Half Sword

About Half Sword

Half Sword is a single player and multiplayer hack and slash game with medieval, historical and violence themes. It was developed by Half Sword Games and was released on January 30, 2026. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Half Sword is an immersive, physics-based medieval combat simulator that offers players a unique experience of becoming a commoner-turned-knight, fighting brutal tournaments in 15th-century Europe. With innovative gameplay mechanics, you can wield your weapon with precision using your mouse, feeling the intensity of each clash as you ascend the ranks to face formidable opponents. Immerse yourself …

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Reviews

73%Audience ScoreBased on 21,178 reviews

gameplay743 positive mentions

optimization1.4k negative mentions

The gameplay features unique, physics-driven, and immersive melee combat with a high skill ceiling and satisfying mechanics.
The game's graphics and medieval aesthetic are praised for their beauty and detailed environments, contributing to a strong atmospheric experience.
The music and sound design stand out as a major highlight, enhancing the medieval ambiance and intensity of combat.

The game suffers from severe optimization issues, frequent bugs, crashes, and poor performance, especially on certain maps and during combat-heavy scenarios.
The progression and story modes are criticized for being grind-heavy, repetitive, confusing, and lacking narrative depth or meaningful content.
Clunky controls, inconsistent physics, and frustrating glitches detract from gameplay fluidity and emotional engagement with characters.

