awkward, and some laptops don't have keypads) is the game's "arcade mode", which uses the Y, U, and I keys to block low, medium, and high, respectively, and H, J, and K keys to chop, slash medium, and slash high, respectively. Turning, jumping, and other acrobatics can be used in tandem with sword control to add velocity to the weapon, increasing its damage potential significantly. The player can target and eliminate specific body parts. A well-placed swing to the head can in some cases behead an opponent. Strong blows to the arms and legs can sever limbs, leaving the opponent with reduced mobility, or in the case of the sword arm, no way to inflict damage. This system encourages multiple hits to a specific region on the body, thereby slowly cutting the opponent, and reducing his effectiveness. Delicate locations such as the head and neck, while difficult to strike, offer a quick conclusion to those with the appropriate finesse. In the expansion, Limb from Limb, the player can choose to play the original quest as an Orc, Skeleton, Mantis, and other monsters. The Arena The Arena mode in Die by the Sword consists of as many as four players or AI bots fighting in an enclosed arena. With the Limb From Limb expansion installed, there are a total of nine Arena 'Pits'. Tournament Mode Tournament mode allows the player to choose one of nine different fighters, and work up through different arenas with different combinations of other creatures. It ends with a final boss fight. Development Project lead Peter Akemann cited The Bilestoad as a major inspiration for Die by the Sword. Instead of motion capture, the dominant animation technique of the time, Die by the Swords animations were built with a physics engine that Akemann created over five years of post-graduate and doctoral work. This approach eliminated the need to use pre-recorded animations, thus enabling the player's free-form control over the character's sword swings. Reception Die by the Sword was a commercial failure, with sales of 28,603 copies in the United States by April 1999. Interplay's Alan Pavlish attributed the failure to the game's control scheme and "a dark period when it slipped nine months ... [and] lost momentum." Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it five stars out of five, and stated that "DBTS''' humorous slant on the all-too-serious fantasy genre is a welcome