Laika: Aged Through Blood Preview (Gritty Metroidvania on Wheels)

Laika: Aged Through Blood Preview

Metroidvania’s are one of my top genre, but with an abundance of titles, it’s hard to experience something original these days. Laika: Aged Through Blood feels fresh, as the studio is calling it the world’s first Motorvania. You play as a coyote in a post apocalyptic landscape in a game that feels like mashup of Mad Max, Excitebike and Trials.

Don’t be fooled by the cute coyote protagonist, as within a few seconds you witness and experience some horrors of this harrowing world. Despite its gruesome nature, the world that has been created is deeply immersive with strong artistic direction and a score that are on cinematic level.

We have discussed what six elements need to come together to create an excellent Metroidvania. There’s level design, abilities, atmosphere, controls, story and weapons. Creating an immersive world and atmosphere is the hardest one, you either have it or you don't. It can’t be faked. Laika has all of the elements and is oozing with atmosphere, especially in the cutscenes, that can be extremely grim and paint a picture of this dark world.

Laika just needs a little refinement to truly execute on the vision. The whole idea of being the worlds first motorvania is based around momentum and always moving on your bike, but with only one health point, you die often, which constantly has you restarting checkpoints, and this completely goes against the core tenant of the game.

There are two ways to solve this problem in my mind. The first is by allowing your character to pick up armor or upgrade so that you have two HP. I made it to the first settlement and didn’t see any future upgrades for health. You still would be at risk of dying immediately when crashing your bike, but at least you would have a little reprieve from dying instantly from all the bullets flying at you.

The second is that the bike needs to pop from the background just a little more. When there are lots of enemies on the screen or big bosses, the camera backs out and then you add in shake, being covered in blood and all the bullets heading your way and it becomes very hard to tell which part of the bike is heading to the ground. This might just be a Steam Deck problem thought. I understand the very muted color palette of browns due to the post apocalyptic landscape and this creates great immersion, but when the bike blends in, like it does, it hampers the experience.

If these elements can be refined before launch, Laika: Aged Through Blood could be an absolute hidden gem of a Metroidvania.