- Crush the Cult of Astaroth!
Bloodhound is an arcade-style First-Person Shooter developed by Polish studio Kruger & Flint Productions, described as a "mix of Serious Sam and Painkiller".
The Demon Queen, Astaroth, had unleashed The Legions of Hell upon mankind, and the "Keeper of the Gates", order of Templars dedicated to fighting demonic forces, are humanity's last hope.
Naturally, you're the best of the Keepers, for you are the legendary Demon Slayer, Bloodhound, who must take on assorted minions of Astaroth ranging from cultists to bloodthirsty cherubs and winged demons of all sorts in a series of blood-soaked, action-packed levels.
First day in hell...
- Abandoned Mine: One of the stages is set within an old mining shaft infested with demons.
- Action Bomb: The lesser demons with glowing, orange tumor-like growth on their bodies explodes on their own after a while. They'll expectedly tries getting closer to Bloodhound to chew him up and hope the subsequent explosion will deal extra damage.
- Airborne Mooks:
- Demonic cherubs, who swoops from the air to attack Bloodhound in droves. Some of them, like a twisted version of Cupid, can fire arrows capable of hurting Bloodhound.
- Deformed flying Valkyries are another enemy type, and are far more durable than the Cherubs.
- Always Night: There isn't a tiny silver of sunlight at any point of the game. It's unknown whether Astaroth cursed the world into eternal darkness, or the entire game's events actually took place in one night.
- Automatic Crossbows:
- Bloodhound can collect one of these, which fires exploding arrows on automatic. Instead of a barrel though, said crossbow's lower part is a rib cage.
- The first boss, Creeper, a demon clown, uses a similar weapon, but his can fire dozens and dozens of round nonstop.
- Blackout Basement: A few indoor stages are pitch-black, due to the night setting and absence of candles or torches. Visibility is limited to an illuminated circle from a torchlight attached to the front of Bloodhound's gun, and expectedly there will be more demons and monsters in the darkness.
- Big Bad: Astaroth, the Queen of Demons who unleashed her brood on humanity. She's also the game's Final Boss and puts up one literal hell of a fight.
- Bullet Time: The "Slowing Time" power-up can make enemies move at half their speed for quite a while, allowing Bloodhound to rampage through mooks.
- Captain Ersatz: One of the bosses is a hulking, trenchcoat-clad Implacable Man demon with huge claws in place of arms, a balding scarred face, assorted tentacles protruding from it's body and for extra subtlety, is called "Nemezis"
- Chainsaw Good: One of the strongest demon variety uses a chainsaw as a weapon. As does Punk, a demon who wield a chainsaw and a flamethrower simultaneously.
- Dying Curse: Astaroth lets out a pretty chilling one when she's slain, moments before the game ends. It's likely meant for setting up a Sequel Hook:"My death means nothing, prophecy is fulfilled. A seed of holy blood opened the forbidden gates, The judgement time has come and hidden beasts will tear apart the world. The generals of hatred will take their places in crowns. Ravens will cry, the earth will run with blood. Salvation is lost, only suffering remains. Thank you Templar, you naive fool."
- Excuse Plot: The game barely has one, other than there's a demoness and her army out there, and you're a demon-slaying badass. It's also incredibly straightforward for an FPS, the whole gameplay consisting of you traveling from Point A to B, and cutscenes which are skippable still frames that doesn't really add to the plot.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Punk, the demon boss with a flamethrower grafted into it's arm, and repeatedly tries incinerating Bloodhound in his boss fight. He also carries a chainsaw on the other arm as a short-range alternative.
- Gender Flip: This is likely the only demon-themed game that depicts Astaroth as a female demon.
- Ghost Town: Several levels takes place in dusty, Western-like towns, but infested with demons and cultists.
- Gatling Good: Like every good FPS game out there, Bloodhound can obtain a minigun and use it to chew up hordes and hordes of cultists and monsters.
- Guns Akimbo: Bloodhound starts off with dual revolvers to slay the forces of evil, twice as fast. More than one firearm can be dual-wielded too, with an upgrade.
- Gratuitous Latin: The game opens with Bloodhound reading off the pages of a Bible, which is in Latin for... reasons. Specifically a verse from Apocalypsis 4:1. It has zilch impact on gameplay, other than an indication that the hero is part of some Holy Templars.Post hæc vidi : et ecce ostium apertum in cælo, et vox prima, quam audivi tamquam tubæ loquentis mecum, dicens : Ascende huc, et ostendam tibi quæ oportet fieri post hæc.
- Hedge Maze: There's one in the Garden of Hell, though it's rather straightforward and easy to find an exit.
- Hell on Earth: What Astaroth intends to unleash on mankind, and from the looks of the game's demon-infested verse, it's a success. Bloodhound must fight her army and take back the world.
- Hulking Out: When Bloodhound collects a hundred demon souls, he can access Demon Form that doubles the damage dealt on enemies.
- Hunter of Monsters: The Keeper of the Gates is an entire order of these, dedicated to fighting the forces of hell. Bloodhound, the player hero, is naturally their best.
- The Klan: Astaroth's human minions inexplicably includes Klan members wearing stereotypical white KKK hoods and wielding automatics.
- Ludicrous Gibs: The graphics are as gory as you can imagine from an action-packed, demon-slaying game, with mooks - of both human and demon origin - bursting into fine sprays of red every time they're hit by heavy weaponry, exploding arrows or shot from close range.
- Monster Clown: Creeper, the first boss, is a demon clown who repeatedly tries roughing up Bloodhound with crossbows.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Astaroth's forces includes green, humanoid specters who can be harmed by Bloodhound's weapons. When killed they dissolve into orbs of light, rather than exploding into a fine bloody mess like other organic enemies.
- Protagonist Title: Bloodhound, referring to your player-controlled protagonist.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet:
- Astaroth's human cultists wears masks made of cattle skulls.
- Additionally, several of Bloodhound's weapns, notably the rocket launcher and automatic crossbow, is adorned with skulls. Unsure if they're real or ornamental, though.
- Succubi and Incubi: Succibi are another enemy type, depicted as scantily-clad, redheaded women with horns. And attacks Bloodhound in the nude.
- Sword Beam:
- Female cultists armed with curved swords can release a red, crescent-shaped projectile with each swing, which deals more damage than bullets.
- Astaroth alternates between summoning projectile attacks and swinging her sword, which release energy bolts, as a boss.
- Valkyries: This game contains zombified Valkyries, who could be Fallen angels cast out of heaven and becoming part of Astaroth's army. The Valkyrie demon boss is a Queen Mook.
