One of my earliest loves in video games was the genre of Hack-and-Slash, the mindless gameplay with the simplest concepts: fight and survive. They’re usually great fun, can pass the time, and also help you release some stress by taking it out on NPCs. Permanent Way Entertainment and Blowfish Studios were awesome enough to share with me Blood of Mehran, a hack-and-slash RPG about vengeance set in Mesopotamia.
Blood of Mehran puts players in the role of Mehran, a former soldier turned farmer forced to become a vicious fighter again after his family was killed by the tyrannical king and his allies.
Now, onto the game itself! The controls of Blood of Mehran take some getting used to, but some of the prompts don’t seem to work. One of the ways to kill through stealth doesn’t seem to respond/work outside of the tutorial. Some of the button configurations are a tad confusing as they don’t feel/flow right in combat. Another thing that bothers me is that there’s no way to turn off the vibration of the controller; it’s a personal preference of mine, as I find turning it off helps prolong the life of the batteries.
The game’s art is visually appealing and colorful, but I wish the animation and graphics matched what is shown in the trailers/promotional pictures, as they appear rough and choppy at times.
When it comes to sound, it could be a little…quieter. The music is quite loud, even after I lowered it quite a bit. There are some sound sync issues, and the dialogue… I’m fairly certain it’s AI, as I couldn’t find a cast list and the line delivery is… well, subpar. It’s obvious that English is not the first language, and the translations of phrases didn’t translate well into English, making some dialogue awkward, especially when the scene is frantic but the characters deliver their lines calmly.
Gameplay-wise, it would be fun if the controls responded better during combat, the text on the screen could be a bit bigger (and readable), there are hack-and-slash fights, but then when it comes to doing stealth, it becomes an attempt (to me anyways) of being Assassin’s Creed.
Overall, my experience with Blood of Mehran was…OK. I would say this is a “rainy day” game that you would play when you have nothing else to till something better comes out. What sank this game for me is the highly questionable/ more than likely AI voice acting (If they were real voice actors and I thought they were AI, then they should look into a new profession), the choppy animations, and difficult controls. The fighting is fun, and exploring levels to find items to sell is as well, but the other negatives affect the score greatly. On my scale of 1-10, Blood of Mehran is a 5.
If you’re interested, Blood of Mehran is out now, for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