optimization
6,535 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13% positive mentions, 66% neutral mentions, 21% negative mentions
At launch, the game suffered from severe optimization and performance issues, with frequent frame drops, crashes, and stuttering—especially on larger maps like Slums and Forest—making it nearly unplayable for many users despite decent hardware. However, the developers have actively addressed these problems through frequent updates and hotfixes, significantly improving performance and stability over time, though optimization on certain maps and during high-combat scenarios still requires work. Overall, while the game’s core mechanics and content are praised, persistent optimization problems remain the primary barrier to a smooth and accessible experience.
- “After the very recent patch, the performance got somewhat better with caveats.”
- “The game has been seriously improved over time and performance is 10x better since launch, very excited to see where the devs take this next :))”
- “The devs have done a great job with quick hotfixes for performance.”
- “The optimization is absolute garbage, but I'm coping and hoping for future patches.”
- “Pretty fun but very poorly optimized: I get low framerates and consider my build to be high end; I play 1440p 260hz but I only get about 30 frames on sandbox with 5 people.”
- “The slums map is still ugly, with missing textures and severe performance issues making it borderline unplayable.”
gameplay
2,336 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32% positive mentions, 59% neutral mentions, 9% negative mentions
The gameplay is unique, physics-driven, and highly immersive with a strong progression system and satisfying melee combat mechanics that offer a high skill ceiling. However, it suffers from poor optimization, frequent bugs, unclear or unexplained mechanics, and occasional clunky or inconsistent controls that can hinder the experience. Fans of the demo may find some changes frustrating, but the core combat remains engaging and promising as the game continues to be updated.
- “The combat is extremely satisfying and makes me wish there was a fully fleshed out RPG using the combat mechanics of this game.”
- “The physics-driven combat, real-time momentum tracking, and dynamic armor mechanics are some of the best I've ever experienced in a medieval game.”
- “The gameplay loop is brutal, fun and keeps you on your toes.”
- “Gameplay: the abyss has become worse and not funny, zombies in pairs from the start and very few amount of items make the standalone a horrible experience compared to the demo that even during clumsy episodes it was enjoyable.”
- “The gameplay is worse than the demo, because the physics are now even more broken than before and you fall over just from moving on a regular basis; this also happens to your opponents and since the progression mode now has a "knockdown" match, you can win or lose the run because the physics broke.”
- “Compared to the demo, the gameplay feels clunky, the gore feels worse and the maps feel like every grass strand is modeled like yandere sim toothbrush.”
graphics
1,215 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24% positive mentions, 70% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions
The game's graphics are praised for their detailed medieval aesthetic and impressive visuals, even at low settings, but suffer from severe optimization issues causing frequent lag, low frame rates, and crashes on both mid-range and high-end PCs. Many users report unplayable performance on certain maps, especially at higher graphics settings, and persistent bugs affect visual fidelity and gameplay fluidity. While ongoing updates have improved stability and performance somewhat, the game currently requires significant graphics setting adjustments and powerful hardware to run smoothly.
- “The graphics in this game are incredible, the progression is fun yet challenging, this game is overall amazing, and the price is great.”
- “Smooth physics, satisfying sounds, beautiful graphics, and to have a simple game with such complex weapons and amazing armour is so cool.”
- “The graphics are absolutely stunning.”
- “The graphics are absolutely abysmally optimized, and everything feels a lot more sluggish and heavy compared to the demo.”
- “Most maps run fine at medium to low graphics (I have an older PC) and my friend tells me his game runs fine at high graphics, but the slums map runs horribly, even on the lowest settings.”
- “Performance issues, while I know it may be my PC, but I'm not alone in experiencing even if you set the game to the lowest graphics to where it's potato mode. Any more than 1 enemy on the field tanks your FPS into low 10-20s to even single digits, making it impossible to actually play.”
stability
884 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 93% negative mentions
The game is markedly buggy and unstable in its current early access state, with frequent glitches, crashes, and poor optimization notably on some maps like the slums. Despite frustrating physics issues and performance problems, many users find the core combat fun and appreciate the developers' ongoing efforts to patch and improve stability. However, overall, the buggy nature significantly impacts playability, and many recommend waiting for further updates before purchasing.
- “Very good game, the optimization has been fixed and runs great on medium settings on my laptop.”
- “Obviously there are many unreleased features but the fixes made in the last update solved my biggest issues and the game also runs great now on ultra settings.”
- “After changing settings to DirectX 12 the game now runs great at 60fps and I'm having a great time with it.”
- “The game is really buggy currently, but they've already released a patch a day after release.”
- “Too many glitches right now; there is a glitch where a match will start and you can't move, it just has the 'next fight' screen up until you die, then it shows a fatal error screen.”
- “At launch, it was too buggy to play, but it has definitely gotten way better.”
humor
290 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
99% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 1% negative mentions
The humor in the game largely stems from its hilariously janky physics, chaotic combat, and unpredictable ragdoll effects, which many players find uproariously funny despite occasional frustrations. While bugs and glitches sometimes detract from the experience, they often generate amusing moments that contribute to the game's unique charm. Overall, the game balances brutal medieval combat with comedic mishaps, making it entertaining and funny, especially for those who appreciate chaotic and unconventional gameplay.
- “I've been laughing so much my cheeks hurt from smiling, this game is phenomenal.”
- “The combat is still delightfully chaotic, but now it feels much more polished, making every victory (and every hilarious defeat) even more satisfying.”
- “The combat is brutal, messy and hilarious.”
