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not a product of today's world, but an action orgy originally intended for the Xbox 360, which is now considered quite outdated and primitive, but which is still somehow dirty fun despite everything.

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

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

The best X360 game released in 2025

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.

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.

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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.

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

The best PS2 game you'll play in 2025. In all the good ways.

Unfortunately camera control made me mad, unable to proceed with gameplay. It looked like someone wanted to make 2D action game into 3d without involving FPP/TPP principles. Other than this I enjoyed this short time. Unbearable in long term.

The game you never wanted but the game you never thought you needed

God of War does Pirates! Fun, engaging, smash things into confetti of bloody doubloons! Enjoy the gore-geous art! Enjoy the huge tracts of land! Enjoy a time long forgottten and a ton of tomfoolery on the high seas.

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

I still remember when I first heard and saw this game in action around the 2010's and then it disappeared into the vaporware ocean. Now it's finally here and while I'm glad to see a game that could have been gone forever is now out for all to check out, it fails to impress outside of it's pulpy tone and nostalgic charm in the visuals due to it's dull gameplay with tedious and frustrating set pieces as well as the amount of bugs it carried with. Check out my full review on Qualbert: https://www.qualbert.com/reviews/captain-blood-review-pc/

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.