NARAKA: BLADEPOINT Review — A Unique Melee Battle Royale

Have you ever wondered if there was a battle royale game where the players fought each other using martial arts instead of guns and other ranged weapons? NARAKA: BLADEPOINT is a unique gem in the battle royale genre, where players fight for the top, mainly using close combat with swords, spears, and other melee weapons.

Ever since becoming a free-to-play title on Steam in July 2023, the title has seen a massive boost in its popularity. I’ve been playing NARAKA: BLADEPOINT often since then, and I aim to share my experience with you in this review.

Story And Setting

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT’s lore says that a long time ago, two ancient gods fought against each other, creating the Mask of Immortality, which is exactly what these heroes fight to claim in every game.

As of now, the game features 19 heroes from all over the world, and new characters are occasionally added. All of these heroes assemble on Morus Isle to fight against each other and claim the Mask of Immortality.

A long time ago, two ancient gods fought against each other, creating the Mask of Immortality, which is exactly the thing these heroes fight to claim in every game.

There’s not much to do with the story in NARAKA: BLADEPOINT since it is a multiplayer-focused battle royale. However, there’s no shortage of content, as the developers know how to keep the game interesting for its players through frequent events and collaborations. However, these frequent updates can get a bit annoying at times due to their sheer size.

Gameplay

This is where things get fun. NARAKA: BLADEPOINT’s gameplay might look clunky at first glance, but it’s not. The combat is extremely complex and requires a fair amount of learning to understand, so you’ll definitely need to spend some time in the lab before jumping into the real deal.

As someone who’s just getting into the game, you won’t have to worry much about the general meta, which character to pick, and all the nitty gritty since the basic combat alone is so complicated and fun.

If you’re just mindlessly mashing the attack button, chances are that you won’t be making it very far in the match.

Since there aren’t any guns for sniping, most of the combat happens in close quarters. Even out in the open, you’ll occasionally encounter 5 to 6 players fighting each other, and it can get very chaotic to look at, but once you get good enough at the game, the movement and flow of battle will start making sense.

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT features 3 attack modes. One is your regular attacking, and the second is the blue-focus attack, which beats regular attacking but can be countered. The third is the golden-focus attack, which can only be executed after you’ve successfully countered a blue-focus attack and will beat any form of resistance on top of dealing the most damage.

More Than Just A Chaotic Hack’n Slash

While the fights might sometimes look like every player is just mashing the attack button, the game has a lot more going on. And believe me, if you’re just mindlessly mashing the attack button, chances are that you won’t be making it very far in the match.

The choice of your hero also plays a significant role in winning the game. There are extraordinary team comps that can easily net you wins if your opponents don’t know how exactly to counter it. All in all, you have to strategize constantly from the moment you pick your hero till the end of the game.

You have to strategize constantly from the moment you pick your hero till the end of the game.

One thing I liked about NARAKA: BLADEPOINT was that the support characters weren’t useless if you were to play Solo. The skill effects of most characters are altered based on whether you’re playing Solo, Duos, or Trios, which perfectly balances out the game.

There’s also the Narakapedia, which is a collection of resources for players looking to improve their gameplay. It teaches you just about anything, from basic combat to character-specific guides. It helped me learn how to best utilize my hero’s ultimate, so I definitely recommend diving deeper into it since it might help you out, too!

Other than that, you don’t have to grind a lot if you’re looking to unlock more heroes, and I personally love that about this game. New players can complete tutorial missions to gain a bunch of free currency to unlock more heroes quickly. But yes, paying is definitely a much faster and easier way to unlock more characters.

Visuals And Performance

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT is a visually pleasing game. The environment is beautifully designed to be easy on the eyes, largely thanks to the lighting and shadows, which is is pretty good as well. However, I think the visual effects of skills and ultimates could’ve been a lot better, as you really have to pay attention to know what’s going on.

The game is also fairly well-optimized. I tested the game on my old GTX 1660 on low settings, and it still looked pretty good and maintained a steady FPS. Note that you might sometimes experience FPS drops if you’re not using an SSD, and the game warns you of that whenever you launch it from your HDD.

From character designs to environmental design, the developers have done an excellent job of making the game visually pleasing.

Other than that, I think the game would run fine even on low-spec PCs if you can tolerate a few FPS drops here and there. But a high-end GPU is definitely recommended if you want to appreciate the beauty of this game to its fullest extent.

From character designs to environmental design, the developers have done an excellent job of making the game visually pleasing. NARAKA: BLADEPOINT also runs smoothly on consoles and is just as pretty as it is on PC.

Verdict

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT is an exceptional battle royale title that is fun and complex, and it takes a unique approach that pays off in most regards. The game first came out years ago, but its popularity continues to grow today for good reasons. It is a fun game at its core, but mastering it may take a while, even if you come from traditional battle royale games due to its complicated combat mechanics.

This concludes my review of NARAKA: BLADEPOINT. While you’re here, consider checking out some of the other reviews:

• Among Us Review
• Resident Evil Village Review
• Dragon Ball FighterZ Review
• Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Review
• Mortal Kombat 11 Review