This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

One of my favorite pastimes to do with the Nintendo Switch is to fire up the Store once every two months or so, put $10-$15 dollars in my wallet, and then go into the Deals section and find games that I think I can blow that money on. Now a rational person, would pick 1 game that is 10-15 dollars, that they have heard is a relatively good/fun game, buy it and enjoy it, but that's not me, baby! No, I look in the $2-$3 dollar range and see if I can spot quality titles from that trash that is normally there. Most of the time I can spot some middling games that I think are "fine" and didn't make me regret spending $2 (Tiny Lands, Blazing Beaks), and sometimes I end up getting real stinkers that make me question my methods (Grand Guilds, 99 Vidas) Today though, we have a type of game that I am always hoping for, a real gem.

Today we are going to talk about "Blood will be Spilled," which is a hybrid platformer/turn based tactical game that takes place in the wild west.. oh also, you are a bug. Now I don't want to oversell this game ahead of time, you aren't going to confuse this $2 dollar indie title with Red Dead Redemption 2 or any other AAA title, and it won't win any awards, but this is a great game for the price point. You play as Jack, a mosquito, who is a bounty hunter out for revenge on his old gang that left him for dead. You start taking bounties on your old crew, and then go out on missions in an attempt to either bring them in alive or to kill them where they stand.

Each level is a very linear affair that can be classified into two parts. For the first part, the game behaves like a platformer. You run and jump over pits, or spike traps. Using your pistol to open up doors or solve simple puzzles that allow you to traverse to the next area. While each area is fairly straightforward, there are little offshoots that can lead to treasure chests that contain health pickups, grenades, or collectables in each level. While all of these are technically miss-able, its not hard to get them all without a guide, as they aren't too far off the beaten path. The platforming sections aren't very hard, and the game can be forgiving with checkpoints should you fall in a pit of spike trap and die. Each level/act has these, but the obstacles change based on the area. For instance the first act, you are underground, so you are avoiding pits, and some sections where spikes are on the ceiling and you have to low jump to avoid hitting them. In a later chapter you are avoiding a sniper, and have to hustle quickly to get over and under obstacles before the reticule can land on you and take you out.

The other part of every level is the combat section which transitions the game into a pseudo Xcom style game. When you enter a combat area, you are shown your objective (most of the time it is kill everyone) and you can see how many enemies are on the map. Most of the time you are fighting as just Jack, but in some later episodes you do get a few helpers on various missions that allow you to control a party. Each turn you are given two action points that can be used in the following fashion; you can move, you can shoot, reload, or use a special move. The special moves are interesting in that at the start of the game you are given a choice of what type of character you want Jack to be for the entire game. They can be classified as either "Good," "Bad," or "Ugly." Each one comes with their own abilities and weapon that will impact how you play the game. I choose the "bad" option which gave my character a knife throw (which could later be upgraded to poison), as well as an ability to offer a bounty on an enemy making the other enemies target them if they are within range. I believe the "Ugly" version focuses more on explosives and a bigger gun. Anyway, once you use two actions, then the enemy takes their turn and so forth until the battle is won or lost. There are a couple of staples here including cover and being able to run farther with two actions instead of just one, however the game does not operate on a percentage to hit, and actually requires you to pull the trigger while aiming in order to hit the target.

Now, when I say that, it makes it sound like you might switch to first person to shoot, but rather your character goes into aiming mode, and their reticule bounces up and down (depending on their gun's attribute) and then you pull the trigger when you feel it is lined up. While it may seem a little less then ideal at first, it actually allows you to skillfully aim for headshots on enemies that do extra damage, rather then just allowing it to the roll of the dice. Of course this system can have it's downfall, if you are not adept at timing your shot or aiming it, you can also miss 100% of your shots and get wiped quickly. Since cover doesn't simply lower a percentage on hit, the cover instead has a number of hit points that will be destroyed if they take to much damage. Of course there are special moves to work around cover, or to steady your aim, but those cost "Blood" which Jack will expel to use the abilities. In order to get more blood, you either have to suck it out of an enemy (stand next to and melee on a kill), or quickly move onto a freshly dead enemy. You will also get scored on a scale of 1-3 upon the completion of each combat encounter and that will either re-fill your blood total by 1 to 3 pips accordingly. In the beginning of the game, it seems easy enough, that I was able to use my specials pretty frequently, but in the late game I had to be much smarter and strategic because blood was harder to come by.

