Despair: Blood Curse - A gothic Vampire action Adventure

 After a mysterious illness takes the life of her mother, Anna ventures to her childhood home after a concerning letter from her sister to uncover what has become of her. Despair: Blood Curse is a non linear, 3rd person action horror game featuring stunning visuals and gameplay. DBC come from one man development team Crimson Sequence. The game released on steam in January 2024 and currently has about 1-2 hours of playtime and comes with a price tag of $11.99. The dev sent me a key of the game for my review and for that I am grateful! 

The game play of Despair: Blood Curse was easy to follow and easy enough to understand and the combine feature was a nice add, and with only 8 storage spots it can really challenge the players inventory managment skill. There is storage chests around the manor home which allows to to store anything you cant hold on to. It took me till near end of the game to figure out that our can combine your ammo, but this is what happens when you dont take the time to read what the dev put in front of you. 

If there is one thing I love its heathy mix of Victorian and Gothic design, becuase I am secretly a gothic princess waiting to be whisked away to a dark, gothic castle ontop of a mountain side and DBC certainly delivers on that feeling for me. From the rich jewled tones and textured walls to the rich dark wood hardwood floors and ornate furnature that really complimented the set visuals. The developer really hit in nail on the head. It created a dark and imposing enviroment and when added with the amient sounds and a low ominous hum it gave me a calm sensation but left me looking over my shoulder and around every corner! Each area was unique in its own way, and got creepier and creepier as you descended the levels of the underground tunnels. The lighting work was well done throughout the game, textures were well rendered and the overall eerie feeling it gave me, I have no issues with a majority of the visuals in the game. 

The character design of Anna was stunning, her sharp blue eyes contrasted with her fair skin and blood red hair, which I wish moved more when she was running and moving around. Her outfit was absolute fire! The red lace with leather whale boned corset, and leather pants was very 'Underworld' meets "Bloodrayne". The part of her outfit that intrigued me the most was her neck guard, it made me wonder, was she a Vampire Huntress? Did she know all of what was happening? But with I was not a fan of some of her movements she felt very slow, her melee attacks seemed extreamly lumbered, however this could have been from her Axe gun being heavy. I would have loved to see her have some additional movement with a quick turn, dodgeroll or an evade manuvre. I really think this could have helped me in some of the areas where I couldn't shift around quick enough. The creature designs were fantastic, they were unique and quite large and in charge! The lady demons really sparked my instrest in the fact they were, 'blessed' and serving so much cake that I would have put myself into a food coma if I looked any further...I loved it!

My main issues with the game, fell mostly to the enemies of DBC was their sound design, I felt it to be repetitive which even when startled, I immediatley lost some of that adrenneline when they made sounds and the other was the enemy attack mechanics. It was also very repetitive, they really only attacked when they were close to the player, and it was mostly the same each time. I feel this could have been broken up a bit, by including some ranged attacks, underground attacks or even spawning minions. I felt this to trule be the case in the sewers when we had out first big boss after grabbing the key. I was in awe of the size of him but bummed when I felt he only really chased me. This senitment was the same for most of the major boss battles through the game. This was not the most horrible thing, I just really enjoy variation in my enemy attacks.

The story itself was great, well written, easy to follow but left me with many questions that I am dying to have answered. I would love to see a DLC that explores some of these questions more like Is Anna a Vampire Huntress? Where is her father? Was she aware of the tunnels? Where did the Axegun come from!? There are so many more questions that I can only hope to have answered in a patch or DLC or even a second installment. I did like in inclusion of the notes found through the manor and how they told you bits more of the story. I do have to say, the PLOT TWIST at the very end of the game, made the playthrough worth it for me in the end!

Scores are rated out of 10:

GAMEPLAY: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ 7/10

SOUND DESIGN & VISUALS:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐8/10

CONTROLS:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 9/10

STORY:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 7/10

CHARACTER DESIGN:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/10

Overall Score: 6.9 / 10

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed my time playing Despair:Blood Curse and I am rating it a solid 6.9 /10. Dont let my score fool you, this game was a great!! If I had to pick one wish, it would have been to have voice acting in the game, I really feel it could have allowed the player to feel more connected and feel more emotion when Anna was looking for her sister. I truly wanted to know some of what she was thinking after an enemy interation or if she sees something that sparked her fancy. The game in and of itself was a great time to play, and I really enjoyed myself, so much so that this 2 hour game, lasted me well over 4 hours, becuase Where it lost some point for me was in some of the enemy combat, sound design and movemet. A small patch can really knock out most if not all the concerns that I have. I do reccomend Despair: Blood Curse, its worth a playthough!! The dev was super kind and was willing to answer any questions I had no matter how silly and made me feel welcome with every interaction! I would love to see more games from this dev, or even an expansion on Despair: Blood Curse- I feel he would have an anthology on his hands if Anna took on quest to vanquish the vampires that destroyed everything she held dear! Go play Despair Blood Curse now over on steam!