Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Blackguards

[ricolikesrice]

but the amount of non-adjustable bloom splurged all over everything is simply ridiculous at times

i absolutely loathed the bloom as well but you CAN adjust it - under options set the "Post FX" setting to "low" and the game imho looks much, MUCH better to the point where i wonder whether daedalic was on drugs by not making this the standard setting.

....not sure if i d have endured the bloom eye-raping if i didnt stumble over someone recommending this in the steam forums.

otherwise nice review. would love if daedalic made something like blade of destiny / star trail (except set in TDEs south setting like blackguards) with that combat. full party creation. travel system / overland gameplay. fap fap fap.

 

[Minttunator]

Great review! You guys managed to point out, I think, every single annoyance that I also had with the game while remaining positive overall - an assessment which I share, I enjoyed Blackguards very much.

With regards to the amount of bloom that was mentioned in the review and also by some of the posts in this thread, you can actually turn it down via the "Post FX" setting (making the game look much better, in my opinion). Turn that setting to "low" and you go from this:

...to this:

Edit: damn it, ninja-ed!

 

[Darth Roxor]

i absolutely loathed the bloom as well but you CAN adjust it - under options set the "Post FX" setting to "low" and the game imho looks much, MUCH better to the point where i wonder whether daedalic was on drugs by not making this the standard setting.

That is actually very weird because I am SURE I checked the options menu like 10 times for a bloom disabler, but could never find it

fkn alzheimer's

Funnily enough, a sentence I edited out of the original draft was Roxor claiming that it is NOT a gimmick.

Which now puzzles me (hohoho) why you removed it, in fact.

 

[HiddenX]

Very good first CRPG from Daedalic Entertainment.
If you like entertaining combat, you'll like this game.
What I really enjoy is that Daedalic implements some new game concepts into Blackguards.
Most of them work. This is one of the very few games in recent times that I would describe as challenging.

I hope we'll see more from Daedalic in the near future - Thanks for the review!

PS:
Buy this game.

 

[crawlkill]

Since every encounter happens in a unique arena specifically designed for it, the developers had the freedom to play with various things. There are holes that spawn enemies, time limits, movable and destructible objects, healing orbs, falling chandeliers, mechanical blades, flying dragons, falling stalactites, rotating fire traps, swamp gas, giant tentacles, mind-controlling plants, draw bridges, collapsing passageways, a giant cage on a crane… there is not a single RPG out there that offers so many interesting things to do during combat. Honestly, Blackguards is a lesson in encounter design that every RPG player AND developer should experience, to see what a creative team can do when thinking outside of the genre's standard templates. Daedalic even had the guts to make skeletons properly immune to arrows and swords, as they should be.

Read the article in full: RPG Codex Review: Blackguards

it's one of those things I learned from MMO raid design and apply on the rare occasion I run combatty tabletop games. there's no excuse for an encounter that's just "three goblins," and having two encounters that are just "three goblins and then six goblins" is a hanging offense. when you don't have a special effects department, in particular, you can make every encounter unique. design monsters you fit into one little corner of the world and never use again. make every battleground interactive. change up the way numbers move around. it's one of the great failures of a lot of games, how samey and hence bloaty their combats become. glad to hear Blackguard avoids that. I quit it very early on because I didn't like the way the beginning-game exposition was delivered, which probably wasn't fair of me. I'll have to try it again some time.

it gives me a sad, but I feel like even in these German-developed games you get better voicework and at least equal scripts in the English localization. I'm always excited to go play something in the original and then get turned off rapidly by the whiny actors. I think the only game I've ever found more charmingly localized in German than in English was the rework of Witcher 1, where Geralt just sounded constantly exhausted by the childish people demanding he kill all the wildlife. they ditched that voiceactor in the German version of the sequel, sadly.

 

[Roguey]

I'm pretty sure I could slice off one of my own limbs or puncture my skull with sharp enough blades and enough force.

And I'm pretty sure that bones can't move without muscles. That's why puncturing does nothing, they have to be crushed to a point where even magic can't make them whole again.

Punch through joints.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Great job, Roxor and Felipepepepepe.

Can't wait to try this game once I have the hard drive space.

 

[HiddenX]

Nice interview at www.rpgfrance.com with english translation:

Does the Blackguards experience encourage you to continue in the RPG route or do you prefer to return to the Point 'n Click genre. Which type of them is the easiest to develop according to you?

It encouraged us a lot due to the fact that our first step into this genre turned out to be a excellent decision. In general we are eager to work on new RPGs and the whole team learned a lot during the past few years and there are a lot of ideas, new techniques that build during this time. Our dream is to work on different types of RPGs. In regards to the level of difficulty in comparison of developing Adventure and RPG games this is not a question as easy as it seems to be to answer. On the one hand, RPGs seem to be more complex with a lot more variables which is true for sure, on the other hand, adventure games need to have a more limited amount of locations, but you need to archive the same depth in gameplay and atmosphere as in an 80 hours of gameplay time RPG. So, after our experience with Blackguards, I think they are somewhat on par, but challenges are different.

