Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Game Details

Title: Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing
Developer: Tribetoy Inc.
Publisher: Tribetoy Inc.
Website: http://bowtoblood.com/index.html
Genre: Action, Adventure, Simulation
Platform: PlayStation 4 PSVR
Audience: 7
Release Date: 28/08/2018
Price: £15.99 – Rapid Reviews UK were very kindly provided with a review code for this title.

What the Developers Say

In Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing, you will compete to become Champion of the Arena, as its inscrutable Overseers test you and your fellow challengers in a winner-takes-all fantasy reality show.

TAKE COMMAND
Stand at the bridge of your mighty airship, with immersive high-tech controls that respond to your touch as you pilot the ship, task your crew, aim weapons, route power – and even pull your trusty sidearm when things get up close and personal.

MAKE FRIENDS OR FOES
Your AI rivals in Bow to Blood have their own motivations, objectives, and personalities. Assist your fellow challengers and gain their support, or exploit them for personal gain and earn their enmity. The choice is yours, but choose wisely – challengers will remember how you have treated them, and in the Arena, grudges die hard.

EVERY PLAYTHROUGH IS UNIQUE
Randomized encounters and a rotating cast ensure no two experiences will be the same. Play over and over again to discover new environments, opponents, and challenges.

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP3523-CUSA13518_00-BOWTOBLOOD000001

Introduction

In Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing, the player will assume the role of the Freelancer, a ship captain and take part in the last captain standing tournament. More like a Japanese game show. Where eight ships will take part in different seven events and the captain with the most points will win the tournament.

I have to be open and honest here, and this is my first foray into the PSVR, I have never played a VR game only ever watched. I will tell you my thoughts on PSVR later on.

Audio & Visual

Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing sounds awesome, and is also a vital part of the gameplay. While piloting the ship, the Freelancer will have two crew members to send simple orders to. While the space battles are going on, the crew members will give out audio cues for trouble or if jobs are done and so on. The voice acting is clear precise and works well it gun fights allowing the player to know what is happening and where. In general voice, acting is decent, with the host being the upbeat game show type — nothing to complain about with the voices.

The general sound effects of the ship flying, the audience shooting the ship being hit and damage all sound great. Firing weapons feel as if they can do damage with the thump of projectiles and the shots from laser weapons. Overall the audio does a very decent job.

Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing is a rather pretty looking game. With a low-poly look to the art style. With that brings an almost cell-shaded effect to the futuristic world. The colours vary from vivid blocks of colours with the floating rocks, and craggy outcrops to a bluer/grey almost washed out colour pallet with lights blinking on and off gives the city levels a Star Wars feeling. With a cartoon aesthetic for the characters that will appear on screens within the game.

The Freelancer’s ship that will be in view almost all of the game has to look good and in short, what you see does. There is plenty of detail, down to seeing the slipstreams at the front of the ship. When the shields are his, they will blink on the screen like something out of Star Trek. Once there is damage to the ship visually, you can see there is damage, with smoke and fire billowing out from under the deck.

Gameplay & Replayability

Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing is an almost free roaming game with plenty of versatility and lots of events, encounters happening. It is possible to fly under another ship and shoot it from below. The draw distance it far enough things don’t just pop in to view, this was a major most in a game like this. With all these elements combined visually, Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing is an excellent looking game.

Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing mixes in a couple of different aspects for real life and games. The real-life aspect is the way the game plays out. It feels like the X-Factor, where the one with the most points stay in and the two captains with the least points are put up for a vote, one with the least votes is out, and that is their season over. I am not a fan of these types of shows, but it is an interesting concept to put in a game.

Within a season there are seven matches with two main events. So one whole season has fourteen events (if you make it that far). Each with varying objectives making for varied and different play styles. As well as blow up as many things as possible to rack up the most points.

The ship comes with all manner of ways to make space dust out of the enemies. As mentioned the ship has two crew members that can be ordered to operate a single station each out of the five terminals are; 

Shield – Allows a faster recharge
Engine -Increased speed
Drones – Send out drones to help in the battle
Sensors – Find items in the world
Weapons – Fires weapons where aiming.

Along-side Special abilities that can be used for a short period;

Over Shield – Need more protection
Speed Boost – Massive boost of speed
Smart Drone – Weaker then drones but does not need to be operated
Powerful Weapons – Increase weapon damage.

Combine the crew, and the special abilities will be essential to win the tournament.

With all the abilities that need to be performed with the sky battles, the Freelancer gets into this is where crack start to appear. Aiming is done by looking about that means there is a lack of visibility with where the ship is going, and steering the ship is top priority most of the time. On top of that moving, the crew is somewhat cumbersome at times more so in a fight.

The number of times I lost a season from having to do too much at once was somewhat disheartening. It seems like the biggest weakness of Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing. I could see this being the same for all VR game that needs the player to move and aim by looking. There is no real fix to this need grin and bear it.

Conclusion

Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing is not going to win any awards for being outstanding, it is good, but VR lets the game down with all the things needed to be done. But if you want a fun, cheap space shooter, it could be for you.

As for me and the PSVR, this is the first and last time I will on my volition play a VR game. It does not feel right, and I can justify a VR headset. For this review, I borrowed a friends headset. Never again.

Rapid Reviews UK Rating

You can purchase Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing form the PSN at the following link; https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP3523-CUSA13518_00-BOWTOBLOOD000001