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Blade ( Severance ) - The Edge of Darkness Gets Revamped After 20 Years For Modern Day PCs

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Updated for the modern generation of gaming PCs, the re-release of Blade of Darkness will give players the chance to experience the relentless gameplay with unique and vicious combat mechanics and role-playing elements that helped to pioneer the “soulsborne” genre and influence so many modern, beloved games.

With its original 2001 release, Blade of Darkness earned kudos for its unrelenting and varied gameplay and unique combat mechanics.

Blade of Darkness brings the classic title to modern PCs with remastered textures, widescreen support up to 4K resolution, new display settings, and and a whole host of quality-of-life and stability improvements. Now players can descend into the madness once again as they devastate all who oppose them, leaving piles of corpses in their wake!

There has never been a better time to jump into the title that helped pioneer the "soulsborne" genre with punishing gameplay, ferocious combat, and a dark and imposing world to explore.

“Since its initial launch, Blade of Darkness continues to build a dedicated following — mods, ‘Let's Plays’, and community patches are found throughout the gaming community even today. This only signals how undeserving was the game's fate,” said Elena Roor, Managing Director at SNEG. “I'm glad that we've managed to sort out everything legal and, to our luck, unearthed the source code with the help of the original dev team. Altogether this brings us to the upcoming October release.”
Features of Blade of Darkness include:

  • Pick your Champion of Ianna: Players can choose from up to four playable characters: Tukaram, the Barbarian; Naglfar, the Dwarf; Sargon, the Knight; or Zoe, the Amazon — each with unique strengths, weaknesses, and fighting skills.
  • Bloody and Gory Combat: Not for the faint of heart, brave champions must learn devastating combo attacks and use them to slash their foes to ribbons and hack off limbs to use as weapons — who needs a legendary sword when an opponent’s femur will do the trick?
  • A Dark & Detailed Fantasy World: Vicious enemies abound the sinister terrain, eager to keep players from dispersing the chaos of the world. Battle orcs, trolls, golems, demons, skeletons, and scores of malevolent enemy creatures, while exploring treacherous tombs, frozen fortresses, demon spires, deserts, temples, and palaces.
  • Interactive Environments: Players can destroy in-game objects with fire or fists as they solve puzzles and disarm traps that combine physics, hydraulic systems, and lethal devices!
  • Modern Brutality: Blade of Darkness has been re-engineered to shine on modern PC hardware and operating systems, including widescreen support up to 4K resolution, new display settings, and overall stability improvements. The gameplay content and story are untouched — featuring all the original game’s quirks and charm.
Blade Of Darkness launches for PC (Steam and GOG.com) in October 2021.

Amazing game for the lighting and the gore for me.
 
top movies also.


just listen [B-Real] I traveled many miles above the dark road ahead of me Obstacles in front of me but I kept movin' steadily Enemies wanted to face off, grip the fingers threaten me But I ain't goin' out grip and sit firm and readily I'm a child of the wild west keepin' you guessin' constantly Usin' this lumen and y'all don't know how to respond to me It's simple, keep ya mouth shut I don't care what ya want from me Pump up the volume so ya eardrums are rattlin' [Hook x2] Surfing them mic surfing them Think that's competition cause I've never heard of him Surfing them mic surfing them If they come runnin' up I make them hurt again Pump up the volume so ya eardrums are rattlin' This is just a warning before I begin battlin' Unsensible with ya actions with ya tractions I'm facin' the methodical, serial rhymes in my state Meets periodical, we're in a hostile, colossal Situation and it's possible to get from the bust, bust, bust From penetration, lyrical blows You cynical hoes are speechless [Hook] The psychological, projectile article missionary Start to realize what the fuck in speech is scary It's diabolical, straddle on top of you When mister rebels spray levels of melodical With doses of venom, big toke go hypnotic Go for broke cause if ya lose control ya end up in the hospital Incomprehensible, unconventional, go go go From eventual tactics [Hook x2]
 
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IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
What an unexpected surprise. Would certainly have liked to see some screenshots or footage!
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Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
They were unbelievable. I got a Geforce 2 MX and it was glorious.
I’m not sure the game would hold very well these days but at the time it was a game that left a mark on me.
We haven't had a good enough PC at home at that time so i was always lingering around a friend's house to play this game "maxed out". :messenger_grinning_sweat:

Can't remember a lot but once in a while i think what was that game with the crazy shadows. :messenger_beaming:
 
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Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
I don't think I ever finished it, I was right at the end I think, I found loads of the weapons shown in the manual/box insert but definitely didn't find the best one, the "Shark", which was my main goal in playing the game ha.

