I came to this game off the reference of a review in an issue of PC Gamer.”Best $5 Game,” they called it. Alright, I’ll take that on. Is it really a great value for the price, or is just a bloody good waste of money?
I think of The Ship the instant the game pops up, and for good reason. BGT is built on the model set in The Ship by the same designers. If you’ve never played The Ship, it’s a hunting, kill-or-be-killed game that rewards kills with certain weapons more then others. You’re given a quarry out of the other players (or bots) you have to kill. However, another player is charged with killing you. What keeps this from being a run and gun shooter are the rules.
There are security guards around who will taze you if you’re caught brandishing a weapon near them or a security camera. They can be evaded and eventually lost if you’re crafty. Another wrinkle are your needs. Where The Ship had a litany of needs, Bloody Good Time has only three: eat, sleep, pee. Each task takes around 10 seconds regardless of your need state, which leaves you very vulnerable to your hunter.
There are also traps that can be sprung around the maps, such a battering ram in the Casino map. One of my biggest complaints is that there are only three maps. This means that you will be playing the same levels over and over again if you get hooked on the game. At least the weapons are varied, with 21 options that change in value (points per kill) each round. It’s obviously easier to kill with a rifle or a revolver, but if they’re on the bottom of the points list, you can lose out to the player who killed their prey with the fire axe.
The games visuals won’t blow anyone away, but instead they have almost a retro, cartoony charm. They’re also not very technically proficient since I’ve seen clipping issues. Sound is relegated to your player’s random gibberish that they spurt out as your play, the sounds of combat, and the maniacal director barking out instructions (and sometimes hints).
Reviewing Bloody Good Time can be as easy as asking if someone liked The Ship. If they liked it, they’ll probably like Bloody Good Time. If not, or if they’d never played it, they should know that it takes a special mindset to get into the hunter vs. prey mode and still deal with your basic ‘The Sims’-like needs. I might not say it’s the ‘best $5 game,’ – though I don’t know what would supplant it offhand – but it is definitely a unique shooter that can be fun and frustrating all at once. For five bucks, I’d say give it a try. Alphasim out.
Score Overall 
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