In 2007, Bladestorm: The Hundred Years’ War was released on Xbox 360 and featured a virtual representation of the battle between England and France in the 1400’s. Brought back again for Xbox One, can what was at the time a through-ably enjoyable game, be the same again on the next generation or will it simply be another game which falls short of making a return?
With this version of Bladestorm you not only get the original version, which included in the Hundred years’ war story but also the Nightmare mode which is all about fantasy. This is something you have to experience. The Nightmare mode of the story features the hundred year war once again, this time though, the war ends between England and France, due to hordes of Monstrous Demons. So there’s that little problem.
The objective of both campaigns is the same, taking villages and then castles in order to dominate the map and wipe out the enemy. This in turn raises your fame or reputation allowing you to take on harder battles which reap more rewards. Taking villages is easy, taking castles is more difficult. Each village has a base commander who has slightly more health than your average joe soldier. The base commander must fall in order for you to take the village and thus progress on the map. The concept is the same for castles except the commander there deals much more damage and possesses more health; they can only be attacked once they have attempted to attack you first.
In the nightmare mode the commanders take on the form of large monsters and are considerably in size. To tackle these and the enemy in general you possess three types of infantry which you can use at your disposal. Archers, foot soldiers and horse man. Each has 2 unique attacks which follow a simple pattern, either a simple melee and or a heavy attack. As well as a defensive move which usually involves a shield with your troops taking hits. The key here is to time your attacks well as each of the attacks must power back up after using. Heavy attacks take longer as they exhort more energy, duh!
Archers possess pinpoint attacks which yield less damage but have a higher accuracy rate to the serpent attack function which sees them fire blindly often missing more than they hit, but those hit usually die. Horsemen are probably the most fun, their charge attacks works brilliantly and you really have to use the momentum and speed within the game to achieve maximum damage. Compared to the running slash attack it’s much more effective. Finally the foot soldiers aren’t to be forgotten, here you can instruct them to fight alone without commands by holding the right bumper, and although this really is an easy option it’s certainly helpful. As you go on through the game more interesting characters do come out such as the War Elephant.
You can add troops to your platoon easily enough and the more you add the easy the game becomes, with more diversity you can alter your tactics and the game becomes considerably more enjoyable. Levelling up platoons is important as the damage they deal continues to rise with each level up, as you roll through the vast expanses of France, which is particularly barren and boring in features, you can destroy anything your way with ease. Another reason to invest a little time then, no?
It’s probably only fair that I mention the AI at this point, the standard troops on the battlefield might as well not be there, they offer little in the way of challenge even at a lower level. The base commanders, in particular on nightmare mode, offer the most challenge, but even then their slow attacks are predictable and easy to counter against. A real shame as it seems at times, navigating is harder than actually fighting.
As you continue to fight and continue to dominate your platoon whom you can control and make grow by adding other platoons to your control can achieve “Bladestorm”. Bladestorm, referred to as Zeal at the start, can come in real handy when in a tight spot; it rewards you for defeating a number of enemies or achieving a high combo. Attacks can regenerate quicker and your troops move faster around the battlefield, it lasts for around 10 seconds but adds depth and reward to a game which can be repetitive at times.
Nightmare and the Hundred Year War come as one story mode option, alongside this is the free mode and Edit mode. Free mode is simply a scene selection option which is a bit disappointing; it got my hopes of something new. With that is Edit mode, does what it says on the tin really, allowing you to change aspects of your character such as voice, appearance, name and other apparel. It feels as though it was something to add on and not much effort has really gone into this area of the game.
While playing Bladestorm I really enjoyed it, which is not often I say that about this style of game. The gameplay is enjoyably and the terrible voice acting gives you a little bit of a laugh too. Bladestorm: Nightmare certainly won’t win any awards. The surrounding landscape shows off this game as a re-release rather than brand new, with barren, empty sprawling grass lands with a gloomy overcast setting drawn poorly it’s not something to shout about at all. The main troop graphics are standard at best; villages and castle have little in the way of detail as well.
But you don’t play Bladestorm for its graphics. You play Bladestorm because it has great action, and controlling your platoon to victories is certainly rewarding. Those all-important combos and gaining the Bladestorm affect whilst galloping across the plains of France make this game different from the rest on Xbox One; it’s certainly in a niche.
The main story of Bladestorm, especially in nightmare mode, doesn’t really have you gripped at all, it’s not full of surprises, many of the missions are very long, some overly long and can drag out making you won’t to come back and play later, but with no auto save it’s a minefield. The voice acting in the main story is somewhat suspect, the English speaking French troops are very stereotypical and don’t really add anything. It might just be me but some of the lines at times don’t make sense at all either.
To sum up Bladestorm: Nightmare is quite difficult. What it lacks in a story and graphics it makes up for in the fun aspect of the way and how it plays. It’s certainly not going to win any awards, but you can certainly have a lot of fun with Bladestorm in small doses. The main let down I had with Bladestorm was that it was lacking that extra level of diversity it needed. The game was getting very repetitive a couple of hours in and as I got lost on the battlefield due to some very suspect map graphics it frustrated me further.
Re-releasing Bladestorm on the Xbox One though was always going to be a challenge in terms of breaking into a market full of blockbusters at the moment. You wouldn’t be forgiven for forgetting about Bladestorm: Nightmare but it’s certainly worth trying your hand at, or adding to your Xbox Collection.
Thank you to XCN for allowing me to review Bladestorm: Nightmare and for their continued supported.