Severance - Blade of Darkness now on GOG ! (Dark Souls precursor)

Paul_cz · 8 Mar 2013 at 08:54

This fantastic game can be finally bought digitally for 5.99 dollars here:
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/blade_of_darkness

I just started playing it. It is every bit as good as Dark Souls as far as I can tell. In some ways, it is even more advanced. You can dismember enemies limb from limb, you can throw almost any object or weapon in the world, it has fantastic dynamic lightning and shadowing. It has 4 character classes each with different skill set/combat moves and even different beginnings!

I made 20 minutes video of the beginning of the game as Knight, excuse my poor skills (I played for the first time, without doing tutorial or reading manual):

Eurogamer gave it 9/10:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/r_severance

If you like games with great melee combat systems, you need to play this game!

I am just playing it for the first time and having fantastic time.

arc@css · 8 Mar 2013 at 10:14

It has the best combat I've experienced yet. Just noticed the video on your channel before I came here. :cool:

Got to be some mods out there to spruce things up a bit.

I also remember it for having very impressive work done with regard to shadows, which still look good today imo.

Sycho · 8 Mar 2013 at 10:57

It was one of my favourite pc games back then anyone who hasn't played it should consider buying it still....i so wish they would remake it.

(the game was pretty damn challenging too and also i agree the combat was real good especially the brutality

)

Yeah the shadows were great and it had nice gfx for it's day.

Paul_cz · 8 Mar 2013 at 11:28

arc@css said:
It has the best combat I've experienced yet. Just noticed the video on your channel before I came here.

Got to be some mods out there to spruce things up a bit.

I also remember it for having very impressive work done with regard to shadows, which still look good today imo.

Yeah, the shadows are incredibly impressive for its age.
This game was very much ahead of its time. I find it incredibly depressing that there has not been a SINGLEPLAYER game of this type since, apart from Dark Souls and Demon Souls. And both Souls games are still defficient is some areas compared to Severance.

arc@css · 8 Mar 2013 at 11:39

Paul_cz said:
Yeah, the shadows are incredibly impressive for its age.
This game was very much ahead of its time. I find it incredibly depressing that there has not been a SINGLEPLAYER game of this type since, apart from Dark Souls and Demon Souls. And both Souls games are still defficient is some areas compared to Severance.

Yes, now you mention it, it's almost unbelievable that something very similar hasn't seen the light of day since Severance.

I remember a friend popping round and commenting in particular on the shadows; both of us were blown away.

Sleepery · 8 Mar 2013 at 13:14

I was only ever able to get anywhere with the Amazon character, just couldn't handle the combat with the less nimble guys. Fantastic shadows, don't think I've seen the like since.

TehBluebear · 8 Mar 2013 at 13:33

Does this have similar combat to Rune? That had fantastic combat in it, very spatial, and the path of your weapons during attacks actually mattered; anything in that path was hit, not just a simple case of them hitting where the cursor was. Also allowed for dismemberment, and beating your enemies to death with a head etc.

Paul_cz · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:13

TehBluebear said:
Does this have similar combat to Rune? That had fantastic combat in it, very spatial, and the path of your weapons during attacks actually mattered; anything in that path was hit, not just a simple case of them hitting where the cursor was. Also allowed for dismemberment, and beating your enemies to death with a head etc.

Actually I think you might be confusing these two games. Severance is much better than rune, it allows you to pick up and throw limbs and various objects. Rune did not allow this, if I remember correctly.

m4cc45 · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:14

I think I still have the original somewhere - was a great game in it's day - be interesting to see what it's like now.

M.

Third Opinion · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:18

m4cc45 said:
I think I still have the original somewhere - was a great game in it's day - be interesting to see what it's like now.

M.

Yeah I have too somewhere but couldn't get it to work with Windows 7.

I take it this site is quite reputable? I would like to buy it again.

Edit: could resist it no longer, just bought it

arc@css · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:19

Third Opinion said:
Yeah I have too somewhere but couldn't get it to work with Windows 7.

I take it this site is quite reputable? I would like to buy it again.

