This was fantastic! The level design and visuals were incredible! I love when levels feel real rather than just game levels. I think with as much atmosphere as you put into the game it's really incredible! The audio design is also a super highlight, I was pretty amazed at how complex and understandable the sound was, like when an enemy spots you, or when you're at low health and Renfield starts to breathe heavier and heavier. Y'all understand how sound design is supposed to be done, where it teaches you a bunch about what's going on in game.
Y'all also packed a ton in gameplay-wise. I was pretty amazed with the level of detail and quality that y'all had 3 levels filled with fanciness. I especially liked the last level, the design of it was amazing and really made you feel the finality of the game. The music also helped a bunch, a pretty grand sound track to go with the game helped it feel complete.
I think the game is really good and the mechanic of getting blood is great, it forces the player to stealthily kill enemies first then suck up their blood as they go through. The use of the gun can either headshot the enemies in an instant which feels really good, or body shot them to get them to attack and bring them closer. The knife as a close quarters combat tool for striking an unaware opponent coming around the corner was really cool and helped me stay good on ammo. I liked that there were multiple ways to fire the gun. The AI for your enemies was also amazing, I don't know if you were working off previous code or not but you nailed it! I also loved the enemy design, having templar knights with guns is really funny and really cool. I also loved the siren light fellows, the cages with the skeletons on their backs was also a pretty cool design.
I think these aspects were amazing, I do have a few criticisms though.
I think especially in the last level there's a tough conflict between whether the game wants you to stealth snipe from afar or come in closer to battle the enemies. I think the blood mechanic is already a great way to get the player to move forward so it was a little bit of a surprise to me when I'd lock onto enemies and fire only to miss because my gun recoiled. I can understand why this is since it encourages the player to interact with the enemies closer rather than cower at the top of the stairs but it felt a little tough when I'd fire a bunch in semi mode only to miss more than if I did automatic.
Getting in close with enemies is also a tough thing, it makes sense that you want the player to be shooting from afar since it would just turn into a hack and slash but the knife is a little rough with how easy it is to miss. It seems the hitbox follows the knife animation perfectly which is a good thing, but the hitbox is so small that even when trying to stealth kill someone from behind I might miss, or when I get ready to shank someone coming around the corner it feels like my plan backfired completely when they dodge just a little. The dodging part around the corners could be the excellent AI tho, so if it is disregard that statement because them dodging is a good thing.
I think running is a little too punishing as of now, the game wants you to go through and run to collect blood but running disables pretty much every option you have. I understand not wanted to allow goofy strafe running, but it could be cool instead to have a side step dodge while running. This keeps the momentum of moving fast without screwing up the running forward idea, it also allows the player to move forward and dodge easily behind a wall while coming up to the shooting knights. I understand why the gun is disabled during running but I think the knife should still have some sort of interaction with running, even if it's something as simple as a shank forward that has a longer cool down it keeps better momentum and the player doesn't need to slow down just to try and stab the enemy. I also don't think it would conflict too much with the gunplay and stealth, I think if a running shank had a longer cooldown it would encourage players to stealthily take out enemies before leaving one last enemy alive to strike. Something else about the running is I was also a little caught off guard cause I tend to hold shift a lot out of habit and when I pressed back I started running forward. You could also do something with this like a back dash to get into cover fast.
This might be a bit of a bug but sometimes after running, I tried to use the scope on the gun and it wouldn't register since I clicked right click during the animation. I think this could be fixed by a simple timer check after pressing right click. This is forgivable tho since in a lot of my games I sometimes don't account for the player making their next action while they're still in a different move.
I think overall this was a fantastic entry! I think I was able to write so much because there's so much cool stuff that you all have in your game. This was amazing to see for a game jam because it's pretty much a whole game, all there is to do now is add a little polish to what is pretty much already completely polished. I loved the theming too, encountering Dracula at the end was super cool and he probably enjoyed munching on my blood and the blood gained from the previous dead knights.