The only BLOOD ive seen so far is the one coming out from my ears, the audio glitches and the water sfx are driving me insane, please do fix this asap, the audio unbalance is unreal, impossible to hear the dialogue but you get the waterfall literally screaming inside your ears, same goes when you break the barrels in contrast to way lower attacks and missing attack sfx. Edit: Ah and also no subtitles.

A Pirate Game with God of War’s Soul (and 2006’s Bones)

Originally announced in 2003. Canceled in 2010. Leaked in 2012. Revived in 2024. Released in 2025. Captain Blood’s journey deserves its own Netflix documentary. The game itself? It’s basically God of War with ship battles and a British accent. Peter Blood isn’t angry like Kratos—he’s just tired. Maybe from waiting 20 years to be played. This game feels like someone took God of War (2005), added pirates, then left it in a drawer until 2025. It has combos, ship battles, and a protagonist who broods like Kratos’ less angry cousin. But somehow, it’s fun. If you miss the days of fixed cameras and brutal finishers, this is your strange little time capsule.

>Worse audio mixing than the average Metallica album >Awfully placed checkpoints >Broken upgrade system >Game-breaking bugs Peak 360 era gaming

There's a reason this game didn't come out over a decade ago and the old design clunk from those days definitely shows

Captain Blood is not a product of today's world, but an action orgy originally intended for the Xbox 360, which is now considered quite outdated and primitive, but which is still somehow dirty fun despite everything.

I truly PRAY ps2 era action games become as popular as boomer shooters. We truly need more. Where is Captain Blood 2?

Annoying checkpoints

Captain Bland: A Voyage Not Worth Taking

I wanted to enjoy this, especially in an era where game developers constantly disrespect players with microtransactions and bloated, filler-packed gameplay. I approached this game with an open mind and a genuine desire to have fun. Unfortunately, after completing only the first level, I found little reason to continue and opted for a refund. Ironically, the most compelling aspect of Captain Blood is the story behind its release rather than the gameplay itself. I’m genuinely unsure who this was made for. If it had released during the Xbox 360 era, it would’ve been a mediocre 6.5 or 7 at best. Now? It’s a generous 4, if I’m being kind. It feels, looks, and plays like a relic of the Xbox 360 era—the kind of forgettable weekend rental you’d grab from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video on a Friday night, only to return Monday morning and never think of again. I had plenty of these experiences back in the day; most were enjoyable, others, like this one, were best forgotten. In my short time with it, the game’s technical failings were impossible to ignore. The audio quality is atrocious, a flaw noted by many other players, and the subtitles often fail to keep pace with the dialogue, resulting in a janky and inconsistent experience. Combat is very unsatisfying; strikes lack weight, power, or feedback. Hitting enemies feels hollow, as if the game forgot to add any sense of impact. The checkpoint system makes no sense, designed by a dev with zero respect for the player’s time. It practically dares you to keep suffering through its miserable slog, which only reinforced my decision for a refund. Captain Blood serves as a harsh reminder that nostalgia alone can’t salvage uninspired design, sloppy execution, and outdated mechanics.

Atrocious sound mixing ruining an otherwise fun game. The sound is so awful there is no chance they were unaware of this before releasing. All the dialogues are drowned out by ambient sfx, the water either ocean/waterfall is so loud it drowns out everything else during gameplay. Desynced audio for executions. Way to go managing to ruin the fun game underneath.

waited over a decade for this game... then the devs made me wait an extra 5 hours... worth it though. fun pirate game.

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Video Review https://youtu.be/GYquknVh0AE

There Is A Reason This Game Was Never Greenlit

Seriously consider what could have motivated the cancelation of a game that combined elements from God of War and Fable into a captivating pirate adventure. Does anything come to mind? The answer is that it simply wasn’t enjoyable. The issue lies not in the visuals or the concept but in the gameplay itself. It is mediocre and lacking in every possible aspect. It's not an adventure; rather, it's a slow, drawn-out session with stages that include out of nowhere quick-time events and fights that have you slicing up enemies slowly, no matter the difficulty while blocking your progression with QTE gate bashing that is interrupted by attacks.

