[Summary 7.5 out of 10]:

What happens when the only hope of a threatened world lies not with heroes in shining armor, but is placed in the hands of a band of misfits and criminals? Blackguards, the new turn-based RPG by Daedalic Entertainment, explores this very question. The player takes on the role of a convicted murderer who must use the help of a team of more than questionable characters to save the world from a dark menace. Through this wild chase throughout the South of Aventuria, the world of The Dark Eye, there is more to fight than vicious creatures. Chapter by chapter you’ll encounter a story full of intrigue and surprising twists. Time and time again, the moral compass of the player will be tested. One does not beat Blackguards without getting their hands dirty. But when life and death are in the player’s hands, how far will they go to reach their goals? – Blackguards-game.com

 

What it’s like:

It’s like many other RPG games, complete with turn-based fighting. If you’ve played any RPG on pretty much any medium, you’ll know what you’re getting into. The style itself is nothing new or innovative, but it doesn’t need to be. There’s a reason that RPGs are the way they are, and that’s because it’s good. Often when you attempt to break the mold in this particular venue, you end up with a game that isn’t good or is downright unplayable.

In case you’re unsure of what a RPG is; you create a character to your specifications, and you take said character through a vast and interesting world. You meet people, go on quests, gather items, an advance through levels and gain experience to build your character up even more. The stories are rich and engaging and you often (more often than not these days) have dialog choices that will impact the rest of the game.

A difference here is that there’s not a whole lot by way of exploration and poking into dark corners to find loot or fights or much of anything else unless you’re in a dungeon. In that way, it’s more of a dungeon crawler than anything else, with a little bit of the RPG aspect thrown in for funsies.

 

Some things to keep in mind during this review:

The review numbers on this piece are possibly not as high as they could be, and it has nothing to do with the game itself. It has more to do with the fact that I was only able to get through the initial tutorial and the first significant mission before lag frustrated me to the point of giving up. This is totally the fault of my computer. I turned the visual and gameplay settings down as far as they would go, and still had to deal with enough lag that it was a hindrance to not only play but my enjoyment of the play. Again, this is not a reflection on the game itself. But I can’t really give higher numbers (that could very well be deserved) without playing more.

With that out of the way, let’s really begin, shall we?

 

 

The Great:

I played the game as a warrior named Revna (it’s a RPG, there is an unspoken requirement to have a complicated name with no apparent meaning).

 

 

I learned very quickly that in this game the distribution of AP (Adventure Points) is truly up to you at the beginning. There are five general categories: Base Values, Weapon Talents, Talents, Spells (not open to warrior at all), and Special Abilities. Within these are sub categories to choose from, there are no required attributes that you have to take, no pre-set destination for the AP. You’re limited to how many AP you can plonk into any given attribute by the level you’re at and the level of the parent attribute.

When you begin, you’re given a choice of basic vs advanced mode, which changes this quite a bit:

 

I went with expert because I’ve played RPGs before, and it turned out to be a good choice. While this says that you shouldn’t do it unless you’re familiar with the game or the world, it was pretty intuitive for anybody who has experience with this type of game. I found it a great deal more fun to establish my character the way I wanted, distributing my AP as I saw fit, and I would recommend that anybody trying this game with said experience do the same. I feel like a lot would be taken away from the seasoned player by opting for basic mode.

The Good:

You begin the game with a great many AP, and I spent them sparingly at first, thinking that they would be spent quickly, and I didn’t want to screw myself over by making the wrong choice, or rather “wrong” choice. As I went, however, I realized that the amount of AP that I had were far more than what I had ever had access to previously, and I went hog wild with my points. I got everything that I wanted to get and I still had five left over. Which I lost, unfortunately, but that makes sense.

To start with, you also get to choose some gear that costs you nothing, which is nice. I didn’t get to the point where I got to see the return of this gear, but I assume that the game doesn’t just let you have this stuff in the start for no good reason at all.

Another fun thing is that your costume choices are actually reflected in game. You aren’t just equipping stuff that ends up looking like the costume the game. It happens more than it should, especially at this point in our technology. I feel like it shouldn’t be such a happy thing to discover that my hat will really be my hat and not some helmet, some item that just adds stats and not style.

Even with the visual settings as low as they would go, this game still looks pretty great. I was pleased that what I was seeing wasn’t reduced to blurry pixels and faceless characters. I can only imagine what it would have looked like if my machine had been up to the task.

