"A great example where gameplay splatters graphics..."

Spider Web (the founder of blades of exile) is a small shareware company that is not too known. I guess you're thinking “I bet it's because they're games are bad”. That is not true in this case. Before blades of exile there was exile I, II and III but in my opinion, blades of exile is the best to start out on and the best of the series. In this review, I will explain why...

Story n/a
Blades of exile (unlike the previous games in the series) has no actual storyline. Why is this? In the game, there are three scenarios in which you can play with (only one for unregistered copies). But just for an example of the storylines, I will tell of the first scenario: Valley of Dying Things.

The story is based on the land called Skylard Vale. For some mysterious reason, the water has been polluted and if you touch it you can get some serious damage (death if you drink it). What you must do is investigate and figure out what is causing it to be polluted.

Graphics 8/10
I can honestly say that if you saw a picture of the game before you play it, you wouldn't have the game on your mind. But after you start playing it, it's not so bad. It is actually better off that way. Why? Because colors never collide and everything looks the way it should. It's just perfect if you think about it. You'll consider it even better because it has an editor, which brings me to…

Gameplay 9/10
This is where the real deeds kick in. Let me just start with the basics: You pick one of the three scenarios then you can build your characters. When you do this, you can pick your name, looks, skills, weaknesses and statistics. You can do this with up to 6 characters. When you are done, you can start playing. The only thing this game lacks in is limits because there are none. You can wander around a town, kill everyone in it and take the loot before traveling to the next town. Or you may want to stop and talk to the people, do some side quests they may ask of you and then go buy some weapons or food from the stores. One of the great things is the amount of items. There are literally hundreds of them ranging from swords, flails, axes and spears right down to mushrooms, poisons, rings, rubbish and rocks. There is also a long list of monsters all with different statistics and visuals. Then there are mage spells and priest spells. So obviously there is a lot of stuff but that isn't even half of the good stuff.

The absolute best thing in blades of exile it the scenario editor. With this little side program, you can create your own game with a storyline, hundreds of town/dungeons (if you're up to it) and also make your own graphics. When I say graphics, I mean you can change absolutely everything. You can make up items, monsters and even terrain. Then when you've go everything you can throw it all together and test it out like you did with the three scenarios that cam with it. Mind you, it does take some time to learn how to use the editor but thankfully it comes with instructions.

So is that all? Of course not! Then you can distribute your scenario onto the Internet for others to play. Also, you can play theirs too. I will give more information on that below.

Sound 6/10
This is probably one of the biggest downfalls in the game but it has its reasons. In the game there is no music (except for the little intro on the title). In the game there are only sounds (e.g. door opening, screaming when someone dies, swords hitting each other, spells being produced etc). But what's the reason? The game doesn't go too well with music (trust me, I've tried it with my mp3 player). This is a little like the graphics; it's bad but has reasons.

Buy or Rent: Buy
Fortunately you can get a free shareware version from the site. The limits are simple: you can only play one of the three scenarios and you can't test your own scenarios (except for a little bug). You can purchase the game by reading the details on this site there. It's only $15!

Lastability 9/10
Believe it or not, you'll spend up to weeks playing this and 95% of it will be with the editor. If you think I'm joking then try it out for yourself.

Overall 9/10

You can download a shareware version of this at www.spidweb.com and also download scenarios and patches. There are also the other exile games and a large range of others as well. In my opinion, if Spider Web Software put more into advertising, they would be a lot more popular.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/06