demons from hell" aesthetic I said I like. Everything is either red or grey and most of the map is pretty grey with orange lighting from fire. The normal demons are a bright red and they stand out enough, but the new demon dogs are grey and very easily blend in with the background as well as incessantly attacking you and are fast enough to prevent you from making any distance. Dogs in CoD were really bad at turning which allowed some way to run from them consistently, I didn't get much experience against them cause they were just added today as of writing, but they were impossible to get any distance against which was more frustrating than anything. Speaking of new content, the easter egg was just added as well as a minor mechanic to unlock the infuser (pack a punch.) It originally just required you to reach the area, but now there are 3 valves around the map that need to be activated. They aren't hard to find and are highlighted by bright red pipes that lead to the valves. I wasn't able to do much of the easter egg but I also don't care much for it. The CoD easter eggs started off as just that, easter eggs, and later on they became partially mandatory to do to unlock basic parts of the map like power or pack a punch. As long as Blood Reaver doesn't go that far with them, then I might consider doing them later. There's also no crawlers, and with the aforementioned speed issue, keeping one demon alive can still be a little risky compared to CoD and trying to do things with one or two chasing you constantly seems tedious. I looked around the map for stuff to pick up for a little bit but didn't find much before I was getting slapped around and had to leave. Overall, this game is promising. Comparing to CoD, it's not exactly worth it unless you are a huge fan of CoD Zombies and want something a little more unique than a modded map. Though, I wouldn't say buying an old CoD game for full price just for zombies is worth it unless you know you want CoD zombies. I think with some polishing, 3 - 4 maps and maybe mod support this game could be amazing. Also, add some better sfx, not enough chunky thunky sfx. Look at CoD's window repair that slams and echoes so hard you can hear it from like halfway across the map, and that's for a minor mechanic that in late game you don't even engage with. I will follow this game closely to see how it shapes up.

Buying into the vision -- very playable at the moment but feels a bit plastic. No crashes, no game ending bugs and nearly as many weapons to play around with as World at War did on Nacht der Untoten. Personally the only improvements so far I'd really like to see are in audio. With SFX settings all the way maxed some weapons like the Basilisk sound punchy while others barely squeak. I respect the variety of ways they fire projectiles but some levels still seem too quiet. Also in respects to audio, the head pop sounds great but anything else just kind of slumps over without occasion, maybe a couple of (second) death cries for additional feedback? A lot of animations are surprisingly good, the explosion ragdolls and the default grenade seem the jankiest but are serviceable. I guess I'd also like to see that thing's radius buffed. But all in all, a respectful adaptation and progression of the ideas that brought me into CoD Z in the first place.

I don't review often and was waiting for an update before reviewing. With the 0.11 update it fixed studders and the actual difficulty is better balanced compared to the original release. Honestly can't wait for more content as of right now it is a fun zombie replacement and hopefully down the road we get workshop support for custom maps and other mods. That's where I see this shining is with workshop and community support at the end of development. I think for $15 it's a buy if you're wanting the classic zombies from bo1 and waw.

very fun cod zombies-like. the animations/movement feel a bit janky but it doesn't affect gameplay. excited to see more content added to this game as the months go by. will definitely encourage friends to get this once it has more content

Okay so, Blood Reaver... Initially I saw the UI during advertisements and Assumed it was just a cod zombies rip off, I wasn't wrong, Infact, it's not even ashamed to be a rip off, it does nothing new or even tries to be anything new. If it's not broke, don't fix it, Sure you could use that to describe this game, If you're a fan of Cod zombies, you'll enjoy this game for sure! Because it is the exact same game, It's a clone, a bad clone, an expensive and content lacking clone, I don't buy games for what they can be in the future when the base is already so poor, So here's what Blood Reaver is: Load in with a pistol, Knife zombies til round 4-5, Hit box, get points and turn on power, Get all of your perks, pack a punch weapon and then uh, Kill zombies for the next 30 minutes. Sound familiar? Ofcourse it does, you even have Boss zombies that can spawn where their Giant head is their weakspot, They drop power ups too! Speaking of Perks and Power ups, You have, Barricade, Max ammo, Double-triple points, insta kill and Nuke, And for the perks you have, Quick revive, double tap, Speed cola and Juggernog.... So.. The gameplay loop is the exact same, The mechanics are the exact same, And the interactables are the exact same, What about guns and maps: Okay so, your starting pistol turns into a Boomhilda, And you can get the Crystalizer which is literally just the ray-gun.. You have double pack a punching and all the expected weapons are in the game, Doors, pack a punching and mystery box all cost the same, Getting points is the same too. And then you find out that, with all of this lack of inspired gameplay, you only have 1 map to play on. It's honestly insulting, Your money is better spent towards black ops 3, even if it takes you a month or 3 to save up and buy it, or longer to wait for a sale, You get infinitely more content, Custom content, nothing feels Jank, You also get multiplayer, a campaign and Infinite modding capabilities, Blood Reaver does nothing Unique and gives me no reason to play this over what it's copying.

This is the Call of Duty Zombies game we've been waiting for. Growing up with Black Ops 1 I feel right at home with this game and I'm looking forward to future updates and content. My two cons is 1: The game desperately needs music and 2: The grenade currently feels yucky to use. Perfect $15 game to play with the fellas.