Blade of Darkness
This page is for the original game. For the 2021 re-release, see Blade of Darkness (2021).
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Developers | |
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Rebel Act Studios | |
2021-present | Fire Falcom |
2021-present | General Arcade |
Publishers | |
2001-2015 | Codemasters |
2021-present | SNEG |
Retail re-release | Sold Out Software |
Engines | |
Blade | |
Release dates | |
Windows | February 21, 2001 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 75 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | One-time game purchase |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | Third-person |
Controls | Direct control |
Genres | Action, Hack and slash |
Themes | Fantasy |
Series | Blade of Darkness |
Blade of Darkness | |
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Blade of Darkness | 2001 |
Blade of Darkness (2021) | 2021 |
Blade of Darkness is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person action and hack and slash game in the Blade of Darkness series.
Key points
- Released as Blade: The Edge of Darkness in Spain, Severance: Blade of Darkness in Europe and as Blade of Darkness in North America.
General information
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | SecuROM DRM | |||
GOG.com | Included as an extra with the 2021 remaster. | |||
Steam | Included as an extra with the 2021 remaster. |
Essential improvements
Patches
1.001 is the only patch. It is highly recommended. Already included in the GOG version.
Skip intro videos
Instructions[1] |
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video |
Improve D3d and Glide (3DFX) compatibility
The game has known issues on modern systems, such as random crashes and problems with the font, but with DgVoodoo 2 most problems can be fixed and compatibility with Glide can be restored. (Using nGlide instead is less stable and might cause the game to crash) |
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Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
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Windows | <path-to-game>\Config[Note 1] |
Steam Play (Linux) | <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1710170/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | <path-to-game>\Save[Note 1] |
Steam Play (Linux) | <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1710170/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
GOG Galaxy | ||
Steam Cloud |
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | Stretched. See the WSGF report for a solution. | ||
Multi-monitor | See the WSGF report for a solution. | ||
Ultra-widescreen | See the WSGF report for a solution. | ||
4K Ultra HD | 2048x1536 is the highest supported resolution | ||
Field of view (FOV) | Camera can be zoomed in/out in 3 presets. | ||
Windowed | Available only for some renderers. | ||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | Enabled by default in D3D Mode. | ||
60 FPS | |||
120+ FPS | See Mouse behaves erratically or Camera/view moves choppily and unpredictably and Cutscenes get out of sync. | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | See the glossary page for potential alternatives. |
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | Up to 3 possible binds per action | |
Mouse acceleration | No mouse acceleration present | |
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | Music and sound effects | |
Surround sound | Up to 7.0 with Creative ALchemy. | |
Subtitles | ||
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
EAX support | A3D 1.0[2] and EAX 2[3] |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Hungarian | Fan translation at Magyarítások Portál | |||
Italian | ||||
Russian | ||||
Spanish |
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|
Local play | |||
LAN play | |||
Online play | |||
Asynchronous multiplayer |
Connection types
Type | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Matchmaking | ||
Peer-to-peer | ||
Dedicated | ||
Self-hosting | ||
Direct IP |
Issues fixed
- Note that this game uses very problematic rendering methods.
- To bypass most common issues it is highly advised to use dgVoodoo 2.
Instructions |
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Cursor is missing/Black text
- Generally caused by using Direct3D for output with modern graphics hardware.
Use dgVoodoo 2. |
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Alternatively use rOpenGL or 3dfx for video output. |
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Crash on launch
- This is usually caused by video codec issues such as installed third party codec packs and the error for this is often MEM_RESIZE_FAILED.
Prevent the intro from playing. See Skip Intro Movies. |
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Alternatively convert the .mpg videos in the "video" directory and subdirectories to raw .avi while retaining the name to retain playback capability.[citation needed] |
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Crash after introduction video
- The game doesn't properly handle failure states for when DirectPlay is not installed. Not having DirectPlay also significantly slows down the opening of the initial game launcher as well.
Install DirectPlay[citation needed] |
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Blank screen when using rOpenGL for video output
Alt-Tab out of the application then go back to it[citation needed] |
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Mouse behaves erratically or Camera/view moves choppily and unpredictably and Cutscenes get out of sync.
- This generally happens using rOpenGL for video output.
- The mouse-camera control granularity is linked somehow to the framerate. Higher framerates lead to smoother and slower mouse-camera control. Lower framerates lead to choppy control that is "quantized", too fast and jumpy. I've encountered such problems on both old and new hardware. Besides framerate, part of the problem seems to be related to the audio renderer, of all things.
