Die By The Sword + Limb From Limb

A more in-depth video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBozdYTg2kY Die by the Sword is a special game, but certainly not for everyone. Beyond VR titles, this is the only game that I am aware to have a fully controllable weapon swinging mechanic. Add to it things like momentum counting for the damage dealt, and having a complete dismemberment mechanic, and you can see that the skill ceiling is pretty high. A well-placed sword swing can easily decapitate an orc for instance, and it's something really enjoyable to pull off. Unfortunately, the execution is janky, very much so. If you use a keyboard and mouse, you won't have mouselook, and will be forced to use turn left/right for the all-important changes of character orientation. The camera itself is rather poor, not only because it gets stuck in the level geometry, but also due to not offering a clear view of where your weapon is. The game originally had a separate executable where you could record moves and save them as macros for the main game, but it doesn't work on modern system, and compatibility fixes such as HazardX's Die by the Sword Xtended don't seem to solve its issues. Speaking of Xtended, this is the only way to play the game. Not only it helps run the game on modern systems, but it brings some neat features, both technically and in terms of features. Overall, it's hard to recommend the game. It's not trash, it just has an overly ambitious idea that it couldn't sustain with its execution. If you can get over the issues mentioned above, you have a title with a bit of charm to it. But I can't give it more than 2 stars, even if I personally enjoyed it. Way too niche to give it more.

I loved it, then again, i am 'that guy' that liked jurassic park tresspasser. Here you can see the OG Wonky Combat tm that Exanima would perfect years later. +Physical combat is just so unique and awesome (in 98 no less, tech wizards) +Dynamic dimenberement and good character damage models +Absolutely awesome athmoespher and art direction, but then again, i do be lik'n me pixels chonky -You prolly gonna have a difficult time getting used to the controls, as much as I found the mouse swings fun, the camera just doesn't wanna cooperate, so I stuck by the arcade numpad (still fun)

The sword control is a very cool concept, allthough the learning curve for playing with the mouse is very steep. Overall the game is really fun and definitely worth the 6 bucks. Hell, tell your friends to buy it so you can chop their limbs off too!

This game was released 20 years ago. I haven't played it since it came out. And yet, I still think about it regularly. No game has since captured the diversity of attacks in quite the same way. DBTS is a classic, and I'm glad to see it on GOG!

First of all, this game is different from anything you played before, not only the control scheme but also the gameplay are a very exciting experience. Some say the game is too hard and that the controls are too clunky, but this is only partially true, sure the game is hard, but not in a gamebreaking way, but truly challenging with a raising skill-curve (battles start easy and become harder further in the game); the savepoints are placed in a fair way so that after more or less every battle your progress will be saved. The controls may seem akward in the first place, i reccomend to ply with vsim mouse controls and to start playing in arena mode and mess a bit around with weak monsters, after a while you will swing the sword without problems. The story starts in a rather clichè mode, knight has to save a lady, now don't think that the levels and gameplay are that clichè too, there will be plenty of twist and puzzles awaiting; also instead of controlling a goody-two.shoes hero, your marionette is a sharptongued swordsman with no problem two cut off a limb or two. Another really innovatve and funny feature is the ending speech, where the controlled charachter expresses his thoughts on what he passed through. I really reeccomend this game to everyone who has the patience to learn to use something new and be challenged by it. At last, in multiplayer mode hilarity is assured you and your friends will have loats of fun, even if you're not really skilled with this game, as soon as enemies run at eachother hacking blindly limbs off you'll have a smile in your face.