Among the games tested in recent days at gamescom, there was Stray Blade developed by Point Blank Games. An action RPG planned for PC, Xbox series and Playstation 5. Due to hardware issues, my preview of this game will have been hectic, and I could not go as far as wanted during the presentation. Rebooting the PC 4 times is quite long and redoing the beginning took way too long. It is therefore possible that some gaps are present during this overview.
History
You are an adventurer who has launched into the world and who will cross paths with Boji, a being who wishes to help you overcome a number of challenges. Your mission is to discover Acrea and its legacy sealed by beings whose power defies imagination. Are you ready to endure this?
Graphics & atmosphere
We are faced with shimmering decorations in a nice and simple style. Whether it's in terms of the bestiary or the skills that we come across, I haven't seen anything particularly "explosive", whether for better or for worse. On the other hand, in terms of the sound environment, it's quite clean and we realize the good work done on this game. In short, very clean work but without surprise...
Gameplay
I started the game with classic equipment, a two-handed sword, which will do the job for the start of the fights against classic creatures and the few soldiers lying around here and there. But where the first particularity strikes is that in addition to the life bar, a stamina bar below the enemy, completely independent, empties and will allow you to execute it once this one exhausted. This encourages repeated assaults for faster confrontations and less risk taking.
During your exploration, you will meet Boji, a special craftsman who will assist you, both with his mastery of the forge and with lightning attacks that will destabilize enemies, and who will make your life easier in other fights. However, its bar emptying after 3 or 4 shots... they won't be counting on it for long. And if you were to perish...
Death in this game will consist of being dragged by Boji to another point of this world and there you will see another universe that has changed and will be full of other challenges, enemies and potential loot for your craftsman. Because when you want a new weapon, Boji will take care of making it for you, with his talent tree based on this art, while yours will focus on combat. Everyone has their role. In any case, having tried to switch from the claymore to the spear (I love spears), I can assure you that the handling is quite different and will require a very different approach to combat. Unfortunately, I couldn't go much further, but I'm sure I didn't manage to grasp the full potential of the game. Too bad...
Summary
Stray Blade showed me a gameplay that is quite atypical by its change of world and the complementarity of the protagonists, but counterbalanced by a technique that is too classic and without big risk-taking. Can that be enough to make an excellent game? I don't think so, but as entertainment it has its chances. We've seen much worse in this style of play, but we've also seen better. For the moment, I could not enlighten you further.
