One of the really neat things about this game is that it has a solid foundation in Chinese mythology so lots of people have been waiting a long time to see this game released – just to get a taste of the races and classes involved in the game. There’s also the promise of combo moves in combat but we come onto that in a little bit.

First off the game does need to be downloaded but the specs are far from extreme by modern standards – especially when you look at Battlefield 3 and some of the Xmas 2011 titles that are on their way.

To play Blade Wars you’ll need:

• Windows XP
• Pentium 3 1.6GHz or higher
• 1GB of RAM
• DirectX 9 graphics card

Once the software is installed you can just double click on the icon to launch it and once you’re past the usual blurb and server screens it’s time to get your game on.

Blade Wars is free to play but you do have the option of purchasing upgrades to add to your online playing experience.  This is pretty typical of what you can expect from an MMORPG like this at the moment – these guys have to generate money somehow right?

You get to choose from 3 different races – Abyssals, Humans and Immortals and then from there you can choose a character class of assassins, warriors, knights, warlocks, or Shura (similar to a Paladin). One small niggle is that there’s very, very little you can do to customize your character – not as much as some other games at least.

The combo system of combat means that you can defeat a lot of your enemies pretty quickly if you put together a killer combo – pun totally intended there. There’s also some pretty neat kung fu moves to take advantage of too – there’s been a lot of martial art combat MMORPGs in the past but nothing comes close to Blade Wars in this regard.

Plus the mix of 2D and 3D graphics and the isometric game perspective means you can enjoy the combat instead of struggling with it – this angle works really well in this game.

And for once you won’t need to walk everywhere because Blade Wars features a variety of mounts to let you take the pressure off your legs and conserve your energy for combat later on. You can also hop to different zones and cities using the Teleport Gates that are dotted around the Blade Wars world.

Oh and last but not least the first expansion for this game “Challenger’s Fury” is now also now available.

You owe it to yourself to try Blade Wars.