Skip to main content

‘Bow to Blood’ hands-on preview

Sci-fi pirate sim 'Bow to Blood' may be our most anticipated VR game of 2018

bow to blood review hands on preview 15008
‘Bow to Blood’ hands-on preview
“"Bow to Blood" blends a lot of great spaceship and naval combat mechanics into a fresh and exciting sci-fi flight sim.”
Pros
  • Intuitive combo of motion and gamepad controls
  • Combat is snappy and fluid
  • Feels familiar and fresh
  • Reality show relationship system
  • Gorgeous, colorful aesthetic
Cons
  • Some might struggle with nausea in VR

Bow to Blood is a game that wonders if you’d be any good at captaining a sci-fi airship that looks a bit like a flying pirate galleon. It’s also a game about whether or not you can be trusted.

The upcoming PlayStation VR sci-fi flight sim made its first public appearance at PlayStation Experience 2017, and you’d be forgiven if you didn’t know what to make of it at first. Eye-popping and colorful, the game has an aesthetic that evokes the cover of a 1970s sci-fi novel, awash in yellow skies, pink hills, and green, buzzing lasers. You control the captain of a flying airship, competing on a fantasy gladiator reality show, in which you battle other ships, giant robots, and whatever else the show’s creators think might be interesting to watch.

Space Pirate Master

As the captain, your job is to stand at the helm and steer the ship, but controlling your space boat gets a whole lot more complicated than just adjusting the throttle and turning a wheel. Bow to Blood borrows ideas from other ship-centric games — sci-fi and otherwise — to add extra layers of control and complexity to the battle. Through a nearby control panel, you control your ship’s shields, guns, sensors, and engines, dictating how much power of your limited power goes to each system. You’ve also got robot crew mates to boss around, sending them to man certain systems to boost their efficiency, or to put out fires and keep everyone from exploding.

Functionally, Bow to Blood feels like a combination of the naval combat from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the system management ideas from sims like FTL: Faster Than Light and Star Trek: Bridge Crew, the humor of something like Smash TV, all wrapped in an aesthetic not unlike No Man’s Sky. And that’s all smashed into virtual reality.

Mechanically, Bow to Blood feels both familiar and wholly different from traditional flight sim combat. The game mixes traditional and motion controls: You steer your ship with the analog sticks of the DualShock 4 controller, and point the controller at specific rooms when you want your robot crew to man stations or fix things. You adjust your ship’s power levels by quickly pointing and clicking the panel to move resources around. If robot boarders show up on the sides of your ship, you can reach down and grab a sidearm and trigger in a quick, familiar VR shooting session.

Combining fairly intuitive controls with the immersive perspective of standing on the deck of your ship makes Bow to Blood feel fresh. Compared to other VR flight sims, which relegate you to an isolated cockpit, Bow to Blood makes you feel like you’re always in the thick of the action. And while many of its ideas feel familiar, they come together in a completely new way.

Becoming a reality VR star

As fun as it is to control the ship, the most interesting part of Bow to Blood isn’t competing in the fantastical battle game show, but what you do after you win.

Compared to other VR flight sims, Bow to Blood makes you feel like you’re always in the thick of the action.

Between events, you get to interact with the show’s other contestant captains, all of whom are controlled by the game’s A.I. Often before an event, you’ll have some kind of opportunity to make some kind of backdoor agreement with your fellow contestants.

In your first engagement, for example, you’re competing against another captain to destroy a giant, eyeball-shaped robot that’s covered in shields and lasers. At the start of the fight, the captain suggests an alliance — instead of taking each other down, you’ll take down the bot together and split the winnings. Taking the deal helps ensure victory, as well as a smaller take of whatever it is you’d earn for winning, (which wasn’t clear in the demo).

As developer Tribetoy co-founder and Bow to Blood Art Director Tara Rueping explained, the game has a relationship system that will track how you treat the other captains, and whether you’re true to your word. You can choose to team up or not, but how you react to and treat the other captain will have consequences.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

You don’t always need to play honorably, either; in the demo, you could team up with your rival for the entire fight, win, then double-cross your would-be buddy to keep all the points for yourself.

Rueping said the relationship system will keep players on their toes, making decisions about who’s a friend and who’s an enemy throughout the game. That, combined with procedurally generated encounters and a rotating cast of characters, help ensure that, while Bow to Blood is a single-player game, it’s replayable and each run creates a new experience.

