Get the latest tech news

Metroid Dread studio's latest is Blades of Fire, a brutal blacksmithing action game with a cruel Dark Souls core

I tried to play Blades of Fire like a game I already knew, and I suffered for it. I died, over and over again in Mercur…

I died, over and over again in MercurySteam's new action-adventure, the same studio behind Metroid Dread and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and it wasn't until I began to get on board with just how pig-headedly and stubbornly different Blades of Fire is that I realised how exciting it can be. You play as a gruff character called Aran who wakes up one day in a hole of some kind, and crawls out to find himself fighting soldiers and being handed a magical forge hammer that he seems to know and fear. Armed with that new knowledge and sharper weapons, and a stamina regen trick (hold down block - unusual), I re-entered the world and suddenly found myself achieving, trouncing a huge troll that had been harassing me for the last half-an-hour.

Get the Android app