el mejor juego que no es de terror para jugar en halloween, tiene un gameplay experimental y algo cuestionable pero compensa con su humor, PURA ESENCIA
such an amazing, campy game with frustrating gameplay. 10/10 ending. SGF's playthrough is probably what popularized the game but it's worth watching
Nishigaki deserved better
I really admire this game for taking such wild swings and doing something wholly unique, but it's marred by so much painful and cumbersome game design/game feel, I can't keep persevering. I just restarted the same segment like 10 times, and I can't get through it.
I love it for what it tries to be, but hate it in its moment to moment gameplay.
I love it for what it tries to be, but hate it in its moment to moment gameplay.
There is absolutely nothing like Illbleed.
Illbleed is an absolute achievement. Bonkers. Wild as hell. Absolutely unpredictable in everything its doing. Designed to entertain and fuck with you to a degree I haven't seen a horror comedy joint ever really quite do and only really in the way that a video game can.
Illbleed is a reminder of the kinds of things only video games as a medium can do in the ways in which they interact and interface with the player and the way the player interacts and interfaces with the game. You could adapt The Last of Us, Dead Space, God of War and Final Fantasy XV into a series or film or something. You could NOT adapt Illbleed into anything else.
You could not remake Illbleed and get the same result. You could not make a sequel to Illbleed and have it work the same at all. This is a culmination of absolutely deranged ideas all culminating into a beautiful package at one specific time by one specific team at one specific moment. This shit is special.
Illbleed frankly is fuckin peak. The more I played the more I fell in absolute love with it. It trolled me, it baffled me, it knocked me on my ass and every twist and turn had me waiting for where the fuck this thing was gonna go next.
Sorry to be vague but you should really just play it for yourself and see what this has to offer. I want people who experience it to have the raw experience I had with it. I really wish there was some Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind type procedure so I could wipe my memory and play this shit fresh cause it is such a transcendent and wild experience. I will absolutely never forget it. Don't be afraid to use a guide if ya need to, it's absolutely worth experiencing.
Make sure ya invest in them worm stocks alright?
Illbleed is an absolute achievement. Bonkers. Wild as hell. Absolutely unpredictable in everything its doing. Designed to entertain and fuck with you to a degree I haven't seen a horror comedy joint ever really quite do and only really in the way that a video game can.
Illbleed is a reminder of the kinds of things only video games as a medium can do in the ways in which they interact and interface with the player and the way the player interacts and interfaces with the game. You could adapt The Last of Us, Dead Space, God of War and Final Fantasy XV into a series or film or something. You could NOT adapt Illbleed into anything else.
You could not remake Illbleed and get the same result. You could not make a sequel to Illbleed and have it work the same at all. This is a culmination of absolutely deranged ideas all culminating into a beautiful package at one specific time by one specific team at one specific moment. This shit is special.
Illbleed frankly is fuckin peak. The more I played the more I fell in absolute love with it. It trolled me, it baffled me, it knocked me on my ass and every twist and turn had me waiting for where the fuck this thing was gonna go next.
Sorry to be vague but you should really just play it for yourself and see what this has to offer. I want people who experience it to have the raw experience I had with it. I really wish there was some Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind type procedure so I could wipe my memory and play this shit fresh cause it is such a transcendent and wild experience. I will absolutely never forget it. Don't be afraid to use a guide if ya need to, it's absolutely worth experiencing.
Make sure ya invest in them worm stocks alright?
Truly, the most interesting games are not necessarily the most good
HOLYYYY SHIT !!! ILLBLEED SWEEP !!!! #ILLBLEEDSWEEP
!!!!!!
!!!!!!
This game is simultaneously bad and great. Practically a minesweeper game with extra steps. But the scenarios and pure creativity of the levels makes it worth going through. You won't find anything else like it. Pure B-horror stupidity.
Illbleed controls poorly, the writing is shoddy, the characters are flatter than cardboard, even for dreamcast the game doesnt look good, the music is grating and repetitive, the gameplay feels half-baked... but I cannot help but adore this weird little game.
I played Illbleed as a "devil pact" with my partner as we take turns playing "bad" video games to watch each other suffer. However, the more I played of the game the more I loved it. It's just so absolutely unique and insane that I couldn't help but be charmed by it.
The stilted voice acting (by most of the Sonic Adventure crew) and awful writing just made every joke (and unintentional jokes) hit so much harder.
The clunky controls and gameplay made the game feel unique and ambitious.
The visuals look terrible but with the plot device of the game being a shitty amusement park, they never broke my immersion. Plus all of the AMAZING textures for signs.
Sure the music is bad, but its the kind of bad that is so fun to make fun of.
Illbleed has so many memorable moments and is such a genuinely bizarre and fun time that I HAVE to give it a 5/5 because I'll never forget this game.
I played Illbleed as a "devil pact" with my partner as we take turns playing "bad" video games to watch each other suffer. However, the more I played of the game the more I loved it. It's just so absolutely unique and insane that I couldn't help but be charmed by it.
The stilted voice acting (by most of the Sonic Adventure crew) and awful writing just made every joke (and unintentional jokes) hit so much harder.
The clunky controls and gameplay made the game feel unique and ambitious.
The visuals look terrible but with the plot device of the game being a shitty amusement park, they never broke my immersion. Plus all of the AMAZING textures for signs.
Sure the music is bad, but its the kind of bad that is so fun to make fun of.
Illbleed has so many memorable moments and is such a genuinely bizarre and fun time that I HAVE to give it a 5/5 because I'll never forget this game.
The definition of a cult classic. Harking back to memories of all your favourite B-movie horror schlock, Illbleed takes the weird, the frustrating, and most importantly, the amazing charm of its low budget inspirations, and turns it into a glorious messy and indulgent little experience.
Before anything, it is very important to note that this game takes some time to warm up to properly. The first stage of this game, while great in building its wonderful off-kilter tone, is incredibly trying, having to juggle around the game's numerous mechanics that it doesn't do a great job of telling you about, and navigating around the game's main gimmick can be incredibly frustrating, and literally random at first glance. But like any fan of horror B-movies knows, if you can get past the initial frustrations, Illbleed is a game that will stick with you, there is no game quite like this one.