- “Gameplay: the abyss has become worse and not funny, zombies in pairs from the start and very few items make the standalone a horrible experience compared to the demo that even during clumsy episodes it was enjoyable.”
- “So overall, it has the bones of a good game, but its current tuning and the bugs just make it an overall unfunny experience.”
story
255 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14% positive mentions, 74% neutral mentions, 12% negative mentions
The game's story mode is widely seen as underdeveloped, confusing, and lacking in narrative depth, with many players noting the absence of a cohesive storyline, cutscenes, or meaningful quests. While some appreciate the progression system and potential in its sandbox elements, frequent bugs, repetitive missions, poor mission scaling, and performance issues detract significantly from the story experience. Overall, the story is considered minimal and unfinished, with many hoping for expanded content, better quest variety, and a more structured, immersive narrative in future updates.
- “Overall the game and story is really good and the maps are made with thought and effort.”
- “I really like the story element they added and it really aligns with the story I'd make in my mind with the demo.”
- “So I just finished the game here are my thoughts: it follows a clear and simple story and simple path to rank up and eventually fight against the baron. You talk to the NPC and you get matches and you can hire people along the way. Cool, I love the feature because you can choose the type of weapon and select your teammates with. Overall great game, lots of problems though, some more impactful than others.”
- “Additionally, the story mode is super confusing, with no explanation on how to play it. It has potential, but the developers make you stuck as a beggar class indefinitely.”
- “The abyss mode feels terrible due to insanely overpowered zombies. The main story lacks guidance on how to progress. Quests and deaths are buggy, and overall it feels less polished than the demo from a year ago.”
- “The story mode needs a lot of work. As you progress, your character should get more armor options, but the trader simply doesn't sell them.”
grinding
178 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2% positive mentions, 6% neutral mentions, 92% negative mentions
The game's grinding is widely criticized as excessively tedious, overly long, and punishing, especially in progression mode where repeated fights and slow rank advancement feel more like a chore than fun. Frequent bugs, crashes, and frustrating mechanics—such as losing progress on death, limited rewards, and repetitive tasks—further compound the monotony, making the grind a major barrier to enjoyment. While some acknowledge potential improvements and a dedicated player base, the current grind-heavy progression significantly detracts from the overall experience.
- “I love the customizability of how you want with your character, such as their height, their hair, their armor, etc. I love the token system because it's not too grindy.”
- “Not grindy as in the demo where if you died you went back to the tier of beggar, but I'll get into that later.”
- “If the devs really want to keep strength as a mechanic, then it should be incremented through the progression ranks, not grinding.”
- “The progression mode just feels way too grindy and I'd rather have the original mode from the demo back.”
- “Basically, the game punishes you for killing, punishes you for dying, punishes you for running out of money through tedious minigames that are bugged and don’t work properly, and punishes you for ranking up due to not getting access to new stuff while facing it. You can't simply loot enemies either as the majority of the time, weapons fall through the floor.”
- “Get full set of knight armour just to get stabbed by a peasant with a hammer after hours of grinding and die trying to save my character. Spawning glitches like breaking my leg or arm collisions making me lose runs completely, plus the crash rate (literally every two missions) make grinding frustrating and annoying.”
replayability
143 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36% positive mentions, 57% neutral mentions, 7% negative mentions
Replayability in this game is generally praised for its deep, physics-based combat and customization options that offer highly varied, strategic, and endlessly engaging experiences. While the early demo was often considered more playable and sometimes offered more immediate replay value, recent updates have improved performance and added new modes, increasing the game's replayability and overall enjoyment. However, some reviewers note that after completing progression modes, replayability can wane due to limited content and lack of progression resets, though ongoing development promises further enhancements.
- “The physics-based combat system in this game means that every battle is different, making for an endlessly replayable game.”
- “For 20€ you're getting an insanely replayable game with a physics-based combat system that is so far ahead of anything else currently playable, making you want to go "just one more fight" late into the night.”
- “New updates have greatly improved performance, and the new match types have spiced up the replayability.”
- “One problem I have is that there really isn't much in terms of replayability right now; after reaching the top of the progression mode, there is a free mode but that is it.”
- “In all, compared to the demo, this is not worth your money because of the lack of replayability.”
- “I haven't tried the other modes yet and playing on the one map for free mode is definitely not great for replayability (the tech demo I can understand since it was supposed to be a single percentage of the game) but I hope that the devs will eventually add an option for more maps to free mode because I'm seeing that there are other maps you can play on.”
music
123 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35% positive mentions, 62% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised as a standout feature, described as a "banger" with an authentic medieval style that enhances the atmosphere and intensity of combat. Fans appreciate the soundtrack's quality, variety, and how well it complements gameplay, despite some complaints about music bugs, overlapping sounds, and occasional abrupt changes. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a major highlight and one of the best aspects of the game.
- “The entire soundtrack of the game is pure eargasm: credit to the bard who did cooketh very well.”
- “The music is stellar, genuinely, I'll probably be listening to it for inspiration and during D&D for years to come.”
- “As addictive as the demo, banging soundtrack by goodmalware and cooking into potentially one of thee best games by time it hits full release.”
- “In only less than two hours and with other people's gameplays as well I saw: glitches, no quality of life, unfair combat bugs, bad UI, bad music, bad graphics, bad optimization, bad progression but a kickass good combat, so it's up to you to decide if the game has its value only for good combat (that is the core of the game).”
