Review: Flawed Fun Abounds In BLIGHTBOUND
When booting up and playing Blightbound for the first time, it is easy to see the similarities to other great dungeon crawler games in it. But even after a few hours, the issues and shortcomings become very prevalent and sometimes game breaking. Blightbound has loads of good ideas that suffer from repetitiveness, extremely low player count, lackluster loot, and unreliable computer companions.
The game is split into two modes, crawling through dungeons with real people or crawling through dungeons with computers. The “campaign” itself is slim, basically taking you through a series of dungeons with some light puzzles, unique bosses, and lots of button mashing.
The aesthetics and overall vibes all feel relatively similar, running from point A to point B and backtracking can become extremely tedious. When playing the game solo, (forced with computers), they can help do lots of damage and can eat lots of damage, but they aren’t very smart when it comes to boss fights or real challenges.
When the game was first released, the AI was terrible, and I would often have to stop a dungeon and reset because the computers could do simple puzzle parts, like standing on a square. Luckily, the AI has been patched and they will quickly assist you in puzzles, but it would be nicer if you could swap between the three characters or give some level of commands to them. As for playing with other people online, unless you are grouping up with three people, it probably won’t happen.
After the first week of playing, I got into a handful of match ups, often with only one other person and a computer, but now I am having a hard time finding anyone. It can take quite a while to find even one other person to play with, let alone two.
The loot system is fine, but not very exciting. After finishing multiple dungeons, I felt like I was only getting a handful of items that seemed marginally useful. I’m sure that if I spent dozens of hours and hours in higher-level contact, cool and interesting loot would appear. However, a game that only gives mediocre loot and random characters after many hours of repetitive dungeons doesn’t feel like a rewarding use of time.
The best part of Blightbound is the actual combat. The brawler battling, different kits and unlocked characters that fall under three classes can be pretty fun for a while. Having the three different classes synergize together also can add some moments of real thrill. But that fun runs out pretty quickly when unlocking new characters relies on random drops that don’t come often enough.
Yes, if Blightbound had a more robust AI system and more generous loot system, I could actually see myself dungeon crawling a bit more to unlock new characters and reach higher levels. But because the loot and level upgrades feel so thin along with the forced reliance on other players (computers or real people), I find little reason to play dungeons over and over again. If you and two other friends love dungeon crawling and brawler battles, then this might be something to entertain you while waiting for Diablo IV, but otherwise there are plenty of other things to play.
