Captain Blood

Earlier this week, Rockstar Games announced that their long-awaited Grand Theft Auto sequel would be delayed six months, coming out thirteen years after the last installment. That’s a long time, but it’s nothing compared to the twenty-years pirate fans have had to wait for Captain Blood. First revealed as an original Xbox game in the mid-2000s, this 3D beat ‘em up is finally hitting modern consoles in 2025. After so many years stuck in development hell, is this long-overdue brawler actually good? Or is it too archaic to be taken seriously in this day and age? That’s what we’re about to find out when I, at long last, finally get to review Captain Blood.

Before we can talk about the current release of Captain Blood, I first need to take you back to the year 2010. That’s when I was first introduced to the game, at a small press event held by 1C called Another Night in Moscow. This is where I had a chance to play through an early build of the game, all while conducting an interview with some of the developers who were bringing Captain Blood to life. They even gave me a rare preview build of the game, back when it was set to come out on the Xbox 360.

Despite the multiple previews I published, Captain Blood never came out. After I played the game, 1C found themselves embroiled in a nasty legal battle over the rights to the series. This, coupled with development and financial complications, ultimately doomed the project. As the years went by, I slowly accepted that the cool pirate-themed game I saw at a trade show was never going to come out. Throw it on the big pile of promising games that were canceled before hitting store shelves, right alongside StarCraft: Ghost and Fable Legends.

But sometimes the future can be unpredictable, because here we are, fifteen years later, and Captain Blood is available to purchase on pretty much every platform under the sun. Over the last few years, many members of the original development team came back together to not only resolve the legal issues, but finally finish the work they started two decades ago. The result is an action game that feels like it stepped straight out of 2010. And I mean that in the best way possible.

Back when I first previewed the game, I called it a cross between “God of War and Captain Hook.” And I’m not talking about the new, more introspective God of War where Kratos has a kid, but rather the button mashy beat ‘em up where heads are getting ripped off and blood is flying everywhere. This is a return to the fast-paced 3D brawlers we saw in the late 2000s, complete with linear stage designs, simple upgrades and brutally violent finishing moves where the enemies are getting mutilated in a bunch of satisfying ways.

The story is set in the 17th century, when Captain Peter Blood and his crew are hired to rescue the daughter of a powerful politician from a cartoonishly nasty pirate. This quickly leads to the heroic captain finding himself in the middle of a nasty feud with the Spaniards, who are stealing treasures, taking over lands and kidnapping anybody they can get their hands on. With honor and a whole bunch of gold coins on the line, Captain Blood sets sail to right some wrongs the only way he knows how – by sending hundreds of scurvy dogs to Davy Jones’s locker.

Much like the preview build I played 15 years ago, Captain Blood is split up into two different types of levels – the action stage and the epic pirate ship battles. Most of the game has you running down a linear path in order to fight wave after wave of pirates and other strong men. Captain Blood has both a light and strong attack, which you can use to create a number of flashy combos. He also comes packing a gun for long range attacks and a bomb that will take out a bunch of baddies all at once. All of these moves can be upgraded in between levels, where you’ll buy new combos and even give our hero a longer life bar. All this is pretty standard stuff.

The one interesting wrinkle comes in the form of a finishing move. Rather, a series of finishing moves. Unlike other similar action games, we can choose between four different types of fatalities, each with their own advantage. For example, the first one many people will unlock will give Peter the ability to not just kill the enemy with their own weapon, but also take it to use against the rushing horde. This allows you to shake things up with different types of swords, axes and even guns. One of my favorite parts of the game is stealing the dual pistols and going on a John Woo-style shooting spree.

Another type of fatality will cause the enemy to drop a blue potion that will quickly fill up your rage meter. This is a special mode where our hero becomes faster and stronger for a temporary amount of time. The most expensive type of fatality is also the most useful, as it will make the enemies drop a lot more gold. While not as visually exciting as the others, this will make it easier to buy all of the combos and upgrades you’ve had your eye on.

When you’re not hacking and slashing on dry land, you’ll be shooting cannonballs at attacking pirate ships. This is probably the most singularly unique part of Captain Blood, though it’s also the most frustrating. In theory, these stages are incredibly simple -- just shoot the surrounding ships before they get you. However, in practice, this never seems to go that smoothly. Because you’ll constantly be surrounded by eight or nine different ships, all while pirates are constantly boarding and attacking on all sides, it can sometimes feel like you’re always under attack. Every time you go to shoot a cannon at a nearby vessel, you’ll be constantly knocked back by either incoming projectiles or enemies stabbing you from behind. You’ll need to be quick and organized to win these fights, otherwise the battles can quickly become overwhelming.

It's during these nautical fights that you’ll discover that your computer-controlled helpers are completely useless. Oh sure, it looks like they are fighting the enemies alongside you, but they aren’t dealing any damage. At best, they are a distraction, pulling a few pirates away from the Captain. This also bleeds into the action stages, where Peter’s second in command will often help with the fight. From a visual standpoint, it’s cool to see your crew mix it up with the enemies, but it’s sometimes hard to know who is who, and they too often get in the way. The fact that they aren’t dealing any damage is really the final straw.

The truth is, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this game. After all, Captain Blood started its life nearly twenty years ago and has spent those two decades either in development hell or canceled. You can only hope for so much from a half-finished Xbox 360 game that was pushed over the finish line some fifteen years later. This is the kind of game that has disaster written all over it.

Thankfully, Captain Blood is not a disaster. Yes, it’s dated. That can’t be helped. The big, clunky character models definitely look like they are twenty years old, but in a charming and cartoony way. The backgrounds, on the other hand, look surprisingly good. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not going to confuse this for a brand-new game, but I thought the jungles and tropical settings really delivered. The same is true for the action, which is fast-paced and full of cool effects. Maybe it’s because I went in with low expectations, but I came away impressed. Given its long and complicated history, this is about the best fans could possibly hope for.

That said, there are definitely times when this game feels dated. It’s in the linear level designs that always keep you on a narrow path. It’s in the way that Captain Blood mirrors most of the combos and moves Kratos pulls off in God of War. It’s in the constant use of annoying quick-time events, something the game starts throwing into boss battles towards the end. A lot of the structure and gameplay mechanics feel like a throwback to a different era, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on how you look at it.

Part of the issue is that Captain Blood feels a bit janky, especially at the start. It’s most noticeable in the cinemas, where the sound mixing makes it extremely hard to hear what is being said. And even when the voices are clear enough to make out, they aren’t always saying the same thing as the subtitles. Of course, this isn’t helped by the fact that the subtitles have a hard time keeping up with the dialog, leading to some unintentionally comical moments.

I can forgive some weird sound mixing issues, but I have a bigger issue with the story. Without spoiling anything, Captain Blood does the thing where it introduces a brand-new villain at the very end, just to give us a big, climactic battle. The problem with doing this is that they forgot to actually introduce that big bad character. Not only did I not know his name, but I wasn’t even sure who he was supposed to be. It’s as if an important part of the story was left on the cutting room floor in order to complete the game, which left me scratching my head in the last stage.

Look, the fact that the finished version of Captain Blood is a little janky and has story issues isn’t all that surprising. However, what is surprising is how good the finished product ended up being. Sure, you probably need to temper your expectations a little, but for a game that started its life on the original Xbox twenty years ago, Captain Blood hits harder than you might expect. It’s a throwback to a type of 3D brawler they simply don’t make anymore, which ends up working in the game’s favor.

It could be that I’m the only one who is excited to see Captain Blood finally finished and released, but I have a hunch that there are a lot of people who will find the pirates and beat ‘em up action to be a winning combination.