Illbleed Hands-On

Perhaps it was a lack of any real controller or gameplay explanation, but I had a really difficult time with Illbleed. I mean, I knew it was a horror-style game where you had to use your horror scope to check out scary events so you wouldn't get horrified and die of a heart attack, but I had no idea how you were supposed to do it. A few minutes fiddling around with the controller showed me how to switch to my scope/horror meter mode, but I couldn't really tell what to do from there. There was one instance where I zoomed in on what looked like a pulsing blue sphere, but I didn't notice any of my heart rate or other stats increase. So I switched back to the third-person mode and walked over to the sphere. Suddenly, the viewpoint changed, and this zombie guy with a bloody chainsaw jumped out and started slashing at me. My character immediately fell to the ground, and I could only crawl about slowly in this helpless state. I managed to get up, pull out this wimpy revolver, and sink round after round into him until he fell over.

I switched back to my horror meter and looked around but still couldn't see anything. So I walked a ways forward, and what do you know? Another shock event! This time it was a crazy looking guy made out of wood that attacks by spinning his leg around. I didn't have the health to fight off this one, so I died.

If I had only known what I was doing, I'm sure this could have been a more rewarding experience. But the lack of instructions or any sort of explanation as to what was going on really kept the game from being any fun. I really enjoyed the whole storyline and premise of the game, so I'm hoping that with a little guidance the game will make more sense.