Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (2011)

 There are some games throughout history that are literally named after the genre of sword and sorcery. This is one of them; they can't escape by adding an extra 'w' to the title. 

Originally made for mobile phones, the game was ported to PC in 2012, with the touch screen controls and other mobile features modified. The player controls a heroine named the Scythian, although the stick figure graphics make it impossible to discern anyone's gender until the Scythian starts grunting during the fight scenes. The Scythian is on some sort of quest to uncover a magical book called the Megatome that takes her to the Caucasus Mountains. After achieving this objective early on, the Scythian then has to face the consequences of her actions.

As the EP in the title indicates, the game is heavily inspired by music, specifically the music of Canadian musician Jim Guthrie, and the image of a vinyl record appears when starting or closing the game. The game is broken down into four sessions and the player is encouraged to play one session, then leave for a bit before coming back for the next one. The final session is even tied to the calendar and can only be accessed during the day of a full moon, although it is possible to work around this. The game also has the rare feature of linking to the player's Twitter account, if there is one, so the player can post updates on progress to social media, and the dialogue and narration in the game take the form of typical "Twitter-ese"; e.g., "We got the gold trigon. We are so awesome." 

All this should make clear that this isn't a typical take on the genre. Although there is combat, which is reminiscent of combat in the Quest for Glory series, the game is much more concerned with an introspective mood. Most of the gameplay is more like a simplistic point-and-click adventure game as the Scythian wanders through the woods solving puzzles while wind blows, rain drops, and sheep baa. 

It does evoke some traditional aspects of the genre, though. The climax of session 1 involves the Scythian entering a tomb within Mingi Taw and hacking the Megatome from the grasp of a horned figure's bony hands, then being chased all the way outside by a invincible spectral figure (later identified as the "Gogolithic Mass"). It's wonderfully intense and calls back to several classic stories of thieves going where they shouldn't and either dying or very narrowly escaping with their lives. The game also renders objects that are supposed to be otherworldly in razor-sharp high-definition, which when juxtaposed with the blocky, pixelated look of everything else creates an unsettling mood.

It's maybe not the most fun game to play, particularly for a traditionalist, but it's an interesting and oddly memorable one, especially if one can get past the hipster/art game elements involved.

Supplemental reading: Liane the Wayfarer, by Jack Vance

Brutal Legend (2009)

Brutal Legend came about when Tim Schafer got the idea to make a game in which all the fantasy imagery prevalent in heavy metal music and album covers was taken literally. Eddie Riggs, roadie for a lousy tween-oriented numetal group, is transported to an alternate dimension in which mountains are made out of amplifier stacks, chrome spiders spin webs of guitar strings, and endless war exists between people that follow particular subgenres of metal. Much like John Carter arriving on Barsoom and finding his true place in the universe, Eddie quickly takes the skills that have made him a great roadie and uses them to build an army to free humanity from the rule of demons and their glam metal sellouts.

Like all of Schafer's work, the game is comedic and features an exaggerated cartoon sensibility, but it's sincere at the core. It follows the rule that while the world seems silly, the inhabitants don't know that. They build hot rods reminiscent of Big Daddy Roth's work because their gods left the blueprints and materials for only those cars and that's all there is to it. The game also isn't watered down for the sake of a hypothetical family audience - metal tends to be edgy so the game honors that with plenty of gory combat and rough language. 

Schafer was also interested in the relationship between bands and their fans and the feeling of them all being united while charging into combat, which lead to the game's most controversial feature and its commercial downfall (or at least its near-term disappointment). Influenced primarily by Herzog Zwei for the Sega Genesis, a game that combines action with real-time strategy elements, Schafer wanted the gameplay to culminate in scenes of Eddie commanding large numbers of troops while also actively participating in the fighting. The game starts by teaching the player basics of fighting alone, then introduces the idea of issuing commands to small squads running with you, and then the game gives Eddie to power to sprout bat wings and fly high aboveground where he can call forth different units and send them out to fight. The problem is that many players assumed that once Eddie took flight he had to stay there, essentially acting as a cursor without much connection to what was going on far below. The intention was that players would realize that the battle would go easier if they returned to earth and lead troops to victory by diving back into the fray. Contrary to many reviews, the game doesn't "suddenly switch from a hack-and-slash to an RTS"; it remains an action game that simply adds some RTS aspects to the third-person brawling. The easiest path to winning the game is to remember that your character is best used directly in combat.

