The rain carves rivulets into your face as you maintain your sword out in entrance of you underneath flickering neon lights. Your opponent does the identical, each of you locked right into a lethal dance of dying that has but to start. Then, like lightning, you lash out, lunging with good intention into the guts of your foe. That’s what it feels prefer to play Die by the Blade, a model new 1v1 weapon-based preventing recreation, and we bought to present it a attempt at WASD Reside.
It’s honest to say that Die by the Blade wears its influences clearly seen on its samuraipunk scabbard. For Honor looms massive within the rear view mirror whenever you dive into this upcoming preventing recreation, as it might be with something the place two combatants face off towards one another with lethal intent. Right here in Die by the Blade that comparability runs somewhat deeper.
“The stance mechanics are actually just like For Honor’s,” developer Triple Hill Interactive tells us at WASD Reside. As you stare down your foe you’ll have the ability to shift stances, after they match your opponent it’ll act as a guard towards their assaults. This implies fight turns into a violent recreation of rock, paper, scissors as you attempt to mind-game your manner into not solely guessing what stance they’ll be utilizing, however appearing to idiot them into slipping into the unsuitable one so you’ll be able to assault. There are additionally evasion mechanics and an power system, permitting you to dodge or carry out completely different sorts of assaults like horizontal or vertical strikes.
The place Die by the Blade units itself aside, nonetheless, is in the way it makes fight sudden and brutally lethal. “There’s no well being bar as a result of it’s a one-hit kill system,” the developer says, although you should have a number of lives that final your complete match so your duel isn’t over in seconds. That stated, the fight is extraordinarily violent, with a dismemberment system that basically separates the sport from its opponents. Violently.
If you play a recreation of Die by the Blade you’ll not solely decide your character who’ll have sure strengths and weaknesses; you’ll additionally decide your weapon. It’s your weapons that kind the core of the sport, with every one figuring out your model of fight and the way you’ll strategy every duel. “It’s worthwhile to discover the stability between the character and the weapon that fits your playstyle,” the developer explains. “The katana is within the center and is the essential weapon, then you definately’ve bought the chokutō which is a one-handed weapon, and the wakizashi which will likely be a double wielded.” With completely different types of blades to select from and 7 characters to choose proper now, there’s undoubtedly scope for some severe build-crafting and optimization.
Die by the Blade will launch on Thursday, Could 16, and you’ll head over to Steam so as to add it to your wishlists now.
When you’d like to take a look at extra works from smaller groups, our information to the perfect indie video games will provide help to discover one thing you like, or if Die by the Blade’s samuraipunk aesthetic has you craving the long run, our greatest cyberpunk video games information will see you glad.
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Extra reporting by Nat Smith at WASD for PCGamesN.