NetEase Games’ newest venture into the world of single-player gaming, Blood Message, had a full reveal at Summer Game Fest.
Famous for developing games like Marvel Rivals, Ananta, and Where Winds Meet, NetEase Games has broken their tradition of developing multiplayer games to make Blood Message. While officially under NetEase Games’ ThunderFire division, Blood Message has the majority of its development done by 24 Entertainment Lin’an Studio, which has previously worked on NARAKA: BLADEPOINT.
Getting into the actual game, Blood Message is a cinematic, linear, story-driven action-adventure game set in 848 AD in the midst of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. Amid massive territorial expansion, huge profits from the bustling Silk Road and the revolutionary progress in the arts and technology, you play as just a simple nameless messenger.
Players will play as this messenger and embark on a journey eastward to deliver a message on which your homeland’s fate depends. Joined by your son, players will have to survive unrelenting sieges and the treacherous odyssey across the three-thousand-li (one-thousand miles), all in an effort to return to Chang’an, the heart of the Tang. Blood Message’s goal is to forego the tales of great emperors and generals and instead tell the story of unsung heroes.
On that note, the gameplay is something to behold. CGMagazine got to see an early preview of a story section in the game, which showed just how fluid the combat and story are. Going seamlessly between gameplay and cutscenes, when the character enters action sequences, it immediately goes from zero to one-hundred. Enemies can grab you, force you into a sword lock battle and much more, with you also being able to surprise take-down enemies from behind and above, with the option to pick up dropped enemy shields and the like, as well as much more.
Blood Message will explore the themes of family, honour, sacrifice, and cultural identity in a dynasty-spanning journey across the lands of ancient China. While a release date has not yet been confirmed, anyone interested can check out the Blood Message website.