Every scenario in this game is silly and memorable, everything is "gory" but its all so tongue-in-cheek that you can't help but laugh when your character is literally spraying puddles of blood from a jump rope or something. And the last two levels in particular are such wonderful highlights, ending with a weird tokusatsu murder "mystery" and just, a parody of Toy Story, for no reason. I do like saying that games in the modern day are of an unreal quality of both variety and weird wonderful joy, but there isn't and likely will never be a game quite like Illbleed ever again. While its a hard game to get to grips with, like any fan of the game, I would implore you to tough it out, and strap yourself in for one of the most wild games to have graced an equally wild console.
Before anything, it is very important to note that this game takes some time to warm up to properly. The first stage of this game, while great in building its wonderful off-kilter tone, is incredibly trying, having to juggle around the game's numerous mechanics that it doesn't do a great job of telling you about, and navigating around the game's main gimmick can be incredibly frustrating, and literally random at first glance. But like any fan of horror B-movies knows, if you can get past the initial frustrations, Illbleed is a game that will stick with you, there is no game quite like this one.
Every scenario in this game is silly and memorable, everything is "gory" but its all so tongue-in-cheek that you can't help but laugh when your character is literally spraying puddles of blood from a jump rope or something. And the last two levels in particular are such wonderful highlights, ending with a weird tokusatsu murder "mystery" and just, a parody of Toy Story, for no reason. I do like saying that games in the modern day are of an unreal quality of both variety and weird wonderful joy, but there isn't and likely will never be a game quite like Illbleed ever again. While its a hard game to get to grips with, like any fan of the game, I would implore you to tough it out, and strap yourself in for one of the most wild games to have graced an equally wild console.
this is the videogame ever
This world is hard on silly men. Men filled with a joyous whimsy. Nothing in this world is harder than being a goofy and fun loving guy.
This review contains spoilers
I love the tone and atmosphere of this game. It's so unlike anything else I've ever played; having to focus on like 5 different "health" systems at once which means you really need to be smart with item usage. But despite it's unique gameplay, it can't escape the pitfalls of its time, mostly things like clunky movement, bad level design (there's way too many long corridors with nothing happening, or maze-like areas that make no sense when you have a map), slow pause speeds which you'll be doing a lot to look at the map, or use an item.
Some of the flaws actually do help it though, the lack of lip movements, the bad voice acting, really help capture the cheesy B movie feel. I'd argue even the clunky controls could help it, as if it was more polished it might become too easy (but fuck the car platforming section).
Though if we're being honest once you get to grips with the game it becomes very easy very fast. The first boss is honestly the hardest part of the game for me. Once you can start upgrading your character and buying as many healing items as you need, levels can't throw anything at you that you can't just heal off. This is kind of a big flaw as part of the appeal of the early stages is the need to take it slow and figure out what is a trap or not as your resources are so limited. It loses any sense of its survival horror once you can just run into every trap head first because you have so much health and so many items to recover heart rate.
Luckily the game does something different with every level to help alleviate any feeling of repetitiveness that might come with the decreasing difficulty. Level 3 has you turn into a wood puppet, while level 6 is a Toy Story parody with Sonic as the boss. It's all just so crazy that you'll want to experience it even after you've reached a point where the game can no longer challenge you.
Some of the flaws actually do help it though, the lack of lip movements, the bad voice acting, really help capture the cheesy B movie feel. I'd argue even the clunky controls could help it, as if it was more polished it might become too easy (but fuck the car platforming section).
Though if we're being honest once you get to grips with the game it becomes very easy very fast. The first boss is honestly the hardest part of the game for me. Once you can start upgrading your character and buying as many healing items as you need, levels can't throw anything at you that you can't just heal off. This is kind of a big flaw as part of the appeal of the early stages is the need to take it slow and figure out what is a trap or not as your resources are so limited. It loses any sense of its survival horror once you can just run into every trap head first because you have so much health and so many items to recover heart rate.
Luckily the game does something different with every level to help alleviate any feeling of repetitiveness that might come with the decreasing difficulty. Level 3 has you turn into a wood puppet, while level 6 is a Toy Story parody with Sonic as the boss. It's all just so crazy that you'll want to experience it even after you've reached a point where the game can no longer challenge you.
I have to admit, I knew a lot about this game going in. I've seen the deviousness of the first level, I understood the main mechanic and how to apply it, I even knew that Eriko was pretty much the only character worth playing. However, I don't think any prep short of being completely spoiled would adequately set you up. Because once you're past the Banballows? You couldn't predict a single move Illbleed pulls if you had a gun to your head.
Game development doesn't really work like this, I know, but never before has a game felt so driven by whimsy alone. Drifting from one idea in this completely free-wheeling state of mind where the connection between a talking cake and a grill that turns meat hostile makes sense together simply because they were thought in close enough proximity. Or maybe it just feels that way because the ideas never go above or below wouldn't-it-be-funny-if levels of consideration. And I honestly wouldn't have it any other way!
Unfortunately, even with its lean 6-ish hours of runtime (add a few for the true ending, and a couple more if you're really struggling), a chunk of that effort will be spent rationing the most rancid salads ever digitized and ambling from point A to B to reduce bleeding. I can absolutely respect conflict in my game design, and I do admire how Illbleed's survival-isms are ridiculously complex and overlapping for a game about a spooky theme park, but ultimately, the drive of this game doesn't lie here, and the insistence of being a part of the game so often only chafed against me. This extends to the level design and encounters, too. I played this with a friend and we both made a comment at some point about how annoyed I sounded every time I looked at the map and got nauseated by what's ahead.
(It makes sense, then, that this game has been mostly preserved in the form of Let's Plays where this sorta thing can be defanged for the audience.)
As noted in other reviews here, this game really does feel self-prophesizing in who it attracts. If you're capable of getting past Level 1, you're probably there until the end. Hell, even if you're not, just look it all up or something. Illbleed doesn't strike me as a game concerned with the means. Much like its B-horror roots, it's about having a good time on both sides of the screen.
Game development doesn't really work like this, I know, but never before has a game felt so driven by whimsy alone. Drifting from one idea in this completely free-wheeling state of mind where the connection between a talking cake and a grill that turns meat hostile makes sense together simply because they were thought in close enough proximity. Or maybe it just feels that way because the ideas never go above or below wouldn't-it-be-funny-if levels of consideration. And I honestly wouldn't have it any other way!
