Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Blackguards

[cherry blossom]

A very satisfying and informative read. Darth Roxor has come a long way from his early redundant opinion pieces and the feedback from felipepepe adds a lot. I have avoided reading most of the newsposts and threads about this game so I knew practically nothing worth a damn about it. Now I leave quite informed, knowing what to expect and interested. Previously, I was thinking "hmm, looks mildly interesting, will probably wait for a steep discount". I won't wait, now.

 

[MicoSelva]

Nice review, bros. The game's definitely on my to-play list, although seeing as it takes 30+ hours, not in the near future.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Most other encounters are "Kill everyone on the map".

And what the hell else would you want? "Go dance a jig"?

 

[felipepepe]

Yeah, just what RPG you played that gives more variety in how encounters play than Blackguards?

 

[felipepepe]

Well, it IS a combat-oriented game... they already have more "unique" combats than any other RPG, more of that and you're playing a RPG wishing for a Adventure game.

Even in P&P, where the sky is the limit, combay is usually killing stuff... even for a matter of pacing; make every encounter "special" and you'll have players tired of "special" and wishing for a goblin to kill.

 

[Severian Silk]

As to the inquiry, what kind of encounters can be better, well, the sky is the limit, isn't it?

Only HHR! is permitted evade questions like that. Are you HHR!? No, sir, you are not. I am dissapoint.

 

[circ]

Into chapter 2 you notice that there isn't anything else to the game except the battles. And considering this uses some old Dark Eye ruleset, it gets pe-retty boring.

Positives - music isn't half bad.

Some additional negatives - looks pe-retty bad for something that takes a whopping 18 gigs of space - almost more than my Skyrim install after mods. Did they compress a single thing?
Hardly any customization for your character and no race choices. Weird lag in some cutscenes. Really, really, reeeally bad voice acting. Pretty clunky as hell UI. Completely lost interest in the story - and shit's on rails. How can loading new assets take so long when said assets look like ass-wipe? - it's not eons or anything but enough to make you wonder. Can't rotate battlefield either - surprised they even bothered adding horizontal rotation.

Eh so, if you're just going to concentrate on the combat engine and half-ass away on the rest of the game atleast play ToEE and try to emulate that combat 'k?

Mediocre suck. Flame all you want fanbois.

 

[Darth Roxor]

circ's eternal search for a good game continues

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I have never seen a game that feels as much like insipid generic fantasy, it's really a giant turn off.

 

[circ]

Iunno, got no complaints about setting.

But oh boy as if endless combat in gladiator arena wasn't fun enough, you have to start over when the lice queen decides to start eating the chick with the wooden helmet, and Niam was a pretty good asset. No thanks ma'am.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Can I submit another review?

sure.

 

[Eyeball]

Trying to work my way through this in a more serious attempt now. It absolutely and definitely is an adventure or puzzle game posing as an RPG. Up to the "rescue Baroness McGuffin" fight now. There is a very specific solution to rescuing her in time. This does not require strategy, it involves solving the puzzle. And if you fail even a single attack or spell roll, that's it, you fail. This is NOT good RPG design.

Impression still unfavourable.

 

[Haba]

This does not require strategy, it involves solving the puzzle. And if you fail even a single attack or spell roll, that's it, you fail. This is NOT good RPG design.

Bullshit. There is plenty of leeway.

Not to mention that it is a completely optional fight. You can fail it.

That's good RPG design.

 

[Eyeball]

Yeah, that's true and I agree with it being optional is a good thing. It is still a puzzle though, of the kind that I dislike: seeing as you have very low skills at that point in the game, you more or less need successes on all your skill checks to succeed in rescuing the baroness due to the short time limit. Several of the other battles worked the same way and I hope for this to become less obvious further into the game.

Managed to rescue her on like my 5th go, but only because I'd "solved" it by then.

I DO like it when the battles troll you, though: the stalactites falling on my main character killing her outright in the cave fight was hilarious. Didn't notice the dripping water markers until it was too late.

 

[Mystary!]

What do skillchecks have to do with it? All you need to do is cross the bridge, use one character to bumrush it, ignore everyone else until you cross.

 

[Eyeball]

In my case, fail to cast spell to clear barrels on turn 1 = baroness hangs.

 

[Markman]

So? Fail the quest. You lose 50 AP I think. Not the end of the world. I can imagine the anxiety when you get the twins sidequest, holy shit. OMG gaem not fair

 

[agris]

Good review felipepepe and Darth Roxor.

 

[hpstg]

Good review felipepepe and Darth Roxor.

 

[Agame]

Worth playing? Never even looked into this one.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Worth playing? Never even looked into this one.

gee i dunno it's like you're posting in a thread dedicated to a revio discussing whether it's worth playing who can say for sure

 

[Lyre Mors]

As the review suggests, Agame, Blackguards is absolutely worth playing. It's an excellent tactical RPG.

 

[Agame]

gee i dunno it's like you're posting in a thread dedicated to a revio discussing whether it's worth playing who can say for sure

But teh redding is hard