Blade of Darkness

2001 Fire Falcom, Rebel Act Studios Action, RPG

Windows 11Runs

MacNot sold

LinuxPlatinum

Steam DeckVerified

Gamicality score

Metacritic 754

OpenCritic Not rated

Steam players 871

How it’s combined

Playability today

Runs today5/5

Design today2.5/5

Steam user reviews

Very Positive

91%

2,279 reviews1

Get it on Steam Watch the trailer

Facts checked November 1, 2026

Does Blade of Darkness run on Windows 11, Apple Silicon Macs, Linux and Steam Deck?

Windows 11Runs

Sold for Windows today, no problem on record.1

Mac (Apple Silicon)Not sold

No Mac version is sold.

LinuxPlatinum

Through Proton. ProtonDB: Platinum, runs perfectly out of the box.3

Steam DeckVerified

Verified by Valve.1

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One click, no account, so the next player knows. How we check where it runs

Synopsis

Blade of Darkness is a third-person fantasy action game in which you pick one of four heroes, a knight, a barbarian, an amazon or a dwarf, and fight through castles, tombs and caves in a dark medieval world. Combat is built around weighty melee with combos, shields and gory dismemberment, and each hero has a different starting route and moveset.

Developer: Fire Falcom, Rebel Act Studios
Released: 2001
Best version: Play the 2021 version, which adds Direct3D 11 rendering, native widescreen and 4K, and controller support, while the bundled classic build is unsupported and prone to crashes.
Genre: Action, RPG
Where to get it: Steam

Reception

Critics in 2001 praised the brutal physics-driven combat and the lighting, and the original holds a 75 PC Metascore. Reviews of the 2021 re-release were cooler: GameCritics gave it 6.5 out of 10, calling the update conservative and the combat repetitive and clunky. Steam players are much warmer, many of them returning fans who compare it to the Souls games and praise the combat and level variety, while also noting stiff controls, harsh traps and crashes.

Trailer from Steam

Playability today

The average of two parts, each from 1 to 5. Tap a check to see why. How it works

Runs today

5/5

Sold or given away today by an official source
Runs on Windows 11 without fan patches
?Not confirmed yetSingle-player works without an internet connection
No source covers the current version yet, so this check counts as open, not passed. Played it lately? Tell us
All of its content still works (servers, DLC, unlocks)
The 2021 release keeps the full single-player game and includes the classic build as an extra (PCGamingWiki).
Supports modern resolutions and widescreen
Native widescreen and 4K are supported (PCGamingWiki).
Full controller support or remappable controls
Full controller support with remapping was added in a later update (PCGamingWiki, GOG).
Steam Deck Verified or Playable
No intrusive DRM or required third-party launcher account
No pay-to-win or pushy microtransactions
No known game-breaking bugs in the current version
PCGamingWiki lists no open issues for the 2021 version, which was made to fix the original's launch and crash problems on modern Windows, though some players still report occasional crashes (PCGamingWiki, GOG).

Design today

2.5/5

Controls feel awkward on a modern controller or mouse and keyboard
Movement turns the character rather than strafing unless an enemy is locked on, and reviewers and players call the combat controls clunky. Source: steamcommunity.com, gamecritics.com, opencritic.com.
Menus, text and interface are clear on today's screens
The 2021 version supports widescreen, 4K and borderless windowed modes, though menu and subtitle text cannot be resized. Source: pcgamingwiki.com, gamecritics.com.
Saving is fair: free saves or frequent checkpoints, little lost progress
Saving is manual and can be done mid-level, for example right before a risky jump; an end-of-level rating counts how often you save, but it does not limit saves, and crashes can still cost unsaved progress. Source: bigtruck.altervista.org, steamcommunity.com.
Hard to make progress without a guide
Its many lethal traps are mostly learned by dying, which one long-time player calls design that has rightly died out, and the fan walkthrough flags trap-heavy levels such as Marakamda; the lever-and-door puzzles themselves are simple. Source: steamcommunity.com, bigtruck.altervista.org, gamecritics.com.
Pacing drags: grind, filler or forced backtracking
Levels lean on the same enemy types and lever-and-door puzzles over and over, a weakness reviewers and players both point out. Source: gamecritics.com, steamcommunity.com.
Camera or movement fights the player
The camera stays locked behind the hero with three zoom presets, and without strafing outside lock-on, players find it awkward to reposition during fights. Source: pcgamingwiki.com, steamcommunity.com.