Bleeding Edge

For the first few hours Bleeding Edge is an absolute blast to play and well worth a look if you have Xbox Game Pass. But there's not enough depth to make it last long-term, at the moment.

It is a game that comes very late to the genre that it tries to assault, but at the same time it gives it a certain originality by creating a work in which the combat mechanics are based on hack and slash and not on the simple skills of a regular hero shooter (although they're also there, and they are key, of course).

This results in jousts which are pleasant at first but which lose their panache far too quickly due to a lack of depth. Jousts that its skinny roster will unfortunately have a hard time boosting.

The attention to detail, great soundtrack, and largely well-designed characters belie a game that is clearly loved by those that worked on it, but the crippling lack of depth in every area of Bleeding Edge has made what should have been an excellent game a mediocre one instead. I hope Ninja Theory is given the opportunity to expand on the game, but right now Bleeding Edge is fun but forgettable filler.

Bleeding Edge has almost nothing to offer. What potential it has in it is woefully stuck in a product that is so meagre and void of content. It is like taking a single slice of cheese, and trying to cover an entire pizza pie; there just not enough here to make this work passed a few hours, and that's all. There are not enough modes, not enough interest in the community to keep it going, and the combat is way too simplistic for high level play.