Bow to Blood feels inundated with good ideas, from the perspective of standing on the deck of your own ship in VR, to the marriage of motion and traditional controls, to the sci-fi fantasy aesthetic, and the idea that you can screw over every other captain with your wits as well as your flight skills. We’re looking forward to seeing the game get in ship-shape in time to launch on PSVR in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Editors' Recommendations

Phil Hornshaw
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Phil Hornshaw is an author, freelance writer and journalist living in Los Angeles. He is the co-author of The Space Hero's…
All status effects in Lies of P and how to cure them
Pinocchio in Lies of P.

Lies of P is a challenging role-playing game that will test your mettle at every turn with deadly enemies and dastardly environmental traps. But to make things even a bit more difficult, you'll have to contend with a collection of status effects that can majorly affect your character and make things much harder for you in battle. We've compiled a list of all status effects in Lies of P, as well as a list of ways to cure them.
All status effects
There are a total of seven status effects, with each either dealing damage or having a noticeable impact on your ability to perform in battle. Here are all of them and how they work.
Overheat
Overheat is caused by taking too much fire damage too quickly. When the Overheat bar fills entirely, you'll begin to burn and lose health until it is cured or wears off naturally. During this time, your Guard Regain recovery amount will also be reduced, which can drastically impact your survivability in fast-paced encounters.
Shock
When Shock is applied, your character's stamina recovery will be reduced significantly, which can have devastating consequences. Until this effect is cured or wears of naturally, you'll be stuck with very limited movement and attack opportunities due to your decreased stamina.
Electric Shock
Not to be confused with standard Shock, Electric Shock is caused by taking too much Electric Blitz damage in a short period of time. When this happens, you'll take increased Electric Blitz and physical damage for the duration of the effect, and your Fable meter will drain continuously, which can reduce your attack options in combat.
Decay
Decay is caused by taking too much Acid damage within a small time window. This will cause constant weapon and acid damage, both of which can make life difficult for you in battle since letting it go on for too long can result in needing to repair your weapon while also dodging your foes' attacks.
Corruption
Corruption is caused by a buildup of, well, Corruption. When this happens, you'll be afflicted with what is essentially your textbook poison effect, meaning your HP will drain continuously until it wears off or is healed with an item. This can be especially challenging to cope with when also fighting enemies, so avoiding sources of Corruption is highly advised when possible.
Break
Break is an annoying status effect to contend with, as letting its bar build up entirely will temporarily decrease how much health your Pulse Cells heal. This can be especially frustrating when you already find yourself at low health and don't have many Pulse Cells left, but it's usually best to wait until the effect wears off before healing so you can ensure you get the maximum amount of health possible.
Disruption
Disruption is perhaps the most concerning of all status effects in the game, as you'll be instantly killed when the Disruption bar fills up entirely. If you find yourself in a situation where a lot of Disruption damage is being doled out, it's best to back off until the bar depletes some or you'll soon be seeing a Game Over screen.
How to cure status effects
There are multiple items in the game designed to help you cure specific ailments, as well as items that can increase your resistance to them so that you can reduce your chance of becoming infected to begin with. You can find these cure and resistance items in various places while exploring throughout the game, or you can buy them with Ergo from Polendia at Hotel Krat.

Attribute Purification Ampoule - Cures Overheat, Electric Shock, Decay, and Corruption
Special Purification Ampoule - Cures Shock, Break, and Disruption
Attribute Resistance Ampoule - Enhances resistance to Overheat, Electric Shock, Decay, and Corruption
Special Resistance Ampoule - Enhances resistance to Shock, Break, and Disruption

Read more
Best PlayStation Plus Deals: Save on Essential, Plus and Premium
Best PS Plus deals

If you don't have a PlayStation Plus (PS Plus) membership, you're only not getting the full benefits of your PlayStation 5 (or 4). PS Plus lets you play online multiplayer, as well as get free games and other bonuses. Sony recently revamped their PS Plus subscription method, so you now have the option of three different tiers: Essential, Extra and Premium. We'll go over all of these options below. When you've figured out which one you want, check out or list of the best PlayStation Plus deals at the bottom of this article. You can start your PS Plus membership for as low as $5.

 
What is PlayStation Plus?
Along with online multiplayer and other in-game network features, a PlayStation Plus Essential membership grants you access to exclusive discounts and other promotions. Perhaps the most notable benefit of PlayStation Plus is that every month, Sony gives subscribers one PlayStation 5 and two PlayStation 4 games that are free to download. You have one month to add these free PlayStation Plus games to your library.

Read more
Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games
Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.

Read more