An excellent addition to the third-person genre.

Blade of Darkness is a third-person adventure game, focusing on the intricacies of melee combat in ancient times. The story follows one warrior's struggle to subdue the evil forces that have secretly emerged from a vicious, dark entity. These hoards have become powerful, conquering the surrounding lands in search of a key element to bring about the end of time. If you are valiant enough, you may in fact be the Chosen One who can stop this dreaded evil once and for all.

On this perilous journey, you can choose one of four characters: a knight, an amazon, a dwarf, or a barbarian. Each character has unique combat abilities and weapon preferences. These four comprise all the necessary battle tactics you should need, so finding the one that works best for you is the only key. Each character also comes with around two dozen different combination moves to exact on your foes. Some of the animations are fantastic, and you'll be performing the combos just to watch the fluid movement of your character.

Combat effectiveness is based on experience though, so you can't perform all the combinations immediately. Each kill you acquire adds to your experience. The higher your experience, the more combinations you can perform and the more weapons you can use effectively. Certain weapons have special combos, only useable to the appropriate character, which can deal some immense damage if landed successfully, so keeping an eye out for these weapons is extremely beneficial.

Your ultimate journey consists of finding a magical sword, which contains the power to prevent the spread of this evil army. However, to unlock this hidden power, you must find six mystical tablets hidden throughout the lands, guarded by traps that only the most skilled warrior can survive.

In all, there are only a dozen levels, but these are some enormous levels. Each one usually takes a minimum of an hour to complete and if you're not careful, you may have to venture back in search of a tablet you missed, which could add much more time to the hunt. Each of the characters start out with different first levels, providing different hints to the upcoming story, but after that, all the levels are the same.

Prior to the first level, you can enter a tutorial, which takes you through the basics of walking, running, jumping, burning, and combat. This is essential to anyone who is not familiar with the combat system in Blade of Darkness, but it only serves as a basic introduction. For instance, the tutorial will explain how to light torches and use them to burn boxes that are blocking your path, as well as use different types of hand weapons, shields, and fire a few arrows from a bow. After this introduction, each consecutive level will provide much more insight into your battle tactics, allowing you to fight progressively more and more challenging opponents.

The gameplay in Blade of Darkness isn't focused on running in and killing enemies with one swipe. It rewards patience and taking advantage of opportunities by utilizing cunning, not overpowering enemies with brute force. It's all worth it though for that final swing, when the enemy's head is cut clean from its body and you hear it fall to the ground. Meanwhile, you watch as the headless body struggles to stay balanced, but finally collapses to the ground: it's visually poetic.

The combat system is different from most of the typical features found in third-person games in that strafing (sidestepping) is not a basic function that you always use. When it does play a role is when you are in combat and you "lock on" to an enemy. Once locked on, you can circle the enemy in a strafing pattern. You also have a fatigue bar that increases as your level does. The larger your fatigue bar the more consecutive combinations you can perform without getting tired. These two features are the key to the effectiveness of the combat. The setback however is that it takes some getting used to, especially when battling multiple enemies. Many players will undoubtedly miss the constant strafing ability, but if you have the patience to master the locking system, you will be pleasantly surprised with the intensity of some of the battles you will engage in.

On your quest you'll encounter all types of creatures: zombies, magically controlled guards, undead skeletons, and many more. The beauty of these creatures is the artificial intelligence behind them. These are some of the craftiest enemies ever to be created. Each one has such personality, that you feel like they are constantly examining the battle, looking for the best way to win.

Some creatures will keep their distance, allowing you to make the first move, taunting you if you remain too inactive. Others will go directly at you, not caring about anything except trying to land their attacks. These are usually the easiest to take out, but beware of numbers. And yet another type of enemy will mix up retreating and attacking to try and keep you off balance.

When facing multiple enemies at once, certain types will try and coordinate attacks together, whereas other, less intelligent minions will go at you with everything they've got, taking out others if need be - this can be a useful tactic to employ when you're heavily outnumbered. If one enemy does strike another, you will witness the one retaliate and unleash an attack of its own for revenge of the other's mistake.

Not only that, but some enemies carry potions and if they are damaged enough and you leave them enough space, they will consume the potion, regaining lost health. However, if you kill them before they drink their potion, you can claim the potion as a prize when you are victorious. Along with potions, you can also steal the different weapons that all the enemies drop when you defeat them.

Combined with this sparkling AI are some astounding lighting and shadowing effects. This game has the most realistic shadow casting to be seen. Each lamp or torch projects the characters' shadows accurately across the floor, up the wall, and around the corner. It's as breath taking as it is informative of the location of enemies. There's nothing like seeing the enemy's shadow come around the corner and planning a surprise attack against the unaware victim.

The lighting is also sensational, using incredibly accurate colors depending on whether the light is originating from torches, sunlight, lamps, or shining through stained glass windows. The torches have an incredibly warm quality to them, while the sun highlights with a much stronger intensity, and stained glass provides several colors of light. Also, depending on how much light is shining on your character, different areas of your body will be highlighted, while others remain in shadow. These enhanced features do a remarkable job of making the world lifelike and believable.

Another graphical aspect to note is the effect used for water. Every body of water, whether it be a puddle or a river or a lake, reflects everything you see. Not only that, but the movement of the water also contorts the reflections so the water appears to be rippling. For instance, if you are looking down a hallway that is filled with water, and has torches on the walls, you will see reflections of the torches waving in the water, as well as the walls, ceiling, and even your own reflection! Once again, anyone who appreciates good visual effects will be in for a treat with this title.

The sound is no letdown either. The rattling of armor, the clanging of metal, the opening of new wounds, and the whizzing of arrows are all unmistakably clear. Certain enemies have horrifyingly distinct calls. Some of the lesser minions will bark at you or call others close by for assistance. Some of the guards will laugh at you and wiggle their swords in mockery of your skills. And others are most clearly recognized by their earth-shaking footsteps. You can also drop your weapon on the ground to get the attention of a nearby enemy. The voice actors also perform commendably. No where do voices sound like they don't belong or are far-fetched and each actor does a solid job of portraying his/her character. The sounds heard through battle though are definitely the most rewarding. The screams of pain, the slicing of flesh, and the dropping of bodies become quite a thrill, making victory that much sweeter.

The music, which is something I hardly ever notice, was amazingly apparent throughout this title. Different areas of the same level were coupled with different musical tracks, providing a different mood for each area. And during intense battles, the music would rise up, adding to your adrenaline and enhancing your combat to its fullest. I found myself really enjoying the enhancing emotion of the score and it very accurately portrayed the mood that the current action was signifying. Some of the pieces were sculpted so nicely, equaling the highest quality found in any movie. A very professional piece of conducting here, which should not be missed or muted.

Blade of Darkness also comes with a multiplayer one-on-one tournament over a LAN, where you can battle your friends head-to-head. Any other players who joined the game can watch the others fight it out and the winner continues to fight those in wait. It's an ok feature, but isn't nearly as fun as the single player campaign.

If there would be a downfall to this game, it would be the non-standard controls and the character balance. There are times when the character seems a bit out of control while running and the movement of the mouse doesn't feel as accurate as it could be. Some characters are also much faster than others are and it takes some time developing tactics to avoid getting slaughtered by enemies. But, with patience and experience, the controls should become familiar and the enjoyment of the combat should rise above and beyond anything else you've experienced. This title is a worthy addition to any adventure/action fan who enjoys close-quarters combat with melee weapons.

Reviewed by Brian Federici.