Bleeding Edge
Developer Ninja Theory Publisher Xbox Game Studios Format PC, Xbox One (tested) Release Out now
PC, Xbox One
This team-based melee fighter desperately wants to be noticed – with its ostentatious style and bold character design, at times it can feel as though Ninja Theory has forced us into the Clockwork Orange eye clamps. It’s an approach that backfires: go in with eyes wide open, and the similarities between Bleeding Edge and its contemporaries become uncomfortable.
So much of Bleeding Edge feels lifted from Overwatch that it’s awkward, as if the two had rolled up to a party in the same outfit. Gizmo actually has: her pink mech suit is oddly reminiscent of D.Va’s. Half-motorcycle cyborg Buttercup has a chain-hook like Roadhog, and support hacker Zero Cool throws up a protective wall and heals teammates with a beam just as Mei and Mercy do. Bleeding Edge’s version of ‘Play Of The Game’ is dubbed ‘Final Play’, and instead of highlighting a display of skill or ingenuity usually centres on whichever beleaguered healer has managed to cap the point while their DPS friends were off chasing kills.
Still, the oft-visited concept of a cyberpunk future in which you can pop round the corner to have a chainsaw transplanted into your left elbow has, happily, led to a few original character designs. Kulev has transferred his consciousness to a robot snake that now controls his corpse, and Maeve is an elderly witch who leaves other damage-dealers in the dust, once you get your head around how to use her ranged pokes properly.
Ninja Theory can be forgiven for borrowing from its own games, especially since creative director Rahni Tucker was responsible for DmC’s satisfying combo system, and combat revolves around a pared-back version of that. But for a game built around closequarters skirmishes, they frequently bore. You’ll vie for dominion over territory in Objective Control, or take power cells to a drop zone in Power Collection, but both largely involve mashing one button to throw out limp projectiles as you wait for your far more exciting special abilities to cool down. Time-to-kill is slow, making for some dismally long exchanges of fire, while thoughtful squad composition doesn’t seem to factor into fights – synchronising abilities for creative plays can be tricky, with visual noise often making the action unreadable.
And with new players mostly arriving via Game Pass, Bleeding Edge will need more than a few likeable characters, two game modes and four nondescript arenas to retain the attention it craves. Of course, that didn’t hold Overwatch back, but if you’re following rather than leading, you really need – apologies – an edge, bleeding or otherwise. There’s an abundance of character here, sure, but what Bleeding Edge needs most is a personality – preferably its own.