Issues

Checkpoints are a nightmare. Why is it such a mess? You walk through a tunnel and fight off around 35 enemies, tank-like foes who can rapid-fire shoot you into a stun lock with muskets and flintlock pistols (seriously, those only have one shot, reload!). Then, upon entering the boss room, you don’t get a checkpoint. Instead, you find yourself battling waves of enemies until a cutscene occurs, which can take anywhere from 15 minutes to even an hour. Did you unfortunately die? Well, tough luck! You’ll have to start back at the beginning of the section you just entered, including the tunnel and all the boss waves. If you don't meticulously fight off every enemy and unlock every chest of every stage, you won't unlock damage or skills. In this game, damage and defense do not increase simply by playing or equipping new weapons and gear. Instead, improvements are achieved through combo systems and permanent upgrades. To unlock these, you must defeat enemies, collect coins, and complete stages quickly to earn bonuses. Once you gather enough coins, you can buy upgrades and activate combos. This way, instead of dealing just 1% damage with each strike, you can deal 5-8% damage with 2 hit dash and strike playstyles. It's not a fun approach, it makes stages feel like a slog. Not to mention the lack of functionality, just grapple most enemies to one shot them when they have no armor, and wait patiently for events to slowly pan out, like ship fights.

Conclusion

Originally, I really thought that Captain Blood was going to be great based on the demo. It had so much potential, but I understand why it failed to get approval 20 years ago. It probably should have remained buried. If you’re looking for sea-faring, pirate-style action, there are far better options available. Games like Black Flag and Sea of Thieves offer much more excitement. In fact, you could even play Fable and still find it more thrilling than this game will ever hope to be. I’m was not a fan of this game; I had never heard of it until now. While playing, I struggled to get through each section, feeling forced, quite literally, to follow the mechanics, turn cranks, bash doors, and eliminate everything in sight which were absolutely sponges, all while having to replay lengthy sections of gameplay. I never want to see this game again.

A time capsule from the PS3/Xbox 360 era and a well-made God of War clone from 17 years ago.

The best X360 game released in 2025

i don't actually think it's a very fun game but i'm glad that it came out

Невероятный шедевр 2005 года наконец то получил долгожданный пека порт, потрясающий для своего времени геймплей, невероятная графика, искренне не понимаю как она работала на Xbox 360, оптимизация на превосходном уровне, лучше большинства других ААА релизов за последние 10 лет, обязательная к прохождению игра для каждого уважающего себя геймера, капком стоило бы поучится на примере Капитана Блада в сравнении с тем позором которым был Devil May Cry 5

Gotta beat this game up the way Captain Blood beats his opponents. (also a lifetime opportunity to develop a mental illness.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow up review: Being lost in time, Captain Blood is one of those games that got stuck in development hell and was eventually got canned. I usually like the restoration work of General Arcade, and I am usually a sucker for a 360-era HnS, so I assumed there could have been some value to it. While I still do think there's value in restoring once-lost games, I could easily argue that Captain Blood would be perceived as just as bad today as it would have been if it had released two decades ago. I don't mean this in a pejorative way, but Captain Blood is almost the poster child for a bargain-bin game though I've found gems like MDK and older King's Bounty stuff in those bins, games that never received the recognition they deserved for the amount of work put into them. I don't blame SNEG here; they've been very transparent about the state of the game. But either way, it's a product priced at 25 bucks, and I must judge it accordingly. Captain Blood suffers from an overall weak game design. This is nothing new; it's something I see often, even in newer releases with far larger budgets. However, there is no value in any of the encounters in Captain Blood (unless you are obliged to complete them) because: a) They are tedious, mostly because you lack combos initially, and by the time you unlock them, you've already grown tired of the combat. b) You can easily get stunlocked. Therefore, not engaging with the encounters and instead kiting and rolling past them is both more beneficial and wiser. On top of these two issues, the bosses are quite tedious, too. They are generic arena-like fights where you must go through a few phases. While these fights attempt to add some spice (for instance, you can fall off the arena during one boss fight and be met with a QTE), they ultimately fall flat. Speaking of QTEs, they are a whole other problem. Their timing windows are often weird and feel unnecessarily stiff. How on earth can a QTE be this problematic and rage-inducing? Captain Blood has a strong answer to that. I do not remember any of its cast nor the story. I don't think Captain Blood himself is done right, and the accents on the Spanish soldiers feel off. I have to give the finishers their due. They are satisfying, almost over-the-top, and vary according to each enemy type. You can grab an enemy, throw them down, and smash their head in; you can simply smash their heads off with your bare hands; kick them down and smash their head with their gun; or even German suplex your enemies. I wish the fun didn't stop there. After all, I was willing to finish Captain Blood despite all my frustrations, but unfortunately, I got stuck due to a game-breaking bug (where I was unable to turn the wheels to open a gate). At that point, I didn't want to replay an entire chapter and gave up. ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Please take a moment to check out my curator for more in-depth reviews

