Blade Assault
As the Steam Summer Sale dwindles down to it's final days, I realized I hadn't spoken much about my recent pickups. Not because I didn't purchase any games this year during the Summer Fest, but because I struggled to decide what to discuss. Most of the games I would have covered I've already done so as far as reviews go, which cuts the list down a considerable amount. Then I noticed a game I was always interested in, Blade Assault, was on sale for a little over five dollars. After playing the game and clearing two playthroughs, I'm once again at a "middle of the line" when it comes to recommending versus "wait for a sale." As this review takes place during the Summer Steam sale, assume I'm only recommending it because it's the heaviest it's been discounted.
Blade Assault centers around Kil, a former soldier who is first seen locked up in prison for attempting to kill the person responsible for his parents' deaths. Upon being bested by the main villain and his right hand woman, Kil is sent to the underground, forced to work his way up to the surface and enact revenge.
The story is admiringly not it's strongest suit, but Blade Assault does a decent job at making each playthrough unique. As is the case with games like Hades, each death offers new insight for the player as far as the game's lore. As it turns out, Kil isn't the first one to enact revenge as there are three other playable characters, each with their own reasons for revenge. As it turns out, each character is related to Kil in their own unique way, making each subsequent playthrough at least worth a try.
With that said, while this is a Roguelite, it's surprisingly short and lenient in it's challenge. Weapon upgrades are plentiful, with gears representing equipments that gives the player buffs in accordance to its levels. The main abilities involve elemental cores, split into three elements.
The fire element focuses on damage over time and overall increased damage. Electric element increases crit chance, attack speed, and roots players with paralysis. Lastly, the ice element focuses on increasing a player's defense as well as freezing enemies and slowing them down.
Each chatacter and and their weapons have certain pros and cons when paired with each element and each core has a unique "element attack" that pairs with a weapon's normal attack and skill attack. Slowly the game unravels its mechanics to the player and the number of customization possibilities are surprisingly vast.
Blade Assault's graphics reminds me of a mid 2000s 2D Korean MMO not unlike Maple Story and if players treat Blade Assault like games including Elsword, it becomes less of a roguelike and more of a single player experience of one of those many titles. Kil has access to three weapons, including a chain sword, ax, and rifle. Other characters include the shinobi Jenny, katana user Darcy, and a brawler, Jett. Upon completing a run, the player will unlock an assault level similar to the endgame content of Dead Cells, which are mainly used to speed up the process of unlocking everything the game has to offer.
So far, I quite enjoyed the game. The dialogue and humor was quirky and self aware, the jazz inspired music was phenomenal and the gameplay was intense once pieces began to fall into place. The main criticism I have with the game is that it's far too repetitive even for a roguelike game. Each stage is separated into rooms with split paths for various rewards. There's a section of the level where players can shop for items and every room before the boss room has the player heal and gain items.
There's another mechanic where if the player takes too much time in a stage, the alertness level will rise during a playthrough. The higher the level, the more buffs the enemies will have, which encourages the player to keep moving. Things like cursed treasure chests and heal replenishments also exist, raising the levels considerably. But even with this in mind, the buffs the player will have will overshadow the buffs the enemies get.
This is true up until the last two levels where it turns into a battle royale, but at this point the player should have several immunity gears and a win condition that makes the added challenge a moot point. Or they could be hanging by a thread with the final boss being an executioner. There's no real in between.
Once you've completed a playthrough, there's not much of an incentive to continue unless the desire is to 100% the game or gain all the achievements. For five dollars, Blade Assault is more than worth it's weight and the soundtrack composed by Planetboom of DJMAX fame certainly helps. Anything more is a question of how much of a Roguelite fan you are.
Blade Assault is now available on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Series X/S, and Steam.