Developer and publisher, Steady Boar, have joined the popular trend of rouge-lites with Blood Purge: Releaseburg, and given I like rouge-lites, I was eager to see what this company had to offer in its preview release.

You are a survivor in an apocalyptic city overrun by hordes of zombies that appear from mysterious portals. You are determined to close them and stop the relentless tide of zombies spewing forth. It’s a simple plot, but it left enough speculation to make me want to return for the full release. There is more story to uncover, but with the preview being only 16 levels long, that’s all the story we were provided with.

As mentioned earlier Blood Purge: Releaseburg is a rouge-lite, and coming into this genre, it would need something to make it stand out from the crowd. Well, Steady Boar have done exactly that. Your fighting arena is presented in an isometric view, and you control and aim your character like a twin-stick shooter. What differs here is aiming is more of a lock-on rather than continuously aiming, so as you move, your character will always face whatever it is locked onto. I know this isn’t something groundbreaking, but this important design choice allows the combat to be uniquely presented.

When you attack the zombies, holding the attack button will cause a sliding scale to appear above the target’s head. Releasing the button when the slider is in the optimal section scores a hit, and the more central you are, the more damage you will do. This takes a little getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it promotes a very satisfying combat that is rewarding for clear and methodical thinking.

You’ll have access to a variety of weapons, including pistols, revolvers, assault rifles, submachine guns, and sniper rifles. As with most games, each weapon has differing optimal zones on the sliding scale, ranges, damage, and reload speeds. You can only have three weapons equipped at a time, so weapon choice will not only be personal preference, but it can help when dealing with the varying zombie types.

The game also helps keep things feeling fresh by swapping out the weapons you can choose to take on a run, and this is mirrored when selecting your skills as well, so you constantly need to adapt your play style.

In between levels, a reward screen will offer weapons, skills, ammo, and Gold Skull coins. You’ll also be offered the chance to visit a shop during this time, offering items to take to the next level. These, however, will cost you an amount of health, so you’ll need to carefully decide if going into the next level with the chosen item is worth the reduced health bar.

Skills are diverse, ranging from increases to your reload speed, damage output, and health, to name a few. These can also be selected up to five times, further increasing their effectiveness, and while you can only choose three for the initial runs, additional slots can be unlocked in the upgrades menu before beginning a new run.

The upgrades menu requires Gold Skull coins to unlock permanent bonuses such as increasing the number of skill slots available, starting levels with higher quality weapons, boosting your maximum health, and healing between levels. Acquiring the Gold Skull coins is as easy as playing the game, creating the inviting, albeit repetitive loop of the rouge-lite genre.

Understandably, given Blood Purge: Releaseburg is set in an apocalyptic city, the environments aren’t overly exciting. Colouring and set pieces are drab, and while the low poly cell-shading graphics are very supportive of the setting, it feels a lot like the old saying, “Seen one overrun apocalyptic city, you’ve seen them all.”

Firearms, explosions, and zombie moans are all stock standard with nothing particularly standing out. This is good because they’re not annoying, unlike the character’s gruff voice, which becomes tedious with his constant chatter. Granted, it is trying to help, notifying you of things like being out of ammo, but trust me, I know I’m out of ammo because the gun goes click and the sliding bar isn’t above my target’s head.

Blood Purge: Releaseburg is a fine start, offering an interesting way to do combat. With more time in development, Blood Purge: Releaseburg will be even better, offering more weapons, skills, levels, and a more fleshed-out story. I look forward to returning to Blood Purge: Releaseburg when it reaches full release, and I’m keen to see what other unique features Steady Boar might add.

Written by: Ashley Barnett-Cosgrove