Blade of Darkness Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I figured its time for another review and this time its a new one based on a video game I've been playing and the game in question is Blade of Darkness, which was originally a PC game released in 2001 and was called Severance: Blade of Darkness, which I played a lot back in the days of its release. However it was remastered a few years ago for its 20th anniversary and is now available on Xbox and PS5 consoles, so I got it for the Xbox Series X. 

So, after 23 years on from its initial release, let's see how Blade of Darkness fairs...

STORY

So, a bit about the story of the game which isn't too complicated as it follows the adventures of a chosen one to fight against evil forces lead by the evil necromancer, Dal Gurak. There are also four playable characters, Tukaram, a Barbarian, Sargon, a knight, Naglfar a dwarf and Zoe an Amazon all of whom will share the same destiny (based on who you choose to play of course) to claim the Sword of Ianna, that will help end Gurak's evil reign and destroy the Chaos Child, who the chosen one must traverse into the Abyss to fight to conquer evil once and for all.

THOUGHTS

All though the game itself might be showing its age in terms of its visuals and combat, Blade of Darkness is still an excellent action video game, which is now rightly seen a pioneer of what would become Souls-like games in the future as Blade of Darkness predates Demon's Souls by 8 years. Similar also to the Souls games, Blade of Darkness is also very challenging and has plenty of tough enemies to fight as your character will fight their way through a slew of enemies that range from easy to downright brutal. However, the game also has an impressive visual style with its varied use of environments and lighting make it also stand out for its time but i'll say more about that later on. The game also neatly explains its lore through a series of narrations, some even by the characters themselves.

GAMEPLAY

As for the gameplay, this section will be split into different sub sections, so I will start below with the combat. 

COMBAT & WEAPONS

So, as for the combat in the game, the game uses a 3rd person perspective and the combat moves are surprsingly varied as each character will have their own weapons and combos that are associated with each one. The characters can also use shields for blocking enemy attacks or in the case of the barbarian, Tukaram, he can deflect attacks by two handing his weapons.The characters can also dodge around enemy attacks and jump back from them when needed. The combat can also be quite bloody and graphic, as your character can hack off the limbs and heads of enemies and they themselves can also be sliced and diced up! You do however have the option to turn off the gore and blood if you don't want to view it.   

As for the weapons, each character is given different types of weapons, e.g. Sargon the knight will use straight, curved swords or maces, whereas Tukaram will use two handed swords and axes, Naglfar will use hammers and Zoe uses spears and bows. All the characters can use a standard bow throughout the game as well and this can come in handy for use in certain areas to unlock doors and passages although they have a limited amount of arrows available to them. 

CHARACTERS & LEVELS

As for the characters themselves, as previously mentioned, you have the choice of playing four different warriors, Tukaram the barbarian, Sargon the knight, Naglfar the dwarf and Zoe the Amazon. Each character has different characteristics such with Tukaram and Naglfar using heavier more strength based weapons, whereas Sargon will use dexterous swords and Zoe also uses her skill and dexterity in weilding spears. 

Each character will also have a set level of HP with Sargon's base HP starting at 100, Tukaram at 80, Nalgfar at 120 and Zoe at 60 and as they fight on, their levels will increase as will their HP, defence and attack power. Also as they level up, they can unlock special moves for the weapons they carry, which will tell you at what specific level they can be unlocked in the menu. When the characters take damage from enemies, they can also use healing potions to cure them that come in different sizes from 50 up to full health, some of which can be obtained from killing enemies themselves.

ENEMIES 

As for the enemies themselves, there are a fairly varied number of enemies to be found in the game, that range from basic foes up to very difficult bosses and other powerful adversaries. The basic enemies in the game tend to be orcs, which screech as they approach you and weild maces, axes or even bows and there are also the more powerful orcs, or trolls, who weild maces and axes also only they hit much harder. The more powerful enemies you will face include Golems, who are large man-like stone creatures that hit like trucks and can really chunk your health bar with their attacks, Minotaurs, who are beast like creatures that weild cleavers and worst yet hammers, that deal monstrous damage. Other enemies also include skeletons that can hit pretty hard with swords and axes, zombie soldiers, who are pretty weak but can also poison you with vomit attacks (lovely!). Lastly there are also the knights, who can be quite tough also as they hit pretty hard and use curved swords that can poison you. In fact poison can be problematic in the game, as enemies will often fire poison arrows at you, so its best to try and save your potions when you need them to cure it. 

