Sword and Glory Review – The best game I’ve played this year

Our rating:

By: IfElse Media

Version #: 1.2.6

Date Released: 2013-07-04

Developer: IfElse Media

Price: 0

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Fight for your life and become the king of the region, or die fighting for your ideals in a complex world full of dangers, set in a place far North when the pagan religion is fading. This is the starting point for Sword and Glory, a bland name for an awesome game.

You’ll die a lot

In a sense, Sword and Glory is to King of Dragon Pass what The Sims is to Sim City. You play the role of a just-turned-adult member of a clan, and must decide what you will make of your life.

Your life will be full of encounters. And they are yours for the choosing. The game is split between a turn-based phase, where you choose your next encounter, purchase any new weapons and improve your hall.

These improvements may look uninteresting at the beginning, but after a while you’ll long for the extra stamina, attack power and all the extras have to offer. Battles get increasingly harder as you level up. Incredibly harder.

The fighting part is relatively straightforward. You just need to handle two buttons: attack and defense. You’ll also find a life meter and a defense metter, which enters into play when you are pressing the defense button. As soon as the defense is gone (i.e. you have smashed the shield with your might), all hits go against the life meter… And fights are a matter of life and death. The three attacks at your disposal are:

• Powerful attack: Make a long press of the attack button. A strong attack is more powerful, breaking the enemy defense faster. Since it is also slower, it is easier for the opponent to counterattack. A powerful attack also has a longer range than the other kind of attacks. If the enemy is doing a fast attack at the same time, the powerful attack defeats the fast attack.
• Fast attack: Tap on the attack button once. This makes a fast slash, that is not as damaging as a powerful attack, but it’s faster and sometimes more effective. If the enemy is doing a careful attack at the same time as you are doing a fast attack, the fast attack defeats the careful attack and gets through.
• Careful attack: Press the attack button while blocking. A careful attack just pinches the enemy, barely scratching the enemy defense. Its main strength is that if they are done while the enemy does a powerful attack, careful attacks defeat powerful attacks.

As I wrote above, battles are life-or-death struggles, ending only when the enemy is dead on the ground. And once you die, you are gone for good: only a new game can save your immortal soul. Each battle gives you a certain amount of points, with several additions for fast kills, brilliant blows or for “aligned” quests.

I have to go deeper to explain the “alignment” part. From the start of the game, through every level up you get to shape your caracter by choosing a clan and personality and ability traits. You may choose to be a pagan Eagle clan member, that later gets the merchant ability (that doubles the amount of gold earner,) and eventually makes to a Noble Eagle clan member. In addition to this direct choices, as you decide which fights to take part of, you shape your personality. If you consistently decide to fight for wealth (amassing a fortune in gold coins, to spend in improvements to your home) you’ll eventually get the perk “For Wealth.” Once you get it, every time you fight for wealth you get an extra amount of points.

In the game you’ll find three different kind of “points.” First, glory points that you get for each fight. This is the landmark to aim for in Game Center: Try to beat the 181283 glory points of RB the Legendary Trader! (or the 134608 of R the All Honored)

I guess now is a good moment to talk about the IAP model of Sword and Glory, which is a free game. I’ve played many games, a lot of them also free… And Sword and Glory has one of the less intrusive IAP models I’ve seen. I purchased a pack of epic points just as a token of appreciation for the developers. And that’s it…

Can you reach ancient age?

There is no definite goal in Sword and Glory. Getting the highest level and the most points can be considered a goal, but looks like the “real” goal (according to the achievements page) is to become the King of Silver Valley. So far I have not yet managed to do so… Every time I’ve been close a sweeping horde has ran through the valley while I killed 3 or 4 foes before dying.

The visual style of Sword and Glory is a smooth hand-drawn look of (almost) black-and-white 3D characters fighting in a white background. It may not sound impressive, but it’s good and different. The sound effects are up to par, as the music. I have a strong tendency to play games without any sound, and Sword and Glory can be played with everything muted without problems.

Sword and Glory will make you feel like a Klingon: Perhaps today is a good day to die.

Below you can find the launch trailer: