login sign up feeds about

Blade & Sword

Sam wonders why they bothered...

Cast your mind back to 1996. It was the year of the Atlanta Olympic games, the X-Files was like a rash on the telly, OJ went on trial and Princess Di divorced Charles. It was also the year that Independence Day cascaded a foul smell down from its perch at the top of the box office and the first Diablo hacked its way into the gamer's consciousness. This was the game that really cemented Blizzard's power and eventually helped to usher in multiplayer gaming. Its success led to an inevitable wave of clones, most of which were quite poor. It's been a few years since we've seen one of these Diablo simulacra so I can speculate that Whiptail Interactive became convinced that the world desperately needed another substandard imitator of a dated game to help yank it free form the miasma which seems to be engulfing it today. Either that or they are such a deluded group of programmers that they believed the public would pay money for a program that looks like it started money as a job-catching demo of a coders skill.

• images (6)

  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • all 6 images

• game info

  • 

  • Publisher:

    Developer:

    Release Date:

  • more

• related stories

• pc

  • Stan Lee thinks games are like "watching the greatest superhero movie"
  • Obsidian working on RTS?
  • Splinter Cell: conviction suffers a delay
  • Scott Warner on Mercenaries 2
  • Free Kung Fu MMO goes live in 8 days
  • more

Blade & Sword does a passable impression of coming up with some new ideas. It's set in the Far East you see. Which is just like Throne of Darkness, another Diablo clone released a few years back which gave you control of seven different fighters, but we shall let that pass. It includes combo fight moves, Street Fighter style. Please, someone splash some water on my face to let me know I'm not dreaming. It includes the most rudimentary of skill systems, and rather than mana you have chi. Otherwise this is Diablo in all but name, and that is Diablo 1, not the much refined sequel. The same repetitive clicking that was so enjoyable in the Diablo games is turned into an experience that can be fairly compared with jogging on feet flayed of all their skin.

I was bored within about five minutes. There's enough of the non-skipable, non-speed-upable, non-spoken and poorly translated text to bore the crap out of a Tolstoy fan. The graphics, in all their 800x600 glory (I'm serious), are muddy and poorly animated. The landscape is littered with impassable obstacles but no wildlife and the enemy creatures look like sick. The territories you pass through reminded me of all the worst features of those ancient labyrinthine dungeon crawls on 16-bit computers without any of the distracting artwork. It boasts full screen light and shadow effects, but I was less than impressed as I too could stencil in a shadow on M$ Paint like it seems the developers have done.

The combat is somewhat enlivened with all the chop-socky moves a levelled-up character can perform. It was so exciting I could barely wait for the opportunity to click the right mouse button rather then the left to unleash a power move. Some of these are kind of cool, but the combat system as a whole is devoid of cohesiveness and warrants no skill or effort on the player's part. The enemies are stupidly tough - I died confronting my eighth or so foe - but this is tough as in 'I have more hit points than this game has lines of code' rather than as a result of AI or scripted events. Oh, and they respawn with the glee of some horrible combination of a randy frog and a Tod McFarlane comic.

The baddies are also cursed with some spell which makes all their possessions disintegrate on death. Once in a while you will get a handful of coins but on the whole you have to buy any equipment you want. Which sucks. What's the point of killing all these baddies if there's no loot? Experience? So your character can waddle with more purpose through this boring and uninspired mess of a game?

There's 40 levels of this dross to wade through and a purported 140 hours of 'gameplay'. When you consider that a boss character will take more time to hack down into the ground than the Cassini probe took to get to Saturn this number is more of a threat than a reason to buy the game. The minimum system requirements are a P2 266 for god's sake!

Take this game and pop back in time seven years and I would have maybe scored it about a 60%, maybe seventy if the night before had been one of those lucky ones that were more prevalent for me back then. As it is 2004, I'm going to be somewhat harsher. While Blade & Sword is not a complete disaster - it does load after all, (wait a minute...) - I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would waste months of their life coding such an archaic and insipid game. Maybe there's a free gram of coke in the retail version as I can think of no other way that anyone would consider handing over the 25 quid RRP. Avoid like Gina G, another relic from '96.

39%

1. Spot on.

   Marc Friday, 30 January 2004, 05:55:24

2. aye

   MeKaNiK Saturday, 31 January 2004, 09:15:16

3. What the HELL are you talking about?! This games kicks ass!

   pyrus Friday, 13 February 2004, 12:42:51

4. the game aims on a different gameplay rather than the same sprites in battle from diablo

   it may suck on the graphical side but who cares? the fighting style is what's new and important

   make the graphics as of like lotr: return of the king but the same graphics, you get a top-selling game

   this game is good

   tae Sunday, 15 February 2004, 10:55:2

5. how the heel do u use power

   the kill blows `???

