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Demo Guide

Objects and Items
The Severance universe is packed with many useful (and many not so useful) items that you can pick up or manipulate in some way. In the demo there are plenty of objects that appear to have no use, but you can nevertheless pick them up, throw them about the place (which can be more functional than you might think) and even use them as weapons (although most will be pretty ineffectual employed in this way).

There are also plenty of invaluable objects to find such as food, potions, keys etc and fixed items including locks and levers. The below guide should help you understand how they all fit into the world of Severance.

Miscellaneous Items
There are lots of items lying around the castle that you can pick up and even utilise as weapons if it comes to it. They include bones, skulls, buckets, stools, kitchen knives, chalices, jugs and so on. For the latter purpose most will only do the minimum amount of damage for your characters level (ie a level 4 character weilding a bone will do 4 HP damage with each attack, a level 1 character will only do 1 HP damage with the same 'weapon').

Pick up things you find and experiment with them: you can sometimes find a use for apparently useless objects. If you can't find a use for them, well, just picking them up and throwing them around the place can be pretty awe inspiring when you watch them bounce, roll around and settle realistically :-)

None of these 'miscellaneous' objects can be stored in your inventory.

Severed Limbs
One of the most controversial aspects of the game is the ability to hack limbs from your opponents and then pick them up and use them as clubs. You can even do the same with their decapitated heads. This is a simply logical extension of the freedom you will come to expect from the Severance engine rather than over the top gore for the sake of it. If you can pick up almost anything else in the environment and swing it at your foes, and if you can chop off their limbs with your weapon (which, lets face it, is only realism in itself given the type of combat involved), then it would certainly be a glaring omission if you could not also pick up those severed body parts. The only thing preventing you from doing so and using them as weapons is the fact that you wouldn't last long - they only do minimal damage (though a bug in the demo results in severed limbs sometimes doing 10 HP more damage than they should), and thus are useful only as a last resort or as throwing fodder.

Torches
Torches have several uses. Unfortunately you can't remove them from wall brackets, but you may find them lying on the floor from time to time. If a torch isn't alight, it can be lit from another torch simply by approaching it with the unlit one in your hand and pressing the 'use' key.

A torch can be used as a weapon, but like other small objects not designed for this use it will do only minimal damage. Torches can also be used to set alight boxes or barrels, thus destroying them. To do this select the box whilst you have the torch equipped and press your 'use' key.
Of course, they can also be used to light your way!

Barrels and Boxes
You'll find a lot of barrels and boxes lying around the castle, and most of them break apart in a pretty spectacular manner with a swift punch or a blow from a weapon. Unbreakable boxes can be identified by their metal edging - but that doesn't necessarily mean they can't be set alight with a torch if you find one lying around. If you need to restore some hit points be sure to look inside any barrels or boxes that you find, they often contain food...

Food
For regaining hit points, food is the most readily available item. You'll find it left on tables or in wooden boxes and barrels. There are several types: meat, cheese and bread will each give you a 10 HP boost, while apples restore 5 HP. Food cannot be stored in your inventory.

Life Potions
There are four types of Life Potion in the demo, categorised by the amount of HP they restore to your character when he drinks them: 25, 50, 100 and FULL. These are pretty self explanatory. The 'Life Potion Full' restores your HP back to the maximum for your current level, regardless of how low it was, so obviously this is one to look out for. Only the 100 Life Potion can be stored in your inventory; your character will drink the others as soon as you pick them up even if you don't need them, so leave that Full potion where it is until you really need it!

If you notice that an enemy is carrying a health potion watch him like a hawk, he will likely back off at some point during the encounter to drink it. If you are facing several Traitor Knights, make sure you concentrate on killing the one carrying the potion first - don't give him the chance to use it otherwise your battle may be unnecessarily elongated, plus you won't get the potion for yourself to heal those wounds he inflicted!

Power Potion
This is an interesting one. We have been unable to figure out exactly what the power multiplier is for this, if indeed there is one. On a level 4 character, whatever the power capability of the weapon you happen to be carrying is, drinking this potion will increase your power to 39 for a very brief time before dropping down to 21 for an apparently indefinite period. More testing and observation is certainly required, but if anyone can shed any light on this we would be most grateful. Despite the confusion however, there is no doubt that this can be a very useful potion.

Keys
Sometimes keys can be found lying around, perhaps on a table or on the floor, and they will usually be needed to open a nearby door. Keys can also be carried by Traitor Knights (remember you can always see what an enemy is carrying). If this is the case, once you have killed him the key will automatically appear in your inventory, saving you the trouble of picking it out from his bloody remains :-)

Locks
These are very unobtrusive, as long as you have the right key! Simply approach the lock and press 'use'. You don't have to select the correct key from your inventory and equip it or anything as pointless as that, it's all done for you.

Levers
Levers can activate many things: lifts, doors, traps and so on, and they might be well guarded. It may seem obvious, but if you come across a lever try and figure out what it's likely to do before you pull it (having said that, most of the time it's pretty clear). To activate it just approach it and press 'use'.

Proceed to Part 4 (Weapons and Armour)

Back to Part 2 (The Combos)

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