Blackthorn Arena on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Blackthorn Arena is a strategy/management sim with a real-time/turn based combat system, set in a world of mythical monsters and classic fantasy races. Play as the master of Blackthorn Arena, train your slaves into gladiators, forge them into your champions, and send them to fight for your glory!
Blackthorn Arena is a strategy, simulation and crpg game
developed by PersonaeGame Studio
and published by Light Up Games.
Released on May 19th 2020 is available only on Windows
in 10 languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian and Korean.
It has received 3,777 reviews of which 2,599 were positive and 1,178 were negative resulting in a rating of 6.7 out of 10. 😐
The game is currently priced at 24.50€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Blackthorn Arena into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7/8/10 (64 bits)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-3450 (3.1 GHz) / AMD FX-6300 X6 (3.5 GHz)
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: 2 GB, GeForce GTX 660/Radeon HD 7870
- Storage: 25 GB available space
- Sound Card: N/A
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I have seen a ton of review bombing just because this developer moved on to another game. They are a small company and they put over 2 years of updates into this game. They priced it well for what you get and expect and offered very affordable additions if you would like to add a little more to the game. I'm not sure how long people expect a tiny game studio to spend on a single game that isn't making them any more money. Sure they didn't give us everything we asked for but eventually money runs out and you need to move on to something that can make a profit and keep the lights on. The game itself is actually quite good, it has it's bugs and issues sure but again it's a tiny studio. It's challenging but has it's own ways to cheap through it. There is a part that can break your game if you fail a certain story mission which I wish they fixed but you can still play and enjoy it just kills the story and any real progress. Still for what it is, the game was very well done.
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Tip: Begin by going to the Role Library, and creating the gladiators you want to show up in the world. Only then start the game. Finding good rng gladiators is nearly impossible, and anyway who doesn't prefer to create their own characters in an rpg? I've had lots of fun leading my little band of lowly slaves to glory. There is just something awesome about watching that cute little heavily armored dwarf that you started with, beating the devil out of a huge troll or whatever. The Gladiators, and the class system are very customizable. Want a she elf duelist that only uses gigantic two handed axes and runs around headbutting people? Or maybe you want to have a hulking half orc barbarian that hides behind one of those comically small gladiator shields? In this game you can do that and more! Is this game perfect? No, but I just grubhubbed Red Robin last night, and it was 30 bucks for a meal that was cold by the time it got here, and they didn't give me the extra campfire sauce i paid for. My burger was gone in under 15 minuets, but this game lasted way longer, cost less, and gave me extra sauce in the form of deep customization, lite rpg dungeon crawling, and the ability to hire a busty dwarf wench as my torturer.
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The game is my kind of game. I recommend it to every type of players. It has management, sim, battles, Item to collect, a story, the feeling of progress. But, I want it better., so here are some advices. - war against arenas, pillage them, be attacked by them, take gladiators from them - after 24 h i have nothing to do because I became the best, my gladiators are max lvl 25 and so strong that is not more challenging - new places on the map with hard bosses and good rewards - gladiators aging. (death by age) Also the ability to give them The wooden sword, and let them free. - expensive and high level slaves in markets - farms, mines, towns, or some places to manage that make money. - change the money system, make it a simple gold. - ability to buy gladiators from other arenas - higher goal, like become the king of the land - nobody is perfect, gladiators should have more addictions, bad habbits, weak points.
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I'm going to say the bad before the good, but notice I am recommending the game. I played this game in early access. It was awful, to me to the point where I thought I had wasted my money, I should have refunded it. It just had so many issues that nothing about it seemed fun, even though I really wanted a good gladiator game. I don't even know where to start on it. I realize this is how early access works, but I have played plenty of early access games where I could see the potential. I honestly couldn't in this game. I was in my library today, and noticed some patch notes recently, and thought screw it might as well give it one more shot. I have only played for a couple hours, but it's just 100 times better even at first glance. So many fixes that might seem minor to some but to me just make this game playable, and it's fun, it doesn't feel like work. Huge props to the Devs keep up the good work. I'm sure there is still more to do, but this game has good structure to work from at this point.
