Laika: Aged Through Blood
Developer(s)	Brainwash Gang
Publisher(s)	Headup Games
Artist(s)	Ivan Papiol
Composer(s)	Beícoli
Engine	Unity [1]
Platform(s)	Windows PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S
Release	Windows WW: October 19, 2023 PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S WW: December 5, 2023 Nintendo Switch WW: March 21, 2024
Genre(s)	Metroidvania, action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Laika: Aged Through Blood is an action-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Brainwash Gang and published by Headup Games. The game was released on October 19, 2023, on Microsoft Windows, ^[2] with ports for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, being released on December 5. ^{[3] [4] [5]} A Nintendo Switch port was originally set for a release on January 11, 2024, but was delayed indefinitely; ^[6] the port was later released on March 21, 2024. ^[7]

Gameplay

Laika: Aged Through Blood is an 2D side-scrolling Metroidvania video game set in a Western-style post-apocalyptic world. The player controls Laika, an anthropomorphic coyote, primarily while she rides a motorcycle. The player can make the motorcycle accelerate, stop, and reverse direction, and can rotate it left and right. The game world is divided into multiple named areas. Laika travels through these areas collecting resources and performing quests, given either by non-playable characters encountered throughout the world or primarily by residents of her village.

The game world is populated by enemies, anthropomorphic birds, who predominately attack Laika on sight with ranged weapons. Non-explosive attacks can be blocked by the motorcycle's bottom or deflected back at the attacker if parried at the time of impact. Laika is killed if she is hit by any attack or if she hits the ground or other surfaces with her head. If killed, she respawns at the last checkpoint—bone shrines—activated by the player, or else at the entrance to the area. Enemies respawn whenever Laika dies, or if she leaves and re-enters an area.

Laika can carry several weapons throughout the game, namely a revolver, shotgun, machine gun, crossbow, sniper rifle, and rocket launcher. These weapons have a very limited amount of ammo, but can be reloaded indefinitely by performing a full backwards rotation of the motorcycle. Shooting birds kills them in one hit, just as with Laika. The exception is boss battles, which take place at plot relevant moments and feature enemies that take several shots to kill.

The weapons are gathered throughout the course of the game, and can be upgraded in the village to have more ammo or reload with less rotation with resources. Resources which are gathered by finding plants, rocks, or chests, and shooting them. The exception is viscera, which acts as a currency, which is expelled from enemies when they die. When Laika dies, she leaves behind a bag with half of the viscera collected, which can be retrieved; repeated deaths without retrieving the bags causes them to disappear.

Synopsis

Setting

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals of various species. Hundreds of years ago, the Birds declared themselves biologically superior, and swept across the land in conquest and harvesting of all resources. Eventually the rampant consumption of resources and the escalation of war turned the world into a wasteland where the few remaining people hide from the patrolling Bird soldiers.

The main character Laika is a coyote mother with a cursed bloodline. The females in her family are immortal until they pass it down to their daughters when they first Bleed, along with the ability to talk to ghosts of the recently deceased. Because of her immortality, Laika is the guardian of her town Where We Live and the only person allowed to leave to gather supplies and fight off Birds.

Story

Laika hears that a child from her town, Poochie, has been crucified by the Birds. Poochie's father, Jakob, in a fit of blind rage took Laika's revolver to confront them. Laika follows Jakob to the military base Where Birds Lurk to retrieve her gun. As Laika takes back her revolver from dying Jakob, she finds out the Birds are experimenting with the genes of prehistoric animals and weaponizing them. After successfully defeating one of the Birds' mutations, Laika takes Jakob's body back to Where We Live.

