Blackguards 2

Did you like the Blackguards? There's more of the Dark Eye world, interesting story, characters, game mechanics, decisions... and hex tactical battles! This game is more tight and cohesive, has some great new ideas and improves on things that were criticised the most. And is easier. There are simplifications: gone are the character attributes, you can learn all the spells in the camp etc. Double-edged, yet understandable. But the game is short and you are reminded about it every time you look at the main map. The campaign takes place only on a quarter of the map of Blackguards 1. It is graphically the same map, so you can see the rest you'll never... see. You'll go to just a few cities and single city screens, with not much to do. The only exception is the camp and the last screen in Mengbilla, those are great. There are almost no side-quests. The story is fine, the first half is dense. However, in the second half not much is happening. All dialogs in the camp used up, not much to do on town screens, just cleaning the map. It picks up again only after attacking Mengbilla. The sense of adventure and feeling of urgency from B1 are subdued. There are some unnecessarily mean maps again (rain crystals, Adamant), doable, but frustratingly boring. However the rest is quite good, great even. New items (some that improve statistics can be put in the belt slot), weapons and armor, but I didn't need them that much. While in Blackguards 1 I've been extensively using almost every piece of armor I could lay my cursor on, and even bought new armor in shops, here there are entire sets I never used. New soundtrack is unobtrusive, but utterly forgettable. Unlike the marvellous tracks "King of Thieves" or "Green Hell" of the original. Fortunatelly, the original is used extensively in this game too. Ultimately, the game would benefit from another half a year of creating content and fine-tuning. Let's hope there are Blackguards 3, which will take the best from both installments.

The game inherited everything that made the Blackguard game good, keep it, and... that's it. The game is short compared to the first one, and very straight-forward on the map. Not much secret or side missions. it's offer some new aspects like interactive with your companions and prisoner, made choices that have consequences, new battlefields and some new kinds of tactic. But the game is too short for you to enjoy it. The game ending is kind of rushed too. That's a shame. Because the story, the soundtrack is very good, nice and totally worth your time playing it. I must say this game at least keep its pace for those who love Blackguard to enjoy this game too. Nice game, but leaves the urge to want more.

Many good thing went into this game: an interesting story, characters that are full of character despite being a bit too stereotypical, char continuation from the first game, excellent round protagonist, voice acting done well, well written dialogs with good humor at appropriate spots, art and graphics that I find beautifully fascinating, good RPG elements including a well suited char development and leveling system, good gameplay mechanics both in and out of battle, nice sense of exploration, battles are for brain-users and can be reversed by on wrong move or failed spell. There are a few hiccups, though. You cannot effectively explore the char dev system because you really should build the protagonist as a magic user yet the total amount of skill points for is insufficient to make a complete mage, thus limiting gameplay. Secondary char progression in unfulfilled. Only a few side quests. I did not use most of the interesting battle mechanics (playing the organs, mainly) because it took too much to get to them and simply doing damage was better. The progression is quite linear on the world map. There is an issue that made a comeback from the first game: a cheap difficulty spike at the end of the game. Without spoiling anything I can say that a challenge is good, but a forced intervention is a needless frustration that yanks out the fun. It should be noted that the game is rather short and feels like a narrowly focused single campaign. Furthermore, in the second half of the game the content runs out and there is not much to do but battle. Thumbs up to the devs for listening to the feedback and criticism made about the first game, and fixing the vast majority of it. Personally, I enjoyed the game and much like vonFreiwaldau before me, I too hope for a Blackguards 3, which will take the best from both installments.

There already are a couple of reviews talking about missed potential when it came to the story and use of its characters, which I agree with, so I'll cover something that hasn't been covered yet... I loved Blackguards 1. It was challenging and the character's stats meant something. Completing Blackguards 1 felt like completing a game - there were some frustrating moments as a result of a lack of care/concentration on my part, and many moments where a win felt hugely rewarding. This one seems like a response to an outcry of "the first game was too difficult and complicated!" by those who never bothered to read the PDF manual that came with the game. Thus, we end up with Blackguards 2 and its overly simplified character stats, which then means that the combat has moved across the plane in the direction of the "faceroll". For me, there isn't much need to think about what I'm doing anymore, and I find that super disappointing - it completely takes the challenge out of the game. At this point, as much as I like a tactical hex-grid combat system, I find it to be rather pointless in this game as it has lost the feel of requiring a good strategy to survive the battlefield. There isn't any need to stop and think about my next move, wonder how the opponent will respond, and go from there, so why bother? Basically, if you enjoyed the first Blackguards and still want a similar degree of challenge, just avoid this one.