Severance: Blade of Darkness

Unlike other games of this genre, such as Rune , Enclave and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within , where combat systems are greatly simplified and relatively easy to learn, Blade of Darkness is more similar in this regard to fighting games . Here the blows, techniques and superudars entirely depend on the different combination of control buttons - for each technique each weapon has its own “set” of combinations of buttons.

Each hero uses his own weapon types, each has his own strengths and weaknesses, as well as his own combo attacks and movements. During the game, the character gains experience, and with it new levels, like in action-RPG games . With each new level, new opportunities and techniques open up, as well as increased characteristics: POW ( English Pow er - force) and DEF ( English Def ence - protection). Special strokes are applied using the movement and strike keys combination. Each weapon has its own combos.

The level of the hero depends on the number and level of enemies he killed, usually the maximum attainable in a single game - the 21st.

The game has about 70 types of weapons: about 15 types of weapons per character, as well as some weapons that are used by opponents that are not tied to any character. Weapons can be one-handed and two-handed.

The game has a huge number of enemies, and each of them need to apply their tactics.

Enemies: goblins (small orcs, are archers), orcs, trolls (big orcs), spiders, zombies, skeletons, fire skeletons, zombies in armor, knights, traitors, dark knights, demons, vampires, golems.

In the game you can choose one of four characters:

• Amazon Zoya: the greatest mobility, the greatest length of the weapon, the smallest protection, the highest speed of running with a weapon, almost equal to the speed with a hidden weapon. Uses long two-handed spears that do not allow the use of a shield.
• Knight Sargon: good speed in combat mode, with the exception of sideways movement. Uses long one-handed swords and short maces.
• Gnome Naglfar: the greatest protection, the smallest length of the weapon. Slowly moving in a fight, but well dodges jumps. Uses short one-handed axes, long clubs and a short hammer.
• Barbarian Tukaram. Uses long two-handed swords, two-handed axes of medium length.

Each character has a unique first level of the game, but the following levels are the same for everyone.

First, God created Chaos and divided it into two parts: the Light and the Dark. Also, God created life and mind and endowed them with his sons - the Prince of Light and the Prince of Darkness. But the Prince of Darkness kept in him a secret desire to take the place of his father. He learned the secret of the language of the Creator and tried to create new creatures. But nothing good came of him, and terrible monsters and demons were born. Learning about this, God the Father and the Prince of Light decided to stop him and began the war.

The player plays as a random warrior who fell to save the world from Darkness. In the first half of the game, the player learns that he needs to find four keys - precious stones in order to take the mysterious Sword of John. This sword must defeat Dal-Hurak, as well as the Lord of Chaos himself, but for this you need to collect six runes , so that Ianna gives the sword her strength.

The runes are on six different levels, and between them there can be levels without runes. The runes are well hidden, for example, at the level of the Kelbegen Mine, in order to take the rune, you must quickly climb on the rock, fearing rising lava. And at the level of the Crypts of Ether, in order to open a hall with a rune, it is necessary to shoot a bow at a small inconspicuous symbol of the rune.

If the player does not find the runes on the way to the temple of the goddess Ianna, then he can return to levels where the runes are not collected. These levels are different from the first pass, they are filled with vampires and demons (instead of standard types of opponents), and the only open path leads to the rune guarded by the knight of chaos.

The game takes place in a fantasy world. Some levels of the game resemble places in the Middle East , Europe , Africa and South America due to similar names and architectural styles. Most of the places and cities mentioned are actually located or located in the Caucasus , the Middle East and Central Asia. : the archeological monument of Tel Khalaf (in the game - a medieval fortress), the state of Armin , Marakanda , Tabriz , Yerevan , Kerman , Nimrud , Nippur , Kashgar , the Kara-Kum desert and the Negev .

The plot of the game is partly based on Zoroastrian myths. The creator god is named Ahura Mazda , and the Prince of Darkness is called Angra Manyu . There is also the god of the metals Kshatra and the sun god SpentaManyu. Also mentioned peoples: Avestas and Arkonty. On one of the levels you have to light the sacred fire. The names of historical figures are also associated with the mythology: Erish Kigal , Sawan, Nergal , Amlak, Gorlond. The names of the runes are related to Zoroastrianism : Aramati (possibly from Spenta Armaiti ), Aryaman ( Aryaman ), Haurvatat (Haurvatat), Ameretat ( Ameretate ), Xshathra (possibly from Kshatra ), Ianna (Ianna). The names of the last two runes are taken for completeness. and named after the gods.

In addition to Zoroastrian, the mythology of the game involves other historical and mythological sources. For example, on one of the levels there is an Egyptian temple with a sacred scarab.

At the time of release, the game had quite advanced graphics, supported shadows in real time and various lighting effects. Animations of characters were made using Motion capture . The size of the textures did not exceed 256 × 256, but due to the fact that the game did not compress the textures, it required a powerful computer for those times (the minimum system requirements were: a Pentium 2 450 Mhz processor and 64 Mb of RAM).

The game came with a level editor with which users created their maps and modifications . Game resources are open and can be edited with a text editor. After editing, the modified file is copied to the folder with the original one, replacing it. The game scripts use Python 1.5.

• Fan site with all maps and modifications in Russian
• Fan site with all maps and modifications in Russian
• Fan site with a variety of maps and modifications in English