Blood Bear Review (PC)

Whispering Pines’ warm aesthetic isn’t quite as inviting once the eclipse comes knocking and the demonic bears come out to play. It’s a different time—a grizzly time, if you’ll excuse the pun. At night, the world turns on its axis, and the sun-kissed plateau of golden foliage and honeysuckle transforms into a twilight ocean of blood droplets and scuffed feet, prying eyes and daunting premonitions. It’s during that time, once the warmth gives way to the cold, where Blood Bear sheds its scent and grits its teeth.

As much as I’d love to say that Blood Bear is a role reversal-type situation, it isn’t. Matter of fact, the bear isn’t the type of demonic beast to bend at the knee at your request to be grizzly at all; on the contrary, it prefers to put you in the worst possible situation. And not just the bear, but an entire collective of masked foes and pagan ritualistic believers, too. To add insult to injury, Blood Bear also couldn’t care less if you’re a newcomer to the first-person survival-crafting world; if anything, it prays on those who’ve never stepped foot into a ravenous horror by supplementing gentle milestones with overbearing curveballs and obstacles. But that’s Blood Bear, in a nutshell: it wears its heart on its sleeve and its bloodlust on its fleshy coat. And you know what? I love it.

Of course, the game opens up with a cliche: an unsung protagonist wakes up in an abandoned state park with no memory of the night before. From there, the story begins, effectively inviting you, the dreary-eyed hero, to launch a phishing expedition into the secrets and strange happenings that orbit the park. Spoiler alert: the park isn’t abandoned; it’s housing another swathe of folk — and not the good kind, either.

“We’re Going on a Bear Hunt…”

Blood Bear is a game that offers little to no context to scoot you along your way. It’s a game that slumps you into the worst possible position, and then simply asks that you channel your inner Bear Grills and jackknife into the woodland abyss with your tail tucked firmly between your legs. Similar to Amnesia, I suppose, it spends more time forcing you to unravel the mystery without ever actually telling you what’s what and who’s who. But that’s all part of its charm; it removes the unnecessary jargon and endless introductions and simply chucks you directly into the deep end in the hopes that you’ll figure things out on your own. And while that is a bit of a headache in itself, it is a concept that seems to have a lot of appeal, given that it has been regurgitated thousands of times in the past.

The bulk of Blood Bear takes center stage in a dark and dainty woodland—a state park where abnormal “cultists” roam the hills and crimson-eyed beasts stalk the shadows. Within that location, there are countless original assets to unearth, twenty unique areas to explore, and a plethora of items to locate for crafting and upgrading purposes. To add, there are also a lot of interactive features, along with a cinematic twist that allows you the opportunity to peek behind the veil and engage in some rather tense moments with both allies and enemies. With that, Blood Bear certainly has a lot to offer, to the point where you could argue that it’s of a higher pedigree altogether. A bold statement, but one that I’m willing to stick by, all things considered.

“…We’re Going to Catch a Big One.”

For an indie horror, there’s a great deal to work with here. Aside from the weighty campaign and cinematic aspects, Blood Bear also fosters a familiar survivalist theme, with its inclusion of hunger, stamina, and health nodes all playing pivotal roles in its story. I’ll admit, it isn’t anything we haven’t already seen before — yet it works, more so for survival games that center their worlds around daringly complex boroughs and resource-heavy environments. I suppose it just makes it that much more immersive when there’s a big ol’ beast stalking you whilst you’re trying to make ends meet.

The world itself is surprisingly large, and is made up of a mixture of points of interest and malicious events, which, when combined with the enthralling nature of the unsettling ambience, bode well for the image that Blood Bear tries so desperately hard to convey. I’m not able to complain about any of that. In fact, I have nothing but high praise for the audiovisual aspects. Plus, lest we forget that this is the product of just one developer’s creative vision. That on its own speaks volumes, for sure.

Verdict

Blood Bear strikes a good balance between being an excellent survival-crafting game and a genuinely gripping horror experience. With thanks to its unique cinematic twist and trove of well-orchestrated jump scares, chase sequences, and character development arcs, it’s definitely a game that you could quite easily immerse yourself in for the long haul. Moreover, it’s also an experience that reflects the creative waterfall that is a single nineteen-year-old’s ambition. The fact that Blood Bear is a project that sits beneath a banner of a fish-out-of-water solo developer and still feels like a big-budget horror game is ridiculously impressive.

I’ll stand by my word and say that, for a survival-horror, Blood Bear has the potential to make a huge splash in the indie scene. Aside from it being perfectly cut and polished, it’s also just an excellent game, in general, with a gripping atmosphere and a plethora of well-oiled scares there to fortify its composition. To that I say, well played, Blood Bear.

Anyway, if you are looking for an indie horror that makes a genuine effort to set the new standard for cinematic storytelling in its chosen sphere, then you should definitely take the opportunity to touch gloves with the Blood Bear and its ungodly creations.