LogFAQs > #933399060

12. Bleed / Bleed 2

I bounce off of a lot of action games I play, but every now and then I find one that I REALLY want to dig into and explore. Bleed 1 and 2 were the biggest examples of this in the last decade, especially considering they're 2D action games which I often don't care about. Bleed has a fairly charming art style and simple story and whatever - it's all window dressing, an excuse to get you playing the amazing gameplay. Bleed controls so god damn well and its triple air dash + time slow mechanic allows you to constantly pull off cool shit while simultaneously taking a lot of strategy and skill to utilize to its full potential. The end result is REALLY satisfying to play.

One basic barometer I have for action gameplay is the difficulty setting. If a game makes me actively want to turn up the difficulty setting not because it's inherently too easy, but because I want to continue exploring the mechanics and reaching new adrenaline heights, it's probably a great action game. With Bleed, I played everything, tackled the toughest difficulties, imposed new challenges on myself, beat bosses without taking a hit (and was so hyped by this I shamelessly recorded it and uploaded it to youtube), and every time I went further I had more fun.

Too bad there'll never be a Bleed 3 because 2 bombed. I did send the developer an email (partially because I noticed the game wasn't doing well financially) saying he'd crafted one of my favorite action game experiences ever, and he replied back saying I'd made his whole week, so that was cool.

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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.