Blackguards - Play a criminal in this turnbased RPG, now on Early Access

[Fearabbit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CBGhGymP8Y

 

Official Website

 

Steam Page

 

So, anyone heard of Blackguards yet? No? Good, me neither, up until I saw an article by Rock, Paper, Shotgun a couple of minutes ago that said it was now out on Steam Early Access.

 

What is Blackguards? It's a turn-based tactical RPG set in the world of The Dark Eye (the most popular Pen and Paper RPG in Germany/Europe), Aventuria. It's made by Daedalic Entertainment, the developers of Chains of Satinav and Memoria (two adventure games set in the same world) and other adventure games like the Deponia series or the Edna & Harvey games. They've been very successful and popular within the adventure game genre, is what I'm saying.

Apparently, they now want to try out a new type of game.

 

It sounds very promising:

 

 

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?

 

Short version: Your character is a convicted murderer who must save the world, facing many moral choices along the way. And you won't be able to win the game by always being nice.

That sounds fresh and interesting. And in my opinion, the world of The Dark Eye is more interesting and more beautiful than the Forgotten Realms, so that's another plus. The screenshots are also great, even though I'm not a huge fan of all that fancy colorful magic (but it could be argued that any RPG can look like that if the screenshots are taken at the right time, so I don't know).

 

It's out on Steam Early Access, so it's still in development but apparently not too far from release.

My personal thoughts are mixed - it's an RPG by a company that mostly made adventure games so far. And while I loved those games, they were all a little too ambitious for their own good, and this looks to be one of the most ambitious games they ever made.

 

So, what are your thoughts? Are you interested? Is anyone already playing this?

 

 

Couple of screenshots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2013 by Fearabbit

[Elerond]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPywn2cHcYM[/media]

Edited November 8, 2013 by Elerond

[Bester]

How much does it pay, Fearabbit?

[Tale]

Playing both Memoria and Goodbye Deponia this year, loving them both, has turned me into a minor Daedalic fanboy. I want this to be great, but am unwilling to follow an episodic release schedule of their early release.

[Fearabbit]

How much does it pay, Fearabbit?

 

Er, I hope you're asking me how much it costs and not how much I get for promoting this game or something like that. Because I get nothing and I'm just excited about this (and skeptical, like I said) and want people to know about it.

 

Here's the Steam page for it.

 

Thanks for the video, Elerond!

Edited November 8, 2013 by Fearabbit

[Hurlshort]

 

How much does it pay, Fearabbit?

 

Er, I hope you're asking me how much it costs and not how much I get for promoting this game or something like that. Because I get nothing and I'm just excited about this (and skeptical, like I said) and want people to know about it.

 

 

You seem like a pretty regular poster somewhere, but Bester has a point about the tone of your post.  It starts out with:

 

 

 

So, anyone heard of Blackguards yet? No? Good, me neither, up until I saw an article by Rock, Paper, Shotgun a couple of minutes ago that said it was now out on Steam Early Access.

 

But then you go on to heap lavish praise about it, which doesn't really add up.  I don't really believe you just found out about it a few minutes before you made this thread.  

 

Don't get me wrong, the game sounds interesting and I've been keeping an eye on it myself, but your post does come across as a dishonest sales pitch. 

[Nonek]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPywn2cHcYM[/media]

 

Please post an appropriate warning when a link leads to the castrati warblings of landwhales sir, they're hardly palatable at the best of times.

 

Edit: Looks very interesting, will buy the full game once released I think, thoroughly enjoyed Drakensang.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Nonek

[Fearabbit]

 

But then you go on to heap lavish praise about it, which doesn't really add up.  I don't really believe you just found out about it a few minutes before you made this thread.  

 

Don't get me wrong, the game sounds interesting and I've been keeping an eye on it myself, but your post does come across as a dishonest sales pitch. 

 

 

 

No, that's what I sound like when I'm excited about something. And I think my post was way too rambling to be considered a sales pitch. ^^ I mean, all I'm saying is "it sounds promising, the developers are well-known and the world this game is set in is actually the most popular PnP game world in Germany/Europe".

I also say that I have mixed feelings - I want to be hyped, but I know that these developers are sometimes a bit too ambitious for their own good. And I say that I'm sceptical because they've only made adventure games before.

 

Basically, I'm not seeing the dishonest sales pitch thing going on. Maybe you were confused because most of my praise is actually concerning the world of The Dark Eye, which, yes, I knew about for longer than a couple of minutes. Like I said, it's the biggest PnP RPG in Germany and I've played that and I've played the adventure games (by the same developers) and liked those as well as their take on the setting.

[Hurlshort]

I've never heard of Dark Eye, so I concede that it could be your praise of the IP that threw me off.  

[ShadySands]

Looks interesting

 

I may pick it up when it is finished. Not a fan of early access

[Tale]

I've never heard of Dark Eye, so I concede that it could be your praise of the IP that threw me off.  

