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Image credit:Half Sword Games
Image credit:Half Sword Games
There are many such lost souls in the bleak, midnight world ofthe Half Sword demo- all lurking near candle-lit piles of randomly spawned hammers, stools, barrels, axes and lengths of wood, all subject to unforgivably authentic physics and cursor-based attacks that conspire to transform every scuffle into a Monty Python blooper reel.
Half Sword Devlog 00 - Active Ragdoll, Medieval Armor, KickstarterWatch on YouTube
Half Sword Devlog 00 - Active Ragdoll, Medieval Armor, Kickstarter
It’s possible, as you’d expect, that all this reflects my own ineptness, though the blundering and absurd inhumanity of it all is a fair representation of the IRL fights I have been involved in. Regardless, it’s very funny. “Proper” physics-based melee combat systems have been a thing in games for years, but they never fail to make me cackle. There are someGang Beasts-worthy moments in Half Sword, albeit with a lot more gore. At one point I managed to knock a guy down while dropping my axe, which clattered to a halt a few metres away. Rather than give the downed opponent time to get up while I fetched it, I seized his ankle and dragged him kicking and screaming towards the axe. Then I stepped on the axe and hurt myself, and he stood up and beat my head in with a footstool. Touché, good sir knight. I’ll see you at the next Roundtable.
The full version of Half Sword promises to be “an immersive, physically simulated medieval combat game that offers players a unique experience of becoming a commoner-turned-knight, fighting brutal tournaments in 15th-century Europe”. It’ll feature a “meticulously crafted collection of historically accurate arms and armor”, NPCs with quests, and many flourishes based on “the expertise and feedback of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) practitioners and sword fencers”. Sounds decent, but I’d also love to play an expanded version of the demo that abstracts the rags-to-riches theme into a bunch of random, ignoble fights in the dark for possession of some truly awful hats.
