BladeStorm: Nightmare Review
A European version of Dynasty Warriors sounded like such a brilliant idea. Mixing up the age old formula of hack and slashing your way through countless soldiers, now with a certain knightly flavour from across the Hundred Years War should have been a winning formula. With the new location, though, the developer also tried new ideas and unfortunately these ultimately reduce the familiar, exciting button mashing frenzy to button holding boredom.
BladeStorm: Nightmare cannot hold the excitement of its forefathers, nor does it add anything meaningful to the grand battle genre, but deduces it to tedium. Supposedly you play as a mercenary at the frontline of the Hundred Year War between Britain and France. You’re free to move between fighting for the French and English at your leisure as you try and make a name for yourself on the battlefield.
Where BladeStorm works is in the execution of the battle. Each map is huge, with dozens of forts that will be taken and retaken over the course of any given fight. During the brief you’ll be told which fort needs capturing to succeed the mission, and can choose where to spawn amongst your contractors territory.
That is basically the end of the strategy, though. Once the fight commences you’ll have what appears to be a host of different options that actually bare no real effect on the field. Bladestorm lets the player choose which troops they will lead to battle (which reflects which weapon you’ll be using as well), though you’re free to take command of any roving group of allies you come across. That’s right, apparently being a unknown mercenary gives you complete control of whatever troop you want.
The basics include, polearms, swords, bows or cavalry, though you’ll probably find yourself sticking to swords and horses once you’ve tried them all. Horses are useful as you can travel across the mostly barren map at a reasonable speed, while swords are the most effective weapon while in close quarters combat. Archery is all but pointless and you’re never sure if its effective at all, which is inexplicable for a strategy game. The worst part, though, is that combat is so insular from the player that I found myself yawning as I watched enemy forces clash.
To participate in combat all you have to do is hold down the attack button, and witness your whole unit dive headlong into your adversaries. After a moment or two of explosive combat, with combo numbers flinging themselves across the screen and a medley of flesh obscuring whatever you’re trying to look at, the fighting peters out and the winner is decided. After many hours of playing I’m still not sure what decides the victor, but it’s normally the player.
I really wish there was more to it than one singular button, but all you literally have to do is hold the attack button and watch the soldiers do all the work. There are a selection of other buttons, each unique to the unit type you control at the time, but the results of these actions are mild at best and pointless at worst. The only exception to this sad state of affairs is the cavalry charge, which can effectively cut through enemy ranks. This becomes a nice escape option after trudging through the same green fields for three days. There isn’t even a meaningful strategy element to think about, flanking and out manoeuvring your foe will give you any kind of bonus. Engaging enemies are always the same.
That being said, captains (the boss fights of Bladestorm: Nightmare) can change things up, but I found them equally uninteresting, stretched and lacking in challenge. Although they are seemingly invincible, the player is left with no choice but mash away at them until they eventually fall over and die. Although this is somewhat reminiscent of the Dynasty Warrior series BladeStorm was made off the back of, it lacks the over-the-top amusement that its cousins honed.
The game makes some reference to the camp silliness of BladeStorm’s cousin Dynasty Warriors in the absolutely abysmal dialogue. Not only is it stuffed with archaic words to the point of lunacy, but the voice work itself sounds like it was spoken by bored hotel workers attempting to imitate the accents of their patrons. Although supposedly trying to capture French, British, Irish and German accents, I’m not even sure if their actors have ever been to Europe, let alone the country of origin.
This would be almost funny if it weren’t the icing on the cake of a boring, failed attempt at mixing up the same genre that Dynasty Warriors spent years perfecting.
What makes BladeStorm so sad is that it could have actually been good. While Dynasty Warriors wins no awards for its gameplay, the franchise usually provides an amusing, entertaining experience which is thoroughly enjoyed around the world. BladeStorm: Nightmare does not hold that appeal, as its attempt at tactics fail flat against an enemy that is beaten down by a single button.
It feels like the lovechild of Dynasty Warriors and Total War, only without anything that makes either of those games great. Koei have made some near addictive games in the past, but BladeStorm: Nightmare isn’t one of them and you might be bored of it before you finish the first level.