More than 20 years on from its original release, the bloody, brutal action-adventure game Blade of Darkness is making a return to PC with an updated version.
Blade of Darkness‘ legacy can be seen in a wide variety of modern games, from Darksiders to Dark Souls, with its Dark Fantasy setting and challenging gameplay helping to shape the template for such titles.
Players can choose between four characters (Tukaram, the Barbarian; Naglfar, the Dwarf; Sargon, the Knight; and Zoe, the Amazon) and utilize their unique skillsets and weaponry to carve up all manner of orcs, demons skeleton warriors, and the like. And if regular weaponry isn’t doing it for you, you can tear limbs from your foes and use them instead.
Boutique publisher SNEG is bringing the game to Steam and GOG.com with retro porting specialists Fire Falcom and General Arcade tasked with adapting the game, originally developed by Rebel Act Studios for then-publisher Codemasters, for modern hardware. In this regard, the pair has re-engineered Blade of Darkness for modern PC hardware and operating systems, and will include widescreen support for up to 4K resolution, as well as new display settings, and overall stability improvements.
Outside of that, the game itself will be left relatively untouched, preserving its blood-soaked challenge just the way it was. Given the cult-like following Blade of Darkness has maintained over the years, that feels especially important.
Elena Roor, Managing Director at SNEG, had this to say about the announcement
“Since its initial launch, Blade of Darkness continues to build a dedicated following — mods, ‘Let’s Plays’, and community patches are found throughout the gaming community even today. This only signals how undeserving was the game’s fate,” I’m glad that we’ve managed to sort out everything legal and, to our luck, unearthed the source code with the help of the original dev team. Altogether this brings us to the upcoming October’s release.”
It’s always good to see games seemingly lost to time and legal complications getting another shot, so the opportunity for a restored Blade of Darkness to gain new fans is great news. Roll on October when we can return to the brutal Dark Fantasy action once more.