It can be easy to forget about Apple Arcade in a year that saw the release of Horizon Forbidden West, Elden Ring, and very soon God of War Ragnarök. Mobile gaming seems to dwindle when the major releases are around and cloud gaming is more accessible on smartphones thanks to the likes of Xbox Cloud Gaming.
But with the development of Apple Arcade, it has become a quiet bastion of excellent mobile gaming, curated for iPad and iPhone uses. And Bleak Sword is one such game that caught my eye.
What appears to be the most basic of games, with a mostly monochromatic look and ultra-low pixelated graphics, is actually a surprisingly deep gameplay that I feel is a must-play for anyone trying out Apple Arcade.
Created by solo developer More8Bit and published by indie game Devolver Digital, Bleak Sword puts you in the shoes of a warrior on a journey to lift a curse on the titular sword.
Armed with a sword and shield, you are tasked with finding your way through a bleak land of pixel art dioramas filled with creatures and monstrous beings aiming to end the player’s life with a scattered screen of a red skull full of pixels and devouring the iPhone screen.
You can play the game with one hand, swipe to dodge, hold and swipe in a direction to deliver different attacks, and tap and hold at just the right time to counter a fearsome strike from a brutal enemy.
This may sound simple, but as you make your way through the opening areas of the game, it becomes quite clear that this is a game of hacking and slashing as far as you know when to ditch the way of an incoming strike or charge a powerful attack, and learn the moves of the enemy’s attack.
As you progress, your pixel fighter gains experience and thus levels. This allows you to strengthen the defense or damage the output. And the items you find on the way allow for greater customization and improvement: do you want to hit tanks, or be a warrior with a glass cannon?
However, every time you die, for example through a wrong swipe or an overly ambitious attack, you will lose all your experience in that run so far. But you will have one chance to get it back by competing in the area where you died by defeating all the enemies.
Sound familiar? This is because this is a Dark Souls / Elden Ring inspired mechanic.
An effect that the Bleak Sword proudly wears; From the fire on which your warrior rests, to the name that evokes the bleak nature of Earth that wouldn’t seem out of place in the Dark Souls opening areas – were it not for the near-monochrome graphics and visuals.
Speaking of which, it would be easy to dismiss the very retro look of Bleak Sword, with graphics one might expect from a console or ’80s arcade machine.
But the brilliant design of the monsters, along with the use of great sound and environmental effects, means that Bleak Sword becomes very absorbent. I found my imagination filling in the lack of visual fidelity. In a dark rain-drenched forest, full of spiders, bats, and vicious stag creatures, I was transported to my walk around the woods of West Wales as a child, my imagination conjuring up all manner of creatures lurking in the shadows.
The pixel art method also strips things out again, so you’re totally focused on the action (literally) at hand with amazing modern game mechanics combined with simple visuals. You enter the heat of the action with nothing to distract you other than your will to see the brutal challenge through.
When I played Bleak Sword on the iPhone 13 Pro alongside the noise-canceling chops of the AirPods Pro, I felt myself wandering from the hell of the London Underground Central Line to dark, damp swamps full of bleeding monsters and more.
Bleak Sword’s design, mechanics, and accompanying extras like wild animals are the perfect distraction from dull navigation, but it fuels more than just the lizard’s brain’s desire to tap the same colorful shapes.
This combination of simplicity, modernity and focus makes it difficult to punch holes in the Bleak Sword; Much like the Apple platform and the hardware it was made for, it “just works”. Some may find it a little tricky, as poorly chosen acts are punished by relentless, down-to-earth monsters.
But even if you sign up for a quick Apple Arcade trial, I’m forcing you to try Bleak Sword. It is a Dark Souls game for passengers. You might not have liked a game like this before, but when you find yourself choking on a cry of victory defeating a boss as you teeter among the dead of city commuters, I’m sure you’ll get the compelling allure of Bleak Sword.
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