As if shanking someone in the face wasn’t brutal enough, Early Access battle simulator Blade & Sorcery just got a little more gory with the new U9 update which landed on Friday.
Developers WarpFrog say that the U9 content is “essentially the 8.4 beta as a now completed and stable version.” If you haven’t played any of the beta content past 8.3, you may be in for a surprise.
In U9, WarpFrog has completely reworked character decals and added a few more bits and bobs to increase realism. You’ll find new wound and blood splatter effects, armor-denting effects, burn decals, and a new and enhanced revival of the U7 death animations.
YouTuber ‘The Baron’ gives us a good look at a bunch of the 8.4 beta, which is admittedly only a little more buggy than the full U9 release.
Outside of the immediate increase in gory realism, players also have wound decals that can be dispelled by applying healing potions. Player avatars and baddies also have exit wounds now too—which in the grand scheme of things is probably the least disconcerting thing about the grizzly (albeit fun) gladiator sim.
A new survival game mode is also live now too, which lets you choose from randomly generated weapons that spawn with the pedestal and survive waves of ragdoll baddies.
WarpFrog says a larger ‘Dungeons Expansion’ is likely coming in U11, which of course has no clear release date yet. The studio calls it “its own huge update.”
There’s heaps more info on the U9 update over at the game’s changelog, which you’ll find on Steam. Blade & Sorcery is only available on PC VR headsets. You can find it over on Steam and the Oculus Store for Oculus PC headsets.