GAMES
Sharpen your sword as we take a look into the 2018 release from WarpFrog, Blade and Sorcery. This VR title moves to combine sword combat with magic and more, now as the game has reached its full-release stage. A title for almost every VR gamer to enjoy or at least peer into, Blade and Sorcery encourages its players to modify the game as they see fit, changing the environments from a Mediaeval sword fighting game to much more with mods that include Star Wars, Anime, even going as far as to introduce modern day weaponry such as firearms.
Story and Environment
As of the 1.0 update of June 2024 (for PC), the game mode “Crystal Hunt” has been released. This mode follows a new inclusion of lore, bringing in new factions to the game who will combat the lone player in their quest to unlock the world’s secrets, acquire new skills, abilities, weapons, and armour along their run of Crystal Hunt. From shirtless and armorless enemies from the Wildfolk, to the mysterious cult called “The Eye”, the experience will continue to change as the player progresses through the story including the difficulty. This even includes the use of boss battles.
Along with the new update, new environments have been added to the player experience. As the dungeons are set in a seed system, players will almost always get a different labyrinth and experience when attacking a faction outpost.
Gameplay
Players are allowed to choose between a plethora of different ways to play and progress through their story or fight in the limitless sandbox mode. Blade and Sorcery centres itself around a gorey and bloody combat system, making the game an advisory against younger audiences as dismemberment and extensive violence resides in this title.
The choice of weapons are nearly limitless including the encouraged process of modding the game through Modio or Nexus Mods. From bows, spears, shields, swords, daggers, and magic, it is truly up to the player’s imagination on choosing their way of progression through their playthrough.
Sandbox
The base and once-only game mode of Blade and Sorcery is the Sandbox mode. This mode includes the player’s choice of maps, weapons, gear, and abilities without the need of level progression or experiencing the story. Players can still experience Outpost missions and boss battles within Sandbox mode, even allowing the use of cheats to the player’s content such as godmode, no fall damage, or infinite mana.
Mods
With the vast selection of Mods and the highly inclusive and engaging modding community of Blade and Sorcery, the sky's the limit in terms of experiences. Blade and Sorcery encourages the player to mod the game, adding iconic weapons such as blasters and lightsabers from star wars, weapons from history such as katanas, wild west revolvers, or even modern-era firearms. There are even inclusions of mods that implement weapons, armour, and enemies from the Halo franchise, allowing the choice of jumping into the boots of a Spartan or Marine.
Mods include others as well that are passive, such as increased gore mods, AI improvement mods, or immersive overhaul mods that can make the game more challenging for the player experience.
Players can also implement custom maps, many of which can be directly from familiar environments or completely different yet impressive locations such as cyberpunk-esque cities and movie locations.
Summary
Blade and Sorcery is a very immersive game that most would describe as an essential experience for any mature Virtual Reality gamer. The gameplay is almost never-ending with the use of mods. As versatile as Blade and Sorcery is, it’s not without its own real-world limitations such as processing power. But, on a vanilla playthrough, the game feels immersive, delivering more to the player in terms of lore, combat, and diversity. Truly, as a VR game, Blade and Sorcery is by far one of the best VR fighting games on the market today.
Pros
• Quality immersive experience
• Modding support directly in-game and easy modding capabilities via Nexus mods
• Diverse way to play to fit the styles of all players
Cons
• Requires a decent computer to run base game with mods
• Can be repetitive in some aspects, meaning more reliance on mods
• The 1.0 Release update for Crystal hunt was not without its faults, having broken the already-limited enemy AI for a short term
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