I
like to play games with turn-based combat. There’s a team of
player-controlled characters against a team of computer-controlled
characters. Aaah, good old fashioned chess-like strategy. Return to
Krondor, Odium, and more recently Final Fantasy X (message to Lulu: I love
you) have some of the best turn-based combat I’ve experienced. I wonder
what it would be like to play a turn-based combat game where, instead of
controlling a party of characters, you control only one character. What
made me wonder about this? The awkward real-time combat in Blade of
Darkness, that’s what. I really believe that this game would be among my
favorites, if the developers had included an option to fight the enemies
in turn-based style, instead of real-time.
If you’re looking for a unique Action/Adventure game, you might want to
consider Blade of Darkness. I don’t think there’s anything else out there
like it. I played the demo in November 2000 and I was impressed. I bought
the game when it hit U. S. store shelves in June 2001. A year and a half
after buying it, I have finally played it and I’m glad I played it.
However, I do have a list of disappointments and that list begins and ends
with the game’s combat mechanics. But I'll touch on that later.
Oh kay, doh kay. What is Blade of Darkness? It’s a 3D third-person
Action/Adventure game that allows the player the choice of playing through
the game as either a 19 year-old Adventurer, a 25 year-old Barbarian, a 40
year-old Knight, or a 153 year-old Dwarf. The game world is made up of 14
varied levels and the story revolves around a quest to obtain the mighty
Sword of Ianna which will prove most helpful in your ultimate quest to
destroy a demon planning to unleash evil upon the world (in other words,
if you’re looking for a story, don’t look here; there ain’t one). If
Diablo married Tomb Raider and had a kid, it might look something like
Blade of Darkness.
The Adventurer character is a beautiful woman who specializes in bows and
spears. The Dwarf is short, squat, powerful, and specializes in hammers,
axes, and defense. I played the demo as the Knight, who specializes in
swords and defense. I played the full version of the game as the
Barbarian, who specializes in all-out offense using two-handed swords and
axes. Hmm, now that I’m thinking about it, there is no Sorcerer character.
Some of the enemies you face can cast spells, but magic is not an option
for the player. Each character has their own exclusive opening game level.
After the opening level, the remaining 13 levels are the same for all
characters. The levels are huge and just plain stunning (and there are no
loading times when traveling within a level). Among many other
environments, I encountered snow-covered mountains, lava-filled caverns,
sprawling islands, and truly foreboding temples, towers, and fortresses.
Of course, since this is a medieval fantasy game, I also made my way
through a dungeon or two. The special effects are awesome. Most notable
are the water and lighting effects. The blood-red river in one of the
later levels is quite memorable. And the rendering of real-time shadows is
the best I’ve ever seen. The sound effects seem dead-on real, and the
music, which changes pace in accordance with the situation, is incredible.
I noticed that there’s one tune that is also included in Nocturne and
another game that I can’t remember right now. The same tune makes a
showing in at least three different games. Weird. It’s a good tune, but it
must be public domain or something. It’s the one that sounds like the kind
of music that should play while you watch someone frantically running away
from a dangerous situation. Did anyone else notice this? Anyway, the Blade
of Darkness game world is a special place to be.
The gameplay is about exploration, action, and light puzzle solving. There
are actually dozens of puzzles in this game, but they’re simplistic and
usually involve opening a door or disabling a trap. *** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
For example, in order to proceed beyond a possessed stone carving, a floor
plate must be held down. None of your weapons are heavy enough to hold it
down. The solution is to hack down a support beam for a bridge that’s
directly above the floor plate. One particular door puzzle requires the
presentation of two sacred offerings. The solution is to fill a bottle
with water from a sacred pool and return it to a water altar, then use a
torch to acquire the flame from a sacred fire and return it to a fire
altar. Some of the puzzles even incorporate elements of action. For
example, in order to escape one particular trap, you have to whip out your
trusty bow and arrows and successfully (and quickly) hit 4 wall buttons.
So, there are numerous puzzles, but they’re not at all complex. *** END
SPOILERS *** Jumping and climbing is a small part of the action, but
mostly the action portion is about fighting things. As you defeat enemies,
you build up experience and slowly “level up.” As you reach higher levels,
advanced weapon attacks become available. These special attacks, which
involve various keystroke combinations, MUST be mastered in order to
realize ultimate victory. In fact, I don’t know if it’s even possible to
defeat any of the numerous “boss” characters without mastering the special
attacks.
I’d like to recount my experience with the Blade of Darkness combat
system. Please keep in mind that I played as the Barbarian character. As
you encounter enemies, you can try to attack them by swinging every which
way, but it’s darn near impossible to land a hit. The best thing to do is
to use the option to “lock on” to your enemies, then try to attack. Your
accuracy increases by about one million percent in “lock on” mode. The
problem that I have with the combat is its unfairness. When you trigger an
attack on your opponent, the game “takes over” your character and displays
a scripted attack move that can take several seconds to complete. During
this scripted animation, your opponent can interrupt the move by launching
any kind of attack of its own. It takes a flying miracle to launch an
attack move that doesn’t get interrupted. Worse, it takes a second miracle
for an uninterrupted attack move to actually hit your opponent. Worser
(that’s a word), it takes a third miracle for the hit to not be blocked by
the opponent. OK, maybe that’s exaggerating, but it sure did feel that way
many times. But worstest (that’s a word too) is the fact that the scripted
attacks of your opponent cannot be interrupted. They can be blocked, but
not interrupted by an attack move of your own. That's not fair! This is
why I was dreaming about a turn-based combat option. The combat is so
difficult that I began to save my game after each and every combat
victory. Unfortunately, the game developers decided to comment on the
player’s save game frequency. When you go to the “Load Game” menu, in
parenthesis after each save game is a one-word comment from the
developers. As I began to save with increased frequency, I noticed the
comment progress from “Normal” to “Cautious” to “Overcautious” to “Lame.”
Hey, call me lame. Whatever. I’m going to save and I’m going to save
often. The problem is that you can back yourself into an inescapable
corner, once the developers have labeled you as lame. If you remain on
“Lame” status for too long, the game just snaps to the desktop and you’re
not allowed to continue playing! This happened to me on two different
occasions and on completely different levels, so I believe I’m correct
about this. Did anyone else experience this? The designers basically made
this game unfinishable for me. I had to make a decision. Either place the
game in my basement’s Dungeon of Shame box, or use God Mode so that I
could go long periods of time between saves to satisfy the designers.
Well, the game is truly something special. For the first time, I used a
cheat code. Yes, I did get to complete the game and see all of the sights,
but I’m still hurting from the shame. Any and all condolences are welcome.
But pure gaming is now dead for me. Long live Pure Gaming.
Blade of Darkness registers a 75 out of 100 on the Sap-o-meter.
Doug “Cheat Code” Millsap
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