After Jakob's funeral, Laika's mother Maya worries that Laika is coddling her daughter Puppy, wanting Puppy to be trained in combat and biking before she becomes of age to inherit Laika's immortality. However, Laika believes that Puppy is too young and should enjoy the innocence of youth a little longer. All the while, Puppy worries for Poochie since his body was never recovered and his soul cannot rest without a proper burial. Finding out the Birds are moving closer and closer to Where They Live, the village Elder orders Laika to seek an alliance with Where Rocks Bleed, a large mining town of mole people. After clearing the town of invading Birds and their mutated weapons, she finds that all but three mole-people have been killed or fled into hiding.

Next, the village Elder ordered Laika to disrupt the Birds' communication by destroying their relay station inside the Lighthouse. Pretending to be a maintenance worker, she hitches a ride on Roy's ship to the Birds' naval base Where Water Glistens. Realizing that Laika is lying, the Birds and Laika fight, and Roy is shot in the process. Laika succeeds in destroying the Lighthouse as Roy dies from his wounds.

The Elder's next order was for Laika to go to Where Birds Came From and destroy The Big Tree, a pyramid cathedral that holds historic and religious value to the Birds in hopes of crippling their leadership and morale. With the help of Orella, a historian who has been working for the Birds, Laika successfully navigates and topples The Big Tree and kills the Birds' religious leader, Pope Melva VIII. Distraught from taking part in the destruction of art and history, Orella hangs herself. In her death, Orella warns Laika that her actions have only escalated the war since not only have the Birds taken notice to Laika, but the Pope she killed was the weakest in history and would surely be replaced by someone much stronger.

Laika returns to Where They Live with the grave news, angry at the orders of the Elder since they have achieved nothing but increased presence of Birds in the Wasteland. All the while, Puppy shows signs of stubborn adolescence and anger towards her mother for not finding Poochie's body. The next morning, Laika finds out Puppy ran away from home in search of Poochie's body. After searching for clues, she finds out that one of the townsfolk sold Puppy to Beícoli, a singer exiled from Where We Live. After confronting and killing Beícoli, Laika finds out Puppy was about to be transported to "Heaven" because the Birds know about Laika's immortality and want to experiment on it. Laika takes Puppy back, apologizing for not recognizing her child's worries. Puppy then suffers from high fevers, a sign that she is soon to Bleed. Maya worries that Puppy may either die from her fevers, leaving Laika with no next-of-kin, or inherit the immortality too early, leaving Puppy in an escalating war with no training, so Laika goes off to end to war as soon as possible.

With the help of the local technician Shaza, Laika finds out that the "Heaven" the Birds refer to is a Floating City where the elite class live along with the new Pope resides. Laika receives help from Pluck, the leader of a group of pacifist Birds who have heard of the exploits of the "Grim Rider" and help her enter the Floating City. Pluck warns her that the City is currently holding a celebration where they would soon drop the Egg, which will eradicate all life in the Wastelands leaving only the Birds in The Floating City alive. While entering the city, Pluck is killed and Laika is captured.

Laika is placed in an arena in front of onlooking Birds and the new Pope, The Two-Beaked God. The God reveals to have been experimenting with genetic-mutations in hopes of creating super soldiers and more evolved Birds, and hoping to kill Laika to obtain her immortality for himself. After successfully killing The Two-Beaked God, the Egg was dropped. Laika hears from back home that Puppy's fever has subsided and she is now Bleeding, meaning that Puppy has taken Laika's immortality. Laika jumps towards the Egg to destroy it, leaving her last words to Puppy to learn from her mother's mistakes. The Egg successfully destroyed with Laika being caught in the detonation and the game ends with a funeral held for Laika.

Development

Laika: Aged Through Blood is developed by Brainwash Gang, an independent game development studio from Spain that has also created Friends vs Friends. The game was first announced in November 2021 for Windows and home consoles albeit no release date or specific consoles was given. ^[8] During the Future Games Show Summer Showcase in June 2023, Laika was re-revealed and was released in 2023 for Steam and all major platforms, ^[9] except for the Switch port which was released later in 2024. ^[5]

Reception

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2023)

The game received generally favorable reviews on Metacritic. ^[10]

References

External links

• Official website