Severance: Blade of Darkness Revisited

What is this Conan game I keep hearing about? How old is it? I never knew there was a single player Conan game. It must not have been very popular.
 
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I only made it into Fargrove. Does the action improve? You're not setting me up are you???? :uhoh: :uhoh:

You can read my reviews of the original, CE and my gawd-awful 3000 word first draft for the original review.

Here are a few quotes:
Unless you are starved for an action-RPG game, just stop reading now and avoid this title. If you are a PC RPG fan looking for a game, download the demo and see how you feel about the action. While there are changes from the released product, if you hate the demo you won't like the game.

The best things about the game are the character customization, the dungeons, and to some extent the combat. The game uses a loose class system, where choice of class gives you ‘discounts' in skill costs. Since you can obtain two Tier 1, two Tier 2 and one Tier 3 class, it is possible to construct a very powerful BattleMage, for example. The dungeons are very well designed, full of surprises and challenging puzzles and it is clear that the greatest effort went into their design. You really have to think about getting through the puzzle areas—more than in any other recent RPG.

Unfortunately, there are numerous problems that hamper even the good parts of Dungeon Lords. While I loved the dungeon designs and puzzles, the ‘mob spawn' continues as you attempt to solve puzzles. This is annoying and comes across as lazy design.

Those are all from the original review ... the CE review can be summed up with:
while it represents pretty much the pinnacle of what the game has to offer, it is held back by the fundamental flaws of the game design. It can be characterized as an incremental upgrade over the latest patch, making it a poor value for those who already paid full price for the game once.

And from my crazy first ideas ...
Mike: Dungeon Lords is a Combat RPG, which basically means it is an action-RPG, but with an advanced combat system.

Mini-Mike 1: What you mean, Mike, is that Dungeon Lords attempts to grab a large audience by stealing ideas from commercially and/or critically successful games like Diablo II, Gothic II, and Jedi Knight II. And, like most combinations, it ends up as a jack of all trades and a master of none – or, rather, mediocre at everything.

Mini-Mike 2: No, what he means is that Dungeon Lords takes the old school RPG out of the impersonal Wizardry and Baldur’s Gate view, and puts it into a robust 3rd person view, while implementing a combat system much more satisfying than Gothic or Morrowind.

Mini-Mike 1: (barf) Do you really believe that last line?

Mini-Mike 2: No, not really.
 
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Level 12 now. I really can't believe this game came out in 2000. The graphics were WAY ahead of their time. I really love the atmosphere. They could have slapped a Conan label on it easily. Also, I forgot how great the bow system is - no crosshair and you can recover arrows. NICE.
 
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Level 12 now. I really can't believe this game came out in 2000. The graphics were WAY ahead of their time. I really love the atmosphere.

Apparently it was a real *pig* back then ... I find it scales very nicely .
 
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When Severance was imminent, I got myself a new computer to experience the sweet mayhem at it´s very best. Some of the leveldesign still puts shame most of the tunnel-like feeling games, and it´s one of the games I play to this day (that and Die by the Sword).

And the blend of conventional fantasy with persian (?) mythology was original.
 
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It was a real pig. I remember the load games taking almost a minute. Now on my Raptors in RAID 0 they take about 6 seconds. Its hilarious. I also remember a tangible pause as the dismemberment animations were loaded. Not anymore. The combat animations are amazingly smooth and slicing off an arm or a head is perfectly convincing. The hit detection on this game is so spot on its frightening. Too bad more games can't be like this. Instead we get motion capture combat that feels totally disconnected and there is absolutely no feel of contact. I won't mention the name of the game. You know of which I speak.

I'll tell ya - In Severance when you get in a dark environment with a bit of water and torchlight - the game looks like it was made in 2006. Its just stunning at times.

BTW: check out this gruesome little Severance clip - its hilarious!
http://www.users.on.net/~bjp/headshot.wmv
 
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Yeah, that clip brough back memories, i still have the original game. Perhaps the most difficult or scariest section to me was playing in the dense fog barely able to see the opponents coming.
I also remember that when locked-on in melee combat the straffing circle radius was gradually reduced taking you almost unknowingly closer to death.

I see that the demo' is still available to download and a fee of £4.25 can be unlocked to the full game.

http://www.trygames.com/game/aff=t_07om/vid=26909d22033f7ff44399a018e8045348
 
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I havent tried any mods for Severance yet - but I have to say I'm impressed with some of the ideas out there.

Cannibal: If you are under 25% health you can cook severed body parts with a torch and for a health bonus of regular meat. I have to install that one - the game is very stingy on health!

Strafe: Strafe capability outside of combat. Enough said.

Gladiator: Custom maps for single player fighting progressively more difficult creatures in custom arenas. Very cool!

Tons of resources:
http://www.arokhslair.net/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1806
 
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What is this Conan game I keep hearing about? How old is it? I never knew there was a single player Conan game. It must not have been very popular.

You must have been napping in 04! The game is quite good - but you'll have to import it since there was no US release. I think I payed $11 delivered last year - from some UK software store. I can't understand the lack of enthusiasm for this one - its not quite an RPG but its FUN, no question.

Here is the RPGDot Review - they gave it an 87%!
http://www.rpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10053&ID=904
 
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The demo is a pretty good sample. Fighting the skeletons in the tower is a blast - a good indicator of what the game is like. Make sure you get to that part!
 
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Well I just finished the Forge of Xshathra so I've only got 2 levels left. What a game.

I've talked about how great the combat system is but now I have to rave about the level design. Modern developers should take a look at some of this stuff. Its just fantastic. Really I can't believe how good it is - they integrate architecture and Puzzles like I've never seen. Arx had a few good ones but this takes the cake!

Maybe I'm sadistic or something but I loved the forge. I was dreading it based on all the complaints I read but I thought it was great. My favorite though was the Temple of Al Farum. It took me a good 45 minutes to figure out how to advance the progress but MAN what a design.

So far the only level I disliked was the Gorge of Nejeb. I think perhaps modern video cards don't render the "mist" correctly making the whole level almost a white out. But whatever. The game continues to amaze!
 
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