Blackthorn Arena: Reforged on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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Re-experience the thrill and challenges of managing a Gladiator arena in this management/simulation game. With new content, new graphics, Quality of Life updates, and all DLCs packed into this new experience, this is how Blackthorn Arena was meant to be experienced.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is a simulation, strategy and fantasy game developed by PersonaeGame Studio and published by Light Up Games.
Released on November 02nd 2024 is available only on Windows in 11 languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian and Polish.

It has received 877 reviews of which 604 were positive and 273 were negative resulting in a rating of 6.6 out of 10. 😐

The game is currently priced at 24.50€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Eneba.

The Steam community has classified Blackthorn Arena: Reforged into these genres:

Simulation Strategy Fantasy Management Medieval Dungeon Crawler Crafting Immersive Sim City Builder CRPG Base-Building Real Time Tactics Dark Fantasy Choices Matter Strategy RPG Turn-Based Strategy Rome 3D Isometric Top-Down

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Blackthorn Arena: Reforged through various videos and screenshots.

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: 30 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD Required!!!

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Jan. 2026

This game is pretty niche I'd say, this is for someone that is looking for a challenge. And you may be starting over a couple of times. But it's a fun challenge to me. I played the original and don't exactly remember it the best. But I've been enjoying the world. The more I play this game. The more intrigued I've been about the world. If you're on the fence wait for a sale. I would say in my 40-60 hours(Left the game on while I was afk a couple of times.) I have gotten my money's worth. But I will say, I know this isn't everyones cup of tea. But with the lack of decent gladiator games. This one has been very interesting.

Sept. 2025

This is a brutal, unforgiving challenge masquerading as a simulation At first glance, this game might seem like your typical gladiator sim, but don't be fooled. It’s been review-bombed by frustrated players, and for good reason: it’s brutally difficult, often to the point of feeling unfair. The enemy scaling is aggressive, and opposing gladiators ramp up in power relative to your own house. In fact, you could argue this isn’t truly a simulation at all, it’s a puzzle game in disguise. What makes it feel like a puzzle is the presence of several key progression gates. Fail to clear these, and your campaign is effectively over. Passing them requires an almost obsessive level of min-maxing and system optimization. In this way, the game shifts from sim to strategy puzzle, demanding calculated builds rather than freeform play. The autobattle system and class diversity are highlights. They’re genuinely cool features, but despite my best efforts, my gladiators rarely felt dominant. The early game feels particularly punishing, actively working against you until you’ve figured out the underlying mechanics. Thankfully, the mid-game opens up nicely. Missions become available, allowing for fresh strategies and more dynamic house-building. It’s during this phase that the game hits its stride, offering a satisfying mix of options and progression paths. Unfortunately, the late game drags. Once I had more money than I knew what to do with and had optimized nearly every aspect of my gladiator house, progress plateaued. Unless you micromanage every stat and piece of equipment, gaining a meaningful edge becomes incredibly difficult. The final stages border on grindy. Even with top-tier gear, legendary weapons, and a stockpile of stat potions, my team struggled. Auto-battling often resulted in early losses due to berserkers wiping the field, and once a single unit goes down, your odds drop fast. The final event before the endgame was punishingly hard—even with everything optimized, I barely scraped through. One of the most frustrating aspects is how much save scumming the game seems to expect. Often, your gladiator's apparent combat strength doesn’t translate to actual performance unless you're micromanaging every move. Auto-resolving battles sometimes gave me better results in tough fights, which felt unintuitive and unearned. There are bugs, though none were game-breaking, just annoyances that add friction to an already tough experience. Overall, this is a decent game, especially when picked up on sale. If you enjoy difficult, system-heavy strategy games and don’t mind trial and error (or lots of saves) it might be worth your time. Just don’t expect a fair fight.

July 2025

Solid game that has some freezes and stutters. Early game is fairly rough unless you start on easier difficulties/custom make some characters that are somewhat optimized so you have some relatively effective characters. Overall the game is solid- not the best, not the worst, and is a fairly rare gladiator auto battler. Game is definitely worth it on sale… probably not worth it at normal price unless one really wants a gladiator game. Ps: early on, 2 handed weapon characters are probably the most efficient to use. I’ve had good luck with using 2h, shield and archers weapon archetypes. Dual wield and unarmed have been., in my experience, rather crap, but it could just be me not knowing how to build properly.

June 2025

great little fighting sim but they have a game called age of reforging: free lands that basically has this game in it and i would recommend that over this. I've played both and both were good.

Feb. 2025

This game is stupid, form the get go can get pit against people 4 levels above you and given the randomness of the game bad starts can wreck you. The combat can be jank as is movement, also crafting is terrible and takes forever. I love it though, the skill trees are so fun to much around with, the character customisation is amazing and the campaign has a great loop of balancing your finances with gladiators wellfare prestige. RPG aspects of skills and armor are all solid and i just find is it so addictive. As i said combat is janky and difficult but its all about finding OP class combos and getting the right kit, then learning how to max xp to create a few gladiators who can carry you to glory. I wish there were more gladiator games like this, and i hope for a sequel one day with some of the stupid stuff ironed out

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Frequently Asked Questions

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is currently priced at 24.50€ on Steam.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 24.50€ on Steam.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged received 604 positive votes out of a total of 877 achieving a rating of 6.64.

😐

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged was developed by PersonaeGame Studio and published by Light Up Games.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is playable and fully supported on Windows.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is not playable on MacOS.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is not playable on Linux.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged is a single-player game.

There are 3 DLCs available for Blackthorn Arena: Reforged. Explore additional content available for Blackthorn Arena: Reforged on Steam.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged does not support mods via Steam Workshop.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged does not support Steam Remote Play.

Blackthorn Arena: Reforged 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: Reforged.

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The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.

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	28 January 2026 04:01
SteamSpy data	23 January 2026 16:31
Steam price	28 January 2026 20:54
Steam reviews	28 January 2026 13:59

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Blackthorn Arena: Reforged, 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: Reforged
SteamCharts - Analysis of Blackthorn Arena: Reforged concurrent players on Steam
ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Blackthorn Arena: Reforged compatibility

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Developer

PersonaeGame Studio

Publisher

Light Up Games

Release 02 Nov 2024

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Blackthorn Arena: Reforged on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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Frequently Asked Questions

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