Blood Bar Tycoon - PC Review

In the background is a bar with a red haze like filter over it. It has neon lights along table, wall and bar trims. Neon lights on the wall say CYBER in pink. There are also various customers standing and sitting. In front of this are too deathly pale vampires; [left] a male vampire with a gaunt face and protruding fanged front teeth, and [right] a woman with ginger slicked back long hair, red dress and lipstick, black gloves, holding a blood filled martini glass with an orange slice. The white text at the front of all of this reads BLOOD BAR TYCOON.

Read Time:4 Minute, 49 Second

Popping up out of the darkness is Blood Bar Tycoon. A management game developed by Clever Trickster Studios. We’ll watch as we spruce up run-down buildings and turn them into well-established bars. All while making sure our earthly patrons don’t become wise to the real clientele. Blood Bar Tycoon is out now on Steam for £16.99, with a Supporter Pack for a further £3.39. The pack has gold cosmetics for you to use in-game.

Care to have a drink… and a bite?

A vampire wearing a yellow coat with blue lining. His hair is red in the style of a pompadour. behind him is the map. Below is a new announcement with minor new below it. — Well, a rising star can only appear at night right?

Gameplay

There isn’t really a story for Blood Bar Tycoon. We go through a tutorial with several vampires teaching us specific tasks. They show how to start and properly run a bar. For Vampires! We will serve humans most of the time, as they will serve as both paying customers and walking cattle. Through finishing small missions (these further act as guides) we’ll understand how to make our establishment more appealing and also satisfy the humans needs.

Various NPC all walking around a small bar space. One is serving drinks while some are stood standing. A large red machine is seen in the back. The top left shows a room with pale individuals who are vampires. — Happiness served with a smile.

There isn’t much to manage besides having space and booze on tap. When clicking on a human, you can see more details at to their preference for booze and their blood type. Alcohol isn’t made and is easily bought from Papa Grenier. Another need which I didn’t feel overly needed to do was fun. All the work is done by your minions. These guys are hired through the Vamp’hire Agency and will cost a small fee. You’ll be able to check their stats and traits before you hire them. Minions will need to feed, but this is luckily taken out of your own blood reserves. Other than that, you can make them autonomous and change their priorities. Like dedicating one to cleaning while another serves drinks.

The real customers

Now, let’s move on to the actual clients of Blood Bar Tycoon. Vampires don’t really have much that is different compared to humans. But they pay more, which is a plus. They have different preferences for the way they want their blood. This is when we can do research to get different blood-draining methods. but I won’t spoil them.

Three devices lined up with two of them with a human in them. One is a block of ice while the other is on a rotating floor next to a heater. — Which do you prefer, flame grilled or chilled?

When needing to collect victims, there are two ways to so. One is for a minion who can capture them with hypnosis. Or have a trap machine on the bar floor, such as an arcade machine trap.

Don’t draw attention to yourself

The most important thing while doing all this, is not to rise the humans awareness. You can avoid this by making sure that bodies aren’t left out to rot and blood spills are cleaned up. To remove cadavers, you can use a man hole or acid dip. If other humans see you, it will cause them to panic and run away. Raise the awareness up enough and you will get a raid from hunters.

A woman wearing a brown fedora and long coat is investigating. The red circle with a question mark shows she has noticed something odd. Other symbols are for the machine to say when its done. Two cells are visible. — What are you doing back here!?

Before hunters arrive, however, you may notice a couple of NPC wearing brown hats and overalls. These are investigators, and they’ll try to snoop around. I really enjoyed making my minions bring them back to the storage room and quietly dispose of them.

Graphics & Audio

The quirkiness and fun of Blood Bar Tycoon really speak through the visuals. Character designs, while simple, emphasise their cartoony looks and personalities. Papa Grenier is my favourite design, especially since he reminds me of another favourite character of mine from Smite, Baron Samedi. Fitting with the vampire theme of the game, the music is kooky and Halloween-like, and fun to listen to.

An NPC T-posing at a table. Three other NPC are in view all wearing server uniforms. Two more people are below wearing hard hats. — There are even worse creatures here than Vampires or Drunkards.

I also found the record scratch sound effect when you pause the time funny. The themes for the bar are great and some really stand out most, specifically the Cyber, Kawaii and Vampire themes. However, I wish you could customise minion outfits more, particularly to match the room themes. The only issue that appeared was a random customer T-posing. It didn’t break anything, but it was funny.

Longevity

After roughly 7 hours and finishing a few levels/missions, I still have a lot to do. Blood Bar Tycoon has a sandbox mode for the more creative individuals. And you can always return to previous levels and redo them.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Blood Bar Tycoon is a great management game. I like how it’s simple and doesn’t become over bearing with tonnes of things to track all at once. The game itself runs great and I enjoy the various characters, animations, and visual themes it has. It reminds me of Two Point Hospital and if you’re looking for an easy to learn management, then Blood Bar Tycoon isn’t a bad shout.

There are a few tweaks it could do with, however. For example, you can’t place furniture right by windows, especially when there is space. Some objects like the Cells placement square (the one where it shows the sizes) is a little off centre. And I wish we could place walls in already established rooms.

Now, besides the stuff mentioned above, I am really enjoying it. That’s why I’m giving it the Thumb Culture Gold Award.

Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.

About Author

Kyle McGrath

I’ve enjoyed video games for as long as I remember and I don’t think there isn’t a game I wouldn’t play. For reviews, I try my best to make them simple and easy to understand. With so many games released daily, I attempt to play them all.

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Blood Bar Tycoon – PC Review