Unfortunately, even with its lean 6-ish hours of runtime (add a few for the true ending, and a couple more if you're really struggling), a chunk of that effort will be spent rationing the most rancid salads ever digitized and ambling from point A to B to reduce bleeding. I can absolutely respect conflict in my game design, and I do admire how Illbleed's survival-isms are ridiculously complex and overlapping for a game about a spooky theme park, but ultimately, the drive of this game doesn't lie here, and the insistence of being a part of the game so often only chafed against me. This extends to the level design and encounters, too. I played this with a friend and we both made a comment at some point about how annoyed I sounded every time I looked at the map and got nauseated by what's ahead.
(It makes sense, then, that this game has been mostly preserved in the form of Let's Plays where this sorta thing can be defanged for the audience.)
As noted in other reviews here, this game really does feel self-prophesizing in who it attracts. If you're capable of getting past Level 1, you're probably there until the end. Hell, even if you're not, just look it all up or something. Illbleed doesn't strike me as a game concerned with the means. Much like its B-horror roots, it's about having a good time on both sides of the screen.
Cheap special effects. Over-the-top violence and gore. Hokey acting. Gratuitous sexuality. These are the hallmarks of the classic Halloween staple: The B-Horror Movie, where high concepts, low budgets, and mid-range actors band together to produce certified schlock for the silver screen! In an interesting parallel however, we have the mid-budget late 90s video game, which has the same kind of soul we find in B-cinema: ambitious ideas, middling budgets, and acting of dubious quality. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed the common ground there, and so, enter stage right Crazy Games and their loving send-up to B-Horror, Illbleed.
Illbleed is a virtual horror house all about exploring different attractions based on in-universe B-Movie horror films; in which you focus on disarming traps, fighting monsters and making it to the end of each stage without bleeding yourself dry, giving yourself a heart attack, or just flat-out biting the dust. From Psycho to Child's Play to Tremors, Illbleed wears its influences loud and proud, but in the same breath, it's not afraid to poke fun at itself, its influences, and the very nature of the B-Horror. In between some horrific monster design and genuinely unsettling moments of terror, there's moments where the game will peel the curtain back a bit to reveal the inner workings of the setting and poke fun at itself, from employees complaining about malfunctioning equipment in the park, to some stages flat out requiring you to break the rules of the universe to proceed. It's all incredibly surreal and bordering on full-blown Dadaism, but it all works in Illbleed's favor, lending the game this enjoyably irreverent tone throughout.
Illbleed can be hard to parse at the best of times, and the first level will test your patience like no other, but much like any B-Horror film, if you can stick with it past its rocky start, you'll be in for the ride of your life. Illbleed is a cult classic for good reason: It's a loving homage to B-Horror and an unabashedly earnest celebration of the medium and it's influences that isn't afraid to revel in the absurdity of it all.
Illbleed is a virtual horror house all about exploring different attractions based on in-universe B-Movie horror films; in which you focus on disarming traps, fighting monsters and making it to the end of each stage without bleeding yourself dry, giving yourself a heart attack, or just flat-out biting the dust. From Psycho to Child's Play to Tremors, Illbleed wears its influences loud and proud, but in the same breath, it's not afraid to poke fun at itself, its influences, and the very nature of the B-Horror. In between some horrific monster design and genuinely unsettling moments of terror, there's moments where the game will peel the curtain back a bit to reveal the inner workings of the setting and poke fun at itself, from employees complaining about malfunctioning equipment in the park, to some stages flat out requiring you to break the rules of the universe to proceed. It's all incredibly surreal and bordering on full-blown Dadaism, but it all works in Illbleed's favor, lending the game this enjoyably irreverent tone throughout.
Illbleed can be hard to parse at the best of times, and the first level will test your patience like no other, but much like any B-Horror film, if you can stick with it past its rocky start, you'll be in for the ride of your life. Illbleed is a cult classic for good reason: It's a loving homage to B-Horror and an unabashedly earnest celebration of the medium and it's influences that isn't afraid to revel in the absurdity of it all.
This is one of those games that you can't grade on any normal scale. It's not fit for human consumption.
ILLBLEED is Dreamcasts' Survival? Horror? Game? that sees you visit a horror park and survive through its traps to get money. The gameplay is unique: it's effectively a game where you do that stupid metal detector puzzle but for the whole game. You walk through the enviroments as your "sight", "hearing" and "smell" senses detect traps and you can use limited quantities of Adrenaline to "tag" traps to disarm them. If you fail to tag a trap you lose health, start bleeding or your heart rate goes up.
The gameplay is awful, consisting of invisible traps and items you find via fourth and final "sixth sense", and battle system is atrocious.
ILLBLEED is a bad video game.
ILLBLEED is also a really great video game.
It's surprising to see a game released at the turn of the century to understand the modern humor so much and be so funny. From its presentation to different traps to various weird levels and situations, ILLBLEED knows that it's B-movie schlock and it runs with it. You fight your way through the 4th wall breaking creatures, you investigate a murder, you go through an adult Toy Story parody where a boy gets sick and dies with his doll that's basically Woody who visits hell and fights pretty much Sonic. Like, it's fucking Sonic.
As a game, ILLBLEED doesn't deserve your time. I didn't have fun, I just wanted to experience it after being familiar with it through let's play. Hell, even if you somehow enjoy it, the core conceit of untagging traps when the traps are the most fun regular thing that happens is broken beyond belief. There are hundreds of animations you just don't get to see when playing well! It's like watching Evil Dead 2 with all the blood removed - the camp is there, but barely any joy.
As an experience, ILLBLEED is sublime. An experiment in creativity so weird and funny I've yet to see a game that even remotely resembles it even in atmosphere alone. It doesn't give a single shit about what it does as long as it has fun. Sure, it might be described as "lolrandom" by some, but there are genuinely funny jokes among the strange and ridiculous.
This is the game that deserves both two stars and a five for me, but even when I was annoyed and angry when playing it myself, I'm just happy it exists. And thankfully we do live in an era of let's plays and streams. ILLBLEED should not be played, but it should be experienced.
