I played a few rounds with Graham and afterwards described Nidhogg 2 as Super Smash Nidhogg. This means that you begin as equals but soon one of you has a bow and the other has a knife, and then there are different weapons littering the floor, and somebody falls down a pit. Kill your opponent and he or she will spawn with the next weapon in line, then the next, and so on. You and your opponent still start as equals but there are four weapon types where once there was only one, and these work on a cycle. In adding a variety of weapons and scenes that require clambering and negotiation of conveyor belts, it has become a less predictable game. Blades connect with one another, or with flesh, and the timing of every parry and poke is vital. Nidhogg is fast and sometimes frantic, but it's always precise. It spins through the air and clatters onto the ground, and then you stick them through. Time a swish of your weapon just right and you can disarm an opponent, flicking the sword out of their hand. It probably lasts around six seconds but it feels like you just re-enacted that one swordfight from The Princess Bride or the elegant brutality of The Duellists. Sometimes you die because you ran into the point of a sword held at eye level, and sometimes you end up in a brilliant stand-off, blades occasionally clashing as you struggle for supremacy. Dead fencers can't make any progress, or prevent your own, but they're only down for a couple of seconds before respawning nearby. There are no points for killing your opponent and it's more a delaying tactic than anything else. And you're always going to the left or the right, while yor opponent is trying to go the other way. The immediate goal in each area isn't to kill your opponent, it's to reach the point at which the screen stops scrolling and flips to the next stage. The fencing part is obvious – your're both armed with stabby swords (as opposed to slashy swords), but the tug of war part is just as important.įights start in the central area in a series of symmetrical corridors, tunnels and paths. The fight is a combination of fencing and tug of war. Every round, both players start as equals, and then they push and pull and stab and flail in an attempt to move to the left or to the right. The original Nidhogg is tense and often hilarious. By messing with the original formula, particularly with that divisive visual switch, Nidhogg 2 risks proving that more can sometimes be less. It certainly didn't need its titular wurms to chew the air with stumpy rotten teeth.Īll a Nidhogg sequel really needs, to justify its existence entirely, is better netcode and maybe a couple of new modes to play with. It didn't need extra weapons to upset the perfect balance and precision of its two-button combat. Abstract multiplayer fencing game Nidhogg didn't need its minimalist style to be buried under a splatter of aggressively grotesque paint and gore.
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