You'll be fine with GOG.

TehBluebear · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:27

Paul_cz said:
Actually I think you might be confusing these two games. Severance is much better than rune, it allows you to pick up and throw limbs and various objects. Rune did not allow this, if I remember correctly.

Yes it did, I played it just recently. You could pick up arms and heads, attack with, and throw them (and indeed, any weapon). It was an older game too (released in 2000), and ran on a modified Unreal engine.

Not disputing the fact that Severance may be better (I've not played it), but it wasn't first in terms of the gory combat.

Third Opinion · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:52

Downloaded and installed for £3.93. Well chuffed as you can play in decent resolutions now.

arc@css · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:53

Might even pick it up myself.

Paul_cz · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:58

Third Opinion said:
Yeah I have too somewhere but couldn't get it to work with Windows 7.

I take it this site is quite reputable? I would like to buy it again.

Edit: could resist it no longer, just bought it

GOG is the golden standard of PC games shops - I cannot quite believe you never heard of them until now. They do everything right.

TehBluebear said:
Yes it did, I played it just recently. You could pick up arms and heads, attack with, and throw them (and indeed, any weapon). It was an older game too (released in 2000), and ran on a modified Unreal engine.

Not disputing the fact that Severance may be better (I've not played it), but it wasn't first in terms of the gory combat.

Fair enough, I played only demo of Rune many years ago, bad memory.

I just watched some videos on youtube of it and it seems much more focused around jumping and running around than combat though.
Severance feels more focused.

Reppyboyo · 8 Mar 2013 at 14:58

I remember playing this a lot back in the day.
Great graphics for its time, especially the lighting.

Paul_cz · 8 Mar 2013 at 15:00

Third Opinion said:
Downloaded and installed for £3.93. Well chuffed as you can play in decent resolutions now.

Yeah, you can set the game via nglide_config to display in 1920*1200, although it will be stretched. If you want unstretched, it is possible to select 4:3 ratio and get black borders (that is how I play. Game is so immersive I ignore the black borders).

TehBluebear · 8 Mar 2013 at 16:17

Paul_cz said:
I just watched some videos on youtube of it and it seems much more focused around jumping and running around than combat though.
Severance feels more focused.

Yeah, the running around and jumping was essential on getting the 'placement' of certain sword strokes right for instant kills - especially in multiplayer. I take it Severance is a lot less hyperactive then? Because that sounds appealing.

Evilsod · 8 Mar 2013 at 17:15

Sleepery said:
I was only ever able to get anywhere with the Amazon character, just couldn't handle the combat with the less nimble guys. Fantastic shadows, don't think I've seen the like since.

Damn this game was awesome.

I know the feeling. I struggled at first too. Amazon was so incredibly easy though with her rolling dodge, the reach on her polearm/spear, her standard Whirlwind technique that would decimate most enemies and could be interrupted by a dodge to avoid a counterattack and my personal favourite, her Spin Slash special attack with the Axe Spear that you got a few levels in and would devastate basically everything for so much of the game it was crazy.

I did eventually manage to beat it on all characters though. I thought of it as a sort of difficulty scale. Amazon, Barbarian, Dwarf, Knight. Amazon could dodge like a pro and had a huge reach, Knight stepped about 2 inches to the side.

Paul_cz · 8 Mar 2013 at 18:45

Evilsod said:
Damn this game was awesome.

I know the feeling. I struggled at first too. Amazon was so incredibly easy though with her rolling dodge, the reach on her polearm/spear, her standard Whirlwind technique that would decimate most enemies and could be interrupted by a dodge to avoid a counterattack and my personal favourite, her Spin Slash special attack with the Axe Spear that you got a few levels in and would devastate basically everything for so much of the game it was crazy.

I did eventually manage to beat it on all characters though. I thought of it as a sort of difficulty scale. Amazon, Barbarian, Dwarf, Knight. Amazon could dodge like a pro and had a huge reach, Knight stepped about 2 inches to the side.

So you consider Knight hardest to play as?

Because I started my first playthrough as Knight