It’s all-out vampire war as social deduction game Blood Bound returns to the light

There’s a goofy B-movie charm to the cover of the original Blood Bound, with two impeccably-haired photorealistic vampires gawping at each other over identical very-fake-looking blades, with one pulling the expression of a man who’s just inhaled a fart in a lift and the other seemingly mid-yawn.

Blood Bound’s new edition isn’t quite as oddly charming when it comes to its revised art, but it probably captures the darker tone of the blood-sucking social deduction game a little better.

The overhauled artwork and design are the only differences between this year’s resurrection of Kalle Krenzer’s title and the 2013 original, with gameplay and mechanics remaining completely untouched.

Six to 12 players take on the roles of vampires in opposing clans attempting to eliminate the leader of their rival gang.

In an interesting twist to other social deduction games, players reveal their allegiance to the person next to them from the get-go, meaning there’s an immediate tension in the group.

Each turn, one player wields a dagger and can choose to pass it to another player or attack someone, dealing a wound and revealing a piece of information about them – rank or clan.

As either clan wins when the top-ranking player on the opposite site is dead, giving away either detail can be fatal – for the attacker, too, as the person attacked becomes the next to control the dagger.

Blood Bound looks to be an interesting entry in the social deduction genre – and if the art style put you off before, there’s now little reason not to check it out. It’ll be out this autumn.