Hellish Quart
by Kubold · 16 Feb, 2021
207 downloads
About the Game
Hellish Quart is a local-only (two players play on one PC, not online), physics-based sword fighting game. Set in 17th century Poland, it features a cinematic story and the most iconic sword fighter archetypes of this period.
With motion-captured fencing techniques and four gamepad buttons representing four attack angles, you'll need to use timing, technique, and speed to defeat your opponents. Choose from a variety of warriors and take part in cinematic story mode, arcade mode, safe sparring, quick fights, survival mode with online leaderboards, or local multiplayer. If you want to hone your sword fighting skills, you can spar with wooden weapons or train in modern HEMA gear. And for the ultimate experience, Hellish Quart also offers an optional VR mode.
Please note that the game is still in development and only supports local multiplayer (two players play on one PC, not online).
physical sword fighting using Active Ragdolls
cinematic story
online leaderboards
realistic historical fencing techniques
optional VR mode
Hellish Quart utilizes active ragdolls and real-time physics to get you the ultimate fencing experience. You can attack from four different angles using the four gamepad buttons. Different button combinations enable special attacks and combos. When you are not attacking, your character automatically assumes a defensive stance, blocking your opponent's attacks using the autoguard feature. Proper timing, technique, speed, measure, and wits are all crucial to winning, just like in real-world fencing.
The game is set in the historical 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the character models are based on 3D-scanned, reconstructed clothes from that period. The single-player campaign, once completed, will be firmly rooted in the reality of life in the region. You will duel against Zaporozhian Cossacks, Polish Hussars, Tatars, Turkish Janissaries, Swedish Reiters, French Musketeers, and more.
Screenshots
23 imagesVersion Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
TWEAK:
- Updated FSR to v 3.1
- Replaced native occlusion screen effect with deferred occlusion (for better small soft shadows)
- Changed lighting in some Arenas
Please give it a few days for me to tweak and optimise FSR3 settings for various platforms and figure out the defaults. You can always adjust or turn it off in Options too.
FIX:
- Maryna: fixed Back + X attack
- Yendrek: a bit more stable axe collisions (trying to reduce jitter in impossible to fulfill physics collision scenarios)
- fixed a problem with leg guards not initiating right after you attacked
TWEAK:
- Yendrek: added IK for Axe Pull mechanic, should be way more reliable now
- tweaked bodypart colliders to better fit the shiluettes
- Barabasz: a bit slower B attack
FIX:
- Tarnavski: better guard 1
- Tarnavski: thicker "More Animation" weapon collider
- Gedeon: Fixed "More Animation" weapon collider
- fixed a bug where you could still damage the opponent with full force if you canceled your attack the moment he successfully parried, but your blade touched him anyway
- Hasan: in More Animation mode, his saber is no longer colliding with his body. This is because in this mode sword colliders are much thicker than in More Physics mode and tend to get stuck.
- Hasan: fixed left hand IK during the Guardcrusher attack
- Yendrek: fixed a compression bug in Walk Bwd animation
- Connor: fixed an AI bug in 4 skulls difficulty
TWEAK:
- Samuel: Back + Y attack has a bit longer recovery
I apologize for infrequent gameplay updates while the story mode is being completed. Thank you for your patience.
In case of technical problems after an update, please visit the Troubleshooting section.
TWEAK:
- Weapons have more stability (less "flimsy")
- A bit larger global collision detection offset to ensure thin blades that move fast will collide at 60fps
NEW:
- Jakub: Added FakeSteel saber scabbard to LARP mode
FIX:
- Upgraded all FSMs in the project to newest Playmaker version (should not affect the final build, but there is a small risk it introduced bugs)
TWEAKS:
- dynamic muscles tweaks
- vsync on is now default
NEW:
- New names for Stable and Precise collision modes. Stable is now "More Animation", and Precise is now "More Physics"
- When the game starts for the first time, it will ask if you prefer more ragdoll physics or more "hard" animation in your gameplay. This will configure your initial Options. You can change it afterwards in Gameplay Options.
