First impressions of Crimson Capes, and I felt I was back in the early 90s, playing the Amiga. This immediately stirred up some brilliant memories, without it feeling somewhat new, even though it’s very rough around the edges. A fusion of Prince of Persia (a reference for the masses – check out Karateka), LOTR animated film of the 70s for its rotoscoping aesthetic, and also, the vibes of a budget game you’d pick up from the market and end up bingeing on.
These, of course, are all accolades in the world of nostalgia. Whether Poor Locke’s game has any weight in 2026 depends on the audience, and I think this is quite niche. For clarification, I believe I fit into that niche, so naturally, I’m commenting on all the things I like about it, with a few rubbish bits for balance. It’s a review after all.
The opening sequence was a bit divisive as the animation and setup looked the part, but the scaling of the character was well off. It looked like it was land of the giants, and I couldn’t quite make out their head (it was tiny!). It’s soon revealed that this is a small adult, or as you might know them, ‘child’, as an elderly man barks some orders to get ingredients for the local witch doctor. You then head off to collect the goodies, speak to a tall stranger about said witch doctor, we get a fade out, then you’re wielding a big-bastard sword, chopping up the elderly fellow from before. What the hell!?!
Within a couple of minutes, the quick revelation that you aren’t the boy and in fact a warrior cutting down heretics is batshit crazy as claret splashes out in a wavy cloud, limbs fall off, heads roll, and then said witch doctor summons Treebeard. There’s that LOTR callback from the first paragraph. It’s mental, but once the dust settles and the blood soaks up, we’re rewarded with some old-school illustrations and Crimson Capes kicks in.
You begin the game as the leader of the Crimson Capes, instructed by the King to take down a group of heretics. Your journey is a 2D one, where you’ll encounter various enemies who are reasonably good with a sword. Combat with these lesser enemies is really good as there’s a mixture of strategies to adopt, from button-mashing, some spinny, flashy stuff to distract them, or classic parrying, then attack. I quite like to go in heavy or have the option to deflect, pending that the timing is fair, and it is. Dodging is a little different as the timing is off, especially with bosses, and you end up soaking up the damage unnecessarily.
No fault of the game, but the player: you need to be methodical in this game, as it can be quite brutal. The ‘bonfires’ are little areas of flowers where you can soak up the petals and jump straight back into the action, though you may have to fight through the same lesser enemies that killed you the last time as you… didn’t… press… block. This can be frustrating, having to redo the same areas, and lacking patience only makes it worse. Don’t get me started on how the first bloke runs and jumps. Float much?
There are three more characters to unlock, after your first chap, as well as upgrades at your save point. To counter the difficulty of this game, each time you kill someone/thing and obtain souls, orbs, blood, pennies – whatever you want to call it – you don’t lose any on death, so you can efficiently stack up your kills and unlock more stuff. That stuff is unfortunately limited to moves, however, and not OP health or strength. Instead, you learn some really swanky moves that can turn things around through finesse, or barbaric elemental damage to obliterate opponents, provided you have enough in the tank.
This might be one of Crimson Capes’ downfall. It’s more of a Souls-like than a rogue-like, so don’t expect to get marginal gains with more attempts. You simply have to get better and learn how to defend/parry attacks. With the movement looking the part, it does feel off at times. As mentioned, the evade can stumble a bit, and you end up being caught with your pants down. Then attacked. With your pants down. Death, my friends, death.
The story seems to die a quick death, too, and never really builds up. The NPCs don’t help as they have a few lines and that’s it. It almost feels like an afterthought to engage with the peasants. Despite the obvious flaws, Crimson Capes is an interesting one that has me thinking of ye olde days of Moonstone and the more recent Valfaris. There’s something about it that has quite a bit of unpolished charm, so much so that, irrespective of the difficulty level, it might make you cheat. You dirty so-and-so, you…
