I’m interested to see how, or if, my feelings change as Blade and Sorcery develops. For other players I suspect it will feel like too much. But it stops short-barely-of making me so uncomfortable that I have to stop playing, or making me feel like my enjoyment says something about me as a person. As the best VR games become more realistic, they’ll edge closer to feeling like real-life violence, and Blade and Sorcery goes further in that direction than any other game I’ve played. And if I’m honest, most of the guilt comes from how much I’m enjoying it. To begin with I was stabbing them while they waited, but I quickly felt ashamed, and if anybody else had been watching me play over my shoulder, I would’ve felt genuine embarrassment. Sometimes, you’ll knock an enemy down, and they’ll lay there for a few seconds, helpless, before getting back up to fight you. Other VR melee games like Gorn make that more palatable with cartoonish, exaggerated violence-but Blade and Sorcery’s human enemies, with their changing expressions and dying screams, make it feel more real. VR tears down that barrier by mapping your weapons directly to your hands and arms: it’s me landing the killing blow, controlling the exact angle of my blade as it pierces my enemy’s skin. That’s partly because it feels like it’s my character, not me, who’s dishing out the pain. I’ve never felt bad killing enemies in other games, whether by sword or by bullet. You have to literally grab the handle and tug it out if you want it back.īut as satisfying as it feels, it’s also where my guilt starts to creep in. It’s a combination of the crunch of your weapon entering an enemy’s body, the wide-eyed surprise in their eyes, and the fact that weapons lodge in their flesh. Every time I watch someone else play they do something I didn’t even think was possible, and I want to rush back in and try it out for myself.Īnd oh how I love stabbing in Blade and Sorcery, whether it’s with swords, sabres, daggers, spears, or even arrows. I spent a good hour using just a spear, trying to master the combo of an underhand stab, flicking my weapon a foot into the air, catching it overhand, and throwing it at another enemy like a javelin. It almost feels like performance art for an audience of one, and whenever I think of something new to try, I feel like I have to perfect it. I’ll then pull out a mace from my holster, smash an enemy in the face and drop it, looking skywards just in time to catch the weapon I threw earlier, and carry on. One of my favourite things to do is slip into slow motion and toss my weapon high into the air. The variety of ways to kill encourages you to experiment, and because there’s no story or other distractions, I’ve found that I’m constantly coming up with new ideas for flashy combos. Read all of our VR Month coverage. You can find even more VR content on our sister site, TechRadar. For the next three weeks, PC Gamer is focusing on what's new, what's coming, and what's most exciting in virtual reality.
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