‘Blackguards 2′ Review

Platforms PC, Mac

Developer Daedalic Entertainment   Publisher Daedalic Entertainment

Genre Strategy RPG   Platform Played On PC

Cassia of Tenos, the primary protagonist of Blackguards 2, begins the game in a rather unpleasant situation. As the curtain rises on Daedalic Entertainment’s sequel to last year’s Blackguards, Cassia is thrown into a labyrinthine dungeon filled with sacred and poisonous spiders called Corapias. Now would probably be a good time to mention that yes, Blackguards 2 is this grim and yes, it stays that way. It takes her four years, but Cassia manages to escape from the spider-filled dungeon. She emerges, deformed and mad (but surprisingly functional), and sets out on a mission to rule, even if it is only for a day. For this plan to succeed, she must gather allies and then conquer her way across a rather lengthy world map one battle at a time.

The story of Blackguards 2 primarily plays out between battles, when Cassia has the opportunity to speak with her companions in camp, but battles themselves often contain stories of their own. Since players advance based on the decisions they make on the world map, the game allows for some rather dynamic decision making. For example, when you take a city or stronghold you may capture someone who might know some useful bit of information. It is in your camp that you will have the chance to interrogate them and decide their fate. This in turn will change how the people of the realm view Cassia. Spare a prisoner’s life or refuse to spill innocent blood and Cassia will be hailed as a liberator; sentence a prisoner to death or engage in wholesale slaughter and Cassia will be viewed as a monstrous conqueror. The variety of options makes for a fairly high replay value as well as serves to make a very on the rails story feel like your own.

Story choices are not the only options players will get to make throughout Blackguards 2. Each character is a blank slate full of ability and talent options that players can mix and match at their whim. There is also a wide range of weapons and armor that can be earned from battles or purchased in cities. This wealth of choice works well in that it allows players the chance to build a team well suited to their play style, but the short tutorial offers very little in the way of explanation. It was not until I recruited Takate, a warrior who was also playable in Blackguards, that I realized that only certain characters are capable of learning magical abilities. Luckily, I was already choosing magical abilities for Cassia, who is one of the only characters able to cast spells.

Combat is the primary focus of Blackguards 2. As Cassia makes her way across the world map, she must fight for cities and strongholds. These battles are played out in a turn based style on a hexagonal grid map. The maps are well crafted and often provide players with the chance to use the environment against enemies. Unfortunately, the effects of some of the environmental objects are often unclear. I accidentally squashed my healer with a chandelier simply because it was unclear where exactly the object itself would land. The battles also tend to take a little longer than I expected, which is especially frustrating because the game will not allow you to save while in a battle. More than once I found myself playing on my phone or channel surfing while the computer took its many turns.

Ambiguity and tedious AI aside, the battle mechanics were easy to learn and adapt to. Attacks missed rarely (perhaps most frequently when I was already almost dead) and the magic animations were incredibly well done. Once I had the hang of the system, I found myself glued to my computer, completely set on beating ‘just one more’ map.

My biggest problems with Blackguards 2 were the almost game breaking bugs I encountered. I spent entirely too much time troubleshooting a bug that completely halted my progress at Adamant Fortress, and when the patch came out I somehow needed to reinstall my entire game. After I reinstalled, everything was fine, but it was not the best experience.

Overall I think Blackguards 2 is worth a look. There are a few bugs and the game is occasionally a bit more complicated than it would like to admit, but overall I had fun with it. If you are looking for a turn based strategy game where your decisions actually make an impact, this is definitely a title for you. If you want a bit more fast paced action, however, you might want to keep browsing.

The Good

  • Well-designed battle maps
  • Engaging gameworld and story
  • Dynamic characters

The Bad

  • A few frustrating glitches
  • Objectives are often vague 
  • Battles tend to be a bit tedious

The Score: 6.5