First-person hand-to-hand combat is perfected in Hellraid

Well, developer Techland hopes it is anyway. From the look of the newest developer diary though, it’s already looking pretty darn impressive.

Originally set for release last year, it looks like Dead Island developer Techland has been using the extra time in the over to in part sharpen up the close combat fighting in the game. It’s pretty impressive to see the amount of work that’s gone into the element, especially since Hellraid has a definite fantasy-heavy story (you are fighting the forces of Hell after all). Even with all the beasties going bump-in-the-night, the sword fighting is decidedly realistic in tone; so much so that the developer studied how swordfighters would actually brandish their weapons in the real-world dark ages. Cool stuff, though probably par for the course from a detail-conscious developer like Techland.

The team has already has proven that reanimating the modern dead is something they’re proficient with, and it looks like they can add medieval dead to that resume as well. Hellraid launches for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC sometime this year.