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EDIT: (As I play the game I will consistently edit the review) Just giving feedback as I play the game. So far definitely recommended. I love the story concept, love the attention to detail for most of the management portion of the game. *** Update 2: I saw on another review that this is essentially loot boxes without paying for loot boxes. This is entirely true. I, unlike the other reviewer, love this feature. I personally love a lot of randomness in games, as I feel like that makes the game more replayable. However, if you like everything to be under your control and go the same way every time, this game is not for you. The gladiators at markets are randomly generated, the equipment is random, the prizes are (somewhat) random to matches, the items you research are random, pretty much everything but your fighting strategy and the way you develop your fighters is random. Again, if you do not like randomness (or gladiator games for that matter) then this game is not for you. If you like a good gladiator game or you like random events without having to pay for loot boxes, then this is the game for you. First and foremost, I love the character creation piece. I can customize my gladiators to look how I want them to look. Was surprised when I could walk around the facility, would love to be able to do the same at other places as well, and I feel like there's a lot of potential with that feature. One thing that I have ran into issues with so far is the tutorial pop ups. The information is good, but I can barely read the text. I would recommend making the background a solid color so that the text is more readable. I have seen people have a few issues with the combat system. I haven't played around with combat too much yet, so I can't say anything good or bad about it (will update this review in the future when I mess around with that more). I did struggle in the tutorial battle, but I just assumed that was because I was unfamiliar with the controls and there were a lot of different controls to accomplish the same goal. *** Update 1: I played around with the combat a bit more, and it has been a struggle to master it. I assume once I have that down this game will be much more fun. *** Update 2: I decided to go with the auto-play AI system to help me get through the game faster. I haven't played around with the strategies for the various fighters too much, but with everything on default the auto-play seems good and fair. I assume with configuration of the strategies of each of my fighters that I can start optimizing them a little bit, but overall you still have to make sure that your fighters are ready to go. Some fighters are better for some scenarios than others, so make sure to fit your fighter to the niche that you want them to fill. And don't forget which niche they are in. For example, I had an archer that was good in crowd control, really useful in 3v3 and 4v4 battles. However, they would always lose in 1v1 combat to lower level opponents. I had a 2h wielder that was specifically trained for dueling, and they could almost without fail win most of the 1v1s. Again, you just have to know your fighters and put them in the best position to succeed. It would be nice to be able to just watch the computer play every once in a while though, like a spectator mode (for both your fights and potentially not your fights). Not sure if that last part is possible, but I think it would add value to the game. *** Update 1: You are allowed to spectate other fights in this game (during tournaments), so it definitely is possible to do what I am asking. It looks like it's just an extra step that could be taken. What I'm referring to is the ability to spectate tournaments and events that you are not allowed to participate in because you do not have enough influence to do so. All in all, so far this game is what it said it is. Recommended even in early access for that reason. Not polished, but has a lot of potential and (to me) is a good game as is. ***Update 1: Looks like the game is receiving updates, so I'll have to check those out. Bonus points for active Dev team. As a software engineer myself, I understand how hard it can be to quickly adapt to user feedback, so well done and keep up the effort! *** Update 2: New updates kind of nerfed some strategies that I was exploiting in the game, but they also solved a major bug that I found with the game, so kudos to that (For anyone wondering, the health regeneration that recently got removed sometimes led to stalemates between fighters with good health and regeneration abilities/armor). That got fixed with the update, but now I have to actually give my fighters good gear to succeed!
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Frequently Asked Questions
Blackthorn Arena is currently priced at 24.50€ on Steam.
Blackthorn Arena is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 24.50€ on Steam.
Blackthorn Arena received 2,599 positive votes out of a total of 3,777 achieving a rating of 6.72.
😐
Blackthorn Arena was developed by PersonaeGame Studio and published by Light Up Games.
Blackthorn Arena is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Blackthorn Arena is not playable on MacOS.
Blackthorn Arena is not playable on Linux.
Blackthorn Arena is a single-player game.
There are 3 DLCs available for Blackthorn Arena. Explore additional content available for Blackthorn Arena on Steam.
Blackthorn Arena does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Blackthorn Arena does not support Steam Remote Play.
Blackthorn Arena is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Blackthorn Arena.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 23 January 2026 10:08 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 25 January 2026 06:19 |
| Steam price | 29 January 2026 04:26 |
| Steam reviews | 28 January 2026 23:45 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Blackthorn Arena, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Blackthorn Arena
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Blackthorn Arena concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Blackthorn Arena compatibility
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Developer
PersonaeGame Studio
Publisher
Light Up Games
Release
19 May 2020
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