Captain’s Blood Reboot Shows Nostalgia Alone Isn’t Enough for a Good Game

Not every single video game released has to be a game of the year candidate. Captain’s Blood certainly will not fool anyone into believing it is a good game, perhaps. Just because it is not good, though, does not mean it is not fun. The game is a reboot of an old franchise, and the developer aimed to bring the exact essence that made the game what it was back in 2011. In modern terms, that quality will not hold up. However, the nostalgia the game evokes is fun, a blast from the past in 2025. Sometimes, that is all a game needs for players to enjoy the experience.

Captain’s Blood Lacks Quality; Provides Nostalgic Quantity

PC Gamer gave an in-depth look at the pirate game resurrected decades after it initially began development. The fact is, Captain’s Blood really is not going to be a high-quality, critically acclaimed game in 2025. In fact, the creator, Oleg Klapovskiy, admits as much. The game is not a remaster, it is not enhanced, and it is not modernized. The game was abandoned around 2011, and the game released feels precisely like it was released in 2011, not 2025.

“We’re having fun looking at how people assess it,” Klapovskiy said. “Our goal was to bring it as close to the original as possible. We are not game designers; it’s not our game, we were not working on it from the very beginning. There was a team of creative minds that had the vision for it.”

“If you assess the game by modern standards, I think I would put it at a very low score. I would say, three? Four? But again, that’s not a game from 2025 … Obviously, it has all its charm, all its flaws, and all the vibes are from that era. If you assess it as a game from that time, I would assess it as a 7.5/10 game. It’s all a matter of taste, how [you] approach it.”

Captain’s Blood has stopped and started development repeatedly over the years. The second time, 2006, the game shifted in inspiration a bit, with the fame of God of War coming in around that time. Artem Shchuiko, cofounder of the studio SNEG, says that the imperfections are what make the game fun. “You know that kind of Xbox 360-, PS3-era experience. You get the overhyped game, you know, based on the trailers that it’s not gonna be amazing, but then you play it and it’s exactly a weekend long … it gives you a certain level of joy and you move on. That’s kind of the nostalgic part of this game.”

Captain’s Blood is supposed to show the best and worst of the generation. The developers wanted to show what made the era good, AND what made it bad. They have no interest in hiding or ignoring flaws. Instead, they lean into them as a niche, deliberate strategy. As they say, the goal was to finally finish the game and get it out. Klapovskiy just wants players to have fun. If they are, then he did his job.

“Think about the franchises which we all know now, they’re all making gazillions of dollars. When they were making the first game, it was at first a clunky iteration. Think about Assassin’s Creed, you name it, and [Captain Blood] has this feeling. They clearly were inspired by God of War, they clearly were playing modern stuff back then and they just wanted to make their own … but they didn’t have enough experience, so they got this. All good stories usually start with developers having this first clunky, but promising, game.”

“I think that if you watch the trailers, you can see that we’re trying to make fun even out of ourselves here. We’ll be super proud if people who play it, stream it, write about it, have a smile while playing it … that’s what our industry’s about. It’s about entertaining.”

Captain’s Blood already has a very positive review on Steam, which keys into the value nostalgia brings to the fun value for fans. The game is not good, it is not high quality, it is not perfected, or completely well designed. It is exactly what it wants to be, and for fans, perhaps that is enough.

Final Thoughts

Captain’s Blood is currently available on Steam for PC. The reception has been warm, albeit small. There is a niche that enjoys the game, and perhaps, SNEG can continue with the concept and improve the ideas into a solid franchise. That is down the road, though. For now, just bask in the early 2010s, remind yourself of why the generation has passed, and tell yourself that life was a simpler time back then. In other words, turn into your parent figures. It’s okay, we won’t judge.

Enjoy the full trailer for Captain’s Blood here: