All 3D games ever made have struggled with presenting enjoyable melee combat. In that respect, Blade of Darkness is very special, for the entire game has been built around melee combat, and built well. Fighting in BOD seems to have a certain rhythm and solidity to it, mainly because after starting a certain move your character’s feet participate too, so you cannot just run away in any direction with your sword still swinging like in most other games. Standing your ground requires learning how to fight: besides learning the combos, well-timed dodging, parrying and shield blocking are all necessary. Dodging and hitting can both be done with mouse, simply by holding down the right or left button and swinging the mouse to the side. Add keyboard’s direction keys with correct timing and you have a mean selection of combos, all of which are also nicely listed in the console help menu. The learning curve might seem a bit daunting at first, but the developers do a good job of introducing new combos and abilities at a steady rate. Of the four characters you can choose to play with, two practice long range (Amazon, Barbarian) and two close combat styles (Dwarf, Knight). All characters have universal moves plus the character- and weapon-specific moves, which the player will gain in the course of the game (e.g. Barbarian can do character-specific combos with two handed swords and axes such as deathdealer, and anybody with a longsword can do a hellswing). Since all character look different, their combos have different animations (and patterns). By killing one gets experience points, which enable to unlocking new weapons and combos. Oh, and if you are wondering what “Severance” means in the game’s title– why, of course, it is the severance of the limbs! :) The tremendous gore is for many players the main reason to play BOD. To illustrate the point, here is a quote from avid player Gedas: “Imagine giving a lethal strike to an orc; as it is wandering mortally wounded, not yet falling down, you turn around gracefully and cut his head off – it flies to the side, and the body falls down. There is a short time window for this move, but I found myself trying to behead the enemies in style all the way throughout the game, just because it looks so cool.” BOD has become known for enabling to take dead enemies' limb and use it to club the alive ones, but thatdoes not look nearly as satisfying as the above-mentioned beheading. Besides the great animation, BOD also features nice lighting effects (picture), shadows from the torch playing dynamically on the walls look spectacular. Also, the game environment lets to bash chests, barrels, doors, and throw rocks, but that does not seem to add significanty to the game as the non-combat activity can be best characterized by constant and tedious key-searching and exploration. Locations of Blade of Darkness feature places like mine, medieval castle or frozen keep surroundings. There are too many corridor fights, according to Gedas the swinging camera and stumbling against the walls is not too fun while fighting, he would like at least an easy strafe-move to position oneself best in the middle of the corridor. The list of flaws in BOD’s design as discovered by Gedas goes on, although that should be seen as a testament to the ambitious scope of the game, not as a reasoning of why this game is not fun, because it is. To sum up, producing a game with totally enjoyable melee combat is still by large a work in progress, but Blade Of Darkness is a great, and definitely not the last, step in that direction. (thanks Gedas!) 17/20 - Based on : 1 HOUR 4/4 PRODUCTION VALUES - Good lights, well-working animations, well-implemented melee combat. 4/4 ACCESSIBILITY - Melee combat is rather complicated but is taught step-by-step. 2/4 PACING - Too much keysearching and lots of fighting - then again this game is mainly for those who enjoy melee combat. 4/4 INNOVATION - Melee, beating opponents with their own limbs :). 3/4 IMMERSION - It's very much there, except when it gets repetitive.
Other Helpful Reviews for Severance: Blade of Darkness
first of all, consider this game's age. it's been a long time, yet this game still has a lot to offer. Graphics: it was good at the time it was released. Even when comparing to today's standard this game still has inc... Read Full Review
Blade of Darkness (AKA Severance) may be the most underrated game I ever game across. BOD is a third person game, and the reason while I did not say shooter is because BOD is one of those rare games which tried to pu... Read Full Review
