For me, some games are a pickle to describe why I love them so dearly. I must have written this introduction in my head twenty times, each time trying to find a way to describe why I was excited for Mother Russia Bleeds without sounding like the type of violent individual Jack Thompson sought to stop years back. In the end, the best I can be is shameless for the excitement I felt for the bleak violent appearance of Mother Russia Bleeds, especially as it meets and then exceeds what I had hoped for.
Mother Russia Bleeds is an ultra-violent beat ’em up by Le Cartel Studio. Set in an alternative bleak USSR in the mid-80s, you are a street fighter who is made into a lab rat by an unknown force. Made furious at being chemically experimented on, you decide to track down those who wronged you so you may cave their skulls in with your foot. Meanwhile, your journey is haunted by addiction to the very drugs you were exposed to and by morbid hallucinations.
I may as well get the obvious out the way: The aesthetic is wonderfully gory. For an absolute “gorehound” like I, there really is a glee with each enemy you fell. Sometimes you’ll cave someone’s face in with a flurry of fists, other times just decapitate them with one drug-induced swing and even occasionally make red mist. If you want a comparison to the satisfaction the violence gives you, it is very akin to Hotline Miami.
In contrast to head-stomping simulator Hotline Miami, you must take your time with the thugs looking to kick your teeth in. They’ll take quite a few swings to manage it and have a heavy amount of variation. Some deviants will be poisoning you from afar, others can block, and one enemy type will take you off-guard by stumbling along the floor before dragging you down and biting at your throat (i.e. dogs).
This is even putting aside the bosses which crop up every few levels. Each one demands particular tactics to be used rather than just straight up thumping them in the throat. An early example is a heavy-set woman who will just laugh before hitting you like a train if you try to attack her. Instead, you must push her into the combine harvester chasing you via very specific attacks. There are also individual level environmental events. An early level has scurrying rats that climb onto you and chew away at your health if you don’t knock them off. The bosses, reoccurring enemies, and varying environments make sure the levels feel distinct and fresh all the way through.
One of the downsides I noticed is it sometimes isn’t immediately clear what has to be done or other times the difficulty spikes violently. The campaign mode took me up to a particular boss where I simply became stuck, unsure of what to do. Prior to that, I was stuck on a level where I had to play “defend the walkie-talkie” while making sure I didn’t get pulverized. It feels like a game where tips will likely have to be shared on how to take down some of the meaner knuckle-draggers populating this game.
Fortunately, you have a multitude of moves to play with. You can kick, punch, and grab, as well as steal weapons (including guns) from the floor. Then there is sprinting/dashing and jumping if you need a small twist. Even then different states will offer different attacks. Kicking will mildly knock someone away. Meanwhile punching and then kicking will send them either careening across the room with a hard punt or stun them with a knee to the stomach. It is from this simple base of three attack types that you can build up cruel combos on the thugs trying to stop you.
The only problem with these attacks is that sometimes the game can get confused and suddenly decide you’re going to hit the wrong enemy or use the wrong attack at the wrong time. Normally it doesn’t matter, but the environmental effects from before can demand you to be very precise and on the ball. The first time I failed the mission due to accidentally punching the wrong person, I got pretty angry. It was just a relief I was kept cool by the vicious brutality I was inflicting on the train guards by the 10th or 15th time failing (often, although not always, my fault).
As you are fighting through the gang members, police, and even the army, you are likely to be worn down eventually. Even with the generous checkpoint system, you may need a little pick-me-up. A little something special. A gift in a plastic container could be what you could do with. Yes, let’s have some drugs.
…Whoah whoah whoah. Hang on there. This isn’t what it looks like. It isn’t the infamous “drug glorification” you see every so often that can get games into trouble. You see, all the experimenting on you in the lab below has left you able to tolerate the latest drug on the market: Nekro. Like a good street fighter in the alternative 80s USSR, you carry a syringe of the drug in your pocket with three charges. Each charge can either kick your health up a notch or send you into a short roid-rage where you can quickly punch/kick and even crush skulls with your hands.
“So I scavenge more from enemies who drop it, right?” you may ask, and you’re not far off. As long as they still have a head, with a bit of luck, the victims of your flurry of blows may be clinging to life desperately. Left in a twitching state, you can draw the Nekro running through their bodies out of them for your own use, though know that they can only convulse for so long before dying.
In practice, it leads to risk-and-reward gameplay. You’re constantly trying to keep enemies at bay as you desperately suck drugs from the seizing body of a thug, just so you can have a little more life. There is an intense desperation that just adds to the grimy nature of everything else.
This desperation will run thick as you may be tempted to check out the survival mode, where levels unlock as you complete campaign levels. Each arena will have a different environmental hazard and a different set of foes to face down. However, you are rewarded for your desperate efforts as each arena you complete the 10th wave of will grant you a new Nekro-type with different modifiers which can then be utilized in the campaign/survival modes. While the survival mode is its own independent spirit, it is wonderfully meshed with the campaign mode to make it feel meaningful.
There is also the added bonus of different characters you can use in both campaign and survival modes. Not only do they look differently, but they also have their own fighting styles and statistics. It really allows for an alternative approach if you are struggling on a level. My only criticism is that it does not support multiples of the same character, so if you have three other friends who want to play with you, then they’ll have to decide who gets last pick.
The final score of Mother Russia Bleeds is a bloody-grin of a 8/10. It is a fantastic beat ’em up for the “gorehounds” who love the idea of being a terrible person inflicting pain on worse people. Throughout the game, there is a constant grim brutality that runs deeps, but Mother Russia Bleeds remembers to have a grin to it all. It is a memorable time to share with others, especially as it refuses to turn stale. Mother Russia Bleeds contains enough variation that you’d be hard-pressed to get bored of it quickly.
While it behaves like Hotline Miami crossed with Streets of Rage, it still holds its own identity in the process. If I had to warn people of one thing not mentioned in the review above (well, besides local only co-op), its that the soundtrack could have benefited from being more distinctive, noticeable, and memorable. Putting that aside, even casual fans of beat ’em up or ultra-violent titles will be satisfied with what Mother Russia Bleeds has to offer. Up to the last drop of blood.
A PC review code of Mother Russia Bleeds was provided by Devolver Digital for the purpose of this review