It’s not hard to see many of the promising things Bleeding Edge is putting on display. This third-person team-brawler features 4v4 multiplayer action with 12 characters to choose that range from melee-focused to long-range attacks. The first thing I noticed when playing the game was the general aesthetic of its art-direction. It immediately reminded me of Saturday morning cartoons that I used to watch when I was younger. While not as over-the-top, the cell-shaded look reminded me a bit of a blend of Sunset Overdrive and Borderlands.
The actual gameplay is something else entirely. It’s hard to compare Bleeding Edge to Overwatch since Overwatch has eclipsed practically every team-based game since its release. Bleeding Edge takes some of these concepts, allowing players to pick from a pool of 12 characters some of which are categorized into categories like support and so forth. Each character has his/her abilities – including an ultimate-type ability.
While some of the abilities the characters have are unique, their character design is hit or miss. One character named “Daemon” is a katana-wielding tagger that slices and dices his way through enemies. Then there’s “Maeve” who’s an older woman who looks like a witch? Even as I type that previous sentence I’m not sure what I just played. There’s even a character that has ostrich-style legs to move around.
Besides the characters, the maps and game modes are pretty bare-bones. There are only five maps and two types of game modes. Those being a domination type and gathering type where teams have to collect and deposit energy cells to win. If another team attacks an individual trying to deposit cells it interrupts the process until it’s safe to do so. I found the energy cell mode to be the most frustrating, as a person that is by themselves trying to deposit their items winds up getting bombarded with a team that might be more equipped than others. As the majority of my matches featured little to no healers helping my team.
There are also some design choices with the individual maps layouts and enemy locations. Teams can see player locations on the minimap and outlines of players through walls. In retrospect, seeing enemy players’ movements on the minimap isn’t such a good idea as it forces ill-equipped individuals to break-off from their team to chase a stray enemy down. Hopefully, Bleeding Edge will see some increased content updates as wells as polish, but if you have Xbox Game Pass it’s worth checking out.
Bleeding Edge has an interesting art style and some good ideas. However, the end result is a mixed-bag of concepts that aren’t as refined as one would like.