Captain Blood Releases 15 Years After Being Canceled, And It's Great on the Steam Deck

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It's been a while since I played a game like the original hack-and-slash God of War trilogy, but there are times I miss it. There's something so enjoyable about running around a 3D platform with locked camera angles, killing everyone around with different combos. That feeling came back to me today in the form of Captain Blood, and it has quite an interesting story behind it.

Captain Blood originally began development in 2003 from developer Akella, but after numerous delays and legal battles, the game was essentially canceled in the 2010s. Now, the game has resurfaced. Thanks to SNEG, and the blessing of the original developers, the game was restored, modernized without destroying its retro look and feel, and released it. They clearly did a great job as well, since the game does feel like it was from an older era, and I love it.

I can also confirm it runs exceptionally well on the Steam Deck. On the OLED, it plays at 90 FPS and sticks under 16W battery drain, which is pretty great for a full 3D game. It's possible it could get harder to run later on in the game, but I would say it should be quite great to play, and even better if you bring the framerate cap down to 60 FPS.

The team also made sure the game was compatible with the deck. In a Steam Community Post announcing the release, they mentioned that the interface, font size, resolution, and controller support were adapted for the best possible experience.

So far, I am enjoying the game. It definitely doesn't have the complexity and features more modern releases do, but there's a nice feeling knowing it's just a simple, enjoyable, hack-and-slash adventure. It doesn't need more to keep me interested, and I was having a great time slashing pirates' heads off, plundering all the money I could find, and upgrading my combos to deal some real heavy damage.

Captain Blood is on sale for $22.49 until May 13th. It doesn't have a rating yet, but I would be surprised if it isn't Verified. It also has HDR compatibility for OLED users, which is a nice touch!

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