Schafer also had some issues coming from a PC adventure game design background. Adventure game players are accustomed to constantly tinkering with the environment to solve weird puzzles and Schafer seemingly expected Brutal Legend players to act similarly with respect to finding collectibles scattered around the game world, but many action game players were expecting the game to explain everything that could be done through in-game tutorials and thus missed out on many benefits of exploring the game's gorgeous environments. 

Although the gameplay is entertaining once you get on its level, the main appeal to metal fans is that it features the greatest soundtrack in history. Over 100 songs from 75 bands that cover almost every part of the genre. Major names like Motorhead, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Slayer are included, along with excellent but obscure names like Brocas Helm, Omen, and Slough Feg. The most noteworthy omissions are Metallica, who were apparently too expensive and were working on their own Guitar Hero game around that time; Iron Maiden, who have dabbled in video games but have never been very savvy about the medium; and Ronnie James Dio, who was originally to participate but abruptly dropped out for still mysterious reasons. 

Dio's performance of "The Mob Rules" was used to help sell the game when it was first unveiled and he was cast as the game's arch villain, Lord Doviculus, but the part was recast with Tim Curry as Schafer explained that they felt Curry was a better fit for the part. Although it's true that Curry did a great job, the fact that Dio had been cast as Doviculus at all was peculiar. Dio made his name singing uplifting songs about believing in yourself and overcoming adversity in a classic metal style. Why cast him as an S&M-themed industrial metal demon? Dio seems a better fit for the role of the Guardian of Metal, but that part went to Ozzy Osbourne and Dio's exit from the project seemed to coincide with Ozzy's hiring. Dio had a notable rivalry with Ozzy and many fans have speculated that Dio may have taken offense to Ozzy being more heavily promoted as part of the game's cast. Schafer later acknowledged that "things did get a little complicated with that whole set up," which seems to indicate that it wasn't just a simple matter of Dio being recast and then deciding to do something else. Not only is his music not in the game, there are no references to him at all. You can't visit the Man on the Silver Mountain, there are no rainbows in dark places to be found, and you can't go to the shore and observe priests diving in the ocean. AC/DC's music isn't in the game, either, but there is at least a character clearly based on Brian Johnson.

The graphics are lovely and fulfill the goal that anytime you pause the game will result in an image that could pass as an album cover. Vast graveyards, eclipses rimmed by lightning, temples of dark priests, etc. Graphics that go with a more stylized look over realism tend to age more gracefully. Schafer's story is fun, although the game ends right as it starts getting particularly interesting. Schafer apparently had to cut quite a bit of material that would have gone into a sequel had one ever been made.

Supplemental reading: The Art Of Metal: Five Decades Of Heavy Metal Album Covers, Posters, T-Shirts, And More

COVER ART: Doom (1993)

Cover for the definitive first person shooter, Doom, by Don Ivan Punchatz. Punchatz's son, Gregor, contributed to the game as a model designer for creatures such as the Arch-Vile and the Spider Mastermind. Obviously, this isn't a sword-and-sorcery game, but Punchatz's art evokes works by artists like Frazetta with its pyramidal structure depicting the desperate hero on a rise fending off hordes of enemies. Replace the guns with swords or axes and you'd have a pretty good cover for a hard-hitting fantasy novel. 

The Age of Heroes (2019)

 

Psytronik Software was founded in 1993, during the waning days of the Commodore 64. All these years later, not only are they still releasing C64 games but they're arguably stronger than ever. Created by Achim Volkers and Trevor Storey, with music by Saul Cross, Age of Heroes is a Rastan-like game in which you pick either a male or female warrior - there's no difference in their abilities - and battle the ancient evil that has arisen to plague the land. The usual thing. I like Psytronik's work because even if the games are blatantly derivative, they only are so out of love and there's a sense of cool to their products. The cover art to their games, often by Storey, favorably evokes the games that Psygnosis used to publish.

After completing the first level, the game offers the player a map depicting other available levels to play. The player in each level must travel from left to right across the scrolling landscape and gather improved weapons or jewels that can unlock portals to later levels. It uses an RPG-like leveling system based on score and the player is encouraged to return to easier levels and grind for more experience or health items if they're worn down a bit. 

