The marketing guys for Severance are going to see just one thing worth mentioning about it: the gore, and being marketing guys they'll probably bore you to death with a tirade of adds focusing on little more than the bloodier aspects of the title. Admittedly, the realistic combat is an important part of the title – limbs can be sliced off and copious amounts of blood will gush forth from wounds, spattering on walls and floors and even spreading out in a pool beneath vanquished foes. The portal engine also offers volumetric lights and shadows which are put to good use in such diverse locations as frozen lands, an ice fortress, temples, palaces, mines and other such classic fantasy settings. These places will also be filled with all manner of enemies from trolls and skeletons to golems and even demons.

You'll have to choose from one of four warriors with which to vanquish these evil creatures. The Knight, servant of the king and upholder of all that is good and just, is a good all-round fighter. The Amazon is a female seeker of fortune, quick on her feet in a fight. The Barbarian is a strong warrior from the great steppes and the Dwarf is a stout fighter of that classical fantasy race well renowned for both their love of gold and gems and their fighting ability. Each character will also have four offensive and defensive maneuvers to help with the vanquishing of enemies.

Gameplay includes a few RPG and adventure elements, an advancement system being the most notable one. Developers Rebel Act have also tried to make the world as convincing as possible with volumetric water, shadows and even realistic fire that can set wooden barrels and boxes alight if you want. You can even use much of the scenery as a weapon, for example smash a table apart and you can pick up one of the table legs and use that to bludgeon enemies to death with. Severance: Blade of Darkness was recently picked up for publishing by Codemasters and we should finally be seeing this game in a few months.