Die by the Blade Review (imla)
played 5 hours with a buddy just the demo which is 2 characters 2 weapons and 1 map only. the game is really fun and combat is pretty satisfying once you figure out its nuances and quirks. we are planning to play just the demo even more.baught the game just to leave the review really.
the catch is it's the 1v1 fighter and it's only fun to play against other people.
you will not get into it playing against ai. trust me, there is more than meets the eye once you play a few hours against a human on the same couch or in voice chat.
the game is really fun but only if you have actual friends to play with.
online 1v1 is p2p yet pretty reliable, me and my buddy are separated by 3 timezones and we had no issues.
this game's online lobby will most likely be pretty barren if not outright dead from the get go, that's the problem. zero people in online matchmaking lobby is one of the most frequent complaints in steam reviews.
consider it to be a party game more than anything else. the mechanics are very easy to grasp, easy to learn hard to master, you can get a hang of everything in 15 minutes of messing around, there are no intricate combos to memorize and learn.
the combat is mostly about mind games, reading and reacting to opponent's moves, positioning baiting whiffs to punish. it kind of reminds of soulslike combat but in pvp 1v1 multiplayer format with everyone on the same build. which is not a bad offering and there aren't that many games like this around.
For honor comes to mind t0o of course with a similar 3 positions stance system.
the game is competently made and runs perfectly fine on a laptop with 3060 6gig vram card.
I will admit $20 as a base asking price might be a little steep for what this game practically is, $15 would've been much better. but the good news is publisher follows Valve suggested regional discounted prices almost to a T.
if you don't have actual friends to play it with - just don't buy it. as simple as that.
the direct competitor Hellish Quart goes for $17 base, is in early access for 2.5 years and has no online multiplayer whatsoever, you can only play pvp locally or via steam remote play, which is in no way guaranteed to be good enough to enjoy a fighting game or to work at all. for me and my buddy it just didn't load up at all.