A raucous relief from Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's fussy combat, medieval combat sim Half Sword is finally launching for real

Not many games can claim to boast a demo count that's stayed in the thousands for almost a full year, but Half Sword is a special beast. Steam players have been revelling in its brutal, gory take on medieval combat since it first went viral over two years ago, but a major update back in April 2025 saw its popularity explode again. Ever since, the Half Sword tech demo has held onto more than 5,000 active players, making it one of the most consistently popular trial versions on the Valve store. Now, it's finally coming out for real.

If you've spent hours wrapping your head around the deliberate intricacies of combat in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Half Sword will feel like a breath of fresh air. It embraces the elegant simplicity of mouse controls to wield your chosen arms, adopting a combat system built in coordination with historical European martial arts experts into an intuitive, physics-driven simulation that you can quickly pick up and play.

Combine that with an impressive array of lovingly crafted weapons and armor that rivals the best medieval games, and a sense of high-lethality tension where one well-struck blow can end a fight in an instant, and the result is a combat sim that staggers and dances on the line between realistic and ridiculous. It's easy to start and a joy to master. It's also relentlessly graphic and bloody, albeit in a way that manages to feel more gleeful than gratuitous. Plus you can turn it down if you really want.

In order to become the champion of the arena, you'll have to start out from bare-knuckle fistfights and work your way up the ranks. Each success earns you money and fame, gradually building up your equipment and earning potential in kind. No amount of renown can save you from a stiff spear to the gut, or a hammer blow across the skull, however, so keep your wits about you at all times. Fight dirty, use the environment, do whatever it takes - just make sure you're the one standing when the dust settles.

Half Sword launches into early access on Steam Friday January 30. Stick it on your wishlist now if you want to be notified when the day arrives. "Thank you for waiting for this extra month," Half Sword Games writes, acknowledging its delay from the originally proposed 2025 release. "We hope you rested well on your holidays and now you are ready for all the new stuff we prepared for you.

"As you understand, we are still working on the game and new content will be added as we continue our way to the full release," the developer adds. "Bugs, performance, occasional crashes, and other things are being actively ironed out as fast as our tiny team can handle. Please feel free to inform us of any issues that affect your immersion in the skirmishes of Half Sword."