God damn, I miss those times — like a dream you wake up from too soon. Everything felt easier, warmer,playing in the streets then booting up my 360 and just playing fun games like captain Blood... now I just feel old.

Captain Blood is a great swashbuckling brawler, despite taking 20 years to come out. 10/10

It’s nice that something that would otherwise “die” did not, so the developer behind Captain Blood should be applauded - but that doesn’t mean that the game itself is an easy recommendation. It’s a pirate-themed hack ‘n’ slasher that, aside from the HD textures, is stuck two decades into the past. In other words, it’s an entertaining ride, but a bit too repetitive and, most of all, forgettable, so it’s hard to recommend it to anyone but its target audience and their nostalgia for the era this belongs to. Even they are advised to wait, however, because there are currently a couple of very annoying bugs. Cubed3 Rating: 5/10 Read Full Review Here

I did not buy this expecting it to be good. I bought this expecting it to be COOL. And just look at that art. It's so damn cool. It perfectly captures what every 12 year old boy who ever played pirates as a kid imagined. I can't believe the guys publishing it felt they had to add a layer of sheepish irony to a game this manly and cool looking. In practice it feels like every single PS2 GoW era hack and slash. Defense isn't real. Attacking feels kinda like chopping through water. Health bars and the damage one does to them feels random. It was at least developed before parryslop and stamina meters became the new meme du jour. But it's so stupidly cool looking and packed with testosterone I can't help but grin while playing it.

God of War / Prince of Perisa Sand of Time vibes. If you've been missing classic games like Corsairs or just want to relive the thrill of swordplay, and the smell of gunpowder — Captain Blood is a surprisingly pleasant ride. The atmosphere of high-seas adventure, boarding enemy ships, duels, and a booming orchestral soundtrack — it's all here, just as it should be.

3/10

The story of Captain Blood’s laborious development is far more engaging than the game itself. First announced in 2003, Captain Blood sought to ride the wave of successful hack-and-slashers dominating the market. You can still see the inspiration of titles like Devil May Cry, and later God of War, in the final product. After years of troubled development, the game finally sailed towards a 2010 release date, before a sudden bankruptcy left Captain Blood dead in the water. Fourteen years later, a “re-reveal” dropped out of nowhere, finally promising a new release date. I have to commend publisher SNEG for its focus on game preservation. This industry sees far too many exciting projects tragically cancelled, so to recover one of these projects and finish development is nothing short of incredible. I hope more forgotten games receive second chances in the future, especially titles that feel more deserving. If Captain Blood had been released in the early 2000s, it would’ve been a neat hack-and-slash adventure that didn’t particularly stand out. Had it come out in 2010, it would’ve felt outdated and behind its contemporaries. In 2025, Captain Blood is an absolute slog with very few redeeming qualities. No amount of modern polish could save its abysmal core, not that there’s much polish to begin with. This is only worth playing if you yearn for the era of PS2 action, but aren’t willing to revisit the bottomless well of incredible games from that time. The franchises that once inspired Captain Blood have evolved across two decades to become far more complex and engaging. Meanwhile, titles like “En Garde!” and “Hi-Fi Rush” provide new takes on action conventions, and are filled with swashbuckling fun While Captain Blood does capture a small fraction of the charm from that era of gaming, it simply isn’t able to compete with the greats of yesteryear or the new kids of today. Even outside of comparison, it fails to be enjoyable, due to lethargic repetitive gameplay, a swarm of technical issues and perhaps most insultingly, a dull adaptation of piracy. Full Review

