Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing

Genre: Combat Flight Simulator

Players: 1

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Review:

Bow to Blood is a Combat Flight Simulator released in 2019 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. In this game, players pilot sci-fi airships in a competition that has you competing with other airship captains in various events.

Before moving on, I think we need to address one thing that seems very strange about the Nintendo Switch version of this game. While all versions of Bow to Blood were released at $20, the Nintendo Switch version of the game inexplicably dropped in price to $1 in early 2021, and I cannot find any reason why. There wasn’t any announcement that I can find, and the game doesn’t seem to be fatally-flawed in a way that would justify such a drastic price drop. The other versions of the game still sell for $20, and I cannot see any reason why any version of the game would have such a massive price shift, let alone only one version of the game.

Oh, one other note about this game, and one that almost had me writing it off before I did a bit of experimentation – this game did not want to work with my Pro-style controller, refusing to recognize analog stick inputs for some reason. These controls worked fine when I switched to Joy-Cons, but it’s definitely odd that such a flaw would be present in the first place.

Anyway, on to the actual game itself.

Bow to Blood is not the easiest game to get into. While its basic 2-stick controls for steering and targeting are fairly straightforward, the ships themselves are massive and are sluggish to move. What’s more, you will be doing more than piloting and combat – you have two crew members who you can assign to ship functions, assisting with those functions during the battle. You also have a limited energy supply to fuel the different ship functions, and can reroute those functions as needed. Add to this multiple types of ammo to acquire, as well as the ability to swap between the ship’s gun and your slower but more powerful handgun, and this game tosses players a lot to manage in a way that can feel overwhelming.

That said, once you do get used to it, it can be enjoyable, and there are a lot of gameplay elements here that can be quite charming. Bow to Blood isn’t just a straightforward tournament, players can form alliances with other captains (and perhaps later betray those alliances or be betrayed by them), and at the end of each round the bottom two performers are put to a vote by the group to determine who gets ejected from the competition, Survivor-style. It’s a clever addition that makes this about more than just being the best airship captain, but being savvy about your social machinations too. Add to this some decent variety in level types, and you have a game worth playing through repeatedly due to how things unfold differently each time you play.

The presentation here is pretty good, making use of decent if unimpressive 3D visuals with some nice voice clips for the various characters, with your crewmates being particularly amusing with their frequent discussions and occasional bickering. There is also a cinematic soundtrack, but you won’t be listening to it much, as the zaps and explosions of the sci-fi battles you’ll be having will tend to drown that out. And on that note, I wish the game did more to indicate when your ship is actually getting hit by incoming attacks – often I didn’t even notice until shields were down on one side of my ship.

Overall, I do think Bow to Blood has multiple problems. The control issues, the off-putting complexity, the sluggish movement, the lack of noticeable indication of taking incoming fire. Furthermore, this is something of an acquired taste, and not for everyone. But for only $1? A price like that can forgive a lot of flaws, and if you can get used to this game’s eccentricities, it has a lot to offer. And since its price is so low, for whatever reason, there’s not much risk in taking a chance on this one to see if it appeals to you.

tl;dr – Bow to Blood is a Combat Flight Sim where players pilot hulking sci-fi airships in a competition that has elements of the game show Survivor. It’s an odd mix of elements, with gameplay that won’t appeal to everyone, and even then it has its share of flaws. But for only $1, it’s easy to forgive a lot of that when the core gameplay is still enjoyable and has a lot of creative elements to it. I recommend giving it a try – even if this isn’t for you, you’ll only be out a buck if you end up disliking it.

Grade: B

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