Kingdom: The Blood turns Netflix’s hit Korean zombie show into a shallow action game

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SHOULD I PLAY KINGDOM: THE BLOOD?

If you’re a huge fan of Netflix’s Kingdom and are looking for a lightweight, grindy action game, this one might be worth checking out. Kingdom: The Blood adapts the mix of historical thriller and zombie horror from that streaming series into a fairly basic action game where you move through levels slicing up zombies, performing combos, and taking on powerful bosses. What’s here isn’t bad by any means, but it feels very stripped-down and bare-bones at the moment, so if you’re interested in something deeper, it may leave you wanting.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve played four hours of Kingdom: The Blood so far. My account level is now in the double digits, I’ve unlocked most of the main features in the game, and I’ve gained access to the multiplayer raid mode, although I was not able to actually successfully connect to a raid. I’ve made it through about half a dozen chapters in the story campaign.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT KINGDOM: THE BLOOD?

• Solid if generic Soulslite combat. I would never say that Kingdom: The Blood is a Dark Souls clone, but the general flow of combat will feel familiar to fans of FromSoft’s style. Each attack is slow, precise, and deliberate, and enemy blows can be dodged or parried, depending on your level of skill. The parry timing is super precise, and I struggled to pull it off even on the PC version; I can only imagine it being more challenging if you’re playing on mobile with mushy touch screen controls. Still, like any good Souls-style game, when I actually strung together combos, successfully avoided damage, and pulled off hugely damaging stagger abilities, it felt very satisfying.

• Some unique roguelite elements. On top of the Souls inspiration, Kingdom: The Blood’s single-player chapters play out sort of like a mini-roguelite. Each level was split into multiple sections: At the beginning of each section I could choose a certain type of growth, and at the end I could spend spirit I had earned on buffs that carried over into the next section. I have yet to fully grasp the intricacies of this system, but it’s one of the few elements that has me interested in exploring more.

• Unobtrusive free-to-play monetization...for now. Since Kingdom: The Blood is still in beta testing, you can’t actually purchase premium currency yet, or at least I couldn’t figure out how to. But even when premium currency is inevitably added, the game doesn’t seem to be egregiously monetized. There’s a battle pass with a premium track to purchase, but I wasn’t inundated with offers for other ways to spend money, and it seems like a lot of the monetization will focus on cosmetic options. I desperately hope it stays that way in the full release.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN KINGDOM: THE BLOOD?

• Repetitive combat and locations. While taking down enemies felt good, I only encountered a handful of enemy types in my time playing Kingdom: The Blood. Within a couple hours, I felt like I had experienced most of what the game had to offer, and from there it was just repeating identical-looking levels fighting identical-looking zombies and enemy officers. The only notable change in each chapter was the boss at the end. The game badly needs a wider variety of challenges and environments if it wants to hold player attention.

• The usual free-to-play grind. While the monetization isn’t terrible, I can already tell that Kingdom: The Blood is being aimed toward an endgame based all around—what else—endlessly grinding for resources. Those resources can be used to forge new gear and upgrade your existing gear. And of course, the more you upgrade a single piece of gear, the more difficult it is to gain subsequent upgrades...and the higher chance of actually losing upgrade levels. It’s a very common system at this point, but one that quickly saps my long-term interest in playing.

• Matchmaking issues. Presumably this won’t be a problem when the full game launches and is readily available to anyone, but in the current test, at least, I was unable to successfully connect for the multiplayer raid gameplay mode. It’s possible that the multiplayer options add some hidden depth to the game, but I’m unable to comment on them for now.

PLATFORM TESTED

PC via Steam