2014. nov. 13.

This fantasy hack & slash was released in 2001, and it became a classic by today. In those days the game’s top graphics held a lot of players spellbound. As I see it today, there are only a few products which are able to give such mood and experience as Severance did. This short article was written in 2005 (and this is why it’s so short) when I bought the game in a “Bestsellers” pack with Colin McRae 2 and Insane. As a big fan of speed I was just flipped at the pictures from Severance on the cover, but I said: “Why not? There is enough room on the shelves and I bought the pack for the racing games.” Soon I thought otherwise. I let the game take a chance on me, and Mr Colin stayed on the shelf till the end of that summer, because I wanted to complete Severance. A lot of people says that don’t be alone when you are playing a horror-fantasy FPS, because you will regret it. And they were true: Thanks to the sound and visual effects sometimes I really kicked the legs of the computer desk, or walking in the damp crypts I found myself squeezing the mouse with sweating hand. But don’t run forward so much! Severance: Blade of Darkness had a big red circle with 18+ inscribed when it get to the shops, marking aggression, violence and scaring content. This rating is correct, although today its old graphics is decreasing its scariness greatly. This is a fantasy action game with FPS or TPS (you can change it) point of view, in which you have to fight yourself through several levels, a heap of opponents and some traps to reach the main villain and save the world, as it is fitting to a good hero. It has a standard story and appearance, but the world and its mood can charm the player easily. You can choose between four characters. There are a dwarf warrior, a barbarian, a knight and an elf-like amazon. Evidently, they are from different races and classes, so they are skilled in different fighting styles, they use different weapons. They are advancing...

Around twenty years ago the determining game of my childhood was born. In 1989 it was released for SEGA consoles at first, and by today it became a real legend. After just one year the hack’n’slash action game, Golden Axe was ported to PC (of course, it was available in Hungary much later). A tiny comment: It was the only game I got to know first in the form of a gaming-room machine. The family was on holidays at Lake Balaton… or in Tokaj? It doesn’t matter: the machine was there everywhere for not the delight of my parents, because I always asked for coins. In that time Golden Axe wasn’t far from the imagination of children, because the barbarian king, Conan, and the Rahan comics were in fashion and have similar setting. The game’s popularity was not surprising, because who didn’t want to be big and strong like a barbarian who hacks the enemy with a huge hatchet or sword?! It was a typical side-scroller action flick and completely lacked of the standard platform elements of that time. It was focused only on the spectacular action. The story was set in a world with common middle-age and Conan trademarks, and you had to kill the main boss of the villains, namely Death Adder. I heard and said the name so many times that it was almost burnt into my mind. I can’t even imagine the beginning of the nineties without this evil death knight. Golden Axe offered three playable characters with different abilities. The dwarf had weak spells but extraordinary damage dealing ability, mincing everyone with his double edged hatchet. The barbarian represented the golden mean with his average spells and sword. The red clothed amazon got numerous fans by her very strong spells and weak weapon. I don’t have to mention what character was chosen by my elder sister and brother – yes, only the dwarf remained for me. Of course, to reach Death Adder you had to decimate his servants first. Several locations waited for the heroes, and every level ended in an epic fight against some boss or a mass of enemies. The game had fantastic combat system – after...

And God created Man. And Man created… Do you ever heard about the genious Philip K. Dick? Or about Ridley Scott? If yes, do you know what connects these men of art? Well, if you don’t, we will help you below. Blade Runner (BR) is a classic adventure game, but to understand it fully, it’s worth to jump back in time and take a look at the dark dystopia which not just served as the foundation of this game, but it inspired such writers as William Gibson and such movies as The Matrix. To get the answer for the first question, we have to hurry back in time to 1928; one of the most determining sci-fi writers of the 20th century, Philip K. Dick was born that year. Our topic is not his life and art, so it’s sufficient to mention a few works of him: Martian Time-slip, The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly. This latter was adopted to the movie screen with the same title, and there were other filmed novels and short stories of him, for example, Minority Report, Total Recall, Impostor and Screamers. A lot of the master’s art was adopted, so I’m certain I forgot some of them. Anyway, for us, one novel is more important than the others. It is titled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? If you didn’t know it already, now you maybe made an uncomprehending face – this was the base of the most successful sci-fi movie beside Star Wars, the cyberpunk-noir Blade Runner (1982). Master Dick died before the first run, but he was VERY displeased with Ridley Scott’s raw version. He was annoyed mostly because of the cuts; Scott cut out the religious sects, the robot animals, and the 3rd World War with its effects by and large. So, here is the young and ambitious director, Ridley Scott. The date is 1982, and the location is America, of course. The film had an undivided success among both the common audience and the critics. It uncovered a grim future full of doubts, but somehow the noir feeling is so compelling that it grabs you. But...