 

[LivingOne]

IIRC skeletons are only immune to piercing damage, not slashing damage (swords).

Or maybe it was because I was using swords with magic/infantry damage.

Nope,I remember the same.Actually,I don't think they're totally immune to piercing either since I think I remember to have dealt them a couple of point of damage with Takate in some side quest I was meant to do earlier but missed.

 

[Galdred]

Thats an oxymoron. I can only accept that as your personal reaction. Nothing more. Since it isnt anything more.

yes, nice call, my opinion is an opinion indeed. Unlike other games like Fallout 3, where the discrepancies between the setting and the dialogues made me leave the game, the plot of Blakguards has been much less of a problem to stomach for me than its interface.
Concerning skeletons, I definitely used slashing weapons without problem against them. I have not tried arrows or piercing melee weapons on them.

 

[felipepepe]

IIRC skeletons are only immune to piercing damage, not slashing damage (swords).
Or maybe it was because I was using swords with magic/infantry damage.

Nope,I remember the same.Actually,I don't think they're totally immune to piercing either since I think I remember to have dealt them a couple of point of damage with Takate in some side quest I was meant to do earlier but missed.

I remenber entering crypt with a dagger, a bow and a mace, and only the mace doing damage. Are you guys playing on Hard?

 

[Minttunator]

IIRC skeletons are only immune to piercing damage, not slashing damage (swords).

Or maybe it was because I was using swords with magic/infantry damage.

Nope,I remember the same.Actually,I don't think they're totally immune to piercing either since I think I remember to have dealt them a couple of point of damage with Takate in some side quest I was meant to do earlier but missed.

Perhaps you were using the 9-piece spear with Takate? That one does infantry damage, which works very well on skellies (as well as everything else).

 

[Darth Roxor]

Skellingtons are immune to piercing but only have a high resistance to slashing.

 

[LivingOne]

I remenber entering crypt with a dagger, a bow and a mace, and only the mace doing damage. Are you guys playing on Hard?

Perhaps you were using the 9-piece spear with Takate? That one does infantry damage, which works very well on skellies (as well as everything else).

nope,i think it was the djadra.difficulty was normal.as i said though they were just a couple of points of damage to skellies that were severly undereleveld.
could be misremembering though.

 

[DefJam101]

Nice review, Darth.

 

[Ninjerk]

Game looks kick ass.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well, looks like another to add to my list of need to plays.
Good thing I already own it based on the codex preview.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Great review guys; very fair and balanced. I am enjoying it quite a bit.

 

[crawlkill]

With regards to the amount of bloom that was mentioned in the review and also by some of the posts in this thread, you can actually turn it down via the "Post FX" setting (making the game look much better, in my opinion).

I know we're all supposed to hate how overused bloom is, but I live in a desert and on some days you really do get light that seems gloriously radiantly red-orange-yellow like that in the afternoon. when I looked at that first picture I almost felt blistering summer days. the second reminded me of Assassin's Creed 1, with its browner deserts. totally personal taste, of course, but in this case, I'd excuse the bloom, myself.

 

[Applypoison]

lack of proper documentation is completely inexcusable for a CRPG.

I don't disagree it can be irritating, considering I help maintain a wiki dedicated to a game where neither the manual nor the devs will tell you half of what you'd like to know.

I'm just saying, when the alternative is often spoonfeeding the player everything from the getgo... IMO the best RPGs always leave plenty of stuff for the player to figure out. Whether this "lack" of information is frustrating or not... that's up to how the learning curve is designed and presented.

 

[felipepepe]

The point is, Blackguards tutorial spoonfeeds you on mostly everything, but the details that min-maxer need to know are nowhere to be found.

 

[Western]

The point is, Blackguards tutorial spoonfeeds you on mostly everything, but the details that min-maxer need to know are nowhere to be found.

Is that on purpose, do they have something against min-maxing?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Eh, you don't want to just break the game in half, you want it to tell you how right from the tutorial? It's not like rpgs need to be any easier than they already are.

 

[Excidium]

It's not spoonfeeding, it's describing how shit actually works in your garbage of a system so they player can make informed choices instead of relying on trial and error

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

It's not spoonfeeding, it's describng how shit actually works in your garbage of a system so they player can make informed choices

They are addressing some of these things in 1.3 apparently. They are listening and want to improve, how about we allow them to cut their teeth eh? Anyhow, It's very far from a garbage system by any measure. Someone liking TB tactical combat will like this game and its complex systems. If there was no depth or complexity, nobody would be asking for more feedback and documentation.