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Reality Bytes: Blade And Sorcery will make you a better swordsman and a worse one


Between tax returns, terrible weather, and Tory’s rank-and-file corruption, the opening act of 2023 had me in a bad mood. In fact, it’s so foul that I can be quite happy to kill something (in a game). I want to hack something to death, with sharp tools in some kind of virtual environment. Oh, what’s hiding behind the sofa? Why, that is Sword and magic, a VR game about deadly hacking in a virtual environment. Lucky!

To be fair, Blade And Sorcery is more than simply chopping people to death. It was also beating them to death, burning them to death, shocking them to death and throwing them off conveniently placed cliffs. Until death. Structurally it’s like Bone Lab, less cohesive games and more of a sandbox with dangling game bits. But it’s much more focused than Stress Level Zero’s surreal VR sim, with all of its systems dedicated to fantasy gladiator combat.

Blade And Sorcery trailer when it came to Oculus last year as Blade And Sorcery: Nomad

Blade And Sorcery leverages VR’s highly analog control scheme to put deadly weapons directly into your hand, in this case swords, axes, spears, mallets, sticks, etc. Then you battle the villains. Enemies in a variety of arenas by aggressively swinging the spike at them, trying not to bang your knuckles against any nearby furniture in the process.

It’s hardly the only game to do this. Swords and VR go together like economic inflation and mass industrial action. But Blade And Sorcery is really different. Through detailed physics simulation and acute audio-visual feedback, the resulting combat system is incredibly tangible. You can almost feel the blades slam into each other as you strike your opponent, sparks fly out as your enemy stumbles against your attack force. And as your sword slips past their defenses and sinks deep into their flesh, it really sinks, to the point where pulling it out requires real effort.

When your sword pierces their flesh, it actually sinks, to the point where pulling it out requires real effort.

Like Walking Dead: Saints And Sinners, this monstrous versatility is a big part of Blade and Sorcery’s appeal. Here, however, you’re not piercing the brains of shadowy zombies, you’re swinging metal blocks at mannequin-like human warriors. And it’s a pity their eyes are lifeless in the first place, because the first time you thread a long steel rod into their stomachs, it’s incredibly confusing, even for a veteran of video game warfare. like me. You can even use your free hand to grip enemies as you take them down, like Russell Crowe seeing off Joaquin Phoenix at the end of Gladiators.

But this description is much more about how the blades interact with the body than simple debauchery. The same granularity applies to every document in Blade And Sorcery. If your opponent wears armor, it will provide local protection from your blows, even if it’s just a patch of skin on one side of their chest. Once you get tired of gutting semi-naked gladiators and start fighting enemies with helmets and shields, duels become more tactical matters. You will have to actively probe for weak points in the enemy’s defenses, while safely blocking and dodging their attacks.

The complex simulation also means that the battles are messy. The times when you defeat an enemy with a perfectly executed sword swing are rare. Most of your attacks will result in a gliding hit, a complete miss or slapping them awkwardly with the flat side of your blade. If you’ve enjoyed the organic, fluid combat in Raven Software’s Jedi Knights games, Blade And Sorcery’s duels are about the same quality, except without the lightsaber .


Attack enemies on the bridge with ice sticks in VR Blade And Sorcery


Sneak behind enemies with a fireball in one hand and a dagger in the other in Blade And Sorcery VR Game

And all of this refers only to the “Blade” part of Blade And Sorcery. You can also use weaving into your fighting style. Magic revolves around three basic abilities – fire, electricity, and gravity – but each ability can be applied in different ways. For example, you can throw a small fireball with one hand, or use both hands to perform a much more powerful incendiary attack. Magical effects can also be applied to weapons, making your sword much worse by adding burn damage etc. On top of that, this is the extremely generous ammo duration ability (that’s it). Is it arrow time?), which both makes combat easier and allows you to admire your gruesome handiwork in gruesome detail.

When taken together, Blade And Sorcery essentially becomes a VR Dark Messiah: Might and Magic, sharing the goofy physicality and abilities in Arkane’s underrated fantasy adventure. Yes, you can stab enemies with your longsword and watch their corpses slide down your blade, but you can also kick them into pointed walls, knocking them down by throwing clay pots at them or kite them around the map until they collide . Blade And Sorcery’s secondary mechanics further facilitate Hollywood-style swashbuckling, with the game including a climbing system and the ability to slide down with ropes and swings.

The big difference (apart from VR) is that Dark Messiah offers a properly structured adventure. Blade And Sorcery is an Early Access project developed largely by one person, and most of the past five years have been spent expanding and perfecting the combat system. How you use those tools to create entertainment is up to you. You choose the map, choose the weapon, choose the number and difficulty of the enemies you want to fight, and then kill until you get bored.


Duel a group of enemies in the ruins of the rocky desert, using a burning katana, in the VR game Blade And Sorcery

At least, that was the case until recently. Last year, developer WarpFrog added a new map – Outpost. Unlike the existing arena roster, the Outpost is a large, linear environment with enemies scattered across the map instead of spawning in batches. Here, Blade And Sorcery truly is like the Dark Messiah, as you explore a dilapidated, dilapidated fortress, battle along salty cliff tops and push wizards down stairs. It’s a great space to explore, even if it’s barely contextual.

And it’s important to remember that Blade And Sorcery isn’t over yet. The next update will add breakable objects and greatly expand the Outpost map, while future plans include a more progress-based “Crystal Hunt” mode. Oh, and it should be mentioned that Blade And Sorcery has one of the more active VR modding communities, with mods that add crossbows, flintlock pistols, and of course lightsabers.

As a means of brainwashing, Blade And Sorcery is almost too good, making me wonder if I should turn myself in at the nearest police station. But it’s also capable of creating the open-ended action sequences I associate with my favorite games. I’d like to see more structured scenarios in Outpost’s circuit, but even if you’re forced to make fun of yourself, this isn’t really that hard to do.

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