Blade of Darkness - Re-Released on GOG and Steam

Silver

Spaceman
Staff Member
Joined
February 13, 2014
Messages
9,312
Location
New Zealand
Action RPG Blade of Darkness has been re-released on GOG and Steam with some improvements.


A grim new threat looms over The Central Kingdoms. The borders protected by the fierce King's Knights are no longer secure. The fearsome orc clans, more numerous than ever, lurk on all roads. The proud nomadic peoples of the steppes are on the alert, for strange beasts prowl the darkness. Not even the stout dwarves, hidden in their underground palaces, seem safe from threat - from the unknown tunnels of its mines, a foul army of hideous creatures advances inexorably.

Chaos seizes the World. Only the memory of the oldest recalls the exploits of a hero and a few warriors, who in other times fought against the forces of Chaos. Ianna, the mother of all living beings, gave the hero a powerful sword to enter the abyss and defeat evil. But that happened a long time ago. A new hero is needed, a chosen one who is worthy to wield the Sword and destroy the enemy... this time forever.

FOUR PLAYABLE CHARACTERS

Pick your Champion of Ianna -- Tukaram, the Barbarian; Naglfar, the Dwarf; Sargon, the Knight; or Zoe, the Amazon -- each with unique strengths, weaknesses, and fighting skills, as you hack 'n slash your way through a blood-drenched quest to save the world from the forces of Chaos.

BLOODY & GORY COMBAT

Learn devastating combo attacks and use them to slice your opponents into pieces. Hack off your foes' limbs, then use them as weapons!

A DETAILED & DARK FANTASY WORLD

Battle orcs, trolls, golems, demons, skeletons, and scores of malevolent enemy creatures as you explore treacherous tombs, frozen fortresses, demon spires, deserts, temples, and palaces.

INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENTS

Destroy in-game objects with fire or your fists as you solve puzzles and disarm traps that combine physics, hydraulic systems, and lethal traps!

RE-RELEASE OF A TRUE GENRE-DEFINING GAME

We are happy to bring Blade of Darkness back to life, an enduring classic that, at the time of its release, inspired many games in the action-adventure genre through its approach to combat. With this edition we've re-engineered the game to work on modern PC hardware, added widescreen support up to 4K resolution, introduced new display settings, and improved its overall stability. At the same time, the gameplay, content, and the story are untouched -- featuring all the game's quirks and charm.
More information.
 
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
Messages
9,312
Location
New Zealand
Legendary. I played this a lot back in the day. Gameplay is clunky but overall it's fantastic. The atmosphere is unmatched
 
Joined
Sep 18, 2009
Messages
333
Location
Cyprus
A little to clunky still for my modern tastes. Yep I'm a graphics whore sometimes. So pass.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,181
Location
Spudlandia
I was actually looking forward to this until I saw a review that mentioned it's NOT a remaster and really just something to get it working on win10. Same bad controls, etc.

I played a demo of it a million years ago and thought it was good but never got the full version, forgot about it until someone mentioned it in the future. But the controls were just not good enough. I tried to get it working with a controller so it might play like Dark Souls but it just didn't translate.

Pity because I don't mind the graphics but cbf with the controls.
 
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
2,974
Location
Australia
I'm not sure if it's because I played it a bit back in the day, and got used to it, or if I just adapted to it a whole lot better than other people, but I never found the clunky controls that much of an issue. There are certainly some issues there, but personally I don't see much of an issue past what I already see in Dark Souls 1. Dark Souls 1 has clunky controls as well. They only really improved them in DS3.

I'm now very close to the end of my playthrough, I just entered the Forge of Xshatra. I think I only have 3 levels or so left. And I honestly had a blast, and never minded the controls, except for certain fights where I felt they indeed fighting against me. But I'm not sure if it was the controls, or just my usual panic where I start hitting keys incorrecly. I personally had a blast rediscovering the levels.

Did you guys have the same issues with Dark Souls 1, if you've played that, that is.

Speaking about clunky controls, Gothic 1 also had clunky controls, but I also got used to that. Personally, I'd take games that have real atmosphere and spirit, but with a bit of getting used to, than something with perfect controls that I'm just not inspired by.
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
6,249
Did you guys have the same issues with Dark Souls 1, if you've played that, that is.

Well, not really. The keyboard and mouse controls I didn't even bother with because I knew they were bad. Fromsoftware just made console games so I figured I might as well play the game as it was intended. I had to learn to use a controller. Mostly had trouble walking in a straight line so the tight-rope sections took me a while.

But, as far as controller goes, there wasn' tmuch difference in 3? It was still one stick to walk, another stick to look, press the stick to lock on. Left button block, right button attack?
 
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
2,974
Location
Australia
But, as far as controller goes, there wasn' tmuch difference in 3? It was still one stick to walk, another stick to look, press the stick to lock on. Left button block, right button attack?

