Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing

Hugely underrated game! Like it alot.
But i hope for a Non-VR optimization. The graphics must be sharper & cleaner in non-vr.

You play a captain of a pirate ship... in space. The graphics are great. Game play is good. It's slightly better than the other pirate ship game that based in a fantasy world. It's a definite buy when it's on sale.

Like this a lot. 8/10

A lot of replayability here too.

Played through a season and got pretty far before being eliminated. The game show style is really unique and fun. The sound design and art style play off of each other very well also. My main complaint is in 2 hours I feel I have experienced all this game has to offer. I went in expecting a lot more airship v airship combat and in the 2 hours I played I only fought 2 airships and they were really disappointing fights. I figured maybe with my points I could buy a new ship or upgrade my weapons or gain sponsors for the next match but once that first season ended that was it. I could start a new game with the same ship and the same configuration.

Overall I cannot recommend this game. It brings an interesting concept to the table and falls short with a disappointing lack of progression.

Despite this game being abandonware, it is a rather fun game nonetheless, I enjoyed it and well, I got it in the 90% off sale, So I can say I'm satisfied with the purchase I made

Knuckles don't work, on wand steering is done via pressing the touchpad, both my vive wands' touchpads have the defect that makes right press impossible, only touch controls work and they aren't implemented in the game. Game is unplayable on these too.

I little disclaimer: I"m playing the game without a VR headset. I'm using just mouse and keyboard and it works just fine. In fact this game is quite fun. The game has some great things going and I only have a few small gripes about it.

[added on 6-2-2020]
As noted in the forums, the game does not work with even the most basic controller. In order to play the game you may have to completely disconnect your joystick from your pc otherwise it will miserably crash.
[end edit]

Compatibility
I can only recommend using win 10.

The Awesome
The game is really fun to play.
The graphics are good.
The music is ok.
The game does have an in game tutorial (somewhat short and uninformative on everything except controls)
You can map the keys.

Small Gripes
The game is made with unity.
The game loads slow.
The game feels like it is not complete.
AI players seem to always rack up an impossible amount of points.
Things do not appear as random as the store page says - Each play through is only slightly different and variation in the cast of characters doesn't appear to be very large and I really don't like the way the text crawls along at a slow pace when getting incoming calls from AI players instead of appearing all at once.

The Bad
From all appearances it would seem that the developers are no where to be found. Posts have gone unanswered on the forums for a very long time so if you do purchase you should not expect any support. The game also has terrible documentation on how to actually play the game and so IF one has never played the game then you wouldn't know what you are looking for or what you are suppose to do the first time around except for shooting enemies.

Final Thoughts
A larger variation of AI characters ( "the cast" ) as well as additional events and a few more locations and this game would easily be worth getting at full price. So if you can live with poor support and have a windows 10 then I would most definitely recommend getting this game when it is on sale.

So far so good. I barely played an hour but I love the esthetics of the game. Really this is more like a special mention for the choice of colors and shapes than anything else. It's only once under the helmet that you really see how it looks and plays and it plays well. It's actually a very comfortable game, no sweat, ass planted in the sofa, noice. On the bad side I would say that the arenas are a little bit too intricated, they are large but you have huge pieces of land going all over the place and vertically. It's not a bad idea but sometimes it's too much and I have a hard time to manoeuver (I am still anoob alr8). I don't want to pronunciate myself on the gameplay as I played like the 3 firsts levels only, the controls are crisps and that's all I m gonna say, bye

This is the best pirate game for VR. Period. What makes that statement even better is that we have space pirates, here. On a gameshow…?
Yes, forget those Kardashians, and welcome to Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing. You are competing against seven other captains to be king supreme of the only gameshow that truly matters. (Innit)? Naturally, not everyone is suited to be captain, but you are special--your being has the “essence” required to pilot your vessel. You become infused with your ship, and what comes next can only be described as “awesome.”
The basics, first: gameplay is astonishing. You control where you fire and pilot, unless of course you have one of your two helpers on the front turret. This is where things get interesting: you have five areas or “components” on your ship, which will aid your ship in specific departments. Want to go faster? Put someone on engines. Want a drone to automatically go mess with enemies’ shields periodically? Drone control. Shields not holding up? Man the shields. That only leaves radar for picking up points of interest further away (maybe blocking missiles is part of that, too? I think that is what one of the helpers shouts at you if you are getting blasted. While it does not hold your hand, the game has ways of giving you help. There is also a handy-dandy manual if you have not played in a bit and need a refresher). I have already mentioned the front turret. Put someone there and you will have an assist by way of an automatic turret. But the fun does not stop there...
You also have special powers, which are powered by your “essence charges.” You have a set amount of charges, but if you are leaning on a specific power more, you can put more essence into that slot and the cooldown will be lowered. The powers include more speed, more firepower, launching drones, and a bigger shield.
These gameplay mechanics are what will make me keep coming back. It is a fun, and gorgeous game to soar through. Looking at the thumbnail for the game, inside is just as colorful. While the colors are saturated and artful in their own right, the models are not cartoon-y and the textures create an overall immersive experience. The humor is on point, and the plot points where you have to do some strategic and ethical thinking kept me on my toes.
I played this in VR with a Rift S. There were no graphic options, which is a turn off to some (myself included), but I found the game well optimized and cranked the super sampling to 2.0x with the Oculus Tray Tool. Specs include: i5-7500 and RX 5700.
This game has put me back in contact with my previous pirate incarnation. I can be one with the seas(/skies) again. One final point: if you know you are in the culling coming up, don’t be a dick and steal points from everyone else (if offered the opportunity to cheat) because they *will* all vote for you to be eliminated.