ILLBLEED is Dreamcasts' Survival? Horror? Game? that sees you visit a horror park and survive through its traps to get money. The gameplay is unique: it's effectively a game where you do that stupid metal detector puzzle but for the whole game. You walk through the enviroments as your "sight", "hearing" and "smell" senses detect traps and you can use limited quantities of Adrenaline to "tag" traps to disarm them. If you fail to tag a trap you lose health, start bleeding or your heart rate goes up.
The gameplay is awful, consisting of invisible traps and items you find via fourth and final "sixth sense", and battle system is atrocious.
ILLBLEED is a bad video game.
ILLBLEED is also a really great video game.
It's surprising to see a game released at the turn of the century to understand the modern humor so much and be so funny. From its presentation to different traps to various weird levels and situations, ILLBLEED knows that it's B-movie schlock and it runs with it. You fight your way through the 4th wall breaking creatures, you investigate a murder, you go through an adult Toy Story parody where a boy gets sick and dies with his doll that's basically Woody who visits hell and fights pretty much Sonic. Like, it's fucking Sonic.
As a game, ILLBLEED doesn't deserve your time. I didn't have fun, I just wanted to experience it after being familiar with it through let's play. Hell, even if you somehow enjoy it, the core conceit of untagging traps when the traps are the most fun regular thing that happens is broken beyond belief. There are hundreds of animations you just don't get to see when playing well! It's like watching Evil Dead 2 with all the blood removed - the camp is there, but barely any joy.
As an experience, ILLBLEED is sublime. An experiment in creativity so weird and funny I've yet to see a game that even remotely resembles it even in atmosphere alone. It doesn't give a single shit about what it does as long as it has fun. Sure, it might be described as "lolrandom" by some, but there are genuinely funny jokes among the strange and ridiculous.
This is the game that deserves both two stars and a five for me, but even when I was annoyed and angry when playing it myself, I'm just happy it exists. And thankfully we do live in an era of let's plays and streams. ILLBLEED should not be played, but it should be experienced.
I haven't seen such a unique game in a long time. Original mechanics related to finding traps, original stupid humor and a bunch of movie parodies? Give me two. But the game was clearly made in a hurry and a lot of things were not completed, but as an experiment this is definitely a game that you can try to play, you might even like it like I did.
Настолько уникальной игры я давно не встречал. Оригинальная механика связанная с поиском ловушек, оригинально тупой юмор и куча пародий на кино? Дайте два. Но игру явно делали в спешке и очень много чего было не доделано, но как эксперемент это точно та игра которую можно попробывать поиграть, может даже понравится
Настолько уникальной игры я давно не встречал. Оригинальная механика связанная с поиском ловушек, оригинально тупой юмор и куча пародий на кино? Дайте два. Но игру явно делали в спешке и очень много чего было не доделано, но как эксперемент это точно та игра которую можно попробывать поиграть, может даже понравится
Both parody and pastiche, ILLBLEED is a horror-comedy with both survival and action-game elements that was illfated(!) due to the sudden discontinuation of the Dreamcast.
Created by ex Climax Graphics developers (Blue Stinger), these were some of the few people who got any real experience with the Dreamcast hardware, and this game shows off its capabilities wonderfully.
The textures are grimey and gritty, but really vibrant and full of detail, and coloured lighting and fog is used throughout.
The models look great, though characters lack facial expressions during cutscenes, and are partially segment animated, appearing very doll-like. This gives every cutscene both a very funny and uncanny feeling, like you're watching puppets (a theme of the game??).
Crunchy, live reverb using the Dreamcasts sound processor gives the ambient soundtrack of metallic objects, brass instruments, and sharp strings a uniquely digital, eerie vibe.
It manages to be pretty funny in a shlock way, with baffling line deliveries and bizarre turn of events, but just as grotesque and bloody as its source material of monster movies, grindhouse and slasher films, and paranormal thrillers.
Blood is everywhere. Every time you hit or get hit, an over the top explosion of blood sprays everywhere. No More Heroes and Madworld still look less bloody at times than Illbleed.
It has a weird proto-character action controller.You can dodge attacks, and there are i-frames??
This game probably deserves a record just for how many unique jumpscares it contains.
If you're a survival horror fan, and especially a horror film fan, i guarantee you'll appreciate this game. Play it with an emulator so you can see all the shock events.
I could go on forever about this stupid game.
It's my favourite thing.
Created by ex Climax Graphics developers (Blue Stinger), these were some of the few people who got any real experience with the Dreamcast hardware, and this game shows off its capabilities wonderfully.
The textures are grimey and gritty, but really vibrant and full of detail, and coloured lighting and fog is used throughout.
The models look great, though characters lack facial expressions during cutscenes, and are partially segment animated, appearing very doll-like. This gives every cutscene both a very funny and uncanny feeling, like you're watching puppets (a theme of the game??).
Crunchy, live reverb using the Dreamcasts sound processor gives the ambient soundtrack of metallic objects, brass instruments, and sharp strings a uniquely digital, eerie vibe.
It manages to be pretty funny in a shlock way, with baffling line deliveries and bizarre turn of events, but just as grotesque and bloody as its source material of monster movies, grindhouse and slasher films, and paranormal thrillers.
Blood is everywhere. Every time you hit or get hit, an over the top explosion of blood sprays everywhere. No More Heroes and Madworld still look less bloody at times than Illbleed.
It has a weird proto-character action controller.You can dodge attacks, and there are i-frames??
This game probably deserves a record just for how many unique jumpscares it contains.
If you're a survival horror fan, and especially a horror film fan, i guarantee you'll appreciate this game. Play it with an emulator so you can see all the shock events.
I could go on forever about this stupid game.
It's my favourite thing.
This review contains spoilers
THE BACKLOGGD BOOGEYMAN
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My first exposure to Illbleed came in the form of GameInformer's Super Replay, which I would say is a must watch were it not for the fact that Illbleed is such a must play. I'm a firm believer in the value of openly discussing old media, but Illbleed is still of such a relatively unknown quantity that you're statistically likely to ask "what the hell are you playing" when I post pictures like this to Twitter dot com. That's not some off-the-cuff claim, I ran the Illbleed numbers with a team of highly trained Monkillers (Appreciations and TransWitchSammy) and we reached the conclusion that Illbleed is best enjoyed blind. That said, I want to provide a bit of a companion piece to Sammy's review, something you can read after beating the game for yourself, which will dive a bit more deeply into specific mechanics, events, and the history behind the game. But before we begin, please report to the nearest Wood Puppet processing facility to have your brain removed. You'llprobably get it back when the review is over.
