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Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War | 
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| From: KOEI Corp
Category: Video Games
List Price: $59.99
Buy New: $48.68
You Save: $11.31 (19%)
New (130) Used (3) from $48.68
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 2082
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Xbox 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 0162
Model: 00166
UPC: 040198001663
EAN: 0040198001663
ASIN: B000Q7TGL6
Release Date: November 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: brand new factory sealed; ships the same day
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| Features:
| • | Lead a mercenary force- Immerse yourself in the role of a mercenary commander. Lead a broad array of troops from varied nations, including heavy infantry, longbowmen, cavalry, cannoniers, and castle siege specialists. | | • | Real-time action- Control entire units in real-time. Issue offensive and defensive commands through an intuitive user-interface. Each soldier is independently animated and fights and reacts in a startlingly realistic and visceral manner. | | • | Conquer armies on a grand scale. Clashes are widespread throughout varied terrain. Richly-crafted battlegrounds span the breathtaking provinces of southern France to coastal settlements along the English Channel. | | • | Your fortune is limited only by your ambition. Establish a reputation as a formidable warrior and leader of men. Build your war chest and lure hardened soldiers to your employ. Achieve your mission objectives and more profitable battle contracts will be presented to you. | | • | Heavy Metal Thunder- Amass a battalion outfitted from an arsenal of over 400 weapons, armor, and other historically-accurate items from the battles that shaped medieval European warfare. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
In the 14th century a quarrel over English succession to the French throne escalated into what history would call the Hundred Years' War. This ongoing war had exhausted the standing armies of both sides and there was a growing dependence on mercenary soldiers. Take charge as a mercenary leader and contract your army to the English and French. Watch the battle begin as arrows rain from above, knights charge on horseback and cannoniers fire volleys at heavy infantry. The style of action enables you to defeat large numbers of soldiers with one chosen attack command. Establish a reputation as a warrior and a leader and watch as the toughest of men will battle at your side. Outwit your opponents and overwhelm them with force to be the last one standing. Features:
- Lead an array of troops from varied nations, including heavy infantry, longbowmen, cavalry, cannoniers, and castle siege specialists
- Control entire units in real-time by issuing offensive and defensive commands through an intuitive user-interface. Each soldier is independently animated and fights and reacts in a realistic manner
- Battlegrounds span varied terrain from southern France to settlements along the English Channel
- The Free Mission system lets you contract your army to France or England. Achieve your mission objectives and more profitable battle contracts will be presented to you.
Product Description
When you consider Heavy Metal, you can imagine what a field of war was like in medieval times. Imagine a war that spanned a century! This is history. Visit the frierce struggles of two countries and enter the battlements or do you dare?
In the 14th century a quarrel over English succession to the French throne escalated into what history would call the Hundred Years' War. This ongoing war had exhausted the standing armies of both sides and there was a growing dependence on mercenary soldiers. An innovative action style enables you to command whole units and defeat countless numbers of soldiers with one cleverly chosen attack command. Outwit your opponents and overwhelm them with dominating force to be the last one standing when the dust settles on one of history's greatest conflicts. And you are there! Fight to the death or try to overcome with strategic thinking. Relive Medieval history- Outwit your opponents or overwhelm them with dominating force. The fate of two countries is yours to decide
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
Great game June 22, 2008
This a a good game, provides hours of entertainment. Is a good alt from the normal game from this company.
Nothing out there like it. April 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Really, it's the gameplay that immersed me. Because of the free mission system, you have a lot of leeway as to how you approach any given fight. But you're always guaranteed a tense and action-packed experience. Stopping cavalry charges with a wall of pikes, protecting siege weapons against Viking axemen, ambushing crossbowmen with assassins, or pulling out my longsword for some solo hacking in a pinch, all for riches and renown. It's truly one-of-a-kind. Very easy to pick up and play, but takes both quick and deep thinking to master all its challenges.
The strategy is simple at first but gets deeper as the game progresses and more unit types are introduced. And there are a whole lot of units, from all over the Old World, not just Europe. We're talking Mongol horsebowmen, Abyssinian scythe-swords, Japanese samurai cavalry, Touareg spearmen, and more. That's not historically accurate, but that's Omega Force's brand of historical fiction, and it adds depth to the strategy. You get to command all these different units, switching between them on the fly in the thick of battle. I actually like how the game forces you to work with your allied units; it's pretty much impossible to win battles on your own, unlike Dynasty Warriors and most other battlefield action games. The AI holds up well enough to facilitate teamwork and keep throwing challenges at you in critical moments. Speaking of teamwork, multiplayer would have been cool but isn't there. The other notable weakness in the game is when it occasionally has you trekking across the battlefield to get to far-flung objectives, which gets boring quickly.
The graphics and presentation are conservative but they get the job done of putting you in the milieu. Story characters are archetypal but cool enough to rally behind (and equally as cool to beat down. How you like being stuck on the end of my pike, Prince Eddie?) Also, parents need not worry about kid-unfriendly content. The game is quite clean, despite descriptions of "visceral" fighting and "foul-mouthed" characters. All in all, it's a unique and worthwile experience for gamers of all kinds.
