X-Blades Game Review

The developers at Gaijin Entertainment try to mix up the gameplay a little bit.    Taking a nod from Lara Croft, our anime-inspired heroine, Ayumi, has unlimited pistols which she can use for ranged attacks… and these pistols are integrated into her blades!  Switching between close combat and ranged attacks is nothing new in the HnS genre, but it sure is a neat-sounding gimmick.  All of the other recent additions to a good slasher is there: magic, powerups, combos, and treasure.

The storyline isn’t as “gripping” as SouthPeak claims on the box.  You are shown an introductory cutscene of Ayumi pawning off her latest treasure, when she happens to come across an artifact which is the Yin to her Yang, so to speak.  This apparently unleashes a bunch of beasties, which she has to fight.

She mysteriously is in some alternate universe, and this universe has big-ass bubbling blobs that seal off all exits until you clear the room.  Heck, there is even an invisible wall that prevents you from going into the ocean.

Creatures start to come at you, and as soon as you encounter a new foe, you are told that information has been added to your Bestiary.  Normally this isn’t a big whoop, but looking at the Bestiary can tell you of a certain enemie’s weakness.  These weaknesses shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone: Ice creatures are venerable to fire, Light creatures are venerable to Dark-based magic, and so on.

The enemies that you face have absolutely no AI other than “attack the point where Ayumi is”, which is almost exactly the same as the foes in Serious Sam.  Enemies will not duck, take cover, work in packs, or in any way do anything other than come directly at you, and they will chase you all over the map.  You can use this to your advantage, of course, by drawing a train over to a narrow corridor or behind some cover to take out the horde while avoiding the big cannon in the middle of the room.