Minnesota Hell Cinema: It's Time 2 Get ILL
A bit of housekeeping before getting into the thick of things: I am logging my completion date concurrent with Sammy. Though I've played and beaten Illbleed in the past, this was pre-Backloggd and I don't remember what date it was that I rolled credits.
Sammy is a very amiable person and jumped into Illbleed sight unseen at the insistence of myself and Appreciations, a fellow veteran of Michael Reynolds' murderous amusement park. However, the game's unique mechanics and - I use this time very lightly - randomized "jump scare" hazards did leave us both struggling to recall exactly what Illbleed expects from the player. Ultimately, we referred to a guide whenever we needed to get our bearings, and if you're looking for a particularly unhinged example of "author's voice" seeping into a walkthrough, you really can't go wrong with GameFAQs user IAmYoFatha's Illbleed guide. Comprehensive when it comes to the meat and potatoes of the game, yet utterly deranged everywhere else, frequently devolving into tirades against users and political actors that have wronged the author, threats against entities named and unseen, generally the sort of stuff that reads like a manifesto all bottled up in a guide for a 2001 Sega Dreamcast horror-comedy game. First guide I've ever seen to have a "Special Spanks" section, one of the all-time greats and bizarrely appropriate for the game it covers.
None of this is terribly relevant to the review at hand, but in the immortal words banned GameFAQs user of IAmYoFatha: "The way I see it, when you log onto the world wide web, your time is public domain. It can't be wasted."
Armed with our guide and three brains addled on edibles and grain alcohol, I, Appreciations, and Sammy were finally able to make sense of Illbleed's most unique mechanic: The Horror Monitor. Although each chapter of Illbleed features its own distinct mechanics, the Horror Monitor serves as a constant, the bedrock that the rest of the game's systems are built off of, except for the second mission where it's suddenly taken away by a gang of horned up monkeys that are using it as X-ray specs to... to look at the ladies... Nowadays these Monkillers would be hold up with a goon box trading pics over a Discord sever, but you had to work for it in 2001.
The Horror Monitor is used in conjunction with your senses, which are laid out in a way that is almost as confounding and superfluous as System Shock's UI. If any of your core senses are triggered, that indicates that a jump scare or trap is nearby, which can be disarmed by tagging it with the Horror Monitor at the expense of adrenaline, a finite resource that must be wagered against your health, pulse, and blood.
It's a novel system which initially seems more complex than it actually is, though hiding the Horror Monitor at the start of each level is a bit much. Definitely a good gag when you're watching someone play for the first time, just getting their shit wrecked by falling signage and gigantic disembodied butts farting on them, but in isolation, I could see this as being pretty discouraging during a first experience. That "what is this, what am I supposed to be doing!?" moment is only really funny when you have friends who can start explaining the game to you after your first failed run, or if you have, like, the instruction booklet. Not a problem, you can just buy a used copy of Illbleed for (LOUD AND FRANKLY UPSETTING VOMITING SOUNDS)
Boogie's Fun Movies: Mandatory Brain Surgery
Illbleed is segmented neatly between a hub area and six levels, which unlock sequentially. Between levels, you can stop by Bloody Mary's shop for some salad, an ice cold Hassy, and adult magazines, or undergo invasive surgery to become more powerful. I went to Illbleed and came out lookin' like one of those body builders that inject themselves with synthol. I'd like to see OH NO MAN go toe-to-toe with me in the square circ-- oh hold on, my pecs are leaking again. God I don't feel good...
Though I think Illbleed is mechanically enjoyable and unique if a bit unrefined, its humor is where the game really shines. It cannot be overstated that there is nothing out there like Illbleed, except perhaps Blue Stinger, Crazy Games' previous title. However, Blue Stinger is a bit more self-serious, skewing a bit closer to the "so bad it's good" moniker that I think is often improperly assigned to Illbleed. I take issue with it because it implies Illbleed's humor is not by design, an unintentional consequence of trying and failing, and I think that's just a fundamental misunderstanding of this game's writing that borders on insulting.
Spoilers ahead, but you can't tell me that a man investing and losing it all in the worm market and ending up with a homegrown giant worm fed on a diet of gasoline is anything other than intentional. Illbleed is a horror-comedy, or maybe more accurately a comedy-horror, and it's a damn good one. This playfulness comes from creator and writer Shinya Nishigaki's appreciation for American B-movies, and it permeates through every part of the game, including the structure of its levels which themselves are presented as being attractions based on such films. I got a bit defensive when speaking with Sammy and Appreciations, adamant that unlike Resident Evil 4 where the comedy elements add levity to tension, Illbleed more often feels like comedy is in service of horror.
You get to the end of the game and you find yourself in the middle of a gallery displaying Michael Reynold's greatest creations, his monsters, his strange horrors... and also a digital eye exam, gigantic ass, and a bag of garbage. That's Illbleed, a game that is keenly aware of what it is and more than capable of making you belly laugh whether alone or losing your mind with a group of friends. If you disagree, well, I've got some bad news. You aren't getting your brain back. I dropped it in some sawdust and it really got in there, it's all stuck between the wrinkles and I couldn't get any of it out so I just had to chuck it in the trash. Sorry!
Hall of Resentment: I'll Bury You With Your Favorite Sexy Doll
To borrow from Sammy's review, you just can't make a game like Illbleed again, and I'd love to say that there's more out there like it, but sadly, Shinya Nishigaki passed away at the age of 42 from a heart attack, and his studio (founded with colleagues from Climax Entertainment) Crazy Games, shut down a couple years prior with only three titles to their name: Blue Stinger,Illbleed, and the co-produced The Maze of Kings.
The dissolution of Crazy Games followed after Sega cut Illbleed from its list of first-party games, passing it over to Jaleco, which itself was in financial trouble. Sega then pulled out of the hardware market and discontinued support for the Dreamcast right after Illbleed's Japanese release. Jaleco chairman Yoshiaki Kanazawa went on to found AIA, which handled the localization and release of Illbleed internationally but only an accumulative 50,000 copies sold - hence its rarity and exorbitant aftermarket price tag. This may be due in part to audiences failing to understand Illbleed's B-movie roots, as Nishigaki puts it "Illbleed requires a high degree of intelligence to play," which is true, I am very smart, I graduated from college with a degree in communications and I fucking love Illbleed.
