Blade of Darkness

Once upon a time, there was a controversial game called Cannon Fodder, released on the 16-bit machines in the early 90s. At the time, it attracted media attention for two reasons; firstly, the promotional art relied heavily on an image of a poppy, causing many grizzled old British Legion types to wail almost as loud as the last time they spent their entire pension on sherry. And secondly, because when you killed one of the ten-pixel high enemy soldiers, he lay on the ground kicking and screaming, and spurting blood all over the grass. Yes, blood. Now no action game is considered complete without liberal splatterings of claret, and to shock these days, games have to plumb new depths of depravity.

Hence Severance. Though it certainly has blood in abundance, its 'unique selling point' is the ability to hack enemy's limbs from their bodies in graphic detail. If that's not shocking enough, once the limbs are detached, players can then use them as weapons, to batter any enemies unfortunate enough to be still around.

So that's the hype out of the way, then. If the truth be known, once the initial amusement has worn off, being able to dismember your opponents is a bit of a gimmick, and compared to a good honest sword, the limb of some goblin (or similarly stereotypical fantasy bad guy) doesn't make much of a weapon.

Severance sees players taking the role of one of four characters, each with his or her own fighting style and choice of weaponry. The knight uses one-handed swords and shields, the barbarian prefers two-handed, heavy broadswords, the more agile amazon uses staves and bows, and the sturdy dwarf employs, you guessed it, an axe. Nothing new there, then.

But the game's environmental modelling is rather more novel. Similar to this month's Hostile Waters, it has an understated physics system, so stacked crates, stools, tables and Severance's other props move and behave as you would expect. Flaming torches can be used to burn other flammable objects, and cast real-time, realistic shadows on walls and other scenery. Often the first warning you'll get of an impending fight is seeing the shadow of a bad guy round a corner; this is an atmospheric touch.

Though the castles, cliffs and dungeons of Severance are well-textured, detailed and lifelike, they carry quite a processor overhead. Those real-time shadows don't help either, and it was often necessary to turn them off to maintain a reasonable frame-rate. Owners of low-end machines need not apply.

The plot is the usual nonsense about the forces of evil and a legendary sword, but makes a convenient excuse for the action. Each character starts in a different location, and goes about retrieving the sword in a different way, so once you've finished the game (or become irretrievably stuck) as one character, there's still plenty of replay value. Simple puzzles are involved occasionally, but rarely venture outside the familiar "kill-the-orc-and-get-the-key" or "press-the-button-and-open-the-door" varieties. Commendably, though, thanks to some useful text labels and a carefully designed interface, it's always obvious which level elements can be interacted with, and which are just window dressing.

Combat is straightforward enough - the controls are mouse-and-keyboard, and feel much like Ritual's Heavy Metal: FAKK2. Pressing different directional keys while attacking gives different attacks, and various combos are possible with button sequences. As your character kills enemies and gains levels, you'll get new combos and stat increases. There's a lock-on button to make sure you're always facing your foe, so it's possible to dodge and roll sideways while still being ready to attack - almost a 'circle-strafing' kind of manoeuvre. Characters with shields can block attacks, but too much of that behaviour will cause your shield to break.

More interestingly, there's a stamina bar that decreases with each attack. Using a weapon that is too heavy for your character will cause it to deplete rapidly and leave you standing breathless and vulnerable. This forces players into a more thoughtful fighting style than, say, Oni - the button-bashers will soon find themselves lying on the floor, probably with something less than a full complement of limbs.

Though the weapon-collecting and levelling-up of Severance invite comparisons with Diablo, this is a much more action-oriented game. Higher levels just mean more health and the ability to use larger swords - both always welcome, but it doesn't go any deeper than that. Severance is much more akin to Rune, but with a much more intuitive and controllable combat system.

Conclusion

Whether or not Severance is the game for you boils down to how complex you like your entertainment. It's certainly one of the best-looking third-person games around, and with the four characters and about 25 levels in total, it offers excellent value for money. But it's not rocket science, and if you're looking for a Diablo-type experience you'll be disappointed. If, though, the prospect of some good old-fashioned hack'n'slash fun appeals, you could do a lot worse than Codemasters' latest adventure.

Review By GamesDomain