Obviously your broad enjoyment of the game is going to be if you like that kind of battle structure, for me personally, I'm all about this style of combat, and I thought there was enough variety of enemies that made me not be able to rely on the same tactics fight after fight. However, what made this game stand out to me, were all of the things around the edges outside of just the gameplay.

This game has a full voice casting, and while I am certainly no expert on voice-over, I really enjoyed the voice cast, especially Jack during all of their line deliveries. Each character sounds good, seems to match their character, and none of them were annoying or comic relief that I felt I needed to skip.

I really really liked the soundtrack to the game. Every piece seemed to fit the mood, and it was something that I would gladly listen to outside of the game, but sadly I could not find it online upon searching for it. Apparently the title "Blood will be spilled" is very popular song, album, music title for metal and rock bands. I will be honest, and say I'm partial to the sounds of Spanish guitar and (wild) western sounding music, so the overall theme of the game is going to fit that music type. Needless to say, I was impressed with the music, much more than other "big game" soundtracks that other people tell me are great.

While the plot is certainly rote and something that has appeared in numerous games, films, and TV shows, I feel like the game tackles it well and it was certainly interesting to go through. There are even some choices you get to make during the game. Long story short, there is a hub world that you return to where you can shop, and talk to the locals. One local is a priest and one is a gravedigger and they will have different things to say to you whether you decide to arrest or kill your bounty at the end of each act. If you leave them alive, they will be in prison where you can talk to them after each mission, and see if they offer up their buddies, and the priest and gravedigger will also have unique things to say depending on your actions. Ultimately this does not change the story much, and you will still go through the same beats, but it does allow you to give Jack a little more personality as either someone who is willing to let the revenge take control of him (killing) or whether he will do what is "right" (arresting).

Now the game is not flawless, as I did run into a few bugs that either forced me to reload a checkpoint or actually have to do a full quit and re-boot to get into the game. These all occurred during the combat encounters and were the result of Jack not being able to navigate in the direction I told him, and him getting stuck on the scenery. Since the checkpointing is rather generous, I never lost much time, but it was frustrating potentially having to redo a big portion of a battle, if he locked up before the battle ends. I did have a single error happen during the platforming section, where Jack disappeared, but I could still control him and move him around the level. A simple reload of the checkpoint had him pop back in, so no harm done. One final bug seems to be pervasive, and that is that a certain enemy when killed, doesn't have a death animation, and looks like they are still alive throughout the fight. They don't take any turns and the game doesn't look up or anything, but it can be confusing if you aren't keeping track of who is alive, and you might waste a bullet on an already dead guard.

Outside of the bugs, I did find the bosses a little easy, as these battles are usually 1v1 and you don't have to worry about other enemies that might make the fight frustrating. They still offer a unique battle (one enemy can fly, one takes a turn after each of your actions, one can shoot 4 times a turn, etc.), but by the time you hit each boss, you should be fairly competent on using your abilities and aiming your gun, that you can certainly handle the fights.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: It's good, but lets not get carried away

Where does it rank: Its a solid game, and certainly worth it if you can get it on sale like I did. I am not one who normally weighs the cost of the game, but if I paid $15 I don't think I would like it as much, but at $2-$3 this game is amazing at that price. This is by far the best of the "Sale" games I have purchased and played for this series, so I have it placed as the 38th greatest game out of 87th. That doesn't sound like much since that puts it basically smack dab in the middle of the pack, but I do have it ranked above "Heavy Rain" (39th) and right below "Loco Roco" (37th).

* I am going to attempt to outline the next 3-4 games that I will talk about in case anyone is interested in playing along. Now granted these aren't released once a week, as I might do two write-ups in a single week of smaller games, but giving people an idea of what's to come.

Up Next:

1. Stardew Valley (PC)

2. All Walls Must Fall (Switch)

3. Pokemon Shield (Switch)

4. Serial Cleaner (PC)

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion). Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for Listening.

You forgot to write

Thanks for Listening.

@wollywoo: dammit you are right.. well wollywoo, thank you for listening.

First of the budget titles that has sounded somewhat interesting to me since it seems like they were inspired by Steamworld Heist's combat system, and I love Steamworld Heist.

Getting close to your 100th game, any special plans for the game that gets that honor?

@djrebyb: thanks for the read.. yeah it was certainly inspired by steamworld heist, and I think the game is certainly worth it at a budget price.

As for the 100th title, my only goal is to try and have it done before the end of this year. As for any specific game, it depends on how fast I finish the current game I'm working on.. if I finish DQ11 soonish, then I might start and review a special game for the 100th episode.