TWEAK:
- Isabella, Sava, Samuel Boss: dynamic muscles tweaks
- Jakub: goes 100% animation for a split second in the moment of drawing the saber (so the physics doesn't influence blade position when drawing)
FIX:
- fixed a bug with swapping colliders for different collision modes (which could have altered Win animations, for example)
- added additional safe gates for launching synced grabbing animations
Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2026.06.26.2
FIX:
- Jakub: fixed a bug where he had to wait for the "take out smallsword" animation to end before he could start walking again
- Jacek: fixed regression: too weak dynamic muscles
- Collisions Type: Stable option: fixed all regressions, it now works like the "old" system, you can change to Stable if you don't want physics to alter the animations much.
- Jan, Barabasz: tweaked active frames of certain animations to better fit the dynamic muscles system
TWEAK:
- Hasan, Dynis, Maryna: muscle tweaks
Note: Dynamic Muscles and / or Precise collisions can all be turned off or changed in Options, if you prefer your game to behave differently. You can customize the game to your preference.
NEW:
- new character: Jakub (saber and smallsword)
- reminder that you can skip a cutscene by pressing B on a gamepad (or H on keyboard) is now in every cutscene, not just the first few (you could always skip, but now it reminds you that every time)
FIX:
- Fixed regression: rebaked broken lighting on certain levels
- fixed a bug with weapon drops spawning with incorrect rotation
- rapiers deal modified damage to Boss armor depending on the hit location, just like they do to unarmored body parts
- you can now skip Bossfight cutscenes also with B, and not only with Start
- various other small fixes
TWEAKS:
- improved stability of dynamic muscles collisions
- improved Head-look behaviour
- Meadow Arena - reverted to simple flat grass textures, to comply with Steam Deck performance requirements
TWEAK:
- Vsync is no longer on by default
- Samuel: a bit faster attack animations
FIX:
- cleaned up after the hotfix
Note:
If you experienced an fps drop after the unfortunate update from a week ago, please reset the Graphics Settings in the Options menu, or turn off Vsync.
Again, I am very sorry for the game-breaking bug introduced in the previous update.
The issue happened only when launching the game without an existing save file, so it slipped through my testing. That was my mistake, and I take full responsibility for it.
Unfortunately, on the day of the update I had a family emergency and went straight to the hospital to take care of my mother during and after her shoulder surgery. Because of that, I did not check the comments, reviews, or reports for several days, and I was simply unaware that the game was failing to start for new players.
The game has now been fixed. I understand how frustrating this must have been, especially for people who bought the game during that time and could not even reach the main menu.
I apologize for the mistake, and thank you to everyone who reported the issue.
NEW:
- Hellish Quart will warn you if your settings cause unstable fps, which usually breaks physics.
FIX:
- numerous small fixes and tweaks
TWEAK:
- dynamic muscles tweaks
Currently working on the new character (wip) essential for completing the Story Mode.
TWEAK:
- various small tweaks
Next:
New character in progress, first episodes of the second half of the cinematic story mode, new arena.
FIX:
- Advanced gore: disabled for characters using skins, which don't have a full set of custom gore wounds
- Father Zera: fixed a bad transition in (RFF) Right + 1, 2 combo
- Father Zera: more stable active ragdoll
- Most characters: more stable active ragdoll
- a bit smoother FPP camera
- Blood decals on the head no longer spawn in FPP in Player character
- Brothel Arena: fixed UV on some models
- Gallows Arena: fixed postprocessing
- Tutorial: fixed regression - last step
NEW:
- Tarnavski: new advanced gore wounds
TWEAK:
- thinner weapon colliders
Current Release
Build 25672567
Uploaded Oct 04, 2026
System Requirements
How to Install
Hellish Quart.exe to play
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
Needed when extracting (WinRAR / 7-Zip) — not a site login.
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