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Metroid Dread developer MercurySteam has announced Blades of Fire, a glossy action-adventure that resembles a snappier, bloodier spin on Sony’s God of War reboots. It’s coming to PC in May, and the trailer showcases the game in pretty spectacular fashion. None of this has to do with why I’m excited, however, as I’ll get to in a bit.
First though, let’s slice into the flesh of what Blades of Fire is. Players assume the role of grizzled warrior Aran de Lira, who takes the fight to an evil queen with the ability to turn metal into stone: Less than ideal if you’re, say, a warrior who specialises in swinging steel around. Also, her minions can apparently wield a sort of super-metal that can shatter other blades. Just in case having your sword turned into stone wasn’t enough of a problem.
Aran will be carving his way through 50 enemy types alongside a sorcerous scholar called Adso. Blades of Fire’s two key features are its combat system, which involves targeting specific enemy body parts with various ways of dealing damage to them, and its weapon forging system, allowing players to create custom arms with different lengths, weights, durability, and so forth.
The trailer shows a decent chunk of both systems in action, with Aran hacking through enemies using dual weapons, icy swords, and a fire-imbued hammer in the first half, and crafting himself a fancy new axe in the second. There are some nifty character designs among the fighting, too. Keep an eye out for the fat chuckling goblin lad about a minute in. I already want to be his friend.
As mentioned, the obvious point of comparison here is God of War. Blades of Fire presents its world and combat in a very similar fashion to Sony Santa Monica’s reboots. But it seems likely that Blades of Fire is in fact a spiritual successor to the 2001 hack ‘n’ slash Severance: Blade of Darkness. Aside from the similar names, MercurySteam arose from the ashes of Rebel Act Studios, Severance’s original developer. Also, the main character Aran looks like a smoother, beardier version of Severance’s blocky barbarian character Turkaram. The whole limb targeting system likewise screams Blade of Darkness, one of the main selling points of which was the fact you could chop off enemy limbs.
I’m yet to see anything from MercurySteam itself confirming any link between the two, so I could be completely off the mark here. Nonetheless, there are enough comparisons to make the gore-obsessed 14 year old inside me sit up and pay attention. Blades of Fire launches May 22 on the Epic Store, and I will definitely be giving its combat a whirl.
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Kurt Indovina
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