One small step for Koei... March 7, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
You all know the name Koei. "Dynasty Warriors", "Samurai Warriors", "Warriors Orochi" "Dynasty Warriors Gundam" and all the sequels and alternate versions that go with them. All great action/strategy games, but that is an easy achievment because they are all EXACTLY THE SAME GAME! Before "Warriors" there were a dozen or so "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" games which were pure turn-based strategy. I was a fan, but again, where's the creativity; where's the diversity? So, making historical fiction fun: Koei's strong point. Innovation: not so much. "Bladestorm" marks an ever-so-slight deviation from the "Warriors" games by focusing on a rock-paper-scissors style of stategic combat rather than a one-against-1000 button mashing festival. The setting has changed from feudal Asia to feudal Europe so no more Lu Bu and Cao Cao; now we've got Joan of Arc and Edward the Black Prince to contend with. You create your own mercenary and proceed to fight in the legendary 100 Year War alongside the French and British forces as historical events unfold around you.
You may choose your battles and fight them as you see fit: either going straight for your objective and a quick payout or capturing extra bases and defeating commanders to gain fame. Gameplay consists of you commandeering a unit (assuming you've obtained the proper battle manual for that unit type) and leading the charge to defeat the enemy forces and achieve the objective(s) set before you, which is usually capturing and/or defending a base or bases. Depending on what unit you are commanding (infantry, archers, calvary, etc) you can attack the enemy in several ways, but it is a good idea to pay attention to how, when, and who you attack as some each unit type has strengths and weaknesses against other unit types. For example: pikes and archers beat calvary, calvary and halberds beat infantry, infantry beats scouts and rapiers, scouts and rapiers beat archers, and so on. The variety of units (all upgradeable) is awesome and keeps the game fresh dozens of hours in as you attempt to collect all of the manuals and manuscripts needed to master each type. There are plenty of weapons and skills to upgrade your favorite units with and you can even hire your favorite soldiers types to show up at your beckoning so that you're never really SOL as long you came into battle prepared. I love it. I'm sure that the numbers of camels, elephants, vikings, and ninjas fighting in the 100 Year War were quite limited, but hey, there's no bad excuse for adding ninjas to ANY game.
There is a massive number of hours of game here (I'm past 40 at this point with no end in sight) and the gameplay remains challenging throughout. Some missions are easy and some will have you throwing things at your television and taking solace in knowing that Joan of Arc deserved what she got in the end. Man, that b!+ch is tough! The missions do get repetitive and the game certainly makes you wait FAR too long to advance the story along, but there are few moments in gaming more satisfying then watching your troops cut down an enemy unit like so many shafts of wheat in "Bladestorm".
This game plays like a hybrid of "Kingdom Under Fire" and "Dynasty Warriors" so if either or both of those games tickle your fancy, consider this a must-play. The story is strong, the graphics aren't bad, and it is a nice deviation from Koei's recent indiscretions. Even I'm worn out by all the "Warriors" games now, give us a break already. "Bladestorm" deserves much more attention then it has gotten and if you're looking for a different kind of strategy game then don't miss out on it.
 Bladestorm a very pleasant surprise March 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I like this game. Most of the games that I play are of the PC strategy type, i.e. Civilization, Total War etc. I also like RPG's like Morrowind and Oblivion. I see this game as sort of a hybrid of the two types. Bladestorm feels more "light hearted" and just fun. It's totally open ended. You don't have to create units and build castles etc. you just use what's already there.
I was very pleased to find that you can go into options and change camera view to inverse. I think the graphics are excellent. It's really rich and beautiful on a wide screen HDTV.
The voice acting and music is pretty rediculous, but doesn't detract too much from the gameplay.
What this game has, that really makes it different is the "first person" relation to what's going on on the battlefield. You can't get that "bird's eye view" that you get in Total War. You see the battlefield the way a participant would. There's till plenty of opportunity to employ tactics,i.e. keeping archers back and on higher ground if possible, charging with cavalry in open fields etc.
Another interesting thing is the fact that you can't just "button mash" in battle. Each type of unit has it's abilities, each taking a certain amount of time to regenerate. Using abilities well in combination can be very devistating. You have to wait for the "power" to regenerate before you use it again. The same is true for defensive manuevers, i.e. raising shields. You can raise shields for a certain amount of time, until the power runs out. Then you have to wait for the power to come back again.
The AI is kind of a "mixed bag." The good thing is that they don't just stand around waiting for you to attack. They will attack you. The bad thing, is that both the enemy and your allies don't have much finesse in how they attack. They just charge in with no regard for coordination etc. Sometimes it's not very pretty.
The most important thing to learn in this game is where you are in the battlefield. You need to establish your sense of direction. The map shows arrows indicating which directions the armies are advancing. That's a "sure bet" for how your character might proceed. You can't control every group of units right away. You can only control the ones that are available to be controlled and that you have "books" for. As you realize successes, you gain skills and "books" which will give you access to more types of units.
There's a sense of accomplishment when you take an enemy base or complete a contract. You can purchase armour, weapons, recruits etc. with your earnings. There's an over-all sense of direction in that you work on increasing your fame, skills and wealth.
I think it's a good game.
Strategic Chaos January 24, 2008
When I first played this game I was awed by the stunning visuals and large scale battles. There are not many aspects of this game that you can change for the better, the only thing that I found that started to aggravate me after a while were the fighting controls, they weren't too bad so it doesn't make much of an impact on the game. This game has a good mixture of strategy and chaotic fighting so if you like either of those you owe it to yourself to get this game.
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