All of this, of course, severely damaged Crazy Games, and the company eventually shuttered. A port of Illbleed was being worked on by Coolnet for the Xbox and was allegedly 90% complete, but it never materialized. Apparently, this would have required renegotiation with Sega and a release in Japanese markets before it could be sold internationally, and the Xbox's weak sales and low install base simply did not make this palatable to those who held the money. John Andersen, whose amazing write-up on Shinya Nishigaki for GameDeveloper I am mostly paraphrasing did his part to try to convince Coolnet to proceed with the ports of Illbleed and Blue Stinger out of passion for Nishigaki's body of work but was ultimately unsuccessful. Part of me hopes that we may still see these games on modern consoles, but realistically, you're probably better off grabbing Redream and a copy of the ISO.
Well this has been a hell of a downer. Did I mention a big chunk of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2's voice cast is in this game? Lani Minella (Rouge the Bat) plays the lead character, Eriko Christy, and Ryan Drummand voices Kevin Kertsman. Deem Bristow even shows up in Blue Stinger as Dogs Bower, but... I'll get to that game. Soon.
Illbleed may not be perfect, but it's a 5/5 for me. Any mechanical shortcomings are so effectively counterbalanced by its writing and general zaniness that it's easy to wave them away. It is a game that constantly tops itself, with the last level being some of the wildest shit I've seen in video games, and though it's perfectly enjoyable in isolation, being able to so easily play games with friends makes this perfect to experience in company, just like the B-movies that inspired Nishigaki.
Win Prize $ 500,000
REVIEW REQUIREMENTS
Prize reduction if requirements are not met
Total Likes - 100 over
Total Jokes - 20 over
Total Spoilers - 8 under
Bleeding - 20cc/min under
PUSH [A] TO SELECT CHARACTER
My first exposure to Illbleed came in the form of GameInformer's Super Replay, which I would say is a must watch were it not for the fact that Illbleed is such a must play. I'm a firm believer in the value of openly discussing old media, but Illbleed is still of such a relatively unknown quantity that you're statistically likely to ask "what the hell are you playing" when I post pictures like this to Twitter dot com. That's not some off-the-cuff claim, I ran the Illbleed numbers with a team of highly trained Monkillers (Appreciations and TransWitchSammy) and we reached the conclusion that Illbleed is best enjoyed blind. That said, I want to provide a bit of a companion piece to Sammy's review, something you can read after beating the game for yourself, which will dive a bit more deeply into specific mechanics, events, and the history behind the game. But before we begin, please report to the nearest Wood Puppet processing facility to have your brain removed. You'll
Minnesota Hell Cinema: It's Time 2 Get ILL
A bit of housekeeping before getting into the thick of things: I am logging my completion date concurrent with Sammy. Though I've played and beaten Illbleed in the past, this was pre-Backloggd and I don't remember what date it was that I rolled credits.
Sammy is a very amiable person and jumped into Illbleed sight unseen at the insistence of myself and Appreciations, a fellow veteran of Michael Reynolds' murderous amusement park. However, the game's unique mechanics and - I use this time very lightly - randomized "jump scare" hazards did leave us both struggling to recall exactly what Illbleed expects from the player. Ultimately, we referred to a guide whenever we needed to get our bearings, and if you're looking for a particularly unhinged example of "author's voice" seeping into a walkthrough, you really can't go wrong with GameFAQs user IAmYoFatha's Illbleed guide. Comprehensive when it comes to the meat and potatoes of the game, yet utterly deranged everywhere else, frequently devolving into tirades against users and political actors that have wronged the author, threats against entities named and unseen, generally the sort of stuff that reads like a manifesto all bottled up in a guide for a 2001 Sega Dreamcast horror-comedy game. First guide I've ever seen to have a "Special Spanks" section, one of the all-time greats and bizarrely appropriate for the game it covers.
None of this is terribly relevant to the review at hand, but in the immortal words banned GameFAQs user of IAmYoFatha: "The way I see it, when you log onto the world wide web, your time is public domain. It can't be wasted."
Armed with our guide and three brains addled on edibles and grain alcohol, I, Appreciations, and Sammy were finally able to make sense of Illbleed's most unique mechanic: The Horror Monitor. Although each chapter of Illbleed features its own distinct mechanics, the Horror Monitor serves as a constant, the bedrock that the rest of the game's systems are built off of, except for the second mission where it's suddenly taken away by a gang of horned up monkeys that are using it as X-ray specs to... to look at the ladies... Nowadays these Monkillers would be hold up with a goon box trading pics over a Discord sever, but you had to work for it in 2001.
The Horror Monitor is used in conjunction with your senses, which are laid out in a way that is almost as confounding and superfluous as System Shock's UI. If any of your core senses are triggered, that indicates that a jump scare or trap is nearby, which can be disarmed by tagging it with the Horror Monitor at the expense of adrenaline, a finite resource that must be wagered against your health, pulse, and blood.
It's a novel system which initially seems more complex than it actually is, though hiding the Horror Monitor at the start of each level is a bit much. Definitely a good gag when you're watching someone play for the first time, just getting their shit wrecked by falling signage and gigantic disembodied butts farting on them, but in isolation, I could see this as being pretty discouraging during a first experience. That "what is this, what am I supposed to be doing!?" moment is only really funny when you have friends who can start explaining the game to you after your first failed run, or if you have, like, the instruction booklet. Not a problem, you can just buy a used copy of Illbleed for (LOUD AND FRANKLY UPSETTING VOMITING SOUNDS)
Boogie's Fun Movies: Mandatory Brain Surgery
Illbleed is segmented neatly between a hub area and six levels, which unlock sequentially. Between levels, you can stop by Bloody Mary's shop for some salad, an ice cold Hassy, and adult magazines, or undergo invasive surgery to become more powerful. I went to Illbleed and came out lookin' like one of those body builders that inject themselves with synthol. I'd like to see OH NO MAN go toe-to-toe with me in the square circ-- oh hold on, my pecs are leaking again. God I don't feel good...
