Killing For Peace
HIGH Finding the secret faction’s hidden bunker.
LOW Trying to balance a motorcycle on cables.
WTF I was supposed to be watching for [REDACTED] this whole time?!
I finished playing Laika: Aged Through Blood two months ago, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Normally I roll credits and then start a review immediately, because I’ve got a pretty good sense of how I feel about a game by the time it’s finished. My feelings about Laika, however… well, it’s safe to say that they’ve been colored by real-world events that the developers couldn’t possibly have anticipated when they picked a release date in October, 2023.
Laika: Aged Through Blood is the story of the titular Laika, a dirtbike-riding coyote with an unusual gift — she can’t die. Every time she does, her body and all of her possessions explode into a mist that reforms at a nearby checkpoint. What would be an unremarkable mechanic in most titles instead forms the backbone of this story’s narrative.
Laika is a member of an oppressed minority. In the desert wasteland where she lives, any creature that isn’t a bird is forced to live in a state of constant precarity. At any moment, the avians can come along and kick them off of their land, killing anyone they please with no repercussions. All of her people have been forced to hide in the most barren section of the wasteland, with their only defense against complete annihilation being Laika’s strange gift.
The plot begins with an act of brutality so vile that it requires a content warning of its own at the start of the game — Laika’s nephew is murdered in the most awful way imaginable, and his father goes looking for revenge. Laika has to rush in the hopes of stopping him before he kills any bird soldiers — she wants revenge for her nephew as much as anyone, but is aware that any attack on the birds will be used as a justification for their army to restart their genocidal war against all non-birds in the desert. She’s too late, of course. Once the prologue is complete, the wasteland is flooded with soldiers dragging Laika into a war she didn’t want, and can’t possibly win.
That’s a bunch of words I’ve just written without mentioning gameplay, because while the mechanics are effectively perfect and its levels expertly designed to take advantage of Trials-style 2D motorbike gameplay, Laika doesn’t want the player to enjoy what they’re doing.
Every element is meant to be as unpleasant and difficult to manage as possible. The currency is the innards of Laika’s slain foes. Bonuses to abilities are only available by cooking meals, and their effects wear off so quickly that they’re not worth the trouble of making. Weapon and equipment upgrades are so ridiculously expensive, and their unique parts so hard to find, it’s as if the developers are actively discouraging the player from improving their gear — which wouldn’t surprise me, since improved gear makes it easier to kill birds, which is the last thing the game wants players to be doing.
For the first two-thirds of the adventure I struggled to figure out exactly what Laika was trying to accomplish. The bike controls are incredibly smooth, and it’s a pleasure to speed through the wasteland. Other than a couple of punishing boss fights, the combat isn’t particularly difficult — Laika is exceptionally good at killing birds thanks to a bullet-time effect whenever she aims a weapon. Also, most fights are essentially optional, as the player can use Laika’s bike to block incoming bullets, or even reflect them back at foes, allowing her to speed away safely without pulling a trigger. This is an experience with well-designed combat that seems to actively discourage the player from engaging in it. I couldn’t wrap my head around whether this was a choice or a mistake.
…And then I arrived at the bird city.
It’s a tiny section of the campaign. Laika has to go looking for someone in a city, which is a location completely different from everything else offered to this point. In the city, non-birds are allowed to live as an underclass with no rights of any kind, but at least they’re not being actively wiped out. While there, Laika can find a bird soldier with a message that changes everything, turning the narrative on its head and forcing the player to question everything they’ve done up until that point. It’s as brilliant a moment as I’ve seen in a game, and it reveals that nothing has been unintentional about the design. Every mechanic has been in service of the story, and unlike most games, the misery is the point.
Laika is not an easy game to enjoy. It’s a story, at its core, about how dehumanization of an enemy is a necessary step preceding genocide — about how people will become monsters if left with no other options. Most importantly, though, it’s about how cycles of violence can only end if people make the decision to not pull a trigger, no matter how difficult that might be. It’s a brutal, uncompromising journey, and it should have been one of the best titles of 2023, even if reality hadn’t decided to make it painfully relevant.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Disclosures: This game is developed Brainwash Gang and published by Headup Publishing. It is currently available on PC, XBO/S/X, PS4/5, SW. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 20 hours of play were devoted to the singleplayer mode, and the game was completed.
Parents: This game is rated M by the ESRB, and it contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Strong Language. It’s an experience about bloody vengeance and it doesn’t shy away from children being killed. Keep young kids away from it, but show it to older teens so they can’t appreciate its incredibly valuable message.
Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I played the majority of the game without audio and encountered zero difficulties. All dialogue is subtitled and all vital information is provided visually. Subtitles cannot be resized. This game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Yes, the game’s controls are remappable.
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