Skara: The Blade Remains Offers 16-Player Melee Combat
Shooting at each other is something we've been doing in sixteens for many a year. But clubbing each other to death is so often more personal. Skara: The Blade Remains is looking to fix that, in what they wildly inaccurately call a "massively multiplayer online versus game". 16 is lots of people in a fight, but it's not "massive", you sillies. It does, however, look pretty decent for an alpha only eight months in the making.
They're aiming to make it "free-to-play", but it's not yet clear what format that will take. They're also hoping to get an alpha up on Steam Early Access as soon as possible, and with this in mind, have released this footage:
There are clearly some impact issues still to resolve, but in eight months I'd have managed to make a stick man mutatedly lumber across the screen. No. No I wouldn't. I would have given up and played games on my phone. That video shows the Lava Coliseum, which will be the location for the alpha version, which is apparently but a few weeks away. The game has already cleared Greenlight, so will appear on Steam when they're ready.
They've big ambitions - they explain that they want to become big in the e-sports world.
"Players choose from one of the different races, each with unique skills and combat styles. Races divide into teams called factions and fight to ascend in rank. The best players rule their factions, the best factions rule SKARA.
Unlike some versus free-to-play, anyone can kill anyone in SKARA, sometimes with a single, well timed attack. Through unique versus combat technology, players can control the direction of their attacks and make specialized combinations, block and dodge their enemies and counter-attack. The Combat system will be customizable and players will be able to unblock new movements, special attacks and even fatalities as they progress in the game.
SKARA rewards its best fighters. We value fair fights, so characters are never leveled up to the point where nobody can kill them. The only way to progress is to beat your enemies in the arena.
Rankings will determine who the best players are, given the numbers of casualties, successful battles and any truly epic performance. Only the best fighters will get the opportunity to try these features. They include creating factionsm invite others players to play in and dominate other clans. Leading players will be able to conquer arenas and even build their own powerbase!
SKARA aims to be a leading eSport game. We plan competitive tournaments on top of the melee arenas."