Sometimes I get lucky.
Loyalty and Blood: Viktor Origins is one of
those times I got lucky.
Either I accidentally stumbled upon this game
in Steam or maybe it was shared on Twitter.
Either way I'm incredibly happy that I got
a chance to play this game.
It's really good!
Because you probably haven't seen anything
about Loyalty and Blood let me give some background.
You play as Viktor, returned home after a
long time away to find your brother, Zane,
as the commander of The Legion.
The Legion is a fighting force that protects
this world from the Netherworld.
Note, there might be some bad blood between
them after Viktor spent so much time away.
Anyway, Viktor joins up with The Legion to
help his brother.
You start taking missions which have a few
different objectives but the levels are similar.
They are a short run through a maze like platformer
with many enemies.
That doesn't mean they are at all boring.
There is a large variety of enemies that completely
change how you play a level.
For example, exploding bats will fly right
at you, it's best to take a level with those
slower.
Or how there are so many traps, like spikes,
you need to be careful of.
Also Viktor is agile.
You get a double jump and a short teleport.
What's great about the teleport is that you
can go through walls which creates a lot of
shortcuts.
It's useful for trying to blitz levels.
Which is absolutely my play style.
To feed into this there are time based side
objectives for most levels.
Where you need to beat the level under a certain
time.
However, this is usually much easier if you
know the layout so you could be replaying
levels.
Those side objectives are not required though.
I want to stress how short these missions
are, often under two minutes.
At first it was confusing how a story based
game had such short levels but it works.
There's plenty of levels here, even extra
side ones, that keep the game varied.
They even have this one where you play with
an AI.
Which is fantastic for building the story.
They were not afraid to throw something different
in there.
I found myself jumping from one mission to
the next, wanting to experience more.
But I could see how some players are going
to find them repetitive.
There are many missions where the objective
is to kill an amount of enemies like six bats.
The developer definitely overused that mission
type.
I did find myself enjoying them anyway since
the mechanics and guns are good.
There are even bounty missions to do that
open up later in the game.
These are more difficult, more specific, missions.
Like having to kill a strong bat or kill a
boss to take back a pendant.
Either way it's more content to be enjoyed!
But, what really stands out to me are the
bosses.
They're awesome!
Excellent difficulty paired with interesting
mechanics.
I struggled a bit and had to repeatedly play
each boss even trying different weapons on
one.
I especially enjoyed this skeleton fight.
First I had a grudge to settle and second
it's so unexpected when he dddd dddd ddddd
ddd ddd ddddd area dddd ddddd to attack to
ddd his ddddd.
Sorry about that, I don't want to spoil it
for anyone.
Moving on.
Since Loyalty and Blood is a platformer my
first instinct is to play with a controller.
This was a huge mistake.
You definitely want to play with a keyboard
and mouse.
The layout for the controller is all wrong.
I suppose I could take the time and rebind
all the keys or with enough practice it could
be done.
But, why work so hard when keyboard and mouse
work well.
Although the game's controls rebinding leaves
a lot to be desired.
You can't unbind certain buttons which defeats
the purpose.
Anyway, I also appreciate all the equipment
Loyalty and Blood has.
This includes weapons, armor, and gems.
It's all good but the guns are where it's
at!
This grenade launcher is a beast but the devastator
is the real workhorse.
Firing three shots at a time for a maximum
ninety six damage per clip.
Which is important to know since reload times
can be extensive.
It's how they balanced the guns.
The guns aren't handed to the player though,
you need to craft them.
You'll find blueprints and then using the
materials and money you find in every level
the gun can be crafted.
It's difficult to know which one you want
and there's no way to test them out.
So far I've had enough resources for all the
weapons I've wanted to craft but you might
have to replay some levels for the resources.
The game does try and force you to use certain
weapons as side objectives.
But I have to say screw that sometimes.
When they want you to use the starting rifle,
which is fine by the way, and you only want
to use this awesome fast shooting fire rifle
well then I'm going to use the gun I want
to use.
So sometime I ignore the objective and that's
worked out so far.
I'm being a little silly here but it's true.
The starting guns are good, good enough to
finish the game with.
And the reveal rifle is a gun that also reveals
secret areas which is awesome.
You'll probably want to take the reveal rifle
with you on almost every mission.
As I said though there is armor and gems in
the game and they work together.
The armor had slots and a power limit so you
can only place so many gems in each piece.
The gems are easy to get, you only need to
but them in headquarters.
As you progress in the game stronger ones
become available.
I haven't been able to figure out how to unslot
the gems which is rather frustrating.
So one of the issues I have with the game
relates to how the armor and weapons are given
to the player.
You need to find blueprints.
For some reason finding the blueprints for
weapons is a lot easier.
It feels like the game is giving these to
me as I progress which is great.
But the armor blueprints are scattered in
a level and sometimes they're not so easy
to find.
I'm talking behind a secret wall or teleporting
to an almost off screen area.
You might end up exploring every nook and
cranny for a blueprint only to come up empty
handed.
All I can say is at least it's not the weapons.
Before I finish this review it would be a
mistake if I didn't mention the story.
While it's cheesy I found it to be only there
to drive the gameplay.
It puts Viktor in a place to go on these missions.
Note that it's related to the developer's
previous game titled Viktor but playing that
other game is not required.
As I have never played it!
Overall, Loyalty and Blood is fun and it's
worth your time.
It's a smooth experience that has a lot of
content.
While it could be shortened up a bit and the
missions have similar objectives I still found
myself going back to play more.
I hope to see more from this developer, maybe
in this world, in the future.