Though I think Illbleed is mechanically enjoyable and unique if a bit unrefined, its humor is where the game really shines. It cannot be overstated that there is nothing out there like Illbleed, except perhaps Blue Stinger, Crazy Games' previous title. However, Blue Stinger is a bit more self-serious, skewing a bit closer to the "so bad it's good" moniker that I think is often improperly assigned to Illbleed. I take issue with it because it implies Illbleed's humor is not by design, an unintentional consequence of trying and failing, and I think that's just a fundamental misunderstanding of this game's writing that borders on insulting.
Spoilers ahead, but you can't tell me that a man investing and losing it all in the worm market and ending up with a homegrown giant worm fed on a diet of gasoline is anything other than intentional. Illbleed is a horror-comedy, or maybe more accurately a comedy-horror, and it's a damn good one. This playfulness comes from creator and writer Shinya Nishigaki's appreciation for American B-movies, and it permeates through every part of the game, including the structure of its levels which themselves are presented as being attractions based on such films. I got a bit defensive when speaking with Sammy and Appreciations, adamant that unlike Resident Evil 4 where the comedy elements add levity to tension, Illbleed more often feels like comedy is in service of horror.
You get to the end of the game and you find yourself in the middle of a gallery displaying Michael Reynold's greatest creations, his monsters, his strange horrors... and also a digital eye exam, gigantic ass, and a bag of garbage. That's Illbleed, a game that is keenly aware of what it is and more than capable of making you belly laugh whether alone or losing your mind with a group of friends. If you disagree, well, I've got some bad news. You aren't getting your brain back. I dropped it in some sawdust and it really got in there, it's all stuck between the wrinkles and I couldn't get any of it out so I just had to chuck it in the trash. Sorry!
Hall of Resentment: I'll Bury You With Your Favorite Sexy Doll
To borrow from Sammy's review, you just can't make a game like Illbleed again, and I'd love to say that there's more out there like it, but sadly, Shinya Nishigaki passed away at the age of 42 from a heart attack, and his studio (founded with colleagues from Climax Entertainment) Crazy Games, shut down a couple years prior with only three titles to their name: Blue Stinger,Illbleed, and the co-produced The Maze of Kings.
The dissolution of Crazy Games followed after Sega cut Illbleed from its list of first-party games, passing it over to Jaleco, which itself was in financial trouble. Sega then pulled out of the hardware market and discontinued support for the Dreamcast right after Illbleed's Japanese release. Jaleco chairman Yoshiaki Kanazawa went on to found AIA, which handled the localization and release of Illbleed internationally but only an accumulative 50,000 copies sold - hence its rarity and exorbitant aftermarket price tag. This may be due in part to audiences failing to understand Illbleed's B-movie roots, as Nishigaki puts it "Illbleed requires a high degree of intelligence to play," which is true, I am very smart, I graduated from college with a degree in communications and I fucking love Illbleed.
All of this, of course, severely damaged Crazy Games, and the company eventually shuttered. A port of Illbleed was being worked on by Coolnet for the Xbox and was allegedly 90% complete, but it never materialized. Apparently, this would have required renegotiation with Sega and a release in Japanese markets before it could be sold internationally, and the Xbox's weak sales and low install base simply did not make this palatable to those who held the money. John Andersen, whose amazing write-up on Shinya Nishigaki for GameDeveloper I am mostly paraphrasing did his part to try to convince Coolnet to proceed with the ports of Illbleed and Blue Stinger out of passion for Nishigaki's body of work but was ultimately unsuccessful. Part of me hopes that we may still see these games on modern consoles, but realistically, you're probably better off grabbing Redream and a copy of the ISO.
Well this has been a hell of a downer. Did I mention a big chunk of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2's voice cast is in this game? Lani Minella (Rouge the Bat) plays the lead character, Eriko Christy, and Ryan Drummand voices Kevin Kertsman. Deem Bristow even shows up in Blue Stinger as Dogs Bower, but... I'll get to that game. Soon.
Illbleed may not be perfect, but it's a 5/5 for me. Any mechanical shortcomings are so effectively counterbalanced by its writing and general zaniness that it's easy to wave them away. It is a game that constantly tops itself, with the last level being some of the wildest shit I've seen in video games, and though it's perfectly enjoyable in isolation, being able to so easily play games with friends makes this perfect to experience in company, just like the B-movies that inspired Nishigaki.
"Any prize for Backloggd reviewers?"
Note: no prize for Backloggd reviewers.
Note: no prize for Backloggd reviewers.
I suck at this game but I love it. Novel mechanics with awesome animations, TONS of atmosphere and some of the funniest cutscenes on the Dreamcast. If you get in the groove of it this is an extremely memorable experience that feels fresher than 90% of survival horror games.
This game would get a very low review as a game alone, it's confusing, repetitive and way too difficult.
But it's crazy how well this works to realize the games vision, there really isn't anything like this game. I had the pleasure of playing this on a dreamcast in a room with a bunch of friends, which helped cement the feeling of a b horror movie together.
Truly a unique experience, if you can get a group of friends together to play this, I reccomend it highly.
Also the worm level is the hardest I've ever laughed WITH a video game.
But it's crazy how well this works to realize the games vision, there really isn't anything like this game. I had the pleasure of playing this on a dreamcast in a room with a bunch of friends, which helped cement the feeling of a b horror movie together.
Truly a unique experience, if you can get a group of friends together to play this, I reccomend it highly.
Also the worm level is the hardest I've ever laughed WITH a video game.
oh my god. this is THE game of all time. I can't really say much because this is absolutely one of those games where the blinder you go in, the more it's gonna hit. The levels start bonkers then somehow manage to keep one-upping themselves as they go on. The gameplay is a bit strange but works once you figure it out. This game is one hell of a trip and I'd seriously recommend it to anyone with a dreamcast.
Never has a game been so excited to just be itself...
This game singlehandedly shaped my entire taste in media and I feel both happy and terrible about that.
Simultaneously a mess of mechanics and poor level design and a wellspring of clever parody and satire of classic movie tropes that can't be described by human language. I don't know why this game keeps gravitating me back to it, even with its many flaws, but there's an earnest passion and creativity in Illbleed that isn't matched in many games.
A must-play for fans of horror films, the Dreamcast, and corny B-movie goodness alike.