ENVRIONMENTS, TRAPS & RUNES.

The game also features some varied environments where your character can explore castles, fortresses, open mountain regions, crypts, temples and towers, so you won't be short on areas to explore in the game. As for traps, there are some areas that do require a lot of caution as there are some nasty traps to be found here, such as collapsing floors, spike pits, saw blade platforms and of course deadly laser beams. As for the runes, there are six magical runes to be found in the game that will allow your character to weild the sword of Ianna and unleash its full power, however if you don't get all six runes, you won't be able to use this sword at its maximum effect.

GRAPHICS AND MUSIC

As for the graphics, the game of course being released back in 2001, does look somewhat dated by today's standards but having said that, Blade of Darkness still looks pretty good thanks to its varied enviornments and impressive use of lighting. The character models also do look dated and of their time but they still aren't too bad and the gory effects of the enemies limbs being severed are still pretty effective too if you like that sort of thing! 

As for the music, the score is really good and was composed by Oscar Araujo and its what you might come to expect from a swords and sorcery RPG (well not much sorcery it has to be said!). The score is also pretty varied in its themes and mixes themes of adventure, drama and horror very well and it has plenty of atmosphere and suspense to it making it well worth a listen. 

FLAWS

As for flaws, well yes Blade of Darkness isn't quite perfect.

For starters, I'd have to say the combat even though it is pretty good for the most part, it also feels a bit clunky at times, particularly when you are trying to circle enemies or dodge a character, plus locking onto enemies is easy enough but you can also easily lose sight of them between pillars or other objects. The combos however are still quite varied and impressive at least for Sargon and Tukaram's characters although Zoe's basic combos are pretty limited to just two but each of her weapons still has its own unique special skill and I can't speak for Naglfar's combos as I have played as him yet (but have heard he is the worst character to play as). 

I also felt that the game as it goes on in terms of difficulty can become a bit over the top as you face endless armies of enemies, and you go from one room to another facing more and more, it can get a bit tiring after a while. This also raises a point to do with the enemy variety, which is sadly lacking at the game progresses we get more and more of the same enemies. I mean as it goes on, we get more trolls, more orcs, more skeletons, more golems, minotaurs and of course more knights and just starts to become a bit samey after a while.

The enemy difficulty can also be a bit too overtuned at times for me personally, as there are some enemies, particularly the golems and minotaurs, who can really chunk the crap out of your character with great ease, leaving you dead within the space of a few hits! So, this really does force you to be careful with your dodging and timing when getting in your strikes otherwise you are in for a lot of pain!

I also found the saving system to be fine as you can save and reload as you like, however I did find the comments the developers add in a bit annoying based on the frequency of how much you save. So, if you save very little, you will get a comment such as "awesome" or "heroic" but if you save too much you end up getting "overcautious" and even "lame". I mean this game is pretty tough and its easy to make mistakes and die, so I think there's nothing wrong with being a bit overcautious here! 

I also felt that if you reach the penultimate level of the game (or final level depending) at the Tower of Dal Gurak and you don't have all six runes, you cannot use their Sword of Ianna properly, which sucks in itself. However the game does give you the chance to go back and find any missing runes, but on revisiting the required levels to get them, instead of the standard enemies being there, you get these annoying teleporting monsters and vampires that appear eveywhere slashing at you. So, it begs the question of why did they need to change them up??! I think the developers just like punishing gamers for not picking up the runes first time round, which is hardly fair.

Anway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Blade of Darkness even after 23 years still remains an excellent RPG that paved the way for future games like it, especially the Souls games and like those games, it offers a solid and challenging combat experience. And of course the graphics are pretty dated and the combat at times can be clunky and the enemy difficulty can also be OTT, but if you can forgive the game all this and you like a challenge, then you are sure to like this one and its well worth checking out. 

So, I will rate Blade of Darkness.

8.5 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will return with another post hopefully soon.

Until then its bye the now!