Developer: Ian Campbell
Released: Jul 2013
Hours Played: 3.5
Similar To: 20XX / Fury Unleashed / Explosionade / Gigantic Army / Rive
Rating: 3/5 Parsnips
This quick-paced, run and gun blast 'em up bounds onto the scene fronted by a pink-haired, flared-trouser-wearing, teenaged protagonist. As its title might suggest this is not a game about the menstrual cycle but a fast-paced platform side-scroller packed with zippy gameplay and a violent punch. At the end of each cavernous level lasting roughly 5-10 minutes, you face a tricky boss who you must defeat before entering the next. You move and fire in twin-stick style while leaping about, shooting and avoiding enemies. You have the option to use slow-mo and a double-speed / double-jump with both coming in handy at various times. It just takes a little while to get used to the controls for this.
You are graded on your performance but the challenge comes in gradually beating each level at progressively higher difficulties. With the choice of two weapons and plenty of varying mechanics ushered in at intervals, the game has plenty to keep players entertained and enthused. Personally, I felt the easy and normal modes were challenging enough; anything more and we’re into hardcore territory. The spike in difficulty kicks in at Level 6 when you wade through a load of bubbles. Action is fast and your own movement is quick and swift meaning you have to take your foot off the peddle and rethink a strategy when you're getting your arse kicked. I still have reservations with the whole resurrect-at-the-previous-checkpoint-and-carry-on thing as it means a death after getting pummelled is not really punished.
A tuneless chiptune and a pink 16-bit style title-screen greets you on firing up Bleed. From here you jump into the Story mode and work your way through seven fairly short levels after selecting one of four difficulty settings ranging from easy to v.hard. The level-select screen is presented in the form of a notepad and pencil with a list of the levels whose title includes the name of each final boss. As you complete these levels the title gets crossed out to show completion. Arcade (survival from start to finish) and Challenge mode get unlocked once you finish story mode while three additional characters unlock as you fulfil further more difficult conditions. However, for a casual gamer the Story mode with the default character gives ample enough action and challenge anyway. Unfortunately, the game is unable to be played in windowed mode.
As mentioned, you’re initially locked into doing the Story mode at first. This consists of seven levels that can be done using one of four difficulty settings, namely: Easy, Normal, Hard and V. Hard. When you select a level to play, you are informed of which highest difficulty setting you have cleared that level on. As you complete levels you are awarded points that can then be spent in The Shop on upgrades and various weapons. However, as I approach the final level I have yet to be given the chance to actually use of any of these weapons. Another twist is that you don't have "lives" as such; just never-ending reincarnations at previous checkpoints when your health runs out.
Once you've loosened up and got over the initially tricky-to-handle controls, Bleed proves to be a solid, zippy game that is generally pleasant enough to play. There are a good variety of enemies and obstacles, and once you've learned their patterns and how they move you'll warm more to the game as you become more proficient and defeat levels. On the negative front, unless I’ve missed something, the purchasing of weapons makes no difference to your arsenal as you simply can’t seem to access these unlocked weapons! Even if these weapons do get unlocked later (or if there is an equip feature I've entirely missed) the game certainly doesn't inform you of this. Enthusiasts will be pleased to know that Bleed 2 was released in February 2017 to waves of very positive reviews.
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