When Blood Drive was first revealed I got this tickle in the very bottom of my stomach because I saw some great potential in the game. Why? I loved car combat based games like Death Track and Carmageddon from the nineties and spend hours playing them. Blood Drive is a game that combines car combat with one of my other favorites, Zombies. Unfortunately, this Activision published game just does not pull it off.
What irks me the most is that Blood Drive has a lot going for it, on paper. The game pins you against other AI drivers, as online multiplayer falls flat on its face due to no one being around to play it, along with a ton of undead which can be sliced, splattered, blown up or run over. Blood Drive has players compete in several different modes including Zombie Roadkill, Demolition Derby, Total Massacre, Checkpoint Rally and King of the Skull. These modes are pretty standard and will require players to kill zombies, destroy other drivers or both. King of the Skull requires holding the skull for the longest time during the event. Getting the skull is achieved by ramming other drivers . While there are plenty of modes and challenges in Blood Drive, none of it feels ‘meaty’ enough to be a fun or rewarding. It seems as though the development team just didn’t have enough time to make this title feel fully fleshed out.
During my time with Blood Drive I had some good moments that were enjoyable but the lack of a story or progression system just make this title sub-par in today’s market of video games. Visually, Blood Drive is colorful but has its shortcomings in regards to textures, graphics and framerate. Playing as the unique driver characters and their cars, such as quick buggies or giant trucks, all have their advantages but none of them handled very well. While destroying other drivers, killing zombies or making it from checkpoint to checkpoint, players can pick up power-ups or repair packs to keep them in the race.
It almost pains me to say this, as I am such a big fan of car based games like this, Blood Drive is not a good game. There simply is not enough meat and quality in this game to be called a solid title. If you are looking for some arcady fun on the level of a Saturday morning cartoon, there might something in it for you but not much more than that. Blood Drive was released as a full retail game and would probably have done better as a downloadable title on PSN or XBLA.
Score: 5 / 10
Blood Drive was developed by Sidhe and published by Activision for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on November 2nd. A copy of the Xbox 360 version was provided to us by Activision for reviewing purposes.