Drakensang, Chains of Satinav, Memoria, Realms of Arkania

[Hurlshort]

 

I've never heard of Dark Eye, so I concede that it could be your praise of the IP that threw me off.  

Drakensang, Chains of Satinav, Memoria, Realms of Arkania

 

 

Sorry, I don't wear cologne.  

[Keyrock]

I don't have time to watch a 25 minute video right now (I will later).  Does this play like HoMM or King's Bounty, or is it more like a traditional RPG, just with hex grid?

[Fearabbit]

It seems to be composed entirely out of "battle maps". There doesn't seem to be a big exploration aspect to it.

The battles look like they play like a traditional party-based RPG, but it's certainly strange to always be in combat mode. I don't know if I can get used to that.

[rjshae]

I definitely like the turn-based combat with the hex maps, and what I've read of the companions sounds pretty interesting. It's a game I'm looking forward to playing, once it reaches patch maturity.

[Labadal]

I definitely like the turn-based combat with the hex maps, and what I've read of the companions sounds pretty interesting. It's a game I'm looking forward to playing, once it reaches patch maturity.

Same, I'll buy sometime when the full release is out.

[HoonDing]

I hope it's not about saving the world. I just founded a new Church of Borbarad, battled an Arch-Demon and blew up a Limbus Gate in Demonicon. And in first Drakensang I swapped Ardacor with Umbracor.

 

I'd like a more low-key, personal storyline like Drakensang: River of Time.

 

I can't think of any new credible world threat. Maybe a conspiracy centering around Despots of Despiona trying to bring back Pyrdacor.

[Orogun01]

I hope it's not about saving the world. I just founded a new Church of Borbarad, battled an Arch-Demon and blew up a Limbus Gate in Demonicon. And in first Drakensang I swapped Ardacor with Umbracor.

 

I'd like a more low-key, personal storyline like Drakensang: River of Time.

 

I can't think of any new credible world threat. Maybe a conspiracy centering around Despots of Despiona trying to bring back Pyrdacor.

You didn't sleep with your sister? What is wrong with you?

 

On the subject, I had this game on my radar ever since I've heard that CRPGs were making a comeback. Hopefully the combat will play better than Expeditions.

[Crooked Bee]

RPG Codex preview (pretty detailed and highly positive): http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9232

 

 

Darth Roxor: Blackguards' combat impressed me greatly when I played the beta/early access versions of the game. There were two reasons for that:

 

1. The fact that the combat was any good, because I totally expected the whole game to suffer from the typical “non-RPG company’s first RPG!” syndrome, where the biggest focus would be placed on aspects such as the narrative, while largely ignoring or streamlining the combat system to near-minigame status.

 

2. The fact that the combat was so damn good. There aren't many games out there where almost every fight feels unique, challenging and genuinely fun, and Blackguards manages to actually fit into this category. [...]

 

Felipe: I’d say it’s precisely Daedalic's adventure game background that allows for such fresh and unorthodox battle design, adding puzzle-like elements such as the previously mentioned crocodile trap, moving cranes, mazes and other such things to the game's battles. Hell, I had to capture a rampaging gorilla with a cage on a crane during a rather amusing side-quest. The inclusion of a gladiator arena in Chapter 2 seems tailor-made for allowing for more “creative” battlefields without clashing with the setting, and I was glad to see that Chapter 3 provided extra optional fights in the arena for even more challenging fun. [...]

 

Roxor: Blackguards surprised me many times when I played it. In fact, the game was the complete opposite of what I expected – I assumed it would have been at best an RPG-lite, more of an adventure game with stats, with plenty of dialogue, puzzle-solving and a very advanced narrative. Instead, the combat system turned out to be great, but the narrative part disappointed me, or at least the parts of the narrative that I saw. The main plot seems to be an unexciting mess, the way it progresses makes little sense, and the whole “bunch of criminals” aspect is underplayed.

 

Felipe: True, it strikes me as odd how the game is constantly being marketed as a “dark story”, in which you play as a convicted murder, testing your moral compass and all that. The first 10 minutes of the game have you being unjustly arrested, and after a short while your group of fugitives is acting just like any other RPG party, helping out random people, and even attacking slavers without any really good reason besides “slavers are bad”. Some of your party members (especially Takate) seem to have no reason to even follow you other than the fact that you’re the main character in a game.

 

Roxor: This is a shame, because at this point in development “fixing” any combat and mechanics flaws is the only possible thing Daedalic can do, as the narrative is pretty much set in stone. But to be honest? I don’t care. I swear, I haven’t had this much fun whacking enemies in turn-based combat since Knights of the Chalice [...]

 

 

[Llyranor]

Hmm, that's pretty high praise for the combat given it's the Codex. Party-based turn-based? Oh boy!

 

One of you crappers take one for the team and try it.

[Llyranor]

Take one for the team, crappers!