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Demo Guide

Introduction
First, I would like to explain what this game is and what it's not. Blade, AKA Severance and Blade of Darkness, is a 3rd person action/adventure game. It focuses heavily on its combat elements, which probably diverts from just about anything you've ever tried before. The combat is not the high paced, fast moving click-o-mania type you might be used to. It requires strategy and skill to succeed in almost all confrontations with your enemies. The combat and movement is focused on realism, which means you walk, jump and fight in a more natural way.

So, when you try this game, you can expect some difficulties getting used to the controls and game play. We will try with this guide to help you on that, and with some practice, you'll understand why most of us find Blade to be one of the most fun, addictive and thrilling game ever developed!

If you have the Spanish version...
If you have the Spanish version of the demo, for us non-Spanish gamers, it makes it practical impossible to understand how to set up and play the game. Luckily, there is a 3rd party, unofficial language pack available, which translate all the menus, in-game text and interface screens into English. This zip-file contain translated versions of some of the data files that were installed with the demo. Unzip these files in the directory you installed the Blade demo and overwrite the files you are prompted for. You now have a more or less English version to play with! Many thanks to "marfan" for his efforts in making this translation! (PS! Using this "patch" will also enable gore, mutilations and saving/loading games, although the latter is a bit buggy).

The following files are only needed for the Spanish version:
Download Demo Patch
Download English Language Pack

The Controls
This is where most people have problems. It does take a while to get used to controlling your character, it really does. But don't give up! When you get them down, you get them down and you'll realise that it's most likely the best way to control this game.

My advice is to set the mouse X-axis to 3.00. This will make it less of an effort to turn your character with the mouse. Leave the Y-axis at 1.00 as to much sensitivity easily get you lost in the camera angle.

You can walk or run forward and backward. To run you need to double-tap and hold down the forward key. Normal movement does not allow you to strafe-walk left or right, and will have the same effect as if you move the mouse to the according sides. You can however strafe-walk while in combat-mode; the only time you really need it, but more on that later. To make a quick 180º turn, click the backward key while you hold the forward key down.

You can jump in any direction, although jumping left, right and backwards are more of a dodging kind of jumps to avoid attacks from your enemies. The dodging jumps are the ones you'll be using most of the times and are very effective during combat to avoid enemy attacks. Practise these jumps! The jump button combined with the forward key is also used to climb when needed. Movement is a bit different when in combat-mode, but more on that later (see: Combat).

You can select and pick up a numerous objects from your surroundings. When your character spots the most important nearby objects of the lot, a text label will appear above it and you can pick it up/use it by clicking the assigned key for "Use". As mentioned, only the most important objects, as weapons, food etc., will automatically be selected. To manually cycle through and select among all nearby objects, use the assigned key for "Select Object". This is particular useful when a pile of objects lies right next to another. Try it, it's amazing what can actually be picked up and used :-)

All objects held in your right arm can be thrown. To throw an object, press and hold the assigned key for "Throw". You'll notice a power-bar appearing, this determines the force used when throwing an object. When the bar reaches the desired power, click on the attack button to launch it. To drop anything held in your left arm, press and hold the "Throw" key and press the "Block" key.

Certain objects can also be used, either alone or combined with other objects in the environment. First select the desired object (like a potion or a torch) and click the assigned key for "Use". For example, doing this with a torch and having a box or barrel selected results in your character use the torch to set the box or barrel on fire. Keys, for instance, are automatically selected from the inventory when you press the "Use" key while standing next to a keyhole. The "Use" key is in short terms used for just about anything that includes picking something up and/or use it, manipulating the environment, pushing levers and opening doors etc.

Combat
When engaging enemies in combat, you'll see an icon representing all visible enemies (within a certain distance) in the upper right corner of the screen. These icons show the enemy's race, hit points, level and special objects carried (a key, healing potion etc.). When an icon like this is visible, you can target an enemy, this is done by pressing the key assigned for "Select Enemy". You'll notice that the icon for the enemy selected will change from being translucent to being solid. If you have several enemies in sight, you can cycle between them with the "Select Enemy" key. To free the target lock, click the key assigned to "Toggle Weapons".

When an enemy is targeted, you'll notice that your character will always face and aim all attacks towards the selected target. If you now press the left or right key, your character will strafe-walk and circle the selected target while staying faced to the enemy. This is a very useful and important part of the combat system, and we suggest you play around to get used to it instead of immediately charging into the enemies like a madman. Try circling one of the traitor knights for a while, watching his movement and reactions, trying dodging his attacks and learning to determine a good distance for the various actions (attacking, defending, dodging etc.).

When you make an attack, you'll notice that a green bar appears. This shows your current stamina as well as how much you use and have left before getting exhausted. Continuously attacking will end up your character being fatigued. When this happens, you'll see him slow down and gasp for air while setting you in a very exposed and dangerous position. It is therefore important get back at a distance from the enemy to gain strength for the next attack, especially when you are at a low level.

To succeed in combat, you need to know the direction of the various attacks. Besides of combos, all weapons have their own basic movements as long as you have stamina and experience enough to use them. For example, clicking and holding the backward key as you attack will result in a low aimed attack. Simply click the attack button alone, and then combine it with each of the movement keys (forward, backward, left and right) to learn the basic attacks for the various weapons.

HINT: The password for unlocking gore and mutilations are "sesame".

Proceed to Part 2 (The Combos)

Resources:
Download Demo
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-Rebel Act Studios
-Codemasters
-Friendware Europe
-Blade street team