From what I've seen there's a significant difference between 1 and 3. DS3 seemed to me to take a lot of inspiration from Bloodborne. It's nowhere near as fast as BB, but you're no longer walking through mud, as I felt you are in DS1. It all feels much more smooth and reactive to me. I think reactive is the word.
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
6,249
Legendary. I played this a lot back in the day. Gameplay is clunky but overall it's fantastic. The atmosphere is unmatched


Strictly imo but… the atmosphere was easily matched and far surpassed by Gothic 1 which officially came out a mere 24 days after BoD (21 days for me as I got Gothic 1 early pre-release :) ).

Both games definitely had the clunkiness in common but BoD was far worse in my opinion. After Gothic 1, I simply could not go back to something as basic as BoD. Gothic 1 had the open world, it had awesome graphics when it came out, it had an unparalleled breathing world with day/night/NPC schedules, monsters/wildlife stalking and preying on each other, it had atmosphere oozing out of every pore with the visible magical barrier, in short: Gothic 1 had it ALL! /fanboi mode off :biggrin: .

I don't remember how far I had gotten in BoD when Gothic came out and blew me away but there just was no going back after Gothic. I'm glad if people enjoy the re-release but I found out very quickly from the BoD demo that I still can not and will not go back to BoD. It has not aged well at all in my opinion and is still clunkier than Gothic has ever been.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,201
Strictly imo but… the atmosphere was easily matched and far surpassed by Gothic 1 which officially came out a mere 24 days after BoD (21 days for me as I got Gothic 1 early pre-release :) ).

Both games definitely had the clunkiness in common but BoD was far worse in my opinion. After Gothic 1, I simply could not go back to something as basic as BoD. Gothic 1 had the open world, it had awesome graphics when it came out, it had an unparalleled breathing world with day/night/NPC schedules, monsters/wildlife stalking and preying on each other, it had atmosphere oozing out of every pore with the visible magical barrier, in short: Gothic 1 had it ALL! /fanboi mode off :biggrin: .

I don't remember how far I had gotten in BoD when Gothic came out and blew me away but there just was no going back after Gothic. I'm glad if people enjoy the re-release but I found out very quickly from the BoD demo that I still can not and will not go back to BoD. It has not aged well at all in my opinion and is still clunkier than Gothic has ever been.

Both are great, imo, but they're hard to compare since they're very different. BoD has contained levels with puzzle-like design and a great and visceral combat system. Gothic had great world design, but nothing in terms of puzzle-like areas that are fun to decypher. Also, Gothic had pretty a basic combat system. Compared to BoD, well, you can't really compare them. Since the combat system was nowhere near as important as it was for BoD.
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
6,249
BoD is not a RPG like Gothic. Still atmosphere in dungeons are far far better than in any Gothic game since dungeons in there are not good. Also controlsystem in both games is clunky but fighting is a lot more atmospheric and a joy in BoD. I have no problem with replaying BoD today as it is still one of the best games of its kind if not the best.
 
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
693
Location
Forgotten Realms
BoD is not a RPG like Gothic.

I wouldn't even call Gothic a RPG. Gothic is a RPG-flavored action adventure in my book.

Still atmosphere in dungeons are far far better than in any Gothic game since dungeons in there are not good.
You could even say that dungeons are non-existent in Gothic 1 with the exception of the Sleeper temple at the end of the game. To me this was another HUGE plus in favor of Gothic. Every RPG was a dungeon crawler back then, every RPG had to have a sewer dungeon for some reason (sooo boring) and Gothic had none of that stuff.
Gothic felt fresh because it had a more natural world with only small caves instead of huge dungeon mazes. Gothic had a mostly natural, credible world compared to many other RPGs which made it really stand out at its time.

Also controlsystem in both games is clunky but fighting is a lot more atmospheric and a joy in BoD. I have no problem with replaying BoD today as it is still one of the best games of its kind if not the best.
I guess that's a matter of taste but I will admit that combat/fighting is not really that important to me. I play games for the content, the atmosphere, the exploration, the world, developing my character(s), the story, the characters, the quests, the skills, the spells, the perks… to me, combat is almost a necessary evil in between those things.

Gothic beats BoD in all of those aforementioned categories in my opinion. Even if BoD had "better" combat then that would be near meaningless to me personally.

Both are great, imo, but they're hard to compare since they're very different. BoD has contained levels with puzzle-like design and a great and visceral combat system. Gothic had great world design, but nothing in terms of puzzle-like areas that are fun to decypher. Also, Gothic had pretty a basic combat system. Compared to BoD, well, you can't really compare them. Since the combat system was nowhere near as important as it was for BoD.

Well, it is impossible for me not to compare them because I played these two games back to back in 2001. First BoD when it came out and then Gothic only three weeks later. Both were 3rd person RPG-light, dark/gritty fantasy games and I thought they definitely felt quite similar when played back to back… except, as I said, BoD felt much lighter and much more basic in just about every category.
(BTW, 3rd person fully 3D games were a rather rare breed back then so two 3rd person fantasy action games released only three weeks apart naturally led to comparisons).

Anyway, BoD might be the better combat game or combat simulator but for me, to put it bluntly, Gothic simply completely annihilated BoD as a game in a more overall sense.

