Certainly, Ubisoft could have gone a bit further, and sprinkled the game with more over-the-top moments. Amusing as these cutscenes are, they come off as an attempt by the developers to avoid doing too much extra work. Worst of all, Blood Dragon has a habit of breaking into faux-16-bit cutscenes at its most climactic moments, where you might actually want to control the action.
Even the game’s eponymous “blood dragons,” which roam the island and put up a serious fight, seem like they were just dropped into the game for novelty’s sake. (To that end, Blood Dragon also throws out some of Far Cry 3‘s more tedious elements, such as mixing potions, balancing an inventory and choosing which skills to acquire, so you can focus on shooting stuff.)ĭespite the differences in tone and action, Blood Dragon can still feel like window dressing. It’s a fitting approach for a game that’s supposed to be all about machismo. And although you’ll still find some vehicles strewn about, the protagonist is so fast on his feet that you can just as easily sprint to a desired location.
Sure, you could sneak into an enemy base and thin the crowd with stealth kills, but Blood Dragon stocks you with plenty of health, ammo and explosives if you’d rather evoke a firefight. Many of the special abilities you must earn in Far Cry 3 are available right away in Blood Dragon, so you’re deadlier and more efficient from the start. The difference with Blood Dragon is that it all happens at a faster clip. As with Far Cry 3, you can still use stealth to take down enemies and disable alarms, or you can just start shooting. The game is still largely about raiding enemy compounds, venturing on side missions and wasting time on the island looking for trinkets and hunting (cyber) wildlife. Mechanically, Blood Dragon doesn’t stray far from the source material. (At the start, Ubisoft’s logo warbles out of tune as it spins onto the screen, and a “tracking” bar appears during load times to adjust the picture.) Even the characters are tuned into the nostalgia the game’s villain is bent on reverting humanity to a more savage state, which seems like a gussied up way of saying he wants his ’80s movies back. The game itself is presented as an artifact from the VHS era that imagines “the future” as a neon-soaked 2007. Basically, it’s like modern video games, except Blood Dragon is aware of its silliness. Tired cliches, cringeworthy double entendres and references to decades-old pop culture saturate every line of dialog. The protagonist, Sergeant Rex Power Colt, is a gravel-voiced cyborg with a metallic arm and glowing red eye. Blood Dragon is a throwback the testosterone-driven films of the ’80s and early ’90s, before we demanded deep thoughts out of our action movies.
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