Ever since the debut of the demo this game has had a distinct identity beyond just another historical medieval sword fighting game. A more frustrating, 'realistic' yet infinitely more satisfying experience to its contemporaries. The demo was incredibly well received, and as you can tell I do prefer it, and I'm here to try and lay out to you why I think the full game hasn't lived up entirely to the demo. I've shortened this review, which originally also covered the demo briefly, though now it just covers the release of the full game and why I think people are split on it.
Okay, what the happened with the full release?
Might as well come out and say it, the full release was more like Half Baked with how lacking it was, and not just that, it was controversial too! The combat had inherently been changed, giving good and bad aspects like more options for your direction of attack in exchange for generally slower, clunkier combat. But what really had people was just... The content. Or lack there of, so to speak. There were some new weapons and the customization was cool, but other than that it was basically the same game with more maps and a bunch of side-grade changes that upset quite a few people.
For the longest time after release there was almost total radio silence, which is also what really got people. For months there was absolutely nothing, no new content or even new patches until, finally, they made a great effort to keep close contact with their community, which is good.
Why do people dislike the full release of Half Sword?
1. Stability? Balance? More like Stupidity or something: Now, let it be known that I don't hate the full release. I say this because I have some strong words for the next sections, part seriously part comedically because haha say bad word funny. The bugs in this game are some of the most frustrating I've ever seen, and I'm not talking about the crashes. There have been cases of me flying across the entire map of the Abyss from stepping on some physics object and dying on impact. Great. Why do my arms not work properly? I inputted half-swording, not for him to try and stretch his hamstring. But you know what is worse than the bugs? The balancing. Okay, so the weapons in the demo were limited, but that made each weapon of each tier have a purpose. The billhooks were great for spacing and downward swings, spears were for quick rushdown and thrust counters, swords were a great source of snappy responses, axes had the versatility of good impact and cutting damage. But now there are so many weapons in the full release that most are entirely useless. Remind me why I'd take the rake over any of the other three or four more usable long weapons you can get right at the start? Why do I need three kinds of two-handed axes? Why are there fifteen different halberd head options when only about four are actually suited to a unique purpose in practice?
Oh, and that difficulty? Half Baked again. People complained about the difficulty, fair, but instead of trying to build on what they had with the demo they chose to fundamentally change the combat, the physics, and now the progression. Now the gameplay is more insufferable whilst completely removing the effective punishment, as there is now a checkpoint at each tier, making it more approachable, but in exchange making it a semi-mindless slugging match where eventually you will make progress even if you suck. I could say more, like how the bosses now have fantasy-tiered strength, and how they're making annoying changes to the AI for the sake of 'realism', but I'll leave it there for now.
2. Pick Up and drop it on the head down a flight of stairs: I hate the free mode of the full release. The whole appeal of it was that it was quick, you were only seconds away from any tiered battle instantly upon reaching the title screen, and for it to be replaced by another side-grade blows. Yeah, cool, I can create my own loadout, but it was fun to find the best naturally occuring loadouts in the demo, that and the limited lack of choice per tier in weapons is what added that necessary friction to the mode to stop it from just being mindless. Tell me with a straight face that the free mode is different enough from the campaign mode in that it deserves to exist. Because I can just hop in the campaign, pick any tier of fight with any gear in my arsenal and get right in. Its riskless nature doesn't even matter, as the Baron armor, the reward for beating the campaign, is automatically insured and will remain beyond deaths in your inventory, meaning that unless you just aren't insuring your gear there is no risk in the main game anyways.
3. The Abyss and the Theming Issue: Thought I was going to make a joke like 'hurr durr more like abyssmal DOGS*IT harharhar' didn't ya? Well, I thought about it, but as I thought I also remembered something. I saw a comment once on one of the updates, asking about potentially adding fantasy races in some form. Silly, right? I would've agreed with you back in the more grounded days of the demo, but now in the full release we have seven foot tall zombies chasing around an infinite void. What. Zombies are cool, I guess... But then they added the map which was just a modified arena with a giant pit filled with comically large spikes at the bottom. And I'm not kidding with the giant zombies thing, the Abyss mode has giant zombies that spawn in as bosses, far larger than regular human bosses, and it just makes me think, what the F*CK happened to the themes of this game? We went from a grounded Germanic dueling game with goofy yet responsive physics to a borderline fantasy game with clunkier combat and zombies that one-shot you through plate armor. And sure, you can say they're inspired from the medieval artworks of the macabre, not the point. It isn't that they aren't inspired from the setting, it's that the grounded theming of said setting actively goes against their inclusion. The zombies are busted too, the aforementioned bite killing you through armor as well as how what you learnt in the base game, i.e. going for general wounds to disable an opponent safely, is completely tossed out the window as these zombies will keep going regardless of losing legs, arms, even if you stab them THROUGH THE FACE they will live, only going down with head-lops and being cut in half. Also if you chop off all their arms and legs they just Jamiroquai their way across the floor towards you. A full release, ladies and gentlemen.
4. Oh my god, who the hell cares?: This is certainly just a personal point I wanted to add at the end, mainly focusing on what they're working on. Guys. Dev team. We DO NOT CARE about random unnecessary additions like specific armors from Europe that serve the exact same purpose as what already exists within the game. Sure I don't speak for everyone, and sure this sounds harsh, I don't care. More doesn't mean good, in this scenario it just means more bloat. The armors are barely even different, just some more grooves or waviness. I understand if the devs want to do this as a passion project, but come on, FIX the DAMN GAME before adding pointless fluff that will just serve to add more dull slop to the game. But instead you'd rather 'follow your passion' by adding what nobody was waiting for. 'Oh boy, finally, they added my favourite 15th century historical cuirass to the game! I'm so excited to look at the back of the model as I'm fighting!' Who is this? Oh, right, it's a figment of the dev's imagination.
Once again, I will say I don't hate the full release. I'm just saying that the direction it's going in is not one I'm a fan of at all. It feels to me like it's lost it's roots, it got popular off of people liking the demo and then changed what people liked about in the demo, only to then turn around and basically say that the demo was never what they were going for in the end. It's a bit of a slap in the face.
Hope you enjoyed reading my rant.
