Blood and Rust is a survival horror game made for RMN’s All Hallow’s Eve Event 2013. When deciding which games to play from the contest, I chose this one because I’d heard great things about it, and because it looked very polished.

I’m really not sure what to say in this review, because I’m not sure what this game was supposed to accomplish. There are games made in a week that are amazing, and that are games made in years that are not so. I don’t think the fact that a game was made in little time, or that it was made for an event, should affect its judgement in any way.

I guess the reason I’m saying that is... Blood and Rust felt... incomplete.

Before I explain it, let me say what this game is.

The game starts by telling your story: you’re some guy with terminal cancer that decides he doesn’t want to die. After trying everything, there’s only one solution left: performing an evil ritual and going to the biblical Eden to find your cure in the Tree of Life. The presentation of the intro is magnificent, using amazing images and soundtrack.

After the intro, you’re thrown into a place that’s not very... edenic. It’s a factory-like maze filled with rust and blood. I’m not sure if rust and blood are meant to represent anything while portraying Eden’s transformation. This game is also REALLY dark. I had to tilt my monitor a little to see what was going on. Advice for those who want to play it: PLAY IT AT NIGHT, IN THE DARK. First, because you won’t be able to see otherwise. Second, because Rust and Blood is an amazingly atmospheric game. More about that in a while.

R&B (yes, I did that) is pretty much an exploration game. You have to venture around this strange world and find stuff. It’s also a survival game because you need to find food not to starve to death, and you need to return to your little home before night falls, or things get dangerous. These two elements add a huge tension to the game. You’re never comfortable playing Blood and Rust.

The atmosphere of this game is brilliant. Graphics, music and sounds, especially sound effects, make the game actually really creepy. This, along with the tension brought by the survival gameplay, makes the game a truly vivid experience. That alone makes the game worth playing.

I want to say it again: the sound effects in this game are perfect.

I’m afraid to say there’s not much else that attracted me to the game. It is somewhat hard. I got plenty gameovers, and though the possibility of dying made me even more nervous, I don’t feel actually dying and going back to savepoints added to the experience. I was frustrated at times, and even considered abandoning the game, especially at the final part.

Also, though the story is very interesting and I was not really disappointed with the ending, it doesn't help that there’s no story in the game other than the intro and the ending.

You know what I think would've helped a lot? Sometimes the main character says something like "It's really dark in here". His speech is very rare though. I guessed it would have been much more interesting if he talked more, described his own feelings and experience, or maybe even reflected about his own former life, or his possibility of death.

Overall, the game looked very well made and polished, but at the same time, unfinished. There were plenty of parts where I felt the designer had planned something bigger (like the train), but decided to cut it out because of the event’s time limit. That happens, and it’s better than not finishing the game in time, but it’s not a good thing when the player gets to notice those rough edges.

What I’m saying is... I like the very solid universe that Rust and Blood managed to create. I’m just not sure I like the game I played in it.

But that’s just me, I’m terrible at games in general, and my frustration threshold is very low.