If there’s one game that I always enjoyed (and still do) it’s Diablo from Blizzard. The combination of top down RPG gameplay, cool monsters, dark and interesting story, and three cool characters to choose from with various abilities just worked out to the point where years later, many people like me can still sit down and play it. Well, Whiptail Interactive is now looking to cash in on Diablo style gameplay with a title called Blade & Sword which if summed up quickly and in a few words could probably best be referred to as Diablo meets Ancient China.

Blade and Sword starts off with a pretty typical “evil villain” storyline. It opens with a tyrannical and cruel ruler named Emperor Jo looking death in the face at the hands of Ziya Jane, Prime Minister of his arch nemesis. Jo knows that his dark reign is soon going to be at an end against the powerful army, so instead of running down to meet his death at the hands of a blade, he instead decides to set his temple on fire as he looks down upon the stunned crowd. Those in attendance hear the howls of pain, then see lights above Jo’s head as he vanishes and is followed by only one word that rings out loudly  … “revenge”. Ziya Jane knows that this is bad news, and that dark times are coming. This is where the player comes in. You select from one of three characters … the big and slow (but strong and hard to take down) warrior, the fighter who brings a good balance of speed and offense, and the lightning quick (but not as physically strong) assassin style character and set off on a journey that will lead you through the realms of man, beast, and demon searching for the evil wizard to vanquish his plot once and for all.

Sounds pretty neat, huh? Well, the story is pretty cool and the developers definitely did some pretty good things here. For starters, anyone familiar with Diablo will be able to hop right in and get rolling quickly without looking at the instructions and whatnot. Basically, left clicking the mouse moves your character around the screen and selects different functions that you want to look over, like character stats or inventory. You can also select different things to use as secondary weapons, like stones or throwing knives, all utilized with the right click of the mouse (the right click also comes into pulling off cool combos, which I’ll explain here in a second). In addition, the game also comes with the standard supply of dropped and purchasable items, like heath or chi restoration potions. The chi thing comes in with the combos, so I guess I’ll hit that point next.

One thing that sets Blade and Sword apart from Diablo (other than the plot setting) and was really the highlight of the gameplay for me is the usage of your very own buildable combo system. Similar to Diablo II, the three characters each have their own set of special abilities which lead up to a massive attack ability that can be selected and trained in using points earned when you level up and are activated in battle by using chi rather than magic points or mana. For example, the big fighter has one chain that begins with a Dragon Lift, then moves to a Triple Strike, then a Matchless Wind. These abilities can then be placed into a chain combo system (with other abilities in different chains) that is used by pressing the right mouse button instead of switching the abilities around. For example, I created a combo which opened with a normal hit, then a Triple Strike, then another normal hit, then a Dragon Lift, then a Tiger Fight, then a Meteor Strike (flying headbutt) to finish it off. When activated by clicking the right mouse button, the character pulls them off one after the other which not only adds up to some good hits and damage, but also alleviates the headache of having to try and manually change them around repeatedly when in the midst of battle. You can also set up to four combos to switch between while playing, so play around with your abilities and see what works best for you.

Another thing that Blade and Sword offers that is different from Diablo (but not in a really positive note like the cool combo system) is that it lacks item, weapon, and armor drops which tend to make these games really enjoyable. Enemies that are killed will drop gold or sometimes restoration potions, but rather than some neat new sword or helmet they drop stones. These stones are then taken to the armorer (once you rescue him later on in the game) and can be refined and affixed to you or your weapon to increase defense or attack power. OK, so you can build up damage and defense ability, but where’s the cool set of plate armor? Where is the magic sword? Sadly not in here, so the element of combat turns sharply to hack and slash for the sake of experience points only since there’s no point in looking for some great loot drop from that boss you just killed. On the experience point note, I was also surprised (and disappointed) that leveling up causes your character stats (strength, speed, etc) to automatically go up or stay consistent based on what the game thinks should happen rather than you applying them yourself. Sure, we’ve all focused on building the wizard’s magic up in Diablo, but there’s also no harm in pulling his strength up to just in case of a melee attack, right?  Well, it would have been nice to be able to apply a little more strength to the fast fighter or speed to the slow guy … but no go here in Blade and Sword.

