Bonjour, mes amis. Today, ‘ere at Beaucoup Trop De Jeux, we are going to talk about the latest, Frenchiest, most omelette-du-fromage-related title since the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity. Featuring musketeers, characters named Josephine, tons of French-sounding gibberish, and the single most French-related expression not a single French person uses in real life as its title, it’s time to talk about Sacre Bleu, which, puns aside, is actually a pretty great indie you should actually take a look at. Allons-y!

The premise is simple, but also very French. You play as the leader of the musketeers, who’s thrown into jail after being falsely accused of a crime. After being helped by a lady scientist, you decide to help her build a skyship in order to escape from the Bastille. The way to acquire all parts of the flying vessel is by exploring every nook and cranny of this pseudo-retro-futuristic castle, in a similar level of technology (and setting) to Steelrising. Josephine won’t help you physically; your most trustworthy companions in this adventure will be your sword, your pistol, and a bundlebuss. A bundlebuss that will be used as a platforming tool, and not a weapon.

That’s the main appeal in Sacre Bleu‘s gameplay loop. The bundlebuss is used to launch yourself with its recoil. You can use it to either throw yourself towards a faraway platform, or as a propulsion tool to gain altitude. You can also combine both strategies in order to solve puzzles, as you can always use three bundlebuss shots before you’re forced to reload it. Don’t worry, you don’t need to think about ammo; reloading is performed automatically when your feet touch any platform.

This platforming system is actually impressively easy to learn. Even if it’s somewhat hard to master, Sacre Bleu does a good job at teaching you its mechanics with increasingly harder challenges and puzzles thrown at you. It’s a linear game with a handful of secrets and unlockables in each level, so it perfectly tests your skills the more you play it. Without a doubt, the platforming gauntlets are Sacre Bleu‘s highlights, as the combat, whilst decent enough, doesn’t reach the same heights.

There are some interesting things about the combat. The bundlebuss can be used to deflect bombs and arrows, but for the most part, you will be using your sword, pistol and bombs to defeat a wide variety of enemies scattered throughout the levels. Nothing wrong about the premise, but I didn’t exactly understand the combat’s grading system, and I wasn’t exactly a fan of how repetitive these sections felt. Most levels in Sacre Bleu are divided into platforming sections and combat arenas; the former are where the game feels creative and fun, whilst the latter feel standard, somewhat predictable. Again, it’s not bad at all, it’s just that the game feels more creative when it’s about puzzle solving and jumping around.

As for the rest, we should take a moment to talk about Sacre Bleu‘s pretty good presentation, both when it comes to its visuals and sound. As simple as they are, considering the game’s budget and scope, I truly feel the developers were able to come up with some neat creative solutions to make this platformer stand out from the other ten billion peers released weekly on all platforms.

I like the juxtaposition between cardboard-esque characters with polygonal backgrounds. It’s a colorful and charming game with some creative environments. The game looks somewhat simplistic, but at the same time, you can notice a lot of care and effort has been put in the visual department. The soundtrack is decent enough, but what really won me over was the voice acting. It features overexaggerated French accents in the initial cutscene, as well as French-sounding Banjo-inspired gibberish when talking to characters throughout the game.

Sacre Bleu is a silly but lighthearted adventure with some inventive platforming and level design. I loved how the game managed to progressively teach me all of its mechanics through some organic difficulty growth, and also gave me reasons to replay each level by adding little secrets and unlockables here and there. It’s just occasionally hampered by some less than spectacular combat sections, but the puzzle-solving more than makes up for it. At the end of the day, even if it’s not spectacular, it’s a pretty fun game, of très bonne qualité.

Graphics: 8.0 I like the juxtaposition between cardboard-esque characters with polygonal backgrounds. It’s a colorful and charming game with some creative environments.	Gameplay: 8.5 I was really impressed with the fact that the game managed to make its physics-based bundlebuss platforming feel easy to pick up and explore. The combat could have been a bit more interesting, but the platforming more than makes up for it.
Sound: 7.5 The soundtrack is decent enough, but what really won me over was the voice acting. It features overexaggerated French accents in the initial cutscene, as well as French-sounding Banjo-inspired gibberish when talking to characters throughout the game.	Fun Factor: 7.5 A silly but lighthearted adventure with some inventive platforming and level design, just occasionally hampered by some less than spectacular combat sections.
Final Verdict: 8.0

Sacre Bleu is available now on PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB and Asus ROG Ally.

A copy of Sacre Bleu was provided by the publisher.