The tutorial for this game is very very good. I didn’t find myself at any point wondering if I was doing something right, or if I’d missed a step. Going out into the rest of the game world was not a jarring experience at all. I liked that it threw me into a fight first, and then took me through some story, and got me to the rest of the tutorial through a memory. I also liked that the character was just as confused in the game as I was at certain points.

There’s a quicksave option for the keyboard that I might have abused more than a little bit, knowing how RPGs go and knowing that at any turn you might get killed by something unexpected, and lose several hours of play. I firmly believe that there’s no reason that more games shouldn’t employ an option like this. Even if there aren’t buttons to do an instantaneous save like there was here, saves should happen at the player’s discretion (outside of boss battles, of course, I understand why you can’t save in the middle of a huge fight). I guess I might have gotten a little enthusiastic with this option.

The map is interesting, though not overly complex. There is a world map as well as dungeon maps, and I found both to be very pleasing. Which leads to the way that towns are set up (or at least the one town I made it to before the frustration got unbearable). I’m typically an OCD searcher in RPGs, I’ll look in every nook and cranny and try to open every door and chest that I come across in hopes of finding loot or items that can be sold. In Blackguards, you don’t roam around the town in the same way, you have a few options to choose from, and that’s it. Having the ability to relentlessly turn over every little rock removed was actually kind of nice.

 

Doing it this way does not, however, take away from the game itself. You still go into the town, there’s still stuff to look at, you can talk to people, learn things, buy and sell.

The fights themselves were nicely arranged as well. They are turn based, but it doesn’t feel like it at certain points. You’re not just standing in a row waiting for the opposition to smack you with their weapons. It clearly highlights your movement tiles and what you can and cannot do at any given time.

 

Additionally, while you could see in the action what was going on in health matters, you are also shown through your character icons on the lower part of the screen. Nice large icons. Damage was displayed as a bar and as wound overlays, which was helpful in the heat of battle when I was busy. I could just glance down and see where everybody was and if they had any bonuses or status effects.

Tossups: 

There are only two classes. Warrior and Spell Caster. On one hand, this isn’t much of a choice. Playing RPGs, we’re more used to having several classes to choose from. Rogues, thieves, fighters, mages, tanks, etc and so on. It’s nice to have those options, nice to have a starting point. We go for the things we know and enjoy the most, and taking away those options can seem like truncating our enjoyment.

That said, with all the ways that AP can be doled out, “Warrior” isn’t really an appropriate class name for the character. The closest thing that you could get to the truth, though, would be “Non Magic-Wielder”, which isn’t very creative or fitting for a fantasy setting. It should be kept in mind that while you’re running around with the Warrior title, that’s not all you are.

It’s really just semantics.

It IS nice, however, that if you’re not a Spell Caster you really don’t have access to spells. There are a lot of games out there that will allow you to learn magic with some kind of disadvantage, or with a limited number of spells at your disposal. In this game, you just can’t do it. It was a pleasant change, to be forced to adhere to the decision I’d made.

The Bad:

I’m unsure of how much replay value the game has. It seems to be large enough to consume several days, if not weeks, but I didn’t get to see if there were many options that would actually change story. While that’s not absolutely necessary in most games, when you’re sinking the amount of time that normally goes into a RPG, you want variety. I wasn’t given conversation choices that impacted the way people saw me, and picking one topic did not erase the ability to go back to the others.

Another bad, and again it’s not the fault of the game, is that I wasn’t able to get very far. The story that I got to play was engaging and interesting, as well as intriguing. My character had no idea what was going on, which meant that my own confusion was justified. But I would have really really liked to get further. I would like to see how the story unfolds, how the truth comes to light, what I might learn. And what I might get to do.

Conclusion [7.5 out of 10]:

The princess is killed. I’m accused of being her killer, I’m imprisoned and then I break out with the aid of two other prisoners who are also criminals – though maybe just about as “criminal” as I am in reality. I make my way through guards and traps and finally get to a town where the princess is interred. I go to investigate and pay my respects, I fight through monsters in the cemetery to the princess’ tomb only to discover she’s not in the coffin AND IT SMELLS LIKE RUM.

Dun Dun duuuun.

The storytelling, the humor of this game, all of it made what I did get through an enjoyable experience. The fighting system was done very well and made sense and wasn’t frustrating at all. I was having a lot of fun, and would give this title another go in the future with another, more capable machine.