I can understand why fans of this games creation from 20 years ago are giving it a positive review. I really do. But I simply can’t. So here’s what I’ll do. If I were to review this game based on when it should have originally been released. Some 20 years ago or wtv, I would have given it an average score. 5/10. It would have been considered an average hack and slash game. Not great but not terrible. If I were to review this game based on it’s release of today I’d say this is a crap game. 2/10. It offers nothing new or innovative. It’s just a quick and easy cash grab for a game that was probably already finished and collecting dust on a shelf for decades and they finally decided to release it and try to make a quick buck. That’s pretty much all I can say about it. The graphics are obviously bad, but so is the sound design and sound quality. The gameplay is boring, repetitive, old and just tired. The plot is obvious and cliche, the writing doesn’t make sense, it has bugs and glitches, it sells for 5 dollars more than it should and honestly the only thing it really has going for it is the level design. They were pretty okay I think. I played for almost 2 hours and completed 5 or 6 missions in that time frame. Not sure how many missions are in the game but even if it was 20 missions that means the length of play for this would only be like 6 hours of gameplay. There’s no real ship to ship combat, no piloting your ship, no crew management, no customizations or choices at all. There’s loads of QTE boss fights and cutscenes I mean. Well, like I said. If it had released 20 years ago I’d have given it a thumbs up and said it was average. But today? No. Just, just no. Not worth it IMO. But if you’d like a more in-depth look then feel free to check out the review on my Youtube Channel (link below). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoIQPdwMFpg Otherwise, thanks so much for reading and I hope I managed to help some of you out there spend your money wisely.

Прекрасная игра, которая приятно ощущается и играется даже до сих пор. Как же жеаль, что её не выпустили в своё время, она была бы хитом, однако и сейчас приятно наблюдать за приключениями блада, которые смазываются обильным мясом, что особенно в нынешнее время радует глаз. Так же нельзя не отметить, ни капельки не устаревшую режиссуру, единственное, что очевидно подверглось старению это графика, при этом же, хоть она очевидно и выглядит устаревшей, саму её назвать некрасивой нельзя, она приятна глазу. Ну короче... ИСПАНЦЫЫЫЫ!!!!

I have been smiling the first hour of playing this game and I initially tried the demo for 5 minutes and then instantly bought the game. Anyone remember Fighting Force on the Playstation?? This game gave me that vibe when playing it and if people recall, games used to be fun back then even though they were very linear. Such simplistic times and nowadays when companies make open worlds, people complain it's too boring and that there are too many "fetch quests". That is why we need to go back to these types of games to just follow the path, enjoy the story and game play, then call it a day after 6-10 hours instead of having to do 50+ hours in open world tedious crap. So far I am enjoying it as it is bringing back that nostalgic old era of gaming and not many do that these days unfortunately. This game just has more of that old school happy feel to it and I am happy to give my $32, it may not be the same for others but there is a demo to try before you buy, so do not buy the game and give it a negative review because it wasn't what you were expecting. Each time you come across something new, a tutorial explains the buttons and how to use it etc. Different coloured and types of enemies cannot be grabbed, so you will need to dodge, block/counter, throw a bomb, pick up a weapon the enemy dropped or a box/barrel and what ever else is available. Also there are quick time events (QTE) which is pretty cool, upgrades for combos, character, finishers and obviously the age and style of the game, there is a bit of jank with the game play and bad camera angles at times but that it how it was back then which was fun and we had no complaints. Only issue I have had so far is the audio keeps skipping at times when I launch the game, so I just close it, relaunch it and problem solved. Not sure if it's the Nvidia overlay that bugs the sound out when the games loading, also you need to just play around with the sound settings in the game to get the right feel of the music, vfx, dialogue etc. I give it a thumbs up and a recommendation if you are an old nub like myself who misses these types of games, also to support the developers and publishers.