To begin with, the demo had me absolutely spellbound! I had never seen such vivid graphics and rich atmosphere in a computer game before. I could not wait until the final version of the game was released.

Now that I have played it from top to bottom, I stand by my original comments, at least to a certain degree. The graphics are stunning, make no mistake. When you smash open a crate for instance, the bits of wood all fly in different directions, each reacting on its own. I have never seen more realistic attention to detail before.

You are given a choice of four characters to play, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. A nice touch was that each character starts out in a separate area specific to that character. In essence then, when you replay the game, you will get a different introduction into the game, based on the character you choose.

Some of the moves your character can achieve are very nice to look at, though the AI of the enemies is limited. Once you figure out the patterns and weaknesses, defeating the beasties is really not much of a challenge. For instance, there were several monsters that would not step over a certain boundary in the game, despite there being nothing in the way to stop them.

Once you figure out where this boundary is, those monsters become ridiculously easy to kill.

What this game really boils down to is the next generation of medieval hack and slash. There is a ton of fighting, very very little problem solving, and really no role playing value at all.

If you are a fan of first person (and this game gives you the option of first person or over the shoulder third person) blood fests, then this one is the best out there. Tons of weapons, lots of combat moves, a host of monsters and a thousand different ways to die make this game, without exception, the best of the bunch currently available.

Now, if you are wanting a good role-play, this is not it. My complaint has always been, why cant they take the engine that they use for this game, and make a hard core RPG with it? I am not a fan of the look of games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale (despite the fact that both of these are very good games). Imagine Baldur's Gate from the perspective of Blade of Darkness. I would be in heaven.

One final note, to address the on-going controversy between Blade of Darkness and Rune. If Rune were an Orc, Blade of Darkness would lop its piggish head off without even raising a sweat.