"Why do we fight? Because we like it."
— Daemon, Launch Trailer
Bleeding Edge is a MOBA game involving teams of four players, with a heavy emphasis on melee combat and close range shooting created by Ninja Theory. The stylish cast of fighters swaggering through its dystopic setting carry extravagant weapons to match the scene.
In a dystopian future, a gang of misfits, calling themselves "Bleeding Edge", cause trouble in the streets of New York. Using illegal cybernetic augmentations, these crazy outcasts delight in fighting the system (and each other) just for the heck of it and invite you to watch...or join them.
The game was officially released on March 24th, 2020 for Xbox One, Windows 10 and Steam. The website can be found here
, launch trailer here.
Not to be confused with the novel of the same name.
Tropes that apply to Bleeding Edge:
- Abnormal Ammo: Barely anyone in this game just shoots bullets. Instead, projectiles consist of acid, sonic waves, bolts, you name it.
- All There in the Manual: As is the case with most games in the genre, Bleeding Edge doesn't really develop it's characters in-game apart from some light pre-match banter. Information like real names or backstories has to be looked up on the official website.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: You can unlock alternate outfits for your characters. Buttercup, Nidhoggr and Zero Cool in particular have alternate outfits as DLC.
- Animal Motifs: Cass has very prominent avian motifs; her cybernetic legs evoke the image of an ostrich, her hair is cut in a mohawk that looks like a rooster's comb, her clothing and weapons look like feathers and her movements, especially her running cycle, look very chicken-like.
- Anti-Hero: Bleeding Edge (the gang) consists mostly of people who were let down or taken advantage of by the system. As such, they openly rebel against the government by using black-market cybernetics, fighting the police in the streets and staging and participating in street fights with each other.
- Artificial Limbs: The majority of Bleeding Edge members had their bodies modified either out of necessity or just because they felt like it. Which is also what puts them in conflict with the government, since cybernetic augmentations of that nature are considered illegal.
- Badass Bookworm:
- Daemon is an immensely talented coder and a master of martial arts.
- Kulev was (is?) a renowned history professor who now passes the time by participating in illegal street fights.
- Badass Crew: Every member of Bleeding Edge can very much hold their own and they're not afraid to proof it either. You have, just to name a few, Buttercup, a motorcycle/human hybrid who uses chainsaw blades as boxing gloves, Gizmo, a skinny redhead with enough bombs and turrets at her disposal to blow opponents to kingdom come and Nidhöggr, a metalhead whose instrument doubles as a literal axe.
- Barrier Warrior: Zero Cool's Firewall can completely block any and all attacks from an opponent, cut them off from their allies or allow Zero Cool to swiftly retreat.
- The Big Guy: Makutu, though he did have some help becoming one.
- Blood Knight: As Daemon himself admits to the viewer in the launch trailer, Bleeding Edge doesn't really have a reason for fighting each other. They do it because it's fun and they're good at it.
- Cast of Snowflakes: Each character has a unique and distinct design that makes it easy to tell them apart from the rest.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Not all of them, but most of the Bleeding Edge members have some kind of Artificial Limbs that enhance their physical abilities and offer at least some explanation for some of the more outlandish things they do in the game.
- Combat Medic: All of the support characters, but Miko especially, since she was trained in her clans fighting style and, when played by a skilled player, can very well hold out against several tanks or damage characters.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Human Augment Systems appears as the catalyst for most of the characters' Tragic Backstories and is also implied to be the Big Bad in the background for the games' present.
- Counter-Attack: Makutu aside, all characters have access to a Difficult, but Awesome parry which can only be executed whilst standing still.
- Cyberpunk: In the future this game takes place in, Artificial Limbs are all but the norm, corrupt Mega Corps can conduct potentially deadly experiments on people and animals with little to no consequence and the system provides only insufficient support for the poor, forcing many to turn to the black market to get the help they need.
- Damager, Healer, Tank: The characters are categorized into Damage (such as Daemon, Cass and Gizmo), Support (such as Miko and Zero Cool) and Tank (such as Buttercup and El Bastardo).
- The Dog Bites Back: Daemon's mother died because of "corporate complications". Daemon was an only child and had to fend for himself on the streets, using graffiti as an outlet. He eventually grew into a genius coder and caused the biggest data breach in Augmented Human Systems' corporate history, as well as formed Bleeding Edge to get back at the society and greedy corporation that ruined his life.
- Faceless Goons: Daemon battles a couple of what appear to be police officers wearing face obscuring helmets in the launch trailer.
- Famed In-Story: Bleeding Edge is immensely popular in-universe, despite or maybe because of their frequent scuffles with the law.
- Family of Choice: A lot of Bleeding Edge's members joined because they had nowhere else to go and Daemon was the only one who would take them all in with open arms without an ulterior motive. Invoked especially for Mekko, who's profile explicitly states that he views the weird humans who rescued him from the lab he was abused in as family.
- Fanservice: Miku and Cass wear very revealing outfits and if you're willing to look past some of their more eccentric accessories, they're very conventionally attractive.
- Godlike Gamer: Zero Cool is a pro-gamer, very competent hacker and a technological prodigy who designed himself augments to participate in Bleeding Edge because regular gaming just wouldn't cut it for him anymore.
