Blood Dungeon review

Blood Dungeon brings the worlds of challenging platformers and bullet-heaven survivor-likes together in a fresh and fun package with silly artwork. Disclosure: a key was provided to GamingOnLinux.

A self-published indie game from Messhof, a name some might remember from the likes of Wheel World and the Nidhogg series that marks a great return to their roots with fast and ridiculous movement-focused platforming. Similar in gameplay to various bullet heaven horde-survival games where you take down enemies and collect something to level up (blood, in this case), and then grab a new power-up or weapon from a casino-like spinning-wheel system to keep powering up your character through the run.

Having it as a platformer though is an interesting switch-up for this style of game, because not only are you trying to avoid all the enemies but you're trying to progress around the map too. You have to run, jump, climb and shoot - all while avoiding obstacles like turrets and spikes. Especially challenging when the waves of enemies get bigger and stronger which makes the platforming a little bit challenging to keep yourself alive for longer. Sometimes you really do have to scramble up a ladder or just jump down a gap and pray you make it when the enemies start closing in on you.

With over 100 different enemies to kill - there's a decent amount of variety through all the runs. Their different behaviours need a bit of learning so you know when to stick around, when to run and when to climb away for your life. Some can go through walls though - so beware. It's all about simply outsmarting them all somehow. The actual platforming is quite simple and accessible, not overly challenging, and you nicely stick to walls and ceilings to get around - but it's the sum of all the enemies, traps and map layout that brings the dilemma on how to proceed. It will definitely make you sweat at times.

The more you play the more you unlock too including new areas, new utilities and new weapons. And, it has a really fun little feature when you do eventually die - showing a simple animation of the path you took on a little map. A small thing, but I found it fun to see each time.

The abilities you get can be quite fun too, because there's some basic physics involved. Like how you can leave a trail of fire behind when you run. This fire drops down from above, making it quite fun to spread around the map and drop a whole lot right on top of certain enemies. So many little things like that make it such a wonderful experience to explore and learn all the tricks to it.

It's the boss battles that really get you though, some of them can be really tough. Rewarding, but difficult to get around some of them until you again learn their behaviours. A game of trial, error and lots of death.

Multiple characters to unlock too each with their own starting weapon and different upsides / downsides. Like the Barbarian that does 1% more damage per level, and wipes the screen every 5 levels.

Of course, what would a survivor-like bullet heaven be without some sort of meta progression? Good news, it has that too. You collect bones during your runs, which allows you to go into the bone shop to spend on things like movement speed, reload speed and all the usual basics. There's even a special door for daily runs, where you can see how you stack up against the rest of the players. Your meta upgrades don't work there though, to keep it fair.

See the release trailer below:

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Overall - what you get with Blood Dungeon is a surprisingly addictive gameplay loop that will have you repeatedly come back for a little more punishment. A platformer Vampire Survivors with a very unique style, fun soundtrack and silly characters. The rough and scribbled art-style is thoroughly charming in motion but won't be for everyone. I thought it was a fantastic blend of challenging but accessible platforming with auto-firing bullet-heaven styled progression that together makes an intoxicating mixture.

Fast, silly and just stupidly entertaining to run and fall through it. Not a game to be taken lightly, if you have plans - this will destroy them as the hours vanish on you. It packs a lot into it.

Played on Desktop Linux (Fedora KDE 44) with the Steam Controller, it worked without a single issue with Proton 11.