Bella Wants Blood >> Game Demo Review

Slay Bella’s Blood Spire (maybe)

As the title suggests, this game has borrowed ideas from Slay the Spire (something to put on the to-play list if you haven’t - also on Xbox Game Pass) in certain areas though the gameplay itself has nothing to do with cards. Instead, you build a road (called a ‘gutter’ in the game) along which enemies will travel, and place traps along the way. The goal being that all enemies (called monstrosities in game) must die, giving Bella blood, before reaching her mouth, otherwise the meter on the right side fills up and then it is game over.

After every level you can choose a path, very similar to Slay the Spire, which will alter the gameplay, with paths having different things to collect along the way. You will need to decide whether you need more road pieces to delay enemy movements, more traps to do more damage or more modifiers which have various effects such as increased attack speed or slower enemy movement.

At the end of the map path you reach the boss of that map and the goal here is the same, except that the boss must die before reaching Bella otherwise it is game over, no matter how many bars of the meter you have free. Completed the demo in about 30-40 minutes and I thought it was good, very polished, no bugs and is definitely way above average when compared to many other demos on Steam.

It is not going to be for everyone though, the levels themselves are not ‘hands on’ in that when you start the level, you just sit back and watch, you don’t have any part to play in what happens. The enemies will automatically move down the road that you have created and the traps that you have placed will automatically fire. The gameplay only involves planning and laying out the level and choosing your path direction and it is not a non-stop action game. All round, quite enjoyable, though admittedly found it to be a bit easy, however I am sure the later levels would get quite difficult in the full game.

Get it on Steam Bella Wants Blood Demo

THE GOOD…

• 30-40 minutes gameplay in the demo
• Level layout planning requires thought
• Gameplay is quite relaxed & you can pause for a bit
• Polished design, graphics & music
• Low hardware requirements - should run on most PCs

THE NOT SO GOOD…

• Not for everyone - no ‘hands on’ fighting
• Some people might not like the color scheme
• Not much else really - it is quite good

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