I love Metroidvania games a lot. It is probably obvious, considering how many I review for Phenixx Gaming, but Metroidvania games scratch the perfect itch of progression, action, and exploration for me. Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch caught my eye as we near the Autumn season. Vampires, witches, what’s not to like?

In Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch, you play Ayana Crimson, the titular Bloodbreaker. Bloodbreakers are daywalking vampires who feast on the blood of demons. Here is a snippet of the premise of the game, from Bloodbreaker’s Steam page:

“When her brother Matthew is captured by the enigmatic white witch Brendowyn Sangrianon, Ayana must descend into the Labyrinth – a sprawling maze steeped in ancient magic and corruption. In her journey to save her brother, Ayana will uncover the truth about her family’s cursed lineage and Matthew’s uncontrollable powers.”

The premise seems great, right? Well, the demo makes me a little bit concerned, if I am honest. To start with, there was no options menu to speak of. Nothing at all. No audio/volume sliders, no control scheme details, and no resolution/graphics settings. While there is no release date listed on the Steam page, I have to wonder why the demo didn’t provide any options for players to adjust things as needed.

Another problem I ran into is that Ayana feels a bit sluggish. It is almost like there is a layer of lag over the game, delaying actions by a large enough gap of time (at least half a second) that it is largely noticeable. This normally wouldn’t be a huge issue, except that the combat relies on speed and reflexes.

Ayana can recover her health by using blood, and she has to feed on enemies that are near death to increase her blood meter. This leaves her vulnerable to attack by other enemies though, so not being able to quickly react makes being vulnerable during feeding a bigger problem.

The controls are decent enough, but as far as this demo goes, I’m a little lukewarm on it. The demo lasts between 30 minutes to an hour, longer if you have some serious problems with it. It isn’t terrible, but the issues I mentioned prior bog it down a fair bit.

Between the technical issues and the lack of options to adjust things, it just left a bad taste in my mouth. I hope that Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch turns out to be a solid experience, but I’m a little worried based on what is offered here.

A PC Demo copy of Bloodbreaker: Labyrinth of the Witch was provided by Soft Source for the purposes of this preview.

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