- At high FPS some cutscenes may not play properly, which can be a problem if they are ones that cannot be skipped.
Use D3D or Glide (3DFX)and set refresh rate on 60hz.See Improve D3d and Glide(3DFX) compatibility.[citation needed] |
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Game runs too fast
- This typically happens in videos modes other than 3dfx and is due to the game not handling multiple processors properly.
Lock the game to a single processor[citation needed] |
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A popular way to automate this process is to create a .bat file, go to the game app's directory (using the cd command), then use either StartAffinity Blade.exe 0 or psexec -a 0 Blade.exe |
Saving Game Causes CTD (Crash to Desktop)
- Upon selecting "yes" to save a game the screenshot is taken for the load/save menu and the game can crash. Loading the game again loads an old game that was saved in that slot previously, not the new save.
When saving wait about 10 seconds before hitting the final "yes" to confirm. (allow the reverberating menu selection sound to stop playing completely). Alternatively use Quicksave mod |
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Fog is too dense using rOpenGL
Use modified OpenGL raster. |
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Game doesn't lauch on modern systems
Run in compatibility mode for Windows Vista (no Service Pack) |
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Game crashes during level loading screens (3DFX)
- This typically happens with 3dfx video renderer and user Nglide wrapper.
Use Dgvoodoo2.[citation needed] |
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VR support
3D modes | State | Notes | |
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vorpX | Z3D User created profile, requires DGVoodoo2 v 2.6, see profile introdution. Note: Profile may not work with the latest wrapper, in case of issues please report to the vorpx forum. |
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 7 | Although it claims to require DirectX 8.0 to be installed, it actually uses Direct3D 7 for rendering. |
OpenGL | ||
Glide | Added with patch 1.001 |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
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Windows |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
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Audio | Miles Sound System | 6.0i[4] |
Mods
Gorenity
Gorenity mod improves the gore system, among other things.
System requirements
Windows | ||
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Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 95 OSR2 | 98, ME, 2000 |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium II 400 MHz | Intel Pentium III 500 MHz |
System memory (RAM) | 64 MB | 128 MB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 750 MB | |
Video card (GPU) | 8 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible | 32 MB of VRAM |
Troubleshooting
Performance issues
If you are experiencing low frame rates, then we suggest that you change the resolution in the setup to 640x480x16, texture detail should then be set to LOW and the then the mip-mapping can be turned off. If you are still experiencing low frame rates, shadows and gore can be turned off from the in-game options menu. Turning the sound device to Miles fast 2D positional audio in setup and the sound quality to low in-game will also improve frame rate by about 10%.
If you encounter any problems, please ensure that you have the latest drivers installed for your card. These should be obtained from the card or chipset manufacturer.
If you increase the settings of your display options and experience decreased performance and have the latest drivers, we recommend setting your Display options back to their defaults.
Supported 3D chipsets
3dfx Voodoo 2, Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3, Voodoo4, Voodoo5
3D labs Permedia 3
ATI Rage 128, Radeon
Matrox G200, G400
Intel i740
Nvidia Riva TNT, Riva TNT2, GeForce 256, GeForce 2
S3 Savage3D, Savage 4, Savage2000
Card issues
3DFX Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3
The 3DFX Banshee and VooDoo 3 have problems displaying partical effects. This is noticeable in game when water effects are on screen.
All Matrox cards
If you are experiencing problems with the game e.g. random crashes or textural errors then it is advisable to use the 5.52 drivers from the matrox site.
S3 Savage 2000
If you are experiencing problems then it is recommended that the ViperII-win9x-95103 drivers be used. Resolutions above 1152x864 should not be used.
Please note
Windows 2000's control panel uninstaller should not be used as this will leave game save files on the hard disk.
Swap file
We recommend that the user has at least 250mb free hard disk space after installation. Severance should perform fine with less than 250mb free, in order to gain maximum performance from this product a larger swap file will be beneficial. Close down any applications before running.
Direct X
If you try to run the game without DirectX8 installed, Severance may not run correctly.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%
,%PROGRAMDATA%
, or%WINDIR%
might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore
on Windows Vista and later (more details). - ↑ 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1710170/
in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1710170) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
References
- ↑ Verified by User:Drat on 2019-09-05
- ↑ Hot New Gremlin Games to Support Aureal A3D - Aureal.com (retrieved) - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ Severance: The Blade of Darkness Preview - ActionTrip.com - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ Verified by User:Nessy on 2020-06-19
- Version number found in Mss32.dll in the game installation folder.