Hey, it’s director John Woo: you may remember him from such middling films as Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II, and now he’s lent his name to a new middling iOS game called Bloodstroke.
Developed by Moonshark and published by Chillingo, Bloodstroke is essentially an on-rails shooter/slash-em-up. You control the personality-devoid private security agent Mai Lee, codenamed Lotus, and must protect the weakling Dr Koorse, a scientist who is being attacked constantly by wave after wave of anonymous gangsters on the streets of China.
The first thing that strikes you about Bloodstroke is that it is really quite good looking for a mobile game. It is beautifully stylized with a hand-drawn aesthetic delivered in black and white save for the splashes of red blood that you force enemies to shed in the isometrically presented cities of Hong Kong and Beijing. Complimented with an decent original soundtrack by Far East Movement, the presentation of this iOS title is pretty flawless.
While the game is on rails, you get a certain amount of freedom within the area as the game forces you along. You’re always in control within the set region on the screen and can move freely within that area, allowing you to get up close and personal with the enemies attacking the good doctor. The controls work well and there is little of that common iOS affliction of an on-screen joystick missing your movements. Lotus moves just where you want her to and shoots just where you want her to.
However, there is little beyond that gorgeous facade and good control system. The game itself is based on jeopardy: can you protect the helpless Dr Koorse with your deadly weapons, before he is killed by gangsters? The problem is that your character faces no jeopardy at all. There is no threat to Lotus because she has no health bar and can’t be harmed; she’s free to roam around and launch herself at enemies without fear. While that might sound like fun, it makes things too easy.
The vast majority of the game presents no challenge at all: just drag Lotus towards enemies, shooting at them on the way to soften them up. Merely moving Lotus over an enemy kills them, so no real effort is needed. They’re just dead. Then you move on to the next one, and the next, without really having to worry too much. You just hover around Dr Koorse like a malevolent wasp, striking out at anyone foolish enough to come near him. You are not so much a security agent as much as you are a human force-field. Lotus’ character and actions feel more like those of an NPC that might run around with your character in another game, just thinning the horde for you a bit while you do the more interesting stuff or handle the bigger enemies. But in Bloodstroke, those more interesting moments never come - it’s just wave after wave of easily conquerable foes. Where’s the fun in that?
There’s almost no variety in the foes you face, which just means that each level is a minor variation on the last, a slightly different map for you to be dragged around while you murder people left, right and center. There are a lot of upgrades available to Lotus though, she can get new weapons or improve the ones she has, making it even easier to wipe out the hordes. You can also upgrade Dr Koorse to give him more health or armor, improving his chances of getting through China unscathed. Those upgrades can be bought using credits won for completing levels, or with credits bought via in-app purchases. You won’t need to spend any money on those upgrades though as the credits you get for completing levels should be more than enough to get you through.
It seems odd that such a pretty game - and it is pretty - should put so little effort into the story between levels, especially when that game has Hollywood connections in the form of Woo’s involvement. All you get is a very short set of text and pictures to move things along. In a game as focused on visuals as this, I would have expected some cutscenes, some voice acting or both. It seems like a wasted opportunity.
Overall, I feel let down by Bloodstroke. It seems like the kind of game that could have been something worthwhile, but with the lack of difficulty involved, the repetitive nature of facing the same waves of enemies over and over again and the dull moments between levels, it really hasn’t lived up to expectations. It’s not bad; but it’s not exactly good, either. It’s the very definition of average.
Bloodstroke is pretty, but also pretty disappointing.
