The Dink Network

Power Of Blood

Jumpy jumpy! That's not very nice...
July 9th, 2012
Power Of Blood V1.2
Score : 9.5 exceptional
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pillbug
Peasant He/Him United States
Love! True love! 
After doing a playthrough of this D-Mod and stating in the first part that "you guys should go review Power of Blood", I thought it would be a bit hypocritical of me to leave this gem without a review. Without further delay:

Story
The story of this D-Mod is summed up sufficiently in its description:

Taking place shortly after the events of the original game, Dink goes on a brief holiday to get away from his adoring fans. However, shortly after he arrives, the Cast turn up and spoil the fun (Read: Kill everyone in sight and burn their houses). So, ever the hero, Dink visits an ancient temple to see if he can find a way to defeat the Cast once more...


A variant of the familiar theme theme that Dink grows weary of all the fame and fortune, and sets out to a peaceful location to relax. Pretty standard, right? Well, after the Cast attack, things get more interesting. You learn of an ancient temple built by three people who sought to rid the world of all evil. Then-...actually, this game is fairly short and worth all the time you put into it. I'm going to let you play through the rest.

Atmosphere
Since this is a romp, I crammed graphics, tiles, mapping, etc. into one category. Saying that, the atmosphere of this D-Mod was fantastic. The mapping was creative, sprites were used in original ways, and I actually enjoyed just looking at most of the screens. The (albeit small) map is decorated very nicely, with no boring areas or awkward placement of sprites. The Athlete's Trial in particular was absolutely amazing. As far as I could tell, there were no hardness errors, badly placed doors, sticks you couldn't walk over, etc. Things that aren't really game-breaking, but can bring you out of the experience.

Gameplay
Considering this was an entry to the Carnage Contest, where you would expect nothing more than hacking and slashing your way through hordes of enemies, the gameplay of this D-Mod was actually very intuitive. From the standard fighting to jumping through the purple-fireball towers in the Athlete's Trial, Power of Blood really brought its A-Game(play).

Bad Things
There were only a few things that I would consider improving in this D-Mod:
*Typos: There were a few typos throughout the game, and although this is a problem in at least part of every D-Mod ever, it was awkward for me since I had to read them out loud
*Slayer Bug: To avoid spoilers, I'm going to make this fairly vague: In the final part of the Warrior's Trial, you can still open your inventory, allowing you to use other items. It won't break the game, but you can cheat with it if you encounter it.
*Smilestein's Text Color: It's grey, and most of his lines were in a grey cave. 'nuff said.

Overall
This was an excellent, excellent D-Mod, and it earned its titles of "Best D-Mod of Q2 2011" and "Winner of the Community Carnage Contest 2011". The parts that were good were great, and the parts that were bad were only slightly bothersome. If you haven't played this D-Mod yet, do it now. No, seriously. Right now.