Blackguards Reviews
Blackguards is a wonderful tactics game with some rough edges. The core gameplay and character progression elements are easily some of the best in the genre, but as battles tend to drag on and more and more enemies scream "owAUGH," the interest tends to fade. The story is easy enough to follow and interesting enough to keep players interested, so fantasy buffs should feel engaged the entire time. Even if the sound effects weren't satisfying, the gameplay itself more than made up for that, and it's easy to see that Daedalic Entertainment has a bright future ahead of them in the strategy sphere.
If you're looking for a turn-based strategy game with brutal combat, and you're into managing resources for a team of characters, Blackguards is just what you're looking for. It's a gorgeous game with memorable battles. But because the game's focus is obviously on combat, no matter how pretty the towns are, they feel like backdrops for your character sheets and inventory.
Masochistic stat-chasers will find much to enjoy, but Blackguards' varied combat is no substitute for a fully-formed RPG.
Blackguards is a nice change of pace from the Deadelic. The story is well told, if a little bit clichéd, and the slightly sub-par visuals are off-set by the interesting and addictive gameplay. It does suffer from a common strategy game issue, whereby if you fail at something, it can be hard to motivate yourself to spend another hour doing it all over again straight away. Play it in short bursts, however, and you could find yourself spending many an intriguing hour in Blackguard's universe.
Great graphics, huge, varied and interactive battlegrounds and a quasi-intriguing story are drastically hampered by shoddy RPG systems, flawed combat and terrible customisation. There's a fairly good game here hidden underneath a mountain of broken gameplay mechanics.
What it all comes down to is this: if you enjoy your RPGs as challenging as possible without being so difficult they are impossible, then Blackguards was made especially for you. If you have the patience to work hard at finding the correct strategy to win each battle and enjoy obsessing over character builds, you may have just found the gaming equivalent of the Holy Grail.
Overall, Blackguards is a fun, tactical time waster with a throwaway fantasy RPG plot that does nothing new.
If you enjoy the Dark Eye Pencil and Paper game, then you will most assuredly enjoy this game. If you are role playing gamer…you will find a lot to like here. With a well-established gaming universe to pull from Blackguards does the Strategy RPG world proud.
There is certainly potential beneath the many unrefined and unpolished layers, but Blackguards does not feel worth playing in its current state. Outside of the combat the game fails to impress in any way and often frustration at the user interface, the loading times or the embarrassingly jerky cutscenes drive the player away.
For the most part Blackguards is a pretty enjoyable and engaging time, but there are significant areas that hold it back.
There's nothing special or individual; everything is complete, but nothing more.
January had quite a surprising amount of turn based strategy RPG's release and despite its slight flaws Blackguards is definitely one you should play.
Loading times and voice acting drag down a decent title.
Be in no doubt that this game is tough to play, and - in places - with see you reloading over and over and again as you figure out the solution to some of the more complex encounters. There's a significant amount of gameplay hours and multiple endings, which is reflected in the price, but I would argue that it represents value for money if you like turn based tactical combat.
Blackguards is a strong RPG with top-notch tactical combat that's let down by some needless complexity and less-than-convincing voice-acting.
Blackguards is not not being recommended. In fact, it is being recommended. However, it is only being recommended to the right people. Those people are the true hardcore RPG fanatics - people who will put up with sadistic combat scenarios that will cause most other gamers to quit and load up something a little less painful.
It was rather fun to play a turn-based tactical RPG in this style, but I wish it had just a bit more life to it and not feel so stiff. Don't get me wrong – it is still very enjoyable, I just wish it had a bit more to it. If you're a fan of games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Tactics, and similar games, I would say that Blackguards is definitely worth checking out!
Though I feel incapable of giving Blackguards the fair shake it would get with fresh eyes, that's ultimately nobody's fault but the developer's. Early access works for emergent play – games like Rust and Starbound where no play session is the same and every update changes the dynamics – but it's ill-suited to more linear, directed experiences.
Except for its muddled progression system, tactical RPG Blackguards gets a lot of things right.
A sort of diamond in the rough perhaps, in that Daedalic did a fine job with many aspects of Blackguards, yet a handful of problems, certainly some more crucial than others, and yet all patchable, keep the overall experience stunted.