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Review: Captain Blood

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On May 7, 2025

Captain Blood made its debut ten years after the game’s original announcement. It has undergone multiple iterations and changes before it seemingly disappeared, until recently. But what can you expect from Captain Blood? Has it been worth the wait to finally experience it?

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Swashbuckling Action

While it usually spells trouble when a game is stuck in limbo after so many years, it can also give players something that can be considered a rare gem. This is a game that almost feels like a love letter to the era it was conceived in within the gaming sphere. It has many of the mainstays of the hack and slash genre that have kept fans enjoying the genre for so long. Combat is smooth and entertaining, with upgrades to keep the experience fresh while allowing you to create new combos with your unlocked abilities.

These upgrades are split into three separate sections in the shop menu, which are available at any time throughout your journey. These categories are Upgrades, Combos and Executions. Upgrades will provide basic quality-of-life bonuses to the Captain’s resources, increasing his grenade capacity, health and how many shots the pistol will shoot. Combos will have a variety of new attack patterns you can use throughout the game that have multiple tiers to them. The final section, Executions, will provide new finishers to use against enemies. These vary from gaining rage, stealing weapons, gold or a quick and flashy execution.

Captain Blood sets up a fun new adventure that you’ll embark upon, gaining new abilities and taking down tough bosses.

You do get all the hallmark parts of playing as a pirate within the game — you have your hero who saves the day and takes down the cartoonishly evil villains that keep cropping up as you continue the story, flashy action sequences and combating your enemies from cities to remote pirate coves. These bosses are all unique and the gimmicks they possess make each one different from the last. Each boss has a unique arena, which becomes much more engaging the deeper you progress into the game. When you end up fighting a giant pirate while he’s slowly breaking the elevator that he and the Captain are fighting on, while hordes of enemies push their way to you, is quite an amusing experience.

Dated Mechanics and Lackluster Story

The weakest parts of Captain Blood might end up being the story and the soundtrack. This doesn’t mean that the story isn’t enjoyable by any means, but it does lack the quality that one hopes for when a novel has been adapted into any sort of medium. With the story itself being safe, our Captain is looking to move on to a new lot in life before it is thrust upon him. The music choice is also lacking. There aren’t many tracks available that stand out as you enjoy listening to while playing the game. Music is a major tool in getting players immersed in a game, but in this instance, it does become repetitive the more time you put into the game. While it doesn’t take anything away from the journey, it unfortunately doesn’t add to it either.

You can also expect older mechanics that you don’t see as much within video games these days, such as quick-time events. These aren’t for everyone and can be a hassle for a lot of players. These are hit or miss in Captain Blood. There are a few quick-time events that have a lot less leniency on the timing of pressing your inputs and it seems to only affect certain sections of the game. One boss fight in particular, Easterling, has this issue. He will grab you, and you’ll have to press the button on display, but it’s only visible for a fraction of a second before the attack hits, giving you almost zero time to react accordingly. This was the only fight in the game with the issue, and it did make for a frustrating but brief experience, especially on the highest difficulty option.

There are also sections of the game that will contain ship battles. You may expect some sections where you control your ship, but this is not the case. Unfortunately, you end up running around your deck shooting down enemy ships while they bombard yours with cannonfire. These levels of the game do end up falling short and leave one wanting for pieces of the game to be more engaging. Even when progressing through the game and completing it, there’s also a lack of a chapter select to replay chapters of your choice. To replay chapters, you have to restart the game, and you cannot change the difficulty of the game when you’ve locked in what choice you made at the start. While these issues are dated and underwhelming, the game does offer quite a bit of enjoyment from the combat itself.

Despite the Issues, This is Still a Strong Hack and Slash Entry to Gaming

It can be hard to be overly critical of a game that has so much potential going for it. The art and graphics are reminiscent of the Fable series, providing a ton of characterization for the enemies and protagonists you encounter. Animations are over the top, and the combat sequences can be brutal in the best of ways. And at times, you can send your enemies flying when you use the Captain’s Rage meter, launching them into some of the silliest ragdolls that will make anyone laugh.

There are a variety of ways to keep the combat fresh as well. Objects are scattered throughout the levels, allowing you to throw them. Enemies will drop weapon variants that you can use to execute new and powerful means of attacking. Rapiers, muskets, pistols, hatchets and two-handed long swords are all weapons you’ll be able to use throughout the game. Many of these can be stolen from the very enemies you fight if you buy the execution for them early on in your experience. The potential for a cult classic hack-and-slash game is here, and it isn’t a perfect game by any means either. But everything available does make for a fun and nostalgic game for most fans of the genre.

Closing Comments:

Almost everything in Captain Blood is a love letter to the genre it shares many titles with. This doesn’t feel like a game made to wow people, but rather provides solid entertainment and fun. The game feels like a callback, and it’s almost wrong to say it is. Here we have an opportunity to play a game that has never been released and almost lost to time entirely, and it makes the experience nostalgic and charming. While the story and soundtrack aren’t something many will consider to be amazing, they are still serviceable and can be enjoyable. There’s plenty of fun to be had within the game, and if you’re a fan of the genre looking for a new game to play, this could scratch that itch.