Rome never looks where she treads. Always her heavy hooves fall On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads; And Rome never heeds when we bawl. Her sentries pass on—that is all, And we gather behind them in hordes, And plot to reconquer the Wall, With only our tongues for our swords.

-Rudyard Kipling, A Pict Song

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This is unquestionably one of those games that a tremendous amount of love and care went into. Wulverblade is the result of extensive research into the history of ancient Britons and the Roman invasion of Britannia, research conducted over a 5 year period which informs its richly detailed backgrounds, settings, characters, and story. This kind of studiousness is infectious and I found myself back to watching documentaries as soon as I beat the game. That sort of inspiration to learn is rare, and I greatly appreciate it. That doesn’t even begin to encapsulate its gameplay, either.

Fully Illustrated’s Wulverblade can initially seem at odds with itself. It is an arcade-style side-scrolling beat ’em up, a genre of gaming traditionally associated with mind-numbing action, not with historical accuracy. Button mashing and senseless violence occupy one half of this game’s content, whereas smartly presented data on ancient cultures occupies the other. Garish, cartoony violence is grounded by historical articles and videos on places, weapons, and peoples from antiquity.

In the end, I think what might’ve been a disconcerting contrast ends up being a carefully balanced presentation. Wulverblade walks the edge of a knife, flirting accessible brawling, stylized hyper-violence and scholarly research nicely. At face value it seems like a comic book. At its core it’s like a museum of anthropology.

In 120AD, south Britannia sat under Roman occupation. The most powerful empire ever marched northward, eager to devour the entire island after the revolt of Queen Boadicea of the Celtic Iceni tribe. The Ninth Legion, 5000 men strong, backed by all of the ingenuity, engineering, and prowess Rome possessed, found itself face to face with a deadly foe: the warriors of the north. The Romans were accustomed to virtually unimpeded expansion but this would be no easy confrontation.

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.com/2017/10/18/wulverblade/