God of Blades (2012)

 

God of Blades is a mobile game that got a Windows port, created by White Whale Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It's a sort of endless runner/melee combat game and, considering its mobile gaming basis, it's quite simple to play. Your character, the Nameless King, is running from left to right, annihilating every foe that gets in his way until facing a level boss in a more protracted battle. Swiping up, right, or down causes you to execute an attack while swiping left results in a parry. There's also a special attack that can be used if its meter has been filled. Passing scoring thresholds allows the player to unlock swords of different sizes and abilities, each with a proper name and backstory, like they're all part of Stormbringer's family tree. The game is simple but enjoyable and the campaign mode is short enough to not overstay its welcome. There are also endless modes just to rack up score or see how far you can get.

The game's most noteworthy aspect is how it's drenched in 1970s fantasy imagery, specifically imagery inspired by paperback books of the time. Every level opens with the image of an imaginary vintage paperback novel, such as "Guardian of the Black Clefts" by C. Percival Briggs, which is accompanied by a small amount of evocative yet cryptic text that could have appeared on a back cover or on an introductory page. The art on these covers takes after more abstract New Wave cover artists than the warmer works of the 1960s masters. The game's multiplayer mode, called Slayers, furthers this aesthetic by dynamically generating fake magazine covers featuring the winner's character as a subject. The story itself is a thin layer draped over the game, indicating something about the Nameless King rising to defend his planet from a cult devoted to a dark god.

The graphics during gameplay, however, lushly render bizarre landscapes, pushing a Roger Dean influence especially hard, populated with hideously warped humanoids that seemingly fell out of Michael Moorcock's more psychedelic passages. Artist Jason Rosenstock cited the works of Sidney Sime, Frank Frazetta, and Riccardo Burchielli as influences, while writer George Royer tried to base his efforts for the game on Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, M.R. James, and Moorcock's works. 

One interesting feature exclusive to the mobile version was the Loremaster mode, which would inform the player of nearby libraries that could be visited to unlock rewards for the game. There are games that proudly display sword-and-sorcery influences, but God of Blades might be the only one that actively tries to promote the genre by directing players to where the books live. Unfortunately, the game wasn't a hit and as White Whale shut down in 2019, it's no longer supported on newer mobile devices. Perhaps it was too simple for the crowd who might have appreciated its theme, but too action-oriented for the Candy Crush fans. But the PC version can still be had for a few bucks on Amazon and works just fine on Windows 11.