Blades of Fire Feels Like a Game From 2008, for Better or for Worse
41Blades of Fire feels like a game from 2008, for better or for worse
Thank you to the publisher for providing a code for coverage and critique purposes.
A QUICK CORRECTION — Blades of Fire is not built on Unreal Engine 5. I was under the impression its engine was in some way made with it, and it turns out I’m wrong. Apologies for the mistake and thank you to a commenter who pointed it out!
Blades of Fire is the first time in some time that I've felt a little stumped by what I'm playing. It's normal to need time to let a game digest, to take in its themes, figure out if it really works for you, but Blades of Fire did something very different.
But I took a look through Mercury Steam, the developer's list of developed games, and then things started to make sense. Jericho, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, American McGhee's Scrapland. This is a game from 2008. I don't mean that in a denigrative way, the graphics certainly look modern— it's built in Unreal Engine 5 with all the storage sucking trappings that come with that -– but Blades of Fire doesn't feel like a solved formula.
It feels so weirdly put together, with elements that really work, and some that make no sense, and the game design feels stuck in a different era. Even the name Blades of Fire fits into that feeling. Gothic, Severance: Blade of Darkness, which by the way was made by devs who eventually founded Mercury Steam, It’s not like Blades of Fire takes from these games’ vibe, or looks, or even their mechanics, but its spirit feels like those kinds of games.
I'm aware that comparing new games to the 2000s is largely an effort to either denigrate or celebrate, but I don't mean to do either here, it's just the best way I can think of enunciating what surprised me so much as I played.
Blades of Fire is an action game where the single most important aspect of gameplay is building, then maintaining weapons to fight your enemy with. Let me drive that home a little more: Blades of Fire has turned one of the most divisive game mechanics, weapon durability, into an entire game. And it commits to it too, with a mini game where you hammer your weapons to make them better quality, having you kill enemies to unlock new tech to build new weapons, and harvest resources from slain enemies to continue building more swords.
This isn't the only element that feels caught out of time, and if you'll give me a few minutes, I'll tell you exactly what I thought of my time with Blades of Fire.
Let's start with that weapon system, shall we? In Blades of Fire, you play someone granted a godly gift to become a blacksmith. With this newly acquired power, you are sent to another realm, filled with horrible deities, who walk you through how to build weapons. You are initially only granted the skill to make swords, but you gain the knowledge of different types of weaponry from killing enough enemies holding said weapon. If skeletons are wandering around with claymores, you can farm them in order to unlock the ability to make claymores. The same is true of minibosses, who often give you some materials, and an addition to a beastiary.
Your role in Blades of Fire isn't random. Aran De Lira, your character, isn't just some blacksmith. You play one of the only people left alive who are capable of crafting steel, after a queen has cast a curse turning her enemies' weapons into stone. With your steel, you can finally fight back against a presence that has been creeping over the land for too long. Adso, a young boy accompanies you on your journey. There's a specific dynamic to this, where Aran is strong and capable, and Adso is witty and emotionally intelligent. Where you kill creatures, he draws them and tells you their weakness. You can also consult Adso when you are lost, and he will often give pretty good advice. You can even send him back to camp at any point if you can't be bothered to listen to him.
There is a genuine purpose to finding out enemies' weaknesses, as different weapons have different types of attacks, as well as different weights, speeds, stamina usage, and ranges. To simplify this process, as you hold weapons, enemies will be highlighted red, orange, or green. That highlight can change over different parts of the body, and this may change up the way you swing your weapon.