still unrivalled, one of a kind.

User Rating: 9.7 | Severance: Blade of Darkness PC
it twists my stomach every time i see someone rates it 7 or something, it's just not right to rate a game that's got no competition in it's genre. there are two games that try to do justice to melee combat, the first, Die by the sword, being too ephemeral to succeed. comparing it to other hack'n slash fantasy action, like rune, is pointless, since the combat part in the former was reduced to tapping mouse buttons fast enough. the story of BoD is they had an idea of cool combat system and built a game around it. so it's all about melee, and one just can't tell how cool it it unless he tries. BoD is just plain gore fest, killing opponents with sharp, heavy metal objects elevated to the level of art. you'd be surprised how you'd start to love the sight of blood stains on walls and floors, soaking the hot desert sand, or cold caps of snow. running down cold stone walls and pavements. squirting with funny sound out of a neck, where just a moment and one swing of a sword ago the head of a villain needing punishment used to be. the engine of blood is so good and realistic it's still unrivalled in modern titles, and u cant tell how cool it is to implement real fountains of blood in game unless you see it. you'll find yourself replaying the game again and again just to experience more of it, you'll be arranging situations where it would look more picturesque, like chopping few enemies to pieces with cleanly executed powerful combo in one place, like staircase, and letting their heads, corpses, legs and arms roll down the stairs along with streams of blood. that's the sight that's hard to forget. wanna see a guy resembling a hedgehog because of number of arrows you just put in his back? the guy leans through the wall, the streams of blood start to flow down the stone wall and colour the snow at the base of the wall bright red. u can almost feel it melt, and slowly freezing afterwards. i know it sounds almost sick, but the game is about it, and if one tries it out, he'll understand the point exactly :) heck! i'm installing it again ang going to go through it for... 20th time?