You did waay better than I did!

Those days played mostly strategy/adventure/platformer/rpg, and character action games were not my thing... truth be told, I bought it because it was made in my country and looked amazing!
 

Vae_Victis

Banned
Fucking finally.

Fantastic game with a huge historical importance for its genre, but virtually unplayable without a lot of crashes, glitches and visual issues on modern systems. It was broken to the point that GOG used to sell it years ago, but then they retired it from the store entirely because there were too many complaints and issues encountered by users.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
I played this game at something like 480x320 and like 15-20 frame per second, the joy of having a shitty pc...
 
Fucking finally.

Fantastic game with a huge historical importance for its genre, but virtually unplayable without a lot of crashes, glitches and visual issues on modern systems. It was broken to the point that GOG used to sell it years ago, but then they retired it from the store entirely because there were too many complaints and issues encountered by users.

Was that the reason GOG withdrew it? I always thought, although I don't know why, that Codemasters were cheeky and didn't have the rights any more.

As for the bugs... I grabbed it at the time and I think I got it working, but can't remember how, or which renderer I used.
 

Vae_Victis

Banned
Was that the reason GOG withdrew it? I always thought, although I don't know why, that Codemasters were cheeky and didn't have the rights any more.

As for the bugs... I grabbed it at the time and I think I got it working, but can't remember how, or which renderer I used.
They never gave an official reason, but if GOG was selling it it meant they had some kind of contract with the right holders, and as far as I know it's unheard of that an old game available on a single store is removed from sale just because the publisher got pissy all of a sudden for no reason. It's not like they'd rather make no money than make the little money the game earned them on GOG. Add to that the fact that the game was considered very hard to run correctly on modern hardware even for the standard of some shaky GOG releases, and the only logical reason I can come up with is that it was removed because it was more of a burden in terms of technical support and refunds than it was worth it.

Also, I'm pretty sure that Codemasters has nothing to do with the IP anymore. The remaster doesn't credit them in any capacity, on Steam it's published by a minor company called SNEG which seems to hold the rights for a few random old games like Witchaven and Fantasy General (that they probably dug up and acquired for pennies from the random investor or trust fund that ended up owning them after the breakups of companies 15 years ago, and had no use for them whatsoever).
 

Fuz

Banned
Uhm.
Went to GOG to buy it and... it was already in my library.
scratch.gif


So, judging from the trailer, I guess it's just a re-release without any sort of improvement. Disappointing. My expectations were completely misplaced - hope they tweaked the controls at least.
 

Denton

Member
I played it back when it first came out on GOG eight years ago:



It worked perfectly fine, I finished the whole game.

It is pretty great. The decapitations and dynamic blood and shadows makes Dark Souls look like shit in comparison.

This was the video that first hyped me:

 
Uhm.
Went to GOG to buy it and... it was already in my library.
scratch.gif


So, judging from the trailer, I guess it's just a re-release without any sort of improvement. Disappointing. My expectations were completely misplaced - hope they tweaked the controls at least.
I think I read that if you'd bought the GOG version already, you get the rerelease (this) for free. They've basically added a bunch of QOL improvements as well as basics like: it boots, it renders and doesn't crap itself, etc. There's no RTX, or control changes etc. At least for now.
 
Happy to see this released on Steam, I have the GOG version so got the free upgrade. It's a fantastic game, but really showing it's age. Very proud to say that I did complete this (barbarian class) back in the day.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
looking at this video i think i can't handle this game :D
looking at this dark soul feel easier
Dark Souls is easier but this game is possible...
I remember finishing it as a kid with 3d pro flight logitech joystick... or at least beating the final boss with it
 
My apologies for the necro, but, this game just recently got controller support.

See https://steamcommunity.com/games/1710170/announcements/detail/5111020716034983560

I just tried it. It still feels like a game from that era, difference now is, it feels like that using a controller also.

I also launched on my 21:9 monitor and everything was flawless. Hats off to the porting team, they're actually doing work post launch.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
My apologies for the necro, but, this game just recently got controller support.

See https://steamcommunity.com/games/1710170/announcements/detail/5111020716034983560

I just tried it. It still feels like a game from that era, difference now is, it feels like that using a controller also.

I also launched on my 21:9 monitor and everything was flawless. Hats off to the porting team, they're actually doing work post launch.
They really should polish the controls and drop it on consoles. Great game
 

kainslayer

Neo Member
Loved the game,the bow with no reticule,at that time feeling awesome when u got a headshot,also the gore and funny bugs....I was devastated when the studio closed before making #2
 
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