HomeReviewsBleeding Edge
Wot I Think: Bleeding EdgeBlunted
Blunted
Release:Out nowOn:WindowsFrom:SteamFor:£25, $30, €30
Bleeding Edgeis a third-person 4v4 brawler with a line-up that includes a woman who turns into a motorcycle, a snake who inhabits a zombie, and - soon to be introduced - a dolphin in a mechsuit. There’s a feathery, mechanical raptor-lady. There’s a fire-breathing goth. There’s a grandma, who is also a witch, leashed to a mini hot air balloon. Most of the combatants are charming, inventive and memorable, but I never want to see any of their stupid faces again.
All the charm in the world couldn’t stop the combat being pants.
Let’s linger a little longer on the fighters, rather than the fighting. I want you to get properly introduced to these characters, before I tell you how they’ve been squandered. And when I say the characters, I really mean the character designs. Because while there are snippets of lore tucked away in their bios, all you really need to know about these people is that they’re cyborgs who like beating each other up in a fight club for transhuman misfits. I can get behind that.
One of my favourites is Makutu, a New Zealand-born beefcake with a rotating sphere for a torso. He has a hoverboard like a surfer, and makes wave-like motions with his hands as he rides it. He is relentlessly upbeat, and if you hold down the mouse button he’ll repeatedly slap enemies at blistering speed, while waddling forwards like a crab. Also he can turn into a ball. There’s a lot going on with Makutu.
He’s a conceptual triumph of character design. But look, the cracks are already showing. Because ability-wise, he’s a cross between Reinhardt and Lucio fromOverwatch, with a charge attack, and a buffing aura he can toggle between speed and healing. Makutu isn’t the only character with an analogue in Overwatch, either. Motorcycle lady can yank enemies in towards her like Roadhog, while another support character can summon a wall like Mei’s. I get that it must be hard to come up with genuinely new ideas for abilities, but for all their novel appearances, many of these characters are working with well-worn tools.
There are two modes, which either send you off to capture points, or scrounge for power cells, which you deposit to earn points for your team. The combat reminds me of PVP in MMOs. It’s got the same emphasis on teamwork, and managing your abilities through hectic fights. There’s no aiming: ranged characters simply hold down their attack buttons while locked onto an enemy, and I can’t stand that. Clashes between ranged characters end up being fought with dreary inevitability, with both of you firing away and launching your abilities the moment they’re off cooldown. It’s too simple for mind games, and well-timed dodges don’t make as much difference as they should.
The basic act of hitting something doesn’t feel quite right, even when you’re whacking someone with your massive motorcycle hands. There’s this feeling of disconnection, some of it coming from the way your enemy can blink away at speed, and some of it, probably, from lag. A recent patch claimed to address that, but it doesn’t seem to have done much good. Hopefully that will be ironed out further down the line. But even if it is, I’d steer clear ofBleeding Edge. The characters may be inventive, but everything else is bleeding out on the floor.
