Editors Note: This is a Alpha Build and this article is definitely not an accurate indication of how the final product will be.
I’ve had some time with Skara: The Blade Remains, And I must say, what I sampled is a poor example of what the team is trying to accomplish. The game is a multi-player focused PVP melee action game. In the alpha build, I could play either Free-for-All or Team Deathmatch modes. Since I had trouble joining a game, I was left with the option of hosting my own game, and had to make use of bots. The number of bots could be set up to three. The game is split in-between two factions. The Kharn, and the Durno. The Kharn seem to be tribal people, while the Durno look like your typical medieval looking people, replete with armor. The Kharn also use crude but brutal weapons. There are other factions that the full game will have, but these were the only two available.
When you are down with your preparations, the match will start loading. And this is when the game almost completely falls apart. The game gives no indication that it’s loading at anytime, leaving the player to wonder if it has frozen on them. Once the match does load though, there are a whole host of problems. While the graphics look decent, and the game runs at a constant 60 frames, the game is mechanically a mess. While you can sprint to travel across the map faster, the same can’t be said for melee combat. Actions involving any sort of attacking seem to be greatly delayed, and the recovery time is even worse. You also can’t seem to string any kind of combos together, at least effectively. Combos seem to have very precise timing involved, and with the delay, are hard to execute. Attacks required precision and timing to connect and hit the enemy as well. This is made worse by the often spotty hit detection in the game. Transitioning into blocking also was difficult. While there were three melee attack buttons, none of them really felt like they were more useful than the others. You can also do sprint attacks, which felt the most effective. There is a projectile attack you can use, if you feel like melee is too difficult. One thing to note is that there was no HUD to speak of, so there was no way of gauging just how weak your characters were. Occasionally your character’s could ‘float’ in the air after being knocked around: Obviously a glitch, but still a blemish.
I feel that this build is a textbook example of why alphas can be a really bad idea. It reeks of a really early pre-alpha build. Not even an alpha build. I know that the full game promises being able to customize your character appearance and equipment, and physics to go with that equipment. But almost nothing of what the game’s website claims is represented here at all. I can only hope that the finished product offers the fast-paced 16-player combat that it promises, because I’m not seeing it. But hey, at least it’s free to play. So checking it out couldn’t hurt. Don’t say that you haven’t been warned though.
Editors Note: This is a Alpha Build and this article is definitely not an accurate indication of how the final product will be.