Great game, lots of fun for me. Unique combination of strategy and action.

I love this.

The controls are fun, the atmosphere is great, the spctacle of VR is expertly realized. But the one thing that makes me write a review, is the fact that the campaign is a VR-reality-show-airship-pirate-simulator. I got voted out of the show when I hit the bottom two for the second time, and I was crushed! I got backstabbed!

Can't wait to see what happens in the next seasons! And I hope there's multiplayer in the works, I'd happily sign up for a weekly event!

We're finally getting something other than zombies and wave shooters! There is a lot going on in this title, and helming your own steampunk/aetherpunk airship is really cool.

I have not finished it yet, but I'm definitely enjoying it. It's a well polished and unique experience so far. Looking forward to see what comes next as I progress and how else I might get stabbed in the back and sabotaged.

I've been playing with my daughter and we've enjoyed the experience so far. A bit of Faster than light meets Mechwarrior. I let her aim while I man the bridge :)

Great game in VR, I'm sure it's fun playing on a monitor too.

I really enjoyed my first play through and can see the game has a lot of potential. I feel like the game has room for improvement, additional ships with different weapons and sub-systems would be nice. maybe even different Ai crew. But as the game stands currently, it's highly polished and has a lot of room for replayability. It would just be nice to have a lasting effect from playing too, such as small bonuses at the start or new ships as mentioned before.

The controls feel really natural and fluid, the interface is easy to pick up and interact with and combat has a nice mix. I'd say the game is certainly worth picking up if your a fan of games like FTL or rougelikes in general.

Fun game.

Initial fears of it being a micro management that i could struggle with were overcome with most of the actions being undertaken physically on the console HUD, with the ship stations and damage control being represented in your field of view wonderfully well.

It gives the impression of it being very much a ground up VR game, every action is motion controlled from the movement of the ship, balancing attributes, and aiming from the ship cannons and the more personal Gun that deals with the drones that close in on your hull.

That's not to say though that the game wouldn't work with desktop control, given the attention the developers have given to the motion controls, just making judgement from the videos things look equally intuitive.

There's a variety of arena game types, from boss type battles, to find and collect missions, though they all follow the core of the game with plenty either shooting at you or giving some back. The story lines and narratives between the characters bring further appeal, with certain choices you make gaining you access to items, or just general help or hindrance in the arena race score table.

While it's obvious the game has it's origins on the PSVR, this very resembles a dime and dozen Steam indie release that deserves some attention.

Fun to play, good working mechanics, nicely styled with a good flowing narrative.

Recommended for VR enthusiasts in a more limited market, but equally so for desktop users because VR or otherwise, there's a good game here where the developers have succeeded with a good game in a limited space.

Futuristic airship Survivor with all the twists and turns of forging and breaking alliances, crossing and being double crossed.

Bow to Blood's first mission into the field may have you thinking that it will be a breeze and that soon you'll have every captain begging for your favor- and points. But a few matches in, I was quick to realize that the challenges can be hard and punishing for every mistake, and the people you scorned earlier will happily put you down at the moment's sign of weakness.

The goofy theme of the game, along with Borderlands like graphics, is a mask over a game that will challenge your strategic mind, test your ability with their ship combat, and surprise you with random events like someone planting a bomb on your ship or telling you it would be wise to give up half of your points to make everyone your friend. Some of the characters will switch out from "season" to "season," keeping things less predictable.

I don't think I'll becoming champion easily or soon, so I am optimistic about the replay value of this game, considering that there is a both a normal mode....which is already hard.... and then a hard mode!

So, TL;DR- This game is a challenging breath of fresh air that is both comedic and engaging. For the money, definitely worth the buy.

Got the game for the art style(colorful gradients, moebius looking, interesting ships) and VR, wasn't sure about it during the first hour, but the controls and handling came together and enjoying it much more in a seated position in VR, mimicking the captains chair in-game. Looking for a way to skip past some of the repeated narrative content in between the game action.

Wow, what a game! masterclass. Its a quirky mix of Hunger Games, FTL and Naval combat! My first run lasted for 3 hours and I was VOTED OUT by my closest friend and supporter just because she considered me a threat. To be honest, it my first run I still hadnt yet become familiar with all nuances of ship combat and controls. I'm on my second run and doing much better and hoping to win this time. The game feels really alive and full of personality. Its also a pretty compex game, with many different systems one on top of another. Once you understand it, you will start to really really enjoy it. It's also very cinematic and pacing is just great.

Highly recommend.

A quick summarized review is below, alternatively, here's a video about how great this game is:
https://youtu.be/4Jsy6xYAsEs

Alright, so, Bow to Blood has done an amazing job of executing on what I'd consider a relatively unique idea. The game looks great, the game plays great, and the VR experience is amazing.

However, the non-VR implementation of the game is also great. I'd recommend playing it in VR if you have the means, but don't feel like you should miss out on this game just because you aren't VR ready.

Generally speaking, there are two aspects to this game. Combat, and diplomacy. I'd say that the game-show side of things serves as an entertaining premise, but there isn't a huge degree of depth to diplomacy. Sure, there are lots of instances where your choices WILL impact the game, but sometimes you're stuck in situations where you just cannot make a correct choice. Choices and dialog are also repeated from time to time. Basically, the system is there, it's fun, but it's not deep.

On the other hand, combat is great. Captaining your ship feels amazing and coming up with optimal strategies to survive missions and maintain your health is quite enjoyable. While aiming is largely point and click, you have enough abilities that ship positioning becomes relevant as well. The combat is enjoyable and complex enough that it remains fun even when you repeat missions and levels.

All in all, Bow to Blood was a great game and a great VR experience, give it a try!