Forge better, or worse.
I tried to play Blades of Fire like a game I already knew, and I suffered for it.
But it’s coming out very soon, on 22nd May.
Somehow MercurySteam kept this game a secret through four years of development.
In fact, the whole game has a chunkiness to it, a bit like Blizzard games do.
Remember how chainsawing Locust in two in Gears of War felt?
This forge mechanic is not a frivolous thing - I’ve never actually seen anything quite so detailed.
For hammers, you could consider wood choice for handles.
Do you want something huge and heavy, or something small and nimble?
Do you want something with good block and parry potential, or something more glass-cannony?
There’s a lot to decide upon.
Then you grab a lump of red hot metal and hammer it into shape in a mini-game.
And you only have a limited number of hammer strokes within which to achieve it.
At the end, you’ll get a star score for your work.
It’s a surprisingly involved process, and an engaging one.
Enemies you fight have vulnerabilities which you discover by locking onto them.
Should they highlight in green, your current set-up is good and you’ll do maximum damage against them.
I’m also not used to this particular way of switching between them.
Hammers, meanwhile, only crush, as far as I can tell.
Blades of Fire’s combat system is also awkward to begin with.
I mean, who puts a dodge-roll on the left bumper, for goodness sake?
The face button attacks are different, too.
Rather than denoting light or heavy attacks, here they determine the direction of your attacks.
Remember the watermelon head-pops I mentioned?
Hold down triangle to achieve them.
It’s a lot to take in all at once.
Exacerbating the awkwardness is the game’s difficulty.
To me, Blades of Fire sits somewhere between a Soulslike and the modern God of War games.
But then it all started to change.
My abrupt reorientation complete, I was finally able to truly begin.
Despite how it might sound, I really liked what I played of Blades of Fire.
Mostly, Blades of Fire is new, and it feels it.
“We think that if we are flying with our own wings it will give us more chances.
It will give us autonomy.
It will give us full responsibility; we’re taking part of the risk.
It involves some risk, yes.
What in life doesn’t involve a risk?”
Roll on, May.
This coverage is based on a press event, for which food and travel was paid by 505 Games.