The game initially is quite easy, almost to the point of feeling dull, although a loss of patience can allow the game to sneak up on the player and bring him down, and the player gets only one life per game. Beating the game, however, unlocks the aptly named Challenge Mode, which does away with the map/level choosing option and forces the player to simply beat all levels in a row. There are still the leveling system (which replenishes full health when the player moves up) and the meager health items, but it's rather more difficult than the default mode. That said, it's still much fairer than the often nightmarishly frustrating difficulty of many classic 8-bit computer games. There's a good reason why cracked versions with cheat/trainer modes were so popular with players of C64 and ZX Spectrum games. Psytronik's releases, among other modern offerings, tend to be more easygoing and balanced in favor of players who just want to relax with a game that maybe reminds them of other games that have largely gone out of fashion, rather than being crushed so utterly that even Sisyphus would feel satisfied with his lot in comparison.

Dishonored (2012)

 

Dishonored, released by Arkane Studios, probably isn't most people's idea of a traditional sword-and-sorcery work. The player controls a royal bodyguard, Corvo, to the empress of a secondary world modeled on Victorian London. It's technically not a steampunk world, but rather a world in which fantasy technology is entirely powered by whale oil. The empress is assassinated, her daughter is kidnapped, and Corvo is framed for the crime and sent to prison. Months later, a group of conspirators loyal to the empress helps spring Corvo from the joint and immediately afterward Corvo is approached by a mysterious cosmic entity called the Outsider, who provides Corvo with supernatural powers that Corvo may use to gain his revenge. The Outsider's relationship with Corvo and other mortals is broadly reminiscent of how Elric's magic is supported by Arioch and other supernatural beings.

Unlike the other games covered so far, in which story served more as flavor and as something to simply put various aspects of the games in context, Dishonored is a big-budget modern game that attempts to tell a full story of Corvo's fall and rise and insists that players watch lengthy cutscenes, interact with fully voiced supporting characters, read books full of background information on the world and its people, and listen to audio logs. It's a far cry from the hard-hitting, get-right-to-it manner of Rastan or Golden Axe. But Dishonored in many ways takes after the Thief series and Thief is absolutely thick with Fritz Leiber-esque atmosphere.

Dishonored is designed to offer as much freedom as possible to the player in achieving goals. The game can be completed without directly harming a single person by sneaking about like a ghost, or Corvo can charge in and capably hack his way through multiple opponents with his sword and pistol, setting off alarms and causing complete chaos. Corvo's powers potentially include teleportation, possession, stopping time, or calling forth hordes of plague rats to overwhelm foes. Corvo is also armed with several types of gadgets such as traps, grenades, and hacking devices. It doesn't take long for Corvo to seem quite overpowered compared to all the enemies around him. 

The game was initially intended to simply be an assassination game, as Corvo would eliminate important characters that were part of the conspiracy against him and the empress, but co-director Harvey Smith (Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows) proposed that missions have alternate non-violent solutions, although in some cases it could be debatable whether the non-fatal method is more humane; e.g., in one mission your solution leads to a female target being kidnapped by an admirer who will forever have the woman at his mercy without anyone realizing her circumstances. The game judges the player through a simple morality system based on how much chaos the player causes. More death and explosions lead to more negative consequences and the bad ending, while keeping body counts low leads to a happier outcome.

The fantasy elements are relatively restrained in that enemies are all essentially human. Even the "zombies" present in the game are actually people reduced to that state because of an unexplained plague afflicting the city. There are no hints of elves, orcs, or dwarves anywhere. 

Visually, the game uses a painterly effect that is effective in providing a sense of realism, but stylized just enough that the game's seams don't show. The artists, such as Viktor Antonov, cited as inspiration works by Gustave Doré and illustrations for Rafael Sabatini's novels such as Captain Blood, among others. 

As with so many big budget games, the production values are very impressive, although I can't help thinking that the big name voice cast the studio hired was somewhat wasted. Aside from Michael Madsen as the villain/DLC protagonist Daud, I failed to recognize most of the voices and was surprised to see names like Brad Dourif and Carrie Fisher listed in the cast. It's enjoyable enough to play but the story is predictable and I never felt invested in the fates of any of the characters. The game is almost too effective at evoking a sense of squalor - the overwhelming brownness of it and the trash- and carcass-strewn streets and houses become wearisome after a while, reminding me of how many recent fantasy works seem weirdly preoccupied with excrement and garbage. But at least the game is of a modest length and doesn't overstay its welcome, either.