The Icon Bar: Review

Platform shoot'em up from the 4th Dimension.

Jon...

	Blood Lust was released at the Wakefield show and is another game in The 4th Dimension's VFM (value for money) range. The plot follows along the lines of being stuck underground on a alien planet - you must shoot and bomb your way to freedom, collecting power-ups on the way.
	The gameplay is very basic and the movement and jumping of the character become tedious after a while. Further, the game is set at too difficult a level to start off with and the average gameplayer won't be able to complete even the first few levels. However, the control method does make this game stand out; Z and X move left and right, space jumps and aiming and shooting are controlled with the mouse. Although it's good to see some new control methods being brought into platformers, I found the controls to be over sensitive on my machine, it needs a light touch. This control method has been used to a greater effect in Abuse, a PC conversion from RCI. Here, the pointer does not disappear when other keys are pressed as it does in BloodLust. The music is of an average standard, though is a bit repetitive at times.
	BloodLust was written by the Arm'd & Dangerous team, who are well known for producing some very good PD games in the past. That is this game's problem, it's stuck in the past - a 2D platformer with nothing special to make it stand out from the rest. It's all been done before and very much better as well. We really don't need another commercial game in this genre if it has nothing more to offer than its predecessors.
	Quite how Arm'd & Dangerous convinced 4D to take it on is beyond me, I suppose they should be congratulated for managing to get a commercial release, but I for one won't be buying it. Come on Arm'd & Dangerous, you can do a lot better than this!