Mother Russia Bleeds is a cool throwback to classic beat-em ups. It has a surprisingly good story with a great setting. The gameplay is fairly standard for the genre though the abilities and brilliant feeling of impact almost masks the simplicity of it. The overall presentation is great with high quality, though dirty, pixel art and an awesome soundtrack. A great experience with a few friends for sure.

Story

Mother Russia Bleeds is set during the 1980s in as you might expect, the USSR. I was surprised by how good the story is here. I won't spoil too much of the plot but basically you are part of a gypsy camp then things go very wrong. The plot is pretty loose and vague but the 2 side characters have a surprising amount of depth for this type of game. I believe there are multiple endings but we just got one, so there are opportunities for replay-ability here. The overarching plot is ambiguous however the setting, side characters and individual missions are quite strong here.

Gameplay

I played this with 3 of my friends on local co-op, this seems to be the best way to play though I'm sure 2+ would be great too. I don't see myself playing this single player, though there is AI companions if you choose to. The gameplay is classic side-scroller beat-em up very reminiscent of Streets of Rage etc. You have basic combos, melee and ranged weapons with jump, dash and grapple attacks. Unfortunately there is no co-op moves, at least not that we found though there are certain co-operative functions like reviving and healing each other (or friendly fire if you prefer). On normal difficulty the game was little bit easy especially considering it's been a while since we played a game like this, I think the difficulty would've been better with limited lives instead the game uses a generous checkpoint system. The combat has a great feeling of impact to it and the abilities are very fun to use, other than that it is pretty standard gameplay for the genre.

Presentation

The game is very reminiscent of Hotline Miami as the developers proudly claim and it's certainly true in the presentation. It's got very dirty but well done pixel-style graphics with a brilliant accompanying soundtrack. There is a tonne of gore in the game which at first was quite shocking but you almost get used to it (and it adds to the fun). The impact of the attacks is enhanced by the blood and giblets that go flying everywhere. Overall the presentation here is great, though intentionally dirty.