- Handicapped Badass:
- Buttercup lost both her legs in a motorcycle accident. She coped by turning her entire lower body into a motorcycle. When the religious community she grew up in didn't accept her new body, she fled to the southern road, committing crimes and fighting for money to survive.
- Cass is a former ballerina involuntarily turned assassin when her fathers' experiments led to the loss of her legs.
- Maeve is a grandma who might be dependent on her flying bauble to move, but should not be underestimated either way.
- Hollywood Hacking: Zero Cool is basically a personification of this trope. His moves "Defrag" and "Firewall" all but spell it out for the player.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Zero Cool jumped from pro-gaming to street fighting with zero complications. Granted part of that is due to his augmentations.
- Improbable Age: Zero Cool and Gizmo are 16 and 17 respectively, yet apparently Daemon had no problem allowing them into Bleeding Edge's regular fighting tournaments. The launch trailer also makes it clear that the other Bleeding Edge members are not willing to hold back when fighting against them.
- Irony: Mekko grew to hate humans, due to the torture he experienced at the hands of Human Augment Systems, who planned to use him as a biological sonic weapon. But in the end it was humans who set him free and helped him get revenge on the aforementioned corporation.
- Karma Houdini: Human Augment Systems has conducted several inhuman experiments in both past and present and it's heavily implied that they take advantage of their monopoly on cybernetic implants. But aside from Bleeding Edge, nobody seems willing to even try standing up to them in any manner and the law is on their side, since Bleeding Edge use illegal body modifications.
- Kick the Dog: In case you needed any more convincing that Human Augment Systems are definitely not the good guys in this story, they are responsible for the majority of Bleeding Edge being the way that they are. Namely:
- They were somehow responsible for the death of Daemon's mother, which left him all alone in the world as a street child.
- They performed horribly painful experiments on Mekko to turn him into a weapon, starting when he was still a baby.
- Their possessive prohibition of any and all cybernetic augmentation outside of their control forced all of Bleeding Edge to become felons. Despite some of them desperately needing said augmentations to lead normal lives, which gave them no other choice but to turn to the black market.
- Limit Break: Every character has a choice of one of two "Supers", extremely powerful attacks that can be executed after a buildup.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Applies to a number of characters, but to Maeve especially, since she has the style and theme for it.
- Nice Guy: Hard as it is to believe, Bleeding Edge as a whole fall into this. They might beat the crap out of police officers and each other on live tv, but they're also willing to save a poor, tortured animal from Corrupt Corporate Executive Human Augment Systems, their in-fighting is never personal and they remain good friends before and after and they welcome anyone who's up for it to join them at any time.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
- Maeve is a witch who uses technology to enhance her "magic".
- Buttercup is a Cyborg biker.
- Mekko is a dolphin who is also a mecha pilot.
- Kulev is an undead robot snake piloting a corpse with voodoo magic.
- Non-Lethal Warfare: Bleeding Edge may fire acid, bolts and bombs at each other constantly, but it never gets them killed or even permanently injured.
- No Plot? No Problem!: Bleeding Edge is focused on the gameplay. There is a story somewhere in the background, but it's definitely not the focus.
- Odd Friendship: The Bleeding Edge might be a bunch of blood-hungry, crazy freaks, but they all value and respect each other. Some, like Mekko, have even begun to see Bleeding Edge as their family.
- One-Steve Limit: Every character has a name unique to them. Justified, since they're from all corners of the world and it would be kind of unlikely for them to have shared names under these circumstances.
- Painted-On Pants: Both Gizmo and Buttercup have those.
- La Résistance: Bleeding Edge is this towards the corrupt system and Human Augment Systems.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Zig-zagged with Kulev. He actually was dead, he just transferred his soul into a robot snake and then attached himself to his rotting corpse, so he wouldn't attract attention. To the world at large, however, he remains dead officially.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Daemon created the Skeleton Key and founded Bleeding Edge because he was tired of Human Augment Systems ruining lives and doing whatever the hell they want and getting away with it all scot-free due to the law being technically on their side and /or nobody knowing of their more questionable practices.
- Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness: On one hand, the characters are a lively, crazy Cast of Snowflakes, who are fighting each other just because. On the other hand, many of them come from less than stellar backgrounds and were pretty much forced into this life, due to the system they live in not giving them the support and help they needed and in many cases actively worsening their problems.
- Team Shot: A nice one at the end of the launch trailer.
- Token Non-Human: Mekko is a dolphin and also the only non-human playable character. It's kind of zig-zagged with Kulev, who is a robot snake now, but used to be a human.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: Getting caught by a train on the map gets you insta-killed.
- Villain World: The world seems to be mostly against Bleeding Edge. Thanks to Human Augment Systems outlawing "illegal body modifications", most of them are considered criminals by default. The police and the government are always hot on their tail and Human Augment Systems has a price on their heads. At least some of the general populace seem to be on their side, but even here there are people who consider them to be nothing more than freaks and monsters.
- Would Hurt a Child: It doesn't matter how old you are, don't expect any special treatment in Bleeding Edge's blood sports! You'll get your teeth smashed in just like everybody else.
