Eksil Team’s Acts of Blood is out now on PC, and it asks one thing of you: close the distance and hit. The game is a third-person beat ’em up built on fast, brutal hand-to-hand combat. Single player only. It is not trying to be anything else.
Trailer, via Fajrul FN – Eksil Team.
Bandung, Rebuilt as a Fighting Pit
The setting is the most specific thing Acts of Blood has going for it. Bandung is a real city in Indonesia, and the game bends it into a dystopia. Eksil Team develops and publishes the game itself, which sets it apart from a studio working under a large label.
The genre tags tell you what to expect. Fighting. Hack and slash. Beat ’em up. Adventure. Indie. Those labels stack up because the game does not sit in one lane.
Themes are listed as action. There is no romance here, no mystery, no slow build.
The Combat Is the Entire Argument
Third person. Single player. Fast-paced, brutal hand-to-hand combat. That is the core loop as the people who made it state it, and the game lives or dies there.
Brutal is the operative word in the pitch. This is not advertised as a game about elegant technique. It is advertised as a game about force, delivered quickly and at close range.
A beat ’em up that leans on speed and brutality can burn bright and short. Acts of Blood does not advertise length. It advertises intensity.
What Acts of Blood Lists, and What It Does Not
The source material is thin on specifics — no named characters, no level list, no story beats beyond the setting. Eksil Team is selling a feeling, not a plot.
Here is how the game’s stated features break down.
| Feature | Acts of Blood |
|---|---|
| Developer | Eksil Team |
| Publisher | Eksil Team |
| Platform | PC (Microsoft Windows) |
| Genres | Fighting, hack and slash/beat ’em up, adventure, indie |
| Themes | Action |
| Modes | Single player |
| Perspective | Third person |
The self-published line is the one that stands out. Eksil Team is both developer and publisher. One team wears both hats.
A Short List of What the Game States
Ranked by how much they distinguish it from the field:
- The setting. Dystopian Bandung is not a backdrop anyone else is using. It gives Acts of Blood a place to stand.
- The combat focus. Fast, brutal hand-to-hand is a clear promise, and it is the whole of the pitch.
- The genre mix. Fighting, hack and slash, beat ’em up, adventure, indie — the blend keeps it from reading as a straight copy of any one ancestor.
- The self-published independence. One team made it and put it out.
What is missing from that list is story. The source gives no characters, no named antagonist, no arc. For a game that calls itself an adventure as well as a brawler, that is a gap. Adventure implies a journey with stakes. Acts of Blood has a city and a fist.
Where the Information Runs Out
A beat ’em up lives on variety. New enemies, new moves, new reasons to keep hitting. The listing for Acts of Blood names none of that. It names a mode, a perspective, a setting and a combat style. That is a foundation, not a full house.
Single player only is the stated mode. Beat ’em ups have long been social games — the arcade cabinet, the second controller, the friend who takes the other side of the screen. Acts of Blood cuts that off.
PC is the only platform listed. If you do not play on PC, the game is not available to you.
The themes tag says action. Just action. No horror, no drama, no comedy.
The Case for Acts of Blood
Here is what the game has that most indie brawlers do not: a real place. Bandung is not a generic neon city or a fantasy kingdom. It is a specific city in Indonesia, turned into a dystopia, and that specificity is worth something on its own.
The combat promise is also cleaner than most. Fast-paced, brutal, hand-to-hand. No hedging. No bullet-time gimmick mentioned, no stat tree, no crafting system bolted on. The hitting is the point, at least as advertised.
And the pitch is narrow by design. One city, one perspective, one mode, one style of combat. That is a small surface, and small surfaces are easier to get right than large ones.
The Verdict on Acts of Blood
Acts of Blood is a narrow game, and it knows it. It takes one city, one perspective, one mode and one style of combat, and it builds everything on top of that. It is not trying to be a role-playing game or a shooter or a co-op party game.
The problem is that the stated terms are all we have. The listing does not say how long the game is, how many enemies it throws at you, or whether the dystopia of Bandung is explored or just used as wallpaper. Those are the questions that decide whether a beat ’em up is worth your time or just your afternoon.
For players who want a brawler with a real sense of place and no interest in hand-holding, that may be enough. For players who need a story to pull them through, the listing offers nothing to go on. The combat is the entire argument, and the game makes it loudly.
What is clear is that Eksil Team made the game it wanted to make, at least in the sense that it built and shipped the thing itself: self-published, single player, PC only, set in a dystopian Bandung, built on fast and brutal hand-to-hand combat.
That is a specific and uncompromised package. It will not be for everyone. It was not meant to be.
Score: 6 of 10. Clay Tribune’s verdict rests on what the game itself puts on the table: a genuinely distinctive setting and a clean, undiluted pitch, held back by the thinness of everything around that pitch. The setting and the discipline earn the six. The unanswered questions about length, variety and story keep it from going higher.
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