Blood Reaver

The zombies game CoD stopped making

Blood Reaver entered Early Access April 15, 2026 from solo developer and publisher Hell Byte Studios, following roughly two years of public demos and closed playtests dating back to a 2024 Steam page launch. It's a dark-fantasy, round-based FPS for one to four players, players become cursed Blood Reavers fighting endless waves of demons with guns and forbidden magic, unlocking new areas and stronger gear as rounds climb. The comparison nearly every reviewer reaches for is unavoidable and clearly intentional: this is built as a spiritual successor to classic Call of Duty Zombies, specifically the World at War through Black Ops 3 era that many longtime fans feel the actual CoD franchise has since abandoned. It launched to a Very Positive reception, 195 reviews, roughly 85%.

A loop that scratches an old itch

The single most consistent praise in the review sample is how faithfully Blood Reaver replicates that classic zombies gameplay loop: start with a weak sidearm in a small area, earn points killing enemies, unlock doors and stronger weapons, manage a shrinking margin for error as difficulty escalates. Reviewers who grew up on World at War, Black Ops, and Black Ops 2 and 3 describe genuine nostalgia, several explicitly framing the game as filling a gap left by the CoD franchise's modern zombies output. The difficulty is intentionally punishing in the classic style, with several reviewers calling the struggle to survive past the early rounds "frustrating in a good way" rather than a design flaw.

Weapons and craft that punch above the price

Beyond the core loop, reviewers consistently single out weapon and ability design as a genuine strength. Gun models draw specific praise for their visual detail, wood-and-metal craftsmanship, filigree, upgrade camos, and the roster of special weapons and ultimate abilities, including a well-liked scythe, get called out as creative rather than generic. Several reviewers explicitly compare the current single map and weapon count favorably to the amount of content classic Call of Duty Zombies maps offered at a similar stage, treating it as a promising foundation rather than a finished product.

Thin content, and real technical rough edges

The most consistent and fair criticism is simply that there isn't much here yet: one map, a limited weapon and equipment roster, and only a single easter egg quest at the time of review. Multiple reviewers frame this honestly as expected for Early Access rather than a dealbreaker, but it's a real gap for a genre where map variety and long-term unlocks are central to replay value. On the technical side, performance and optimization issues show up across a wide spread of hardware, including reviewers running high-end systems who report unexpectedly low frame rates, and audio mixing is inconsistent enough that several reviewers report dying to demons they couldn't hear sneaking up behind them, a serious issue in a genre built around positional awareness.

Balance still finding its footing

Reviewers describe demon difficulty scaling unevenly in later rounds, with speed-boosted enemies in particular singled out as disproportionately punishing relative to the weapons available to counter them. A few reviewers note the game has already been rebalanced once since launch and treat that responsiveness as a good sign, while others say certain guns still feel underpowered for how far into a run you need to progress before affording them. None of this reads as fundamentally broken, more as the kind of tuning any Early Access horde shooter needs to work through with player feedback. A few reviewers also mention that movement and turning currently feel stiff, closer to piloting something heavy than the snappy strafing typical of modern shooters, though opinions split on whether that weight suits the game's deliberate, methodical pacing or simply needs smoothing out in a future pass.

Co-op that mostly works, one notable gap

Four-player online co-op earns solid marks in the sample, with reviewers reporting no game-ending bugs even if the overall experience still feels a bit rough around the edges. The one structural complaint that recurs is the absence of local split-screen co-op, a feature some reviewers consider close to a genre tradition given the franchise this game is directly channeling, and its absence is called out as making the current release feel less complete than it otherwise would.

Value and where this is headed

Reviewers overwhelmingly treat $14.99 as a fair, even generous, price for what's here, particularly given the pace of Hell Byte Studios' monthly content updates since launch. Several frame their purchase explicitly as support for a solo developer making a genre of game that's become rare, rather than a verdict on the current state of the content, and multiple reviewers say they plan to return with each future update rather than treating this as a finished purchase today.

Who should join the fight

Blood Reaver is for longtime Call of Duty Zombies fans specifically, especially those who fell off after Black Ops 3, who want that exact gameplay loop with a demonic reskin and don't mind buying into an actively developing Early Access title. Players looking for a large map roster, polished performance, or a complete package right now should wait for a few more content updates before diving in.

The verdict

Blood Reaver gets the hardest part, the actual round-based survival loop and weapon feel, remarkably right for an Early Access debut from a small studio, and that's earned it a devoted, patient audience. What's missing is simply volume: more maps, more weapons, and more polish, all things a steady update cadence suggests are coming, but that make this an easier recommendation to wait on than to buy at full price today.