Bloodthief: Release, Reveal, and First Impressions

Using your momentum, you must parkour through perilous dungeons in Bloodthief, an incredibly fast melee dungeon runner, slashing through enemies mercilessly. Discover the hidden horrors as you dash through haunted castles and dungeons.

Release Date & Platform

The PC version of Bloodthief will be available on Steam starting on September 22, 2025.
The full release is still a ways off, but there is a demo out there that has changed and improved over time in response to user input.

The Bloodthief’s Claims

According to developer Blargis, these are the main features and benefits:

1. Blending genres: It’s called a “boomer slasher” and it combines the modern movement and parkour mechanics with the fast reflex and high-skill melee combat of old slasher or shooter games.
2. You can dash, wall-run, vault, and maintain fluid, lethal motion with the speed and momentum you gain from attacks. There is a close relationship between traversal and combat.
3. To power yourself, you must assume the role of a vampire. Blood is essential for more than simply staying alive; it powers your reflexes, abilities, and speed. Your abilities are restocked or enhanced when you defeat zombie enemies.
4. Discover artifacts, weapons, hidden treasure, and shortcuts as you make your way through levels in these branching dungeons. Excellent replay value, particularly for speedrunners looking to hone their techniques.
5. Community engagement for challenges and speedruns: Achievements, ghost races, medals, and leaderboards are all part of the demo. By facilitating the discovery of shortcuts, encouraging fast play, and hosting speedrun challenges, the developer has fully embraced speedrunning.

What the Demo Shows (Pros and Cons)

We know what works and what could be better because we have played or seen impressions of the demo (with its updates).

Strengths

1. The satisfying feedback loop between movement and combat adds a lot of momentum to the game. If you want to chain kills, keep your speed, slide, dash, wall-run, etc., there’s a “sweet spot” for that. The gratification from fluid motion is real.
2. Design for speedrunning and replay: Glitches, hidden secrets, multiple paths, and “runner tricks” are not only accepted but appear to be encouraged. For players who prefer to optimize, that creates depth.
3. Presentation and aesthetic: Castle settings; undead enemies; dark, gothic, or medieval dungeons; a visual aesthetic that pays homage to classic first-person shooter and action games while maintaining a contemporary edge. Additionally, for effect, the blood and gore are welcomed rather than censored.
4. Positive response from the community: The demo has received positive feedback. Reviews of the Steam demo are overwhelmingly favorable.

Weaknesses / Risks

1. High skill demand and steep learning curve: Errors can be punishing because speed, fluidity, momentum, etc. are crucial. It could be annoying for players who aren’t accustomed to precise movement games. Based on first impressions, movement or input feel can occasionally be a little picky.
2. Striking a balance between accessibility and challenge: Good onboarding, reasonable difficulty curves, and forgiving mechanics (or safe ways to recover) for casual players are necessary to attract more players than niche speedrunners. If not, it runs the risk of being “only for the hardcore.”
3. Potential technical polish: As with many ambitious independent games, particularly those that involve a lot of movement, it will be crucial to make sure that the controls, animation transitions, frame-rate consistency, collision detection, etc. are tight. The core loop suffers when momentum is lost due to minor glitches.
4. Content vs. expectations: High expectations are raised by the prospect of branching dungeons, secrets, loot, numerous weapons, etc. It will be important to see if the full release can offer enough depth and variety in terms of enemies, level design, and replay content.

The Place of Bloodthief in the Environment

It must be compared to or reminded of a number of contemporary independent, speedrunning, and action-parkour games:

1. One of the best contemporary fast-moving parkour/maneuver games is Ghostrunner. Bloodthief appears to be influenced by Ghostrunner’s focus on movement, speed, and slicing through adversaries.
2. Hotline Miami: Less movement, more brutal, no-holding-back combat, risk/reward, weapon selection, “locked-in” weapons per run, etc. It has been specifically mentioned by Blargis as an inspiration.
3. Ultrakill and other retro revival games combine high-skill movement, speed, and gory visuals with contemporary design sensibilities.
4. Independent parkour/movement games: any game that prioritizes movement over combat will be compared. This tradition includes Bloodthief’s momentum systems, wall-runs, vaults, and other moves.

In that regard, Bloodthief appears to be a promising game that could gain popularity among speedrunners and fans of fast-paced melee action if it perfects its core systems and fulfills its promises.