Blade of Darkness – Return of the Legend re-release review Review

A surprising re-release of the Action game Severance: Blade of Darkness which gave players plenty of heat well before your Dark Souls release, is available on Steam. It’s a great moment to reminisce and play an action game that was among the top brutal games in the past.

• Producer: Rebel Act Studios, General Arcade, Fire Falcom
• Publisher: SNEG
• Date of release: 7 October 2021

The first slasher released in 2001. It the cult status only grew in the course of time. At the time it was released, it was financially unprofitable and did not receive a proper sequel and was pulled from all digital stores. Fortunately that it was re-released by the General Arcade team worked hard on the re-releaseso that anyone who is interested can enjoy these classics from the past and I’ve written brief reviews on the occasion.

Do not throw tomatoes at me If I upset your nostalgia, as I’ve never played the game in its original form and I’ll be looking at Blade of Darkness from a “newbie” viewpoint.

In essence, the new release included a few minor changes. Support for widescreen monitors and resolutions of up to 4K was included, certain image adjustments were made and the performance of the game was enhanced. The outdated graphics, the clumsy motion animations and, most important, the gameplay remains in place, which will assist you in embracing the spirit of previous projects more quickly.

The game follows an epic but simple storyline – we discover ourselves in a gloomy fantasy world, where something happened, and as a result, the evil forces and the hordes of terrifying creatures have invaded the Central Kingdoms. What happens to the selected player is shared with four other heroes who’ve already battled the demons of Chaos One of them must locate an elusive Sword of Ianna, give it the power of runes and take the darkness’s leaders away.

The plot takes us to the four main characters that represent the different classes: the knight Sargon and the barbarian Tukarama and the Amazon Zoe and finally, the dwarf Naglfara. Each of them has their own range of abilities and weapons and, as such, the weak warrior has the best defense and strength, however his height impacts his ability to attack. Tukarama has a strong physique, however has issues with stamina. Each of the first-level faces has its own story behind it. This is among the things I like about old games and it is evident in the effort of the developers.

Blade of Darkness is brutal due to a variety of reasons. is the primary one. The second and most significant is the in-depth and hardcore fighting system built on the principles of fighting games which, as a matter of fact, with a variety of combos. Each weapon there is an array of strikes as well as super-strikes, holds and holds for which you need to correctly mix the attack and move buttons.

It will take some time to get used to, but if you don’t you’ll rapidly lose. However after you’ve learned it, you can feel the intensity of combat, and the battles are more graceful.

There are enemies that appear to have popped into the fantasies – zombies demons, skeletons and spiders and vampires, minotaurs, golems and many more. It’s not really a good idea to take on them, but my biggest fear was that of the boss knight who appears in the prologue to Sargon. Sargon is “only” 1,000 health units, while the rest of the enemies are reach a maximum of 50. This is only starting the adventure.

The third uniqueness is the enemy that each one of them feels like the size of a mini-boss. They effectively block attacks, dodge and pound wildly with each blow, only just barely piercing your defense. They are hurtful however, if they succeed in gaining the advantage, your opponent will be brutally killed due to destruction.

Not only are you able to cut off the limbs of your foes and limbs, but you can also utilize to make weapons. Due to these features, the combats that you fight in Blade of Darkness are more exciting and more effective than the battles that of Dark Souls.

The 3rd factor could be that creators aren’t there to guide you by hand. The locations vary linear, yet with secretly hidden information and some are necessary for the adventure.

For instance some of the Runes found in the game “Crypts of the Aether” is hard to discern in the background, and in other levels, you frequently need to return to the beginning, and then go around every turn to find important items.

Blade of Darkness has RPG elements, however they don’t hinder the flow. The hero is able to level up however his aforementioned traits (defense health, defense, damage) can be improved automatically. There are over 70 different types of weapons (15 for each hero, plus several others that do not belong in any way to their class).

While Blade of Darkness did not cause me to cry tears of nostalgia, the game of 2001 impressed me by its atmosphere, a complex combat system, a well-constructed combat that is dismembered and complicated levels that aren’t easily explored due to the awkward movement animations. This doesn’t seem to be a disadvantage as these were great old games and as such, as we recall them.

I would recommend it not just to those who are acquainted of the classic, but to everyone who enjoys the hardcore slashers.