Blood Trail

The VR game Blood Trail immerses players in a brutally realistic world of contract killing. Developed by Electrovore and released in early access in 2019, Blood Trail stands out for its unprecedented use of graphics, physics, and VR mechanics to create a graphically violent first-person shooter experience.

A Killer Premise

In Blood Trail, you take on the role of Wendigo, a ruthless hitman who only cares about getting paid. Your target: eliminate a dangerous cult before they can carry out their apocalyptic plans.

Armed with pistols, shotguns, rifles, and even your own fists, you'll fight through 14 gorgeously rendered levels filled with intelligent enemies and environmental hazards. Electrovore built their own proprietary character physics and gore systems from scratch to maximize the realism. As a result, firefights feel chaotic, desperate, and utterly brutal. Make a mistake, and you'll pay for it in blood.

Without a doubt, Blood Trail's most striking feature is its gore. Blow a cultist's head off with a shotgun or puncture them through the heart with a katana, and you'll be treated to some of the goriest visuals ever seen in a game. Blood sprays, bones shatter, limbs tear off, and corpses even react realistically to their environment long after death.

While gamers have seen their share of violence, Blood Trail's use of VR and real-time physics takes gore to another level. Even horror veterans may flinch during some of the game's gorier kill animations. Love it or hate it, there's no denying the incredible attention to detail here.

Approachable Modes for All Killer Instincts

For players who enjoy the action more than the objectives, Blood Trail offers two combat-focused modes alongside its story mode. Raid mode provides quick adrenaline rushes across 9 unique maps filled with destructible environments. Meanwhile, the aptly named Survival mode pits you against endless waves of enemies in claustrophobic arena battles.

Sandbox mode lets sadistic players live out their darkest fantasies through unrestricted violence against mannequins or armed targets. And with the upcoming addition of a crack pipe item, things are sure to get even more debased in time.

By providing options for both strategic and mindless violence, Blood Trail accommodates a wider variety of bloodthirsty gamers.

Impressive Development

As an early access game, Blood Trail is still missing some key components. The full single-player story campaign will get added eventually, promising even more narrative context for the hyper-violence. And Electrovore plans to continue improving graphics, combat, environments, weapons, enemies, drugs, and gore systems over time based on player feedback.

Yet even at this stage, Blood Trail delivers a complete gameplay experience that outshines nearly every VR shooter on the market. The satisfying gunplay, terrifying AI, and jaw-dropping physics would be impressive for a finished game, let alone one still technically under development.

When the full campaign does arrive, Blood Trail may well end up redefining violence and realism in video games. For now, action-focused early adopters can still get their fill of gruesome firefights.

Review: 8/10

If you have the stomach for it, Blood Trail offers a terrifying look into a serial killer's mindscape. Just don't be surprised if the gore starts getting to you after a while. Like any great horror experience, Blood Trail reveals a darker side to human imagination that may prove hard to step away from.

Pros:

• Stunningly realistic graphics and physics
• Extremely violent kill animations
• Great selection of creative weapons
• Intelligent, dynamic enemy AI

Cons:

• Relies more on shock value than deeper gameplay
• Will be too graphic for many players
• Gets repetitive fast

Blood Trail is a VR assassin simulator that lets your inner aggression come out and fulfill all the violent thoughts you might have. Engage in missions to destroy powerful bosses or simple debtors, there is no concept of social status for cruelty. Get rid of corpses and remove witnesses. No need to be quiet and neat, scatter the guts of your clients on the walls and write a message with their blood. Become a shock to the virtual universe of Blood Trail.

Game Pros:

• Game modes: Arcade, story, adventure
• Fight an entire organization
• There's no limit to the brutality