Captain Blood Review

Originally announced in 2003 (yes, really), Captain Blood has had a turbulent 22 years leading up to its release. After being passed from developer to developer and hit with numerous delays, the game was all but cancelled and sank to the bottom of Davy Jones’ Locker. That was until 2020, when developer General Arcade got to work reviving this long-dormant project. Now, after a few more delays, we finally have the official release! But, is this once buried treasure worth its weight in gold, or is it just complete booty?

Based (very loosely) on the 1922 novel of the same name, Captain Blood puts players in the role of, you guessed it, Captain Peter Blood. His love for wealth and glory is his main motivation throughout the adventure, although he is tasked with rescuing a kidnapped noblewoman from fearsome pirate Jack Easterling, but the story doesn’t get much deeper than that.

This swashbuckling tale set in the 17th century is full of clichés and campiness, but isn’t exactly groundbreaking. The cartoonish narrative doesn’t take itself too seriously, although leaning fully into the silliness could have made it much more enjoyable. Captain Blood himself is a rather bland protagonist with zero character development, who only seems interested in killing Spaniards and acquiring more loot. It’s a weak story, and one that probably would not have been rated highly if the game had been released as originally planned in the Xbox 360 era.

Speaking of the Xbox 360, Captain Blood wouldn’t look out of place on the platform. It does have a higher resolution than games you’d find on seventh-generation consoles, though there is still a lack of detail. That said, it is rather eye-catching, with some fairly decent environments and the over-exaggerated proportions of the characters bringing a cartoon-like flair to the visuals. Cutscenes can often look a bit janky and drop frames, but gameplay, at least, was mostly smooth.

Unfortunately, the audio is a mess. The balancing is abysmal, and it’s next to impossible to hear some lines of dialogue in cutscenes over the music. Subtitles are your friend here, but that doesn’t help the endlessly repetitive one-liners heard in combat.

Overall, Captain Blood’s presentation isn’t its strongest aspect. Although I didn’t come across any game-breaking bugs, things such as shadows constantly flickering and audio cutting out were prevalent enough to notice.

Gameplay is very reminiscent of early to mid-2000s hack-and-slash titles such as the original God of War. Which shouldn’t be a shock, considering when Captain Blood originally started in development. You’ll run through linear level after linear level, taking out waves of baddies until you reach that stage's boss.

On PlayStation 5, Square and Triangle act as your light and heavy attacks, respectively, and Circle grabs an opponent or initiates an execution. Combos become available as you upgrade Captain Blood via the shop using gold collected from defeated enemies, but none of them feel more powerful than the rest, taking away the point of experimenting with combos. Defensive options are the usual: X lets you block and parry, and — thanks to the fixed camera during gameplay — rolling is assigned to the right stick. There is an alternative control scheme available that assigns block to L1 and roll to X, which I thought was better suited. Using a face button to block doesn’t feel natural!

That isn’t the extent of ol’ Pete’s manoeuvres, though, as he also carries his trusty pistol with him. This ranged attack is slow to recharge but is very helpful when it comes to enemies with ranged weapons, who will constantly interrupt your combo flow. Captain Blood can make use of some of his opponents’ weapons as well, such as rapiers, muskets, and grenades. Whilst these will break over time, the extra damage they cause makes them worthwhile to pick up when you can. Finally, after a gauge has filled, you can activate Rage mode, which increases all damage dealt and the speed at which you attack.

At times, Captain Blood feels like a fun nostalgia trip, but there were many times that frustrated me. Enemy AI will often cheap-shot you, whilst other times it will stand there waiting to say hello to the pointy end of your sword. No matter which of the three difficulty settings, it can be unfair at times; you can’t really stagger enemies, meaning they’ll interrupt your combo flow and bring the hurt.

Finally, the action will take to the seas on occasion for ship combat. This initially had me excited, but it turns out it’s a massive let-down. Instead of captaining your vessel, you’ll run around the deck firing off cannons to keep the enemy at bay. If you are boarded, then you’ll need to smack a few goons around before going back to manning the cannons. These sections feel dragged out and become a bit of a slog after a time. I get that the developer was trying to break up the regular gameplay with something a bit different, but it just doesn’t hit the mark.

Despite releasing twenty years later than it should have done, I can’t help but be charmed by Captain Blood. Perhaps it’s a part of me that yearns for the simpler times, when games weren’t overly complex and required months of your time to finish. There is something enjoyable here, albeit it's hidden behind an uninspired story, basic, unfulfilling combat, and an underwhelming progression system. But I did have some fun! This isn’t an absolute must-buy, nor is it one to completely avoid. For its budget price, there are worse games you could purchase; just know that this isn’t quite a seafaring adventure for would-be pirates to get excited over.