This atmospheric, Mad Max inspired Metroidvania is by indie team Brainwash Gang in Madrid of Spain. Launching in October 2023 on all consoles and PC, it’s a unique take on the genre with its motorcycle-based focus.
Wrapped amongst Laika: Aged Through Blood’s platforming exploration is an intriguing post-apocalyptic story. It’s also a goddamn difficult game, which may well tip the scale on whether you like the bloody thing (or not).
On Your Bike in Laika: Aged Through Blood
In this one, players take control of the fox Laika. You’re in a wasteland of Mad Max style proportions, with birds dominating the landscape as the aggressive and dominate species.
As Laika, you live in a village that’s attacked by the birds. There are several deaths and, seeking revenge, she sets off out to protect her family from the birds and try to restore some form of peace.
Gameplay wise, you control Laika as she rides her motorbike. And this is where things may get a little divisive. You have to multi-task across:
- Guiding the bike through the air
- Aiming your gun (you get two bullets before needing to reload)
- Performing backflips to reload the gun
- Flipping the bike to defend against enemy shots
But you have to manage everything at the same time. Make an error? Dead in one shot, too bad, you have to do it again, and again, and again, until it’s done. Then you move on to another section with a slight variation on what you were stuck on moments ago—big chunks of the Laika experience go like this.
Here’s a demonstration of the thing in action. Do note, as you well, how pretty the game is! It’s a striking looking game on the visual front.
The game can be punishingly difficult and you have to be very precise with everything. For us, this gameplay loop was more frustrating than enjoyable.
Full credit to Laika: Aged Through Blood for trying something different with the Metroidvania genre, but we never really got used to its cumbersome controls. You’re given an in-game tutorial in the early stages, but even after several hours of playing we couldn’t get to grips with the need to multi-task like a genius drummer with magical limb independence. All just to get Laika through quite basic areas of the game.
Which isn’t to say it’s bad.
Quite the opposite, it’s a good one but around the 7/10 mark for us. Our disappointment is the fiddly controls, and merciless difficulty, held back the full potential available.
BUT! For the sake of balance, we’ve seen players online (such as in their Steam reviews) hail Aged Through Blood as one of their favourite games. Some even say it’s their favourite game ever. Meanwhile, IGN handed it 9/10. As did Nintendo Life, whose opinion we respect a great deal. Other publications handed over 7/10.
Nintendo Life also claimed the game has one of the best indie game soundtracks in recent years, which we also don’t agree with.
It was all created by musician Beícoli and functions like an album with her singing over many songs.
The music style isn’t one we’re too fussed about, so just a subjective thing here. But there are some very nice little moments of soulful guitar and the like (free from vocals).
In summary, don’t let our take on it put you off. Like the look of it? Give it a go! Just be aware of the game’s control system. We can’t really predict how people will react to it, you’ll either think it’s a great challenge or the most frustrating mess of a system ever devised.
Either way, full credit to Brainwash Gang for trying something new here and for inventing an intriguing world of bleak plot developments and dark humour.