But to each their own… I know you are a huge fan of Souls-like games and Souls-likes are not for me at all because I'm just not much of a combat guy (especially not when it is formulaic combat like in Souls-like games). While I do like a certain level of challenge, I don't play games for beating a challenge. That's not my motivation. In a gamer taxonomy classification system I guess I would be categorized as an explorer and not an achiever.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,201
I'm not sure if it's because I played it a bit back in the day, and got used to it, or if I just adapted to it a whole lot better than other people, but I never found the clunky controls that much of an issue. There are certainly some issues there, but personally I don't see much of an issue past what I already see in Dark Souls 1. Dark Souls 1 has clunky controls as well. They only really improved them in DS3.

I'm now very close to the end of my playthrough, I just entered the Forge of Xshatra. I think I only have 3 levels or so left. And I honestly had a blast, and never minded the controls, except for certain fights where I felt they indeed fighting against me. But I'm not sure if it was the controls, or just my usual panic where I start hitting keys incorrecly. I personally had a blast rediscovering the levels.

Did you guys have the same issues with Dark Souls 1, if you've played that, that is.

Speaking about clunky controls, Gothic 1 also had clunky controls, but I also got used to that. Personally, I'd take games that have real atmosphere and spirit, but with a bit of getting used to, than something with perfect controls that I'm just not inspired by.

DS3 definitely has better animations and smoother combat. I played DS1 and 2 with M&K and didn’t really find them clunky but it did take a while and some third party mouse and keyboard programs to get everything dialed in. I switched to controller with bloodbourne because you don’t have a choice and stuck with it for DS3 mainly because the older I get the more my wrist and forearms start to hurt with long gaming sessions on M&K.

As for BOD I have very fond memory’s. It was DS before DS for me. I really wish they would have went full remaster though. I’ll probably grab it at some point for nostalgia’s sake.
 
Joined
Oct 5, 2021
Messages
382
BTW, 3rd person fully 3D games were a rather rare breed back then so two 3rd person fantasy action games released only three weeks apart naturally led to comparisons.
Like NO. There were shitload of this type of games in around that era. It was one of the most popular genre back then.

Still disagree BoD and Gothic are completely different genre besides the 3rd person 3d engine both are using. Gothic is a full blown RPG. You don`t need a shitload of stats to call a game a RPG.
 
Joined
Jun 13, 2007
Messages
693
Location
Forgotten Realms
Like NO. There were shitload of this type of games in around that era. It was one of the most popular genre back then.

Still disagree BoD and Gothic are completely different genre besides the 3rd person 3d engine both are using. Gothic is a full blown RPG. You don`t need a shitload of stats to call a game a RPG.

What do you mean by "this type" though? I think Moriendor was referring specifically to third-person RPGs not just any game that was third-person. In that context, I have to agree with him.

And yes, BoD and Gothic are completely different types of games. I'm not sure why anyone would try to compare them. Sure, they were both fantasy, but that's about where the similarity ends.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,133
Location
Florida, US
He wrote 3rd person 3D games and not RPGs. BoD is not a RPG, not even close and there were a lot of 3rd person 3d games at that time.

Without opening a can of worms, it really depends on how strict you are with what an rpg is. If Diablo is an rpg, you can also consider BoD an rpg. You choose a class, you make a build of that class, not by assigning points or skills, but by the weapons you choose. Each weapon has a different attack. And you can choose up to 4 weapons. Meaning you technically have 4 unique attacks. Plus the other that are specific to the type of weapon, not just the weapon itself.

Personally I'm much more forgiving with what an rpg is. But that's just me. People are saying Borderlands is an rpg just because your weapons are randomized and have different stats. I'm fine with that. Theoretically, any game that offers you some ability to role play as something in that game is an rpg. Is a story-focused game like Heavy Rain an rpg? Where you just decide the outcome of the story. Is the interactive movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch a rpg? It's interesting to ponder this.
 
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
6,249
He wrote 3rd person 3D games and not RPGs. BoD is not a RPG, not even close and there were a lot of 3rd person 3d games at that time.

You quoted his post where he said "3rd person fantasy action games". I think it's pretty obvious he's talking about games of a similar type. Whether they're actually RPGs by whatever definition is kind of irrelevant. There weren't a lot of games like that back then.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,133
Location
Florida, US
I remember this game - also known as Severance - because you could hack enemy limbs off, which was novel and maybe one of the first games that featured this. I spent some time playing this one and the four playable characters changed the gameplay a good amount, or it seemed that way at the time. There were bosses at the end of certain levels; I think they could be avoided, but if you didn't defeat them, you were required to return to those levels later where the bosses were now more buffed out. That's where I had to quit my playthrough from difficulty gating. I remember really liking the atmosphere and sound design as well.

But holy crap I just watched the video and it looks like garbage. Just a resolution update. They didn't upgrade the textures or anything. I would much rather pick up and replay Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (which I also didn't finish, but would like to at some point because it's so fun)
 
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
510
Location
This particular universe
Back
Top Bottom