If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Let's play Naraka: Bladepoint - Crouching Tiger, Battle Royale

I know, another battle royale... but this game is a refreshing new take.

I've been having a lot of fun with Naraka: Bladepoint. It's one of the games I was most looking forward to in August, and so far it really feels as if it’s living up to my expectations.

It’s essentially a mingling of the fighting game and battle royale genres - cramming fighter-like character abilities and archetypes into the battle royale format. With all the different abilities on offer and characters quite literally flying around it gets pretty chaotic - but in a good, fun way. If you want to see how I got on with the game more directly, the video embedded above has plenty of gameplay to feast your eyes on.

The menus are an absolute shambles and it could have done a better job teaching you how to play, but that doesn't take away from feeling like a badass. It’s hard not to be drawn in as you zip around with the grappling hook, stalk your enemies from the treetops, or hit a clutch counterattack to finish off your enemy.

The combat sometimes lacks that ‘oomph’ in terms of reactiveness and weight when you hit enemies. For example, the greatsword feels powerful when you’re charging it up, but the animations on hit feel lacking in a weight and heft of the kind you find when using a sword in Monster Hunter or For Honour. The animations could use some tightening up across the board, in fact, but it's nothing a few patches can't fix. The core that’s here is something special.

Games can be clunky and still be enjoyable - and this is one of those cases. I'm not sure what the shelf life will be for Naraka: Bladepoint, but I do hope it finds a player base that keeps it alive - I'd love to see the improvements in a year's time.

Naraka: Bladepoint is out now on PC. For more games releasing this year, head to our video game release dates page.

Sign in and unlock a world of features

Get access to commenting, homepage personalisation, newsletters, and more!

In this article

Naraka: Bladepoint

PC

Related topics
About the Author
Dorrani Williams avatar

Dorrani Williams

Contributor

In his time on the site, Dorrani was responsible for spearheading VG247's video content. When he's not doing VO or editing, he can be found playing PC shooters like Apex Legends or Valorant. As one of the youngest members of team VG247, most of his games knowledge comes from Smash Bros.

Comments