Blightbound [Xbox]

Developed by Ronimo Games, Blightbound is a three-player dungeon-crawler where a dense fog known as Blight has covered the land, forcing our heroes to take refuge high up in the mountains - only venturing down in order to deal with the horrors below, rescue survivors and reclaim their realm. Heroes all have their own reasons for taking off into the Blight, and as you complete levels with characters, more information will be added to their journal, with personal goals being available to complete and progress their story further.

There are three classes of character to play as: Warriors, Assassins and Mages, with seven of each in the roster (although only the first of each is unlocked to begin with). Party members must vote on a dungeon, in order to decide where to go. This will determine the difficulty of the dungeon, and the rewards available to be earned. If everyone selects a different dungeon, the game will choose from the selected options.

You can play in local or online co-op, though frustratingly there doesn’t seem to be a way for the local 2nd and 3rd players to carry their progress over for additional games. Teamwork is key - you can really feel when a team works well together, and conversely - when they don’t. You can also play alone with bots, if you’d rather, though the bots are somewhat overpowered - often taking down enemies and bosses with ease, leaving you very little to do.

The controls have slightly different effects depending on which class of character you play as, though each of the characters within the same class feel pretty much identical - gameplay wise. Levels consist of taking on enemies, as well as adding in some puzzle elements, such as standing on pressure pads and re-routing lasers, etc. in order to progress.

You’ll be rewarded with loot at the end of the level, and you will be able to grow and improve the refuge, increasing its prosperity, the more you play. You can manage your progress in the refuge, as this is where you can view Heroes and Artisans, as well as manage your party and matchmaking region. You can visit the Quartermaster to assign weapons, consumables and trinkets that you have gained throughout each level; and check in at the Mentor to see any recent changes in your refuge.

The visual style of Blightbound is gorgeous, with a dark, moody quality and a variety of intricately designed characters and locations. Working through the levels, the soundtrack is a constant delight too, with SonicPicnic’s teamwork and talent as composer on full display - with plenty of powerful, atmospheric tracks that evoke the struggle our fighters face beyond the Blight.

Overall, Blightbound was enjoyable but did feel like it came up short at times, becoming quite repetitive after a while. It has a robust system and plenty of stuff to unlock, so it will definitely keep you busy if you’re looking for something in-depth. It does require an internet connection to play, even if playing with bots, which feels like a bit of a frustrating oversight, as sadly it will lock out players when not connected - so it’s probably best if you’ve got a stable internet connection. If you’re interested in Blightbound, you can pick it up for £16.74 on the Xbox Store.

In the end, we decided to give Blightbound the Collecting Asylum rating of 7/10.

Are you interested in Blightbound? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Ronimo Games for the Blightbound Xbox review code!