Switching weapons, upgrading them, using magic and smashing pots. It wasn’t only the power that you feel when you play as Kratos that took over, but the magnificent and gory battles that he had to go through. The God-slaying, dual-blade wielding Kratos became the face of the PlayStation with an adventure that captivated the fans from first glance. Incredible action adventure with a story that took the standards of The Sands of Time to the new level. This time, it was a gory game with titanic boss-fights. It was about time that another game came to revolutionize the genre once again. It was groundbreaking and set the standard for new games in the genre. The game was a revolutionary in many aspects. Puzzle after puzzle, fight after fight, Prince of Persia dethroned Dante’s Devil May Cry and took the throne of Action Adventure Hack ‘n’ Slash. Prince, carrying his sword, climbing and leaping off walls, into pillars, back to walls, hacking ‘n’ slashing his way then dying and rewinding time or slowing it down all together. That was until 2003 when Prince returned in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The game incorporated Hack ‘n’ Slash with the Beat ‘em Up and Shooter styles of games where you could send enemies flying in the air and attack mid-air or even shoot them, switching between your sword and guns as Dante.įor a long time, no game dared challenge Devil May Cry in the genre. Devil May Cry was released on the PlayStation 2 and marked a new genre. It was in 2001 that another game came along to take away the title and revolutionize it once again. Arguably, it was the birth of Hack ‘n’ Slash. It was incredible, action-packed adventure game with a lot of slicing and dicing and it carried along elements from the RPG genre with classes and different weapons and magic. That game was arguably the true beginning of Action Adventure Hack ‘n’ Slash: Diablo. Then, another game came along in 1996 that revolutionized the genre back then. Just walk, jump, occasionally fight a skeleton and drink some potion. It was a side-scroller with very little to do. One of the very first games that initiated the genre of Hack n’ Slash is the original Prince of Persia all the way back in 1989. But where did Hack ‘n’ Slash come from? What initiated that genre and brought it to life? Hack and Slash is a genre of gaming that mainly focuses on melee combat with games like Bloodborne and God of War.
Evolution of Hack & Slash Games Script by Amr Abbas