Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War

Developer(s) Omega Force
Publisher(s) Koei
Platform(s) PlayStation 3, Xbox 360[1]
Release date(s) PS3
  • JP August 30, 2007
  • NA November 6, 2007
  • EU November 2, 2007
Xbox 360
  • JP October 25, 2007[1]
  • NA November 6, 2007
  • EU November 2, 2007
Genre(s) Real-time tactics
Mode(s) Single-player
Rating(s) ESRB: T (Teen)
PEGI: 12+

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War is a historical fantasy video game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. It was published by Koei and developed by Omega Force.

The game is loosely based on The Hundred Years' War between the Kingdoms of England and France in the 14th and 15th century.

Just like the Kessen and Musou series' from Koei, certain liberties are taken from the original history. For example, unlike what happened in real life, it is possible to save Joan of Arc from being burned at the stake.

Contents

Gameplay

Players assume the role of a rogue commander with a group of mercenary units who can align themselves with the French or English sides, depending on the situation. Units include infantry, cavalry, archers, elephants, cannoniers and castle siege units. The commander's reputation will affect things like the quality of troops available and the difficulty of the missions. Individual troops will also strengthen as they gain combat experience.[2]

The gameplay is fairly similar to Kessen III & Samurai Warriors 3, also published by Koei.

Characters

Kingdom of England

Kingdom of France

Mercenaries

Reception

The game was met with a mixed critical reception.

Brett Todd of gamespot.com[3] scored the game a 5/10. He said that the game's "Fresh ideas can't save [it] from mediocrity." Some of his complaints were that the "Campaign just recycles the same style of battles over and over again," there was "No strategic depth or arcade satisfaction," the game suffered from an "Ineffective artificial intelligence," and "Dated visuals and sound." On the positive side, he said that the game featured "Easy-to-use controls for commanding companies of troops," and he thought the game had a "Great idea to blend arcade action with squad combat."

However, Dave McCarthy from eurogamer.net[4] seemed to enjoy the game. He gave it a score of 8/10. McCarthy said "It's... a very, very good videogame: another brilliant evolution of Koei's unique interpretation of the real-time strategy genre, and every bit as satisfying as previous efforts. What it lacks in terms of the speed and immediacy of, say, Gundam Musou, it makes up for with strategic range, design ingenuity, and conceptual novelty..."

See also

References

  1. ^ "Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War Xbox.com Japanese game info page" (in Japanese). Xbox.com. http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/b/bladestome. Retrieved 2008-02-09. 
  2. ^ "press release". http://www.koei.com/company/pressitem.cfm?id=D035E818-2595-4DC8-95F436326C40BDB3. 
  3. ^ http://gamespot.com/
  4. ^ http://eurogamer.net/

External links