PC Games

Published on October 16th, 2025 | by Sebastian Baez

Bloodthief Review

Bloodthief Review Sebastian Baez
Score

Summary: Fast, fierce, and fantastically bloody, Bloodthief outshines its peers with replayability, soundtrack and rewarding exploration!

5

Fast & bloody


Before we begin, I want to say I’m a huge movement guy. Anything from simply running around in Super Mario Odyssey, to parkouring around in Mirror’s Edge, to climbing to the top in Celeste, parkour, running and going fast have always remained indicators of a fantastic game for me. And Bloodthief is no different.

Described as an “ultra-fast melee dungeon-runner”, Bloodthief is the first game by indie developer Blargis and his somewhat small team. In fact, with such a small team and this being their first step into game development, you could reasonably expect some hiccups with the project. But Bloodthief breaks all expectations; running and sliding past its limits and cannoning itself into the foray with other games of its caliber. Truly a masterclass of its own right driven by its engaging gameplay, enjoyable mechanics, catchy soundtrack and hours of content to hop, skip, slice and dice your way into a simple yet captivating world.

Gameplay

This dark-fantasy inspired piece provides much information to the player while never overwhelming them. Since Bloodthief is a “movement-shooter” (movement-slicer?), you’ll find yourself running around a lot, going fast and pulling off cool tricks and attacks to push forward to the end goal. It’s divided into 30+ levels and a sandbox mode giving you full reign to dart and fool around with. Each level starts you with zero blood, essentially your health plus energy that allows you to do the tricks you’d expect: Sliding, ground pounding, air dashing, etc.

Each movement ability is designed to give you immense amounts of speed so long as you have the blood and skill necessary to do so. It even gives you a speedometer, where I was able to reach speeds of up to 100 KMH! All of the powers you use in the game, whether gained through pickup or apart of your controls, are smooth and different enough from each other that going through a new level almost feels impossible while I try to figure out the best ways to maximize speed and route to finish as quickly as possible.

And although speed is the name of the game, a slight issue with tutorial placement and interaction sometimes breaks the pacing depending on how you go about the level. While these are avoidable, new players might find themselves replaying a level more times than they’d like due to your speed taking a dip during these encounters.

However, this speed is no accident; not only are you encouraged to do the level as fast as possible, it’s a requirement to do it in a certain time to break through to one of my favorite parts: The secrets and unlockables!

Secrets and Unlockables

Whether you do an initial run of the level or not, each one is PACKED with secrets to find and utilize to gain access to more blood-soaked madness. For example, each level has around two to three eyes you can collect, which will give you access to rewards including your own ghost that you can race to beat your personal record! This innovative way of encouraging exploration for the player while rewarding them with more content, as well as a chance to replay the level is great, never forced and a way to get the player around these levels looking for secrets, while also introducing new ways to speedrun!

Alongside the eyes, completing the levels either once or fast enough further rewards you with artifacts, which are pieces required to give you new weapons to tear through with! Although most of the weapons aren’t incredibly exciting to look at or all that different from your original sword, they provide you with unique buffs and changes to how your character plays, additionally providing more ways to experience one single level!

Music and Sound

The music and sound design, credited to an Occams Laser and Roman Perry respectively, shoots for the stars in catchiness and aesthetic. Going for what I could only describe as a “goth/medieval rock or EDM” mix, it blends beautifully with the darker tone and high-speed action that a game like this definitely needs. SFX sounds realistic and fantastical at the time while never being over-the-top or unnecessary. Both the music and the sound create a vibe only found within dark fantasy settings. These ingredients come together to create a captivating draw to fans of the genre!

Sandbox

These are some of the few developers who realize that creating a movement system and not allowing a space for us to play around with would be criminal. The sandbox isn’t incredibly full to the brim, and it’d be nice for more admin tools when using it, (perhaps a future update?) but it gives the player something to do to test out mechanics and tech that might be difficult while you’re getting shot or stabbed at, or even for players who are new to these kinds of games. Keep in mind that the sandbox serves ONLY as a sandbox and not as an actual level, so you can’t gain artifacts or anything from it. But for what it is, it’s a lovely addition I wish I saw more of in these kinds of experiences.

Final Thoughts?

While the concept of being able to dash, slash and smash on enemies while moving incredibly fast isn’t a revolutionary idea, it doesn’t have to be. The idea of being a vampire who’s granted superhuman strength and speed, backed up with amusing play and a fantastic soundtrack, Bloodthief stands above the rest as a super-fast, super-fun video game that provides hours of content that can go either like this: You speed through the levels, killing and parkouring as much (or as little) as you want, or get stuck on a single level attempting to beat the level score or finding all the secrets. Either way you decide to play, it never punishes you for doing so. Bloodthief is a hidden gem in an already great pile, but this gem certainly sparkles a little bit more.


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