Price: £ 7.49
Developer: Rebelde Act Study/Sneg
Editor: Court
Platform: personal computer
Originally launch in 2001, Severance: Blade of Darkness was an innovative tok role play ‘N’ Slash notable for its advanced dynamic lighting engine and brutal and challenging combat. It has always been one of my favorite games, but after a poor commercial reception to the launch, the game has spent most of the last two decades in language in murky abandonment.
Fortunately, the game recently received a second life opportunity thanks to the editor SNEG, who has acquired the rights of the game and has relaunted it in Steam with a slightly shorter title and some very necessary features. As I was too young to review it, he first launched himself, and I will probably never have the opportunity to write again about that, I thought about taking advantage of this opportunity to say “Hey you! Play Blade of Darkness, You Lemon.”
Blade of Darkness’s ambition is clear from the moment you choose with which character to play. There are four to choose from, Sargon The Knight, Naglfar The Dwarf, Zoe The Amazon and Turkaram The Barbarian. Each character not only has its own set of movements and weapons domain (Sargon is a sword and shield partner, while Zoe prefers spears and dust pools), they also have their own initial locations. Sargon, for example, begins the game with a daring escape from a castle of evil knights, while Turkaram searches in the damn burial land of his homeland for a circle of sacred stone.
Each character has its own benefits and inconveniences. Well, wait for Naglfar, that people are a little garbage. In any case, Sargon’s competition with the shields makes it a good initial letter, as well as Zoe’s agility, letting it avoid enemy attacks easily. However, for me, Blade or Darkness always have a leg on Turkaram. Not simply because Grizzled Face occupies the cover of the game and its load screen, but also because the main inspiration of Blade of Darkness is Conan the barbarian.
The world of Blade of Darkness greatly channels the Brutal Fantasy stories, fast already without context of Robert E. Howard. The strengths, temples, mines and tombs that comprise the 14 levels of the game (not including the four introductory levels) introduced with only a few lines of dialogue that summarize the history of that location. The rest is left to level design and its imagination. The levels of the game paint an image of a fantasy world slowly decline in oblivion, where noble knights fall into poisoned swords of wild orcs, and where the dead are restless in the tombs.
The whole game has a mysterious atmosphere and another world. You rarely know the names of the enemies you face. You can guess the names of some: it is quite obvious how a skeleton looks, after all. But others could be one of several fantasy creatures, or a difference from anything in traditional fantasy. The boss without skin that you find on the island of Karum, for example, is apparently a vampire, but I only know because or an achievement that you now get when you defeat it.
The Minimalist narration of Blade of Darkness was criticized at the time of its launch, but makes sense in a game in which most of the conversation is made with your weapon. Blade of Darkness’s fight holds a notable well. Each character has a variety of basic attacks, next to a special boxes that are unlocked as you level up, and a unique movement for each weapon that your character can. You can also block enemy attacks, either with a shield or its sword. However, both are fragile and will break easily. So, the best way to avoid being beaten is through careful standing work and dodge.
It has been getting used to the character’s movement for a while, which feels rigid compared to modern body combat games. But combat animations are slippery and flow together, and it doesn’t take long to enter the rhythms of the battle. The fights are also satisfactory incredible, not only because you can leave the limbs and heads of the enemies, with guts or viscous blood sprinkling the stump, but also because your enemies are really dangerous. Skeletons and orcs are particularly complicated. It is easy to be growl in its movements sets and is pirate in pieces. But even humble elves can make a serious dent in their health bar, especially if they are subject to their or attack from the range with an arc and arrow.
The whole game is simply a wonderful adventure. The leveling is fine, and you are never far from collecting a new weapon, while each level is full of unpleasant surprises that keep you alert. However, there are some problems. Some weapons and skills are better than the ethers, with several bees too complicated to perform or walk too much time to complete to be properly. In addition, while the fight has aged well, the NO platform. Some of the game’s jump challenges are extremely clumsy, and God forbids that you fight on a narrow shelf.
However, for an action game of twenty years, Blade or Darkness feels incredible fresh and propulsive. It also looks fantastic for your age. Some credit must go to SNEG for this, which makes the game work consistently in modern machines, adding adequate support for panoramic screens and HD resolutions. But most of the credit is still with the rebel law. The dynamic lighting and the shadows of Blade of Darkness have little power in the last two decades. They contribute greatly to the atmosphere of bad mood and oppressive, and the game really knows how to put them into play, often sailing through the tone environments with a hand torch.
If you missed the Blade of Darkness for the first time, now weight for the miserable £ 7.50 that Sneg is carrying. Doublably, so if you are a fan of the Souls games. Blade of Darkness is not on the same timely. He left seven years before Demon’s Souls and does not have a real causal link with the Landmark Software series. But there are enough similarities between the two to be likely to enjoy one if he liked the other.
