Captain Blood Hands On Preview

Some of you might think American games are violent. You�ve obviously never played a Russian-made game. I got my hands on a preview build of Captain Blood from 1C: SeaWolf Studio and this game is violence intensified.

You take on the role of the privateer, Captain Blood, in a story that weaves back and forth from the original in such a way that you just don�t care if it adheres to the old book or not. It�s a 3D hack and slash affair that gives you some weapons and a reason to go kill a lot of people. What more do you need?

Sure it�s violent, but it�s not alway mindless button mashing. There are some interesting strategies that you have to implement from time to time and they do manage to break up the mindlessness at times.

There�s a really cool sea battle level where you have to run from cannon to cannon blasting away at nearby ships which are doing the same to you. However, it doesn�t seem that there�s any kind of damage meter on your ship as it took quite a long time for me to finish the level and the ship was still floating.

Now it�s not all mindless like I make it out to be. There is an upgrade system that, when you finish a level and have enough gold, can go into and buy new things like executions, attacks (combos) and upgrades like more health, grenades of gunshots. It�s just a matter of remembering all the button combos to trigger them. It�s not all that difficult as there are only two major attack buttons X and Y. B is used to grab and finish someone. Some enemies can just be grabbed and finished at once and some require softening up before you can do the moves.

The executions are fairly weak in that they kill the enemy and then do something like take all his money or his weapon, both of which you can often do without the execution. So they�re pretty much a waste of gold that could go into more useful things.

There are also boss battles big and small which challenge you from time to time. There are also quick action sequences where you must hit a specific button at a specific time. Sometimes I failed to see that this was the case as they often appear to be cut scenes. But a failure or two makes you pay closer attention and see the on screen cue (which could be both larger and better placed).