Bladestorm: Nightmare Review

Bladestorm: Nightmare is a real-time strategy/tactics game developed by Omega Force, the creator of the acclaimed Dynasty Warriors series. Originally called Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War releasing on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2007, the enhanced edition with its only expansion was later ported to the next gen consoles in 2015.

The story is loosely based on the Hundred Years War, a real conflict in 1300-1400’s western Europe between England and France. War raging for nearly a generation and neither side backing down, mercenaries are being employed; to whomever has the most gold. That’s where you come in as an amateur sword-for-hire chasing the dream of glory.

In Bladestorm, you take control of a squad leader of faceless grunts with a similar loadout in the class of infantry, long-range, or cavalry (which can be changed at any point in the game) as you square off against other faceless grunts in a game of territorial conquest.

In the campaign, the main hub – where you first create your character and where you’ll spend most of the time micromanaging said character – takes place in a tavern. Other than a merchant you trade items and equipment with and choosing which contracts to do, you also have gossip giving out obvious tips like “an archer’s advantage is its range” and recruitment of one-time-use fighters to be deployed during a battle can benefit the player during the beginning of the game.

The tavern is also used to convey plot points, set up major missions, and introduce you to fictional and historical people who you can fight with or against such as Joan of Arc, that is if you can save her in time during a French-based mission that changes the direction of the story.

The voice acting of the main characters are livelier and match the design, attitude, and position in the story; juxtaposed to the fake accents for soldiers and smaller characters.

Bearing in mind the game is over a decade old and the visuals are slightly touched up on the latest gen, the graphics have held up quite well. The tavern is where players will first see character models as well as lighting and textures that are executed properly for the setting with chairs having woven sets and walls covered in clay (though I’m still not entirely sure that’s actually clay).

The only draw-back is the visuals from models and textures clash with lighting, making everything shimmer or glisten; showing a bit of age that will only get worse as time goes on.

The maps are well made for the time with each area having its own regional theme like ports in the northern regions. The Flanders map best represents how Omega Force both presented a time-period of France while designing obstacles for the player like farmlands and rivers to unconsciously move you into bouts on the roads, and placing the control points out enough that it’s not too close or too far for the player and AI to traverse.

The maps are also quite expansive despite the fact you’ll only be playing on one side per mission which doesn’t sound as bad, but the side missions can be located on the other side of the map. With the average speed of the player being somewhat realistic for someone running in a suit of armor, cavalry wins the day giving the player enough time to do all the objectives.

Missions (called contracts) range from easy ‘take a castle and you’re done’, to thought-out conflicts where you’re essentially another cog in the war machine as you capture control points as well as out-maneuvering and weakening target areas to claim victory. Each contract has its own difficulty level, cash reward, and how many attempts you have to complete before timing out measured in days.

As the leader of your team you are constrained to a time limit, you can choose to attack other control points before going for the target to gain more experience and cash which makes the later contracts easier to do.

Players will live or die on Bladestorm: Nightmare’s gameplay. You’ll spend most of the game moving to, fighting for, or guarding a control point. After a while it gets tedious to do and switching classes can only dull the repetition of combat. Fans of Omega Force games will love the new style of gameplay but most players will have mixed feelings.

In combat, the game implements a rock-paper-scissors approach; infantry can easily wipe out long-range units but get trampled by cavalry and vice versa. However, there’s a serious exploit to the game that really could have made cavalry an unlockable class.

While infantry and archers complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses; calvary generally mows down anything with a heartbeat by charging and making strategic swipes, and with a large enough squad, moving in a circle. The only things that can severely damage cavalry is a well-placed spear-wall and opposition cavalry charges. It also doesn’t help when you fill up a power bar activating a multiplier on your attacks with the original title “Bladestorm”.  Basically, if you play any cavalry class, you have to keep moving or you’ll be surrounded and killed quicker than you think.

The expansion, Nightmare, replaces contracts for a linear storyline taking place in an alternate timeline where evil forces invade France and both English and French forces team-up to save the world. Instead of taking one or two checkpoints, the missions are set up with added objectives, forcing the player to work with the AI in large, open battles instead of running off like you do in the campaign.

The tactics in the main campaign work on the weaker foes. However, with the addition of enemies that do AOE attacks and mini bosses, taking the form of dragons and cyclopes, larger groups can be wiped out if not prepared. Which begs the question; Who would charge a cyclops unprepared? Nobody would.