Half Sword Early Access: The bloody, physics-driven medieval combat sim lands Jan 30

This caught my attention because few demos keep a steady five-figure audience for nearly a year – and Half Sword’s sustained Steam popularity isn’t hype, it’s proof the combat actually hooks players.

Half Sword: A raucous relief from Kingdom Come

• Release: Early access on Steam Friday, January 30, 2026.
• Core pitch: Physics-driven, mouse-controlled melee using HEMA input; high-lethality duels; arena rank progression.
• Proven popularity: The demo has held 5,000+ concurrent players since April 2025.
• Warning: Early access – expect bugs, performance issues and ongoing polish from a tiny team.

{{INFO_TABLE_START}}
Publisher|Half Sword Games
Release Date|Friday, January 30, 2026
Category|Medieval combat sim / Early Access
Platform|Steam (PC)
{{INFO_TABLE_END}}

Half Sword is finally leaving the demo pen and stepping into early access on January 30. The game’s demo has been one of Steam’s stickiest tech trials: after a major April 2025 update it climbed back into the spotlight and hasn’t let go, sustaining more than 5,000 concurrent players for months. That level of consistent attention from Steam users is rare and worth unpacking.

At its core, Half Sword trades flashy combos and animation-driven spectacle for a tactile, physics-first approach to melee. You control swings and blocks with the mouse, and the team leaned on historical European martial arts (HEMA) consultants to shape inputs and weapon behavior. The result is a combat system that’s quick to learn but ruthlessly unforgiving: a single clean strike can end a fight, which keeps matches tense and meaningful.

Why this matters

For players turned off by over-animated or arcadey medieval games, Half Sword offers a satisfying alternative: a simulation that still prioritizes accessibility. It sits in the same conversation as Kingdom Come Deliverance in spirit – deliberate melee that rewards timing and positioning — but it leans harder into visceral, physics-driven impacts and shorter, arena-style encounters rather than sprawling RPG systems.

That persistent demo audience is the most meaningful data point. Keeping thousands of players engaged for months suggests the core loop — pick a weapon, learn its reach and quirks, land a decisive strike — is both fun and repeatable. For a small studio, building momentum in demo form is an effective way to refine systems with real feedback and to prove there’s a player base willing to support early access development.

What to watch for (and be skeptical about)

• Small-team constraints: The developer explicitly warns of bugs and crashes. Early access will be an active fix-and-iterate period — expect rough edges.
• Long-term content: Arena ranks and progression are a solid launch scaffold, but sustaining players beyond the initial novelty will require varied modes, enemy types, and polish.
• Gore vs gameplay: Half Sword leans graphic and bloody, which can be part of the appeal, but gore should support the combat’s feedback loop rather than substitute for depth.

The devs acknowledged a short delay and asked players to “feel free to inform us of any issues that affect your immersion.” That transparency is encouraging, but the phrase “tiny team” is a reminder to calibrate expectations: this is early access, not a finished AAA outing.

What this means for players

If you enjoy deliberate melee systems, learning weapons by feel, and high-stakes duels where one mistake is costly, Half Sword should be near the top of your wishlist. Put it on early access radar for hands-on combat that’s both bloody and brainy. If you’re after a story-driven medieval RPG or wide open-world systems, this likely isn’t your primary buy yet — the focus is the fighting.

For streamers and competitive players, the quick-to-learn-but-hard-to-master loop is fertile ground: short matches, clear mechanics, and plenty of emergent moments from physics-driven interactions. For casual players, the option to tone down gore and the intuitive mouse controls make it approachable.

TL;DR

Half Sword hits Steam early access on Jan 30, 2026. Its demo sustained 5,000+ concurrent players after an April 2025 surge, and for good reason: physics-driven, HEMA-informed mouse combat that’s brutal, immediate, and addictive. Expect early-access roughness from a small team, but also a combat system that’s fresh compared to animation-heavy medieval games. If you care about melee that feels physical and consequential, this one’s worth watching (or wishlist-ing).