NetEase is known in most part for shepherding and developing multiplayer games such as Marvel Rivals, Naraka: Bladepoint, and so many more. However, last year they announced their first foray into the AAA single player space with Blood Message. At Summer Games Fest this year, we got to go hands on with the game, and it completely surprised us with what it is trying to accomplish and how much it stands out in the against its contemporaries in the genre.

In the modern day, a lot of mainstream action and aaction-adventure games have gone in a more hardcore and intense direction by implementing Soulslike mechanics into the games. However, Blood Message takes us back to what the genre was like a decade or so ago as being linear, cinematic, and focused on story like when games like Uncharted were the king of the action-adventure genre. While the game is still early, the developers nail the feel of what these types of games are perfectly.

The about thirty minute demo we got to play put us in the of the unnamed protagonist as he and his brother fight their way back to the protagonist’s home during the late Tang Dynasty era of Ancient China. There was a lot of combat we got to experience, and it felt fluid and visceral to perform. There are a wide variety of kill animations that you see when taking down the plethora of guards we encountered. I don’t think we even saw one be repeated throughout the demo, so each kill felt unique in its own way despite only using a sword in combat. Outside of combat, you can stealth around the areas and take out guards quietly or sneak pass them entirely. The game features ll the trademarks of the genre like hiding in tall grass, visibility meters for the guards, as little passageways to sneak through to avoid a guard’s line of sight.

While we didn’t get much of the story, the little glimpses we saw left us intrigued. As aforementioned, the protagonist was racing home to gather his son Ning and get out of the city their in. However, the demo ended with Ning not being there, and then the protagonist lifting a floorboard to gather some things but lingers on a suspicious amulet before leaving it behind.

Overall, Blood Message is setting a strong debut as NetEase’s first AAA single player game, and takes us back to when the cinematic action-adventure game was the norm. When we finished the demo, I just wanted to keep playing, but alas. There’s currently no release window for the game at the moment.