Simultaneously a mess of mechanics and poor level design and a wellspring of clever parody and satire of classic movie tropes that can't be described by human language. I don't know why this game keeps gravitating me back to it, even with its many flaws, but there's an earnest passion and creativity in Illbleed that isn't matched in many games.
A must-play for fans of horror films, the Dreamcast, and corny B-movie goodness alike.
ILLBLEED.
what can I say about Illbleed that you don't already know? It's a fantastically silly & extraordinary time & knows exactly what it's doing.
i will bring illbleed back if it's the last thing i do
There's an appeal to the Horror B-movie that games have scant captured. Stuff like Resident Evil gets a part of it, but there's a certain vibe to a Horror B Movie where multiple layers of self awareness, weird egos, overambitious ideas, lack of awareness, camp, and low budget somehow all intersect. And to it's credit, Illbleed is maybe the only game that gets that feel down quite right. I ca appreciate that. The dialogue has that vibe of a bad giallo movie and is bizzarely paced, the story setup is incredibly weird in what it devotes time to and doesn't, the sense of location and space is blatantly flimsy and the production values are completely all over the place. I can appreciate that illbleed has grabbed something here, latched onto a feeling very little else does.
Still, it kinda fucking sucks. Illbleed's pretty strong momentum from it's opening and initial exploration of the hub and the start of the first level comes crashing to a halt as you've found yourself in maybe one of the worst gameplay loops imaginable. Even if you've got a friendly person in your discord VC to point out the easily missable key item hidden in a cranny at the start of the game, you're left dealing with this stop start game of wandering down hallways, equipping some goggles to spot weak-ass jumpscares in advance, indicated with blue dots. The blue dots can be jump scares, items, enemy encounters or nothing at all, and most of them are gonna trigger if you walk past them anyway so the only point on putting the goggles on is so you dont get fucked by them.
And getting fucked by some pathetic, annoying jump scares, is like, the game. The player's involvement is in, of all things, meter management, of blood, stress, etc. There would be some tension to this, slowly bleeding out over the course of a spooky level, but this is completely the wrong game for it to be in. The entire tone of this game is this fun goofy b movie horror and then the game itself is this slow burn, patience rewarding, fucking aggravating survival experience.
There's also some predictably dogshit combat. I kinda don't care enough to comment more than that on it.
The real crime here is the dissonance for me. Illbleed's tone is great, and I don't think the gameplay had to be anything spcial at all for this to be worthwhile. Honestly, even that dogshit melee combat system just being the whole game on a mechanic level might have been fine, like the B-movie Horror drakengard we all needed. But what's been chosen is both pretty bad and worse, slow and repetitve. Managing meters and analysing the world through goggles every ten yards. It's a system better suited for an abject survival horror game where the feeling of slowly bleeding out might actually be tense, and even there i'd say it'd be too much. For what's basically a comedy? Fuck off.
I have heard that the first level is notoriously terrible and a massive filter on the game. Sure, i can buy that, but the core of the game still feels absolutely rotten. When I was playing this, I had Border Down installed in the same folder, taunting me on the flycast boot page. And Illbleed does nothng to hook me back in outside of what i could probably experience in a youtube cutscene compilation.
Still, it kinda fucking sucks. Illbleed's pretty strong momentum from it's opening and initial exploration of the hub and the start of the first level comes crashing to a halt as you've found yourself in maybe one of the worst gameplay loops imaginable. Even if you've got a friendly person in your discord VC to point out the easily missable key item hidden in a cranny at the start of the game, you're left dealing with this stop start game of wandering down hallways, equipping some goggles to spot weak-ass jumpscares in advance, indicated with blue dots. The blue dots can be jump scares, items, enemy encounters or nothing at all, and most of them are gonna trigger if you walk past them anyway so the only point on putting the goggles on is so you dont get fucked by them.
And getting fucked by some pathetic, annoying jump scares, is like, the game. The player's involvement is in, of all things, meter management, of blood, stress, etc. There would be some tension to this, slowly bleeding out over the course of a spooky level, but this is completely the wrong game for it to be in. The entire tone of this game is this fun goofy b movie horror and then the game itself is this slow burn, patience rewarding, fucking aggravating survival experience.
There's also some predictably dogshit combat. I kinda don't care enough to comment more than that on it.
The real crime here is the dissonance for me. Illbleed's tone is great, and I don't think the gameplay had to be anything spcial at all for this to be worthwhile. Honestly, even that dogshit melee combat system just being the whole game on a mechanic level might have been fine, like the B-movie Horror drakengard we all needed. But what's been chosen is both pretty bad and worse, slow and repetitve. Managing meters and analysing the world through goggles every ten yards. It's a system better suited for an abject survival horror game where the feeling of slowly bleeding out might actually be tense, and even there i'd say it'd be too much. For what's basically a comedy? Fuck off.
I have heard that the first level is notoriously terrible and a massive filter on the game. Sure, i can buy that, but the core of the game still feels absolutely rotten. When I was playing this, I had Border Down installed in the same folder, taunting me on the flycast boot page. And Illbleed does nothng to hook me back in outside of what i could probably experience in a youtube cutscene compilation.
If you combine a how to draw manga magazine, mid 2000's creepypasta.ppt and killer7's spirit for experimentation you get this game, and I really dig it.
Once you get the gist of its main mechanics, it's a fun game that only gets better as you advance, each stage more interesting and entertaining than the previous one.
Unfortunately, this game became somewhat obscure, which is something that saddens me, because I believe Climax Entertainment (Crazy Games) would've had a bright future on the current times, where studios like White Owls or Grasshopper are appreciated more. This game, its studio and ultimately one of the main names behind it (Shinya Nishigaki) were stopped on their tracks when fate went against them several times.
Give it a try, if you manage to finish stage one, you're in.
Once you get the gist of its main mechanics, it's a fun game that only gets better as you advance, each stage more interesting and entertaining than the previous one.
Unfortunately, this game became somewhat obscure, which is something that saddens me, because I believe Climax Entertainment (Crazy Games) would've had a bright future on the current times, where studios like White Owls or Grasshopper are appreciated more. This game, its studio and ultimately one of the main names behind it (Shinya Nishigaki) were stopped on their tracks when fate went against them several times.
Give it a try, if you manage to finish stage one, you're in.