djkicks's Profile

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War is about a war between England and France. You are a mercenary who can play on either side earning money by completing contracts. It’s an interesting idea, but the game feels like was hardly developed past the conceptual stages, it has no real depth.

After watching the introduction FMV sequence I got excited and thought this was going to be a fun game. After creating your character, completing a tutorial mission and collecting your 150 Achievement points you are ready for a real battle. A barman at a tavern gives you contracts from each side, and you decide which one you want to take. Then choose which allied base you want to start the game from.

Once the game starts you can pick a group of allied soldiers to lead into battle. There is a variety of unit classes. Each class has its own level, support skills and action skill. As you play through the game you will pick up skill books. To be able to command a certain class you need to find the skill book for that class.

Once you have made your selections your ready to attack. In the top right hand corner of the screen in a map which shows where everyone is. The map is very hard to read, and because it does not rotate you may find yourself running in the opposite direction of the battle you’re trying to find. When you have your bearings and have found the enemy squad it’s time to fight. By holding the right bumper you command you troops to charge and attack. The enemy will also charge at you. Awesome, this is going to be just like the introduction movie…

Sadly the actual battle in the game is not as cool. When the two armies reach each other it’s just a big mash of swords, arms, bodies, and combo scores all over the screen. It’s hard to tell what’s going on, who is who, or even where your character is. During these battles you don’t have to do anything apart from holding the bumper and every so often pushing X,Y, or B to use a special skill technique. These skills normally finish off the opponents. As you kill enemies it will boost your morale. When morale is filled, you go into Bladestorm mode for 30 seconds which means you become invincible and run faster. You can’t actually control what you character is doing during the battles apart from where they run and when they perform a special attack.

To take over a base you need to kill the base leader who appears after a few battles. Once he has been defeated you have successfully captured the base and it is now and allied control. To complete a contract you need to capture a certain base on the map.

Once you are done you return to the tavern to buy items or recruit units to summon on the battle field. Then you can talk to the bartender and get another contract, but your most likely to hit the eject button on your console and play another game.

As I was playing this game I tried to think about who would actually enjoy this game. There are other games out there that are similar but have done a much better job than Bladestorm. I suppose if you play games in very short bursts and want something that you can pickup and play without having to worry about a story then you might like this game. It is good for when I have nothing else to play. Personally I would not buy this game, even if it was in a bargain bin for $10, and the only reason I own it is because I won it. Thanks NZgamer, you guys rock.