God of War Meets Uncharted In Terrific RPG At The Top Of Our Wishlist

Blood Message by far was one of the most impressive games I played at Summer Game Fest, with satisfying combat akin to God of War and impressive action setpieces that wouldn't look out of place in Uncharted.

I went into my hands-on demo with very few expectations and came out thoroughly impressed with what was on display.

Blood Message feels like a true new-gen game with some of the best combat I’ve experienced so far.

Set in ninth-century China, the game follows Pei Changguan, a messenger tasked with delivering a vital image all the way to the other side of the country.

The demo didn’t delve too deeply into that plot but what it did jump into was stealth and combat. The former was pretty straightforward but the latter shined like nothing else I sampled.

Next-Gen Cinema

Like other RPGs, the rhythm of combat is broken up into light and heavy attacks mixed with blocks, parries and dodges.

It goes the extra mile though with its environmental takedowns and group confrontations. In action games, you’ll often find that when multiple enemies are on-screen at once, they’ll almost take it in turns to get a beatdown. Every now and then, one will try to interrupt the flow of your combat forcing you to either shift your focus or move your fight out of the way.

NetEase

Blood Message feels as if it’s a step on from that formula though. During my gameplay session, there was never a point where I couldn’t keep one eye on the guy to the side of me, nor listen out for the guy behind me.

If my opponent put me on the back foot, another would jump in for an assist, and if I was overpowering one of them, two others would charge over to help their friend.

No one would respect the 1v1 and why would they? If you’re watching your ally get destroyed, you’d obviously move in to help.

I even died a couple of times while learning the controls and was amazed to see just how much enemies switch up their tactics each time. It almost felt like I was playing online against other players at some points.

After some more combat and a stealth section, Pei becomes hopelessly outmatched by the sheer number of enemies, led by an enormous general wielding a mace the size of a person.

This fed into an intense chase sequence where Pei had to burst through doors, dodge incoming arrows and rapidly climb collapsing scaffolding. It was very Uncharted-coded but you couldn’t put the controller down and enjoy the moment; you need to keep your wits about you for mini quick-time events.

For such a short snippet of gameplay, it was tremendously paced and pushed Blood Message all the way up in my most-anticipated games list. I’m eager to play more.

Unfortunately, it’s yet to receive a release date though it’s believed to be targeting sometime in 2027.

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