Lastly, I was disappointed to see that no multiplayer was included in the final version, especially since the preview write ups and information on the game stated that they were going to be included in the final version. Blade and Sword is a single player only game, and since the levels and monsters are all the same for each character with no variation or random generation, playing as one or the other becomes a matter of preference and probably won’t be something that a lot of you will go back to experience the second time. Add in the fact that saving your game automatically sends you back to the starting point of the chapters and the enemies (including the boss characters) respawn constantly when you go back through them and you may find yourself running through levels simply trying to get back to where you were before teleporting back to the village. Oh sure, portals can be activated to allow you quick passage to one place or another, but if you happen to miss one due to trying to complete a mission or get to the next stage, you may be in a for some aggravation.

Graphically, Blade and Sword was OK, but could have been done better in my opinion, considering that a lot of similar top down RPG titles (even some older ones) looked a little better. The environments looked pretty good and some neat weather effects were added in, but overall I felt that the areas were repetitive in design, and the animations for the characters and the monsters were choppy and definitely not something that you would expect to see in modern day times. For example, performing a Dragon lift tosses a flat, twitching enemy straight ahead, then straight down in a 45 degree angle almost, rather than a smooth or well animated transition. There are a few of these examples, but each one is this kind of thing. On a brighter note though, this game is chock full of violent content (not that that is really the big positive to it), and chopping at enemies severs limbs, heads, legs, and torsos so you can have a screen littered with body parts if you happen to run into a big group of bad guys.

In the sound department, the background music to Blade and Sword was neat, but also got repetitive due to the fact that you heard the same song over and over and over again level by level regardless of what the situation was. The hacking and slashing noises were cool, and drops like gold or potions sounded identical to … you guessed it … Diablo’s drops, so you may wind up taking a walk down memory lane with the clanking of riches or bubbly noises of health restoration stuff.

Overall, Blade and Sword is really fun for about the first two hours, and then it begins to grow very repetitive. This is unfortunate due to the fact that the overall storyline and gameplay that they were looking to go with could have turned out to be really, really enjoyable, but the lack of item collecting and upgrading mixed with repeated enemies quickly draws the game into being little more than a hack and slash with some missions tossed in on top. Diablo fans will have the most fun with it, but ultimately it will probably be a short-lived adventure for the veteran dungeon crawler.   

Gameplay: 6.5
Ultimately, the selection and building of the right mouse button combo system was the most enjoyable part of the game, and is what kept me playing on through a lot of it. While the game’s controls are identical to Diablo, even Diablo veterans will quickly realize that this is little more than a hack and slash title only due to the small amount of drops and no pieces of armor or weapons to be found, and the gameplay gets very repetitive very quickly.

Graphics: 6.3
The time of day and weather effects were pretty neat, and the environments (while repetitive as well) looked decent overall. The jerky animation left something to be desired though, and was more reminiscent of something you would have seen a few years ago.

Sound: 6.5
The background music was well written and sounded great for about the first 10 minutes until the repetitive track kept going over and over again regardless of what was going on. The sounds of hacked body parts and drops weren’t bad though.

Difficulty: Medium
There are three difficulty settings to choose from, and while you can breeze through the easy mode fast enough, moving up to medium or hard will provide more of a challenge. The groups of enemies aren’t stupid (even the corpses and slower ones) and will tend to encircle you if you aren’t careful. You can hit the ALT button to block attacks, but only in front of you so you can meet a quick death if you aren’t paying attention.

Concept: 6.5
I really hate to give this game a 6.5 for the concept because I was expecting so much more from it. Ultimately, it could have been really good but due to the lack of a lot of things that would keep you playing it just degrades to a slasher title really, really fast.

Multiplayer: N/A
I normally don’t do a comment about no multiplayer, but I was really hoping it would be in there. Sadly … no multiplayer here.

Overall: 6.4
Blade & Sword had the designs and makings to be one heck of an RPG title, but sadly a lot of things were left out that just needed to be there in order to really make it work. Will there be a Blade and Sword 2? I guess only Whiptail can answer that one … and I’d like to see it done with a little more of what I had mentioned to truly make it a really good and well-rounded experience. Diablo fans may want to look over it, but ultimately you may want to see if there is a preview or downloadable version prior to making the final decision.