- “So far... the lighting is worse, the physics are worse, the performance is much worse, the maps are horrible and have gaps where there is no geometry, the entire progression system is worse, the free mode is worse, the weapons are harder to use and constantly get snagged on your own character, you as well as the enemies die in one hit or take so many hits to go down you'd think they're damn near invincible, the music is worse, just all of it is worse.”
- “The worst part surprisingly is the audio, it is very obnoxious and cannot be turned off, when in the lobby of the main mode, you will have a sensory overload of clanging metal, cows, drinks, laughing, chairs being dragged all at the same time, including in fights and with the music.”
emotional
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
98% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 2% negative mentions
Players express strong emotional engagement with the game, particularly forming attachments to hired mercenaries whose gruesome deaths are impactful. However, many find the combat mechanics frustrating and unfair—frequent instant kills from minimal contact and floaty weapon handling diminish enjoyment and emotional investment. Despite these issues, some appreciate the game's immersive medieval atmosphere and progression, hopeful for future improvements in optimization and gameplay depth to better support emotional stakes.
- “Very fun, but it isn't fun at all when you grow an emotional attachment to the mercenaries you hire and they die a gruesome death.”
- “Right now it’s mostly “go in, fight, don’t die,” which is fun, but I think this game could become something even bigger if it had emotional stakes, rivals, progression, and reasons to care about who you’re fighting.”
- “I cut a man in half while he bled out on the floor and I cried 10/10.”
- “Soooo annoying playing progression, 'let's make a super boring story mode with perma death progression.'”
monetization
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
Players widely perceive the game's monetization as a cash grab, citing lack of updates, poor communication, and a feeling of abandonment by the developers. Many recommend playing the demo instead, expressing disappointment that the full release offers little improvement and appears rushed for profit rather than quality. However, a few believe the devs started with passion, though overall sentiment remains skeptical about future support.
- “This game is abandoned by the devs and feels like a cash grab.”
- “Seriously after all the time they have been in "demo" to release this in the state it is in as a full release even at $20 feels like a cash grab and an insult.”
- “The game is a cash grab by the devs who just left the game in the dust while they are probably on a private island drinking fresh coconuts.”
atmosphere
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48% positive mentions, 39% neutral mentions, 13% negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive environments, engaging sound design, and strong thematic elements that enhance the medieval and horror settings. Features like music, environmental storytelling, and lively areas such as taverns contribute to a compelling and authentic experience. Although still early access with occasional bugs, the atmosphere effectively draws players into intense combat and haunting scenarios, making the world feel alive and unique.
- “I love the new environments and areas; they are so rugged and full of story and atmosphere without telling you anything about them.”
- “The atmosphere is so much better now, I actually feel like I am in a medieval tournament unlike in the demo. Maps are wonderful and a lot more open now; it genuinely feels great to walk around the forest map, for example.”
- “The clashing of steel, the dull thud of a fallen body, and the silence after a fight all help sell the atmosphere.”
- “And a crowd cheering in the stadium would also add a huge atmosphere to it.”
- “Animations can look janky, but often in a way that feels more realistic than polished.”
- “The ragdolls don't randomly get ejected into the atmosphere at mach 7 as much (as amusing as it is to see).”
character development
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 30% negative mentions
Character development is criticized for being repetitive, shallow, and disconnected from player effort, with progression often lost due to game crashes. While some appreciate the additions in character customization and weaponry, many find the designs unclear or unappealing and desire more depth in character growth. Overall, the system feels underdeveloped and negatively impacted by technical issues.
- “There is character development.”
- “Character customization: while the combat is great, adding more depth to character design would be a huge plus.”
- “I definitely can appreciate the additions to weaponry, character design and customization, and new and unique maps to play.”
- “Its just a 'pay for it' demo still, with game-breaking issues, hours of progression lost due to fatal errors, unoptimized, extremely repetitive actual game with zero depth; you just try to beat the same boss again and again but the game will crash on you and you lose hours of character development.”
- “The progression system is especially bad; character development feels completely disconnected from player skill or effort.”
- “The character designs look a bit weird.”

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Play Times

29h Median play time

74h Average play time

8-100h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 191 analyzed playthroughs

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Half Sword Early Access release time revealed alongside price confirmed under $30

January 28 on escapistmagazine.com

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Frequently Asked Questions

Half Sword is a hack and slash game with medieval, historical and violence themes. Common tags for Half Sword include first-person, 3D, realistic, indie, immersive and others.

Half Sword is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 74 hours playing Half Sword.

Half Sword was released on January 30, 2026.

Half Sword was developed by Half Sword Games.

Half Sword has received mostly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Half Sword for its gameplay but disliked it for its optimization.

Half Sword is a single player game with multiplayer support.

Similar games include Grounded 2, No More Room in Hell 2, Into the Radius 2, Gladio and Glory, Contractors Showdown and others.

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character development

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Does Half Sword Have Multiplayer? Co-op & PvP Release Details, Explained

Half Sword Early Access release time revealed alongside price confirmed under $30

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