Whenever a new building or management game launches, it’s usually something generic, albeit entertaining, revolving around the usual fare. You’ll have space colonists or zombie apocalypse survivors to rescue, but not with Blood Bar Tycoon. It takes the building and management genre for a spin by introducing vampires to the mix, and not just vampires, but all manner of creepy night-dwellers that don’t mind making a quick buck serving humans, either. Here’s our review of Blood Bar Tycoon, where we tell you why you should pick up this affordable indie management game!
Editor’s Note: The Guide Hall received a review copy of the game from the developer/publisher/PR for this review. Their generosity does not impact our overall opinion or thoughts on the game!
Blood Bar Tycoon immediately caught my attention as someone who adores the tongue-in-cheek building and management genre (think games like Two Point Museum). You’re not serving the usual bar fare to stumbling denizens, though they occasionally wind up in your tavern. Your actual clientele hangs out in the back rooms of your bar, clothed in black and with red-glowing eyes in the night. They feast on flesh and blood, making it somewhat risky for you to serve humans, even if they pay well.
As you progress beyond running a run-down dive bar, you’ll inevitably use those humans to sustain your more powerful patrons. With entire blood factories at your disposal, you’ll become the go-to spot for the denizens of the night.
But first, it all starts with a simple bar. You build up from nothing—a run-down shack overflowing with trash and grime. After clean-up, you will place your first table—a ramshackle affair—and slowly upgrade to better drinks, more space, comfortable seating, and, of course, new technologies, machines, and torture devices to capture and contain humans that you’ll inevitably serve up as food and drink.
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Your ultimate goal is to run the city. That’s a bit ambitious, though. In the early days, focus on raking in the cash as you expand your bar, decorating it as you wish with various themes and elements, like vampire decor, to suit the style of your prospective patrons.
At launch, the game featured a handful of bugs, a few of them game-breaking, initially marring the overall experience. However, the team at Clever Trickster Studio continually pumps out patches and bug fixes every so often to rectify the worst of the worst. It’s a more stable experience today than on release, and if you’re on the fence because of all the negative reviews pointing toward performance concerns, don’t be. I had zero issues running and enjoying the game.
At the end of the day, Blood Bar Tycoon is a straightforward building-management game with a bit of flavor. It’s not your usual setting, a mundane modern world, but one filled with supernatural nightlife.
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