   Bes Monday, 16 February 2004, 22:19:56

6. You read the manual. You do have one of those, don't you, or do you have the special cut-price version, the one you have to download and burn yourself?

   Sam Wednesday, 18 February 2004, 09:17:53

7. that's cool, kick ass!

   Freak|Gamers Tuesday, 9 March 2004, 07:07:51

8. Where can i d/l this game for free :-) ??? btw this game is kickass ???

   Eike Wednesday, 24 March 2004, 04:01:38

9. What a stupid review preview whatever YOUR AN IDIOT.

   Im one of the oldies in computer gaming and this game is good.

   Toki yoko Saturday, 17 April 2004, 10:52:32

10. This is very good game because it has a great atmosphere...

    Kung Pao Wednesday, 2 June 2004, 13:14:23

11. Hello everyone.. I'm new to this board but here are some cheats that will help u in the game.

    Once you are in the game press the ENTER key. By doing this u will notice , a flashing cursor.

    to ACTIVATE cheats type `tianxiawudi

    then press enter. Cheats will automatically activate!

    Press Ctrl + C = for level up

    Press Ctrl + G = for instant killing of enemies

    Press Ctrl + H = to scroll your map

    Press Ctrl + Y = to teleport to where you've scrolled

    and

    Press Shift + F8 = for changing of weather **Check it Out**

    Note: Press this cheat to see the different weather types.

    pick the one you like and fight on..

    Thats all for now...;-)

    Next time I'm around, I'll give details on how to use Killing Blows for each of the Three Characters. Also, Combo Attacks.

    Peace all !!

    Joe Wednesday, 9 June 2004, 22:04:22

12. Hello Joe, can you provide us more cheats and techniques...please...

    ricky Wednesday, 15 September 2004, 06:45:53

13. how can i use killing blows??? pls tell me...

    pota Wednesday, 20 October 2004, 01:16:42

14. the reviewer is too kind this game really sucks. go download a diablo mod for free have more fun.

    jay Friday, 26 November 2004, 19:04:38

16. How to use the killing blow ,please answer my question because i,m very want to use the killig blow skill?

    Triba;l Thursday, 9 June 2005, 21:53:15

17. tell me to using kill blow please ?

    mustka Tuesday, 5 July 2005, 09:57:2

18. Ya, it really sucks!!!!!!

    fer Thursday, 12 January 2006, 05:54:59

19. big wolly sheep!

    ame Sunday, 29 January 2006, 17:14:55

20. ang sama nio d nio pa svhn bweset kau

    bad3p kau Wednesday, 3 May 2006, 11:12:8

21. how can i use killing blows??? pls tell me...

    diablo2 is the best Friday, 7 July 2006, 18:09:34

22. where can i find the downloadable installer of blade and sword? can u tell me pls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    gamerman154 Sunday, 30 July 2006, 09:38:27

23. GeeZ! whata heck! a good clone of the Diablo sequel. This game realy aches my wrist punching those gudamn keys. It sucks! i don't understand those chinese characters!

    Edgardo Olmoguez II Friday, 8 December 2006, 02:02:28

24. Ah! wala jud ko kasabot unsaon ni paggamit ang killing blow! maayo gani ka'y maayo kaayo ko magxperiment. GameGuro gid ko! maayo'g concept pod ang game, ala Diablo and Street Fighter ang dating. Damn! napudpud akong tudlo ug tinoplok!

    Ranilo Tangcalagan Friday, 8 December 2006, 02:05:14

25. This game was one of my favorites. As I continued to kill all the enemies lurking about (for the sake of leveling up and acquiring gold and items). Also, messing around with the spagyric cube helped improve all the attributes of attack, defense, stamina, and power.

    So quit your whining you noob.

    MEGAX Saturday, 12 May 2007, 14:28:40

26. it's better to kill, than to be killed....

    he.he.he.he......

    vernie gaito Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 07:47:13

27. If some 1 can help me get this game my msn is laske666@hotmail.com

    Laske Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 10:16:1

28. hey man, how to use the killing blow??

    it`s really suck that ican`t do the killing blow!!!!

    killing blowing Thursday, 10 July 2008, 07:23:38