Bloodsports.TV Looks Like Borderlands vs Smash TV
Hyperactive Krater sequel
Not every RPG has to be a roguelite now, y'know. Sometimes it's nice to kill and kill and kill without having to overly worry about getting killed. The hyper-violent Bloodsports.TV is the toon-styled sequel to post-apocalyptic Diablolike Krater, whose setting made it catnip to Jim back in 2012, but he came away feeling let down. The unpleasantly-named (at least, if like me, you grew up in an area mostly populated by wealthy farmers who positively revelled in vulpine slaughter) Bloodsports.TV is an amped-up sequel/spin-off which appears to borrow liberally from Borderlands' aesthetic. The manic tone too, it seems. Will this a more characterful ARPG make?
Well, let's have a look:
Phew. OK, look I'm 36 tomorrow. It's fair to say that I'm long over being entertained by people shouting at me in silly voices, unless it's Rik Mayall. Softly-spoken passive aggression is much more my comfort zone these days. But a whole lot of people are big fans of hyperkinectic screechy humour, so it's not unwise to mine that rather than try and make something straight-faced. God knows there are far too many straight-faced ARPGs which douse their own hacky-slashy fire with endless, tiresome lore, after all.
Bloodsports also seems to take a few gore-smeared pages from Smash TV's timelessly exuberant book. Seems a bit more corridor-y than arena-y (plus there's a skill tree, inventory and stuff in there), but it's certainly going for that level of overkill.
I reckon I could have a giggle with this so long as I turned off a bunch of the dialogue and if I can round up some chums - it has a heavy co-op focus, after all (which is what can very often make Borderlands games sing even when at they're at their more annoying). We'll find out if its many noisy parts make a satisfying whole on April 8th. There'll be some sort of beta ahead of that, which you register interest in here.