Blackguards

Blackguards
68
Metacritic
63
Steam
73.588
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$0.99
Release date
22 January 2014
Steam reviews score
Total
63 (2 740 votes)
Recent
50 (10 votes)

What happens when the only hope of a threatened world lies not with heroes in shining armor, but in the hands of a band of misfits and criminals? Blackguards, a new turn-based strategy RPG, explores this very question. You will discover over 180 unique hex-based battlegrounds within a dark and mature story of crime, drugs, and murder.

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Blackguards system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 (32/64 bits versions)
  • Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: nVidia GeForce 8600 GT, ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 20 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card with Latest Drivers
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saargoga
saargoga

I played this game more than two times and even tried liking this game, but in the end it let me down in game-play.

Trouble-
-Not strong story but the quests make it weaker and at times for a hack and slasher the boss were unreasonably tough stopping progress.
-in gladiator fights of chapter 2 this game came out very bad in game-play, after every fight you can not refresh your magicians keeping it unnecessary tough even in easy game mode.
-many fights are inconsistent with bosses being unnaturally difficult to very easy fights and problem was that the upgrades don't seem to help you out in every fight either
-inconsistencies in fights, as you can loose a fight couple of times times but with luck you can win that fight very easily sometimes.

I gave enough time for me to get over inconsistencies in game play but in the end I gave up.

Csabalogh
Csabalogh

Cool story, that is leading you through the various battlemaps, where sometimes especially intriguing solutions are required. Even the normal difficulty can be challenging, and it is worth to take care of the expenses. You'll need more gold for the healing potions probably than for an armor.

AutoXtacy
AutoXtacy

I've used this product for 42 hours. Interesting system - character creation and combat but this title feels bare bones. Feels beta still, like it got a great start but has maybe 10% of the content it should. Trainers are almost useless. They might train a single ability. Maybe because I'm use to titles like Diablo 3, Path of Exile, Assassin's creed Valhalla, Odyssey, Origins, etc. These titles have a lot of content and their worlds are robust. This title doesn't feel robust and its far to linear. I really enjoyed the stats system, the way you could use a slider with your weapons to use them for defensively or offensively in increments. I found this a lot of fun and worthwhile to use and have never seen it in other titles. Loved the dialogue in the conversations. It felt real, legit, as if the people were being honest and their banter was worthwhile to listen to. Loved the voices in the conversations. The conversations weren't dry or dead but I wanted to see what everyone was going to say. So many titles are the same old boring conversations. This story was interesting!

The combat I found to be very limited and a bit too slow paced - again maybe because I am use too action rpgs. The number of spells was far too limited and I found my options in combat to be very one dimensional. OH! Combat - fireball - fireball - fireball - flame burst - flame burst - flame burst - toss in the ice ray and the magic missile and that was a casters grand list of options. Sure a few buffs and debuffs, some heals, and cleansers but done! It would all easily fit inside a single spell book and there for left no reason to search the "world" for more power.

I would have liked to see the weapon defense/offense sliders also adjust damage. Seems to me that if someone is fighting more defensively that they would do less damage and not just in misses because of a lower attack. Perhaps a 3:1, 4:1, 5:1 ratio of attack increase to added damage. The current system gave you more attack and parry (a single parry each round) and it ran out of steam fast. I didnt need all the attack I had, there was no added incentives to add more attack, so I used more defense and found that very limited because of the combat system.

Some good. Some bad. But all in all this title feels unfinished and VERY limited in combat so much that after a few dozen hours its losing its interest to the player. I see the limitations and it becomes dull. The growth that is presented to the player is too limited and thus becomes devalued, poor incentive, undesirable. All of which doesnt encourage further play but led me to find something else to place my interest.

This title has some good things and some shortcomings.I wouldnt recommend it because I found it too unfinished, unrefined, lacking, and that is why I called it a beta.

Rutagur
Rutagur

Game's not difficult if you're used to turn based games such as these. As for the story, I'm not really sure what happened even after beating the game...

Also, several achievements are bugged so you can't get them so don't get this game thinking you can get 100% achievements.

Chanted
Chanted

If you dong mind restarting the game when its crashing, i would say give it a go, play on hard and expect to suffer til u figure out the mechanics. Great dialogues tho.

Jaosky
Jaosky

OK I changed my review as I manage to get it to run. Have to compatibility mode it to Windows 7 but still there are some crashing issues and manage to finally finish this game.

I say this as a casual in Tactical game this is an alright game. Characters are likeable enough for me.
In terrms of gameplay there are features in old tactical game that are absent here and makes the game really slow and frustrating.

OK the last tactical game I have played is Vandal Hearts 2 but I can safely say that game is way better than this one and its an older game.
In VH2 your character can go through other allies occupied space and the latter will just side step in the way in Blackguards you can't do that.
You also can't use range spells or missiles if your allies in the way of Line of sight if I remember correctly VH2 doesn't have that you can shoot enemies even if your ally is in the line of sight.
Other thing is in VH2 moving and attacking are separate, what I mean is you can move then attack but you can also attack and then move which is really good. In Blackguards once you attack that character's turn is done you can't move and I find it makes the game really tedious and slow.

When it comes to battles at least Blackguards have some redeeming aspects, there are some varieties like go from point A to point B doesn't matter if you don't kill all the enemies. And when say one of your ally get knockdowned you can just leave him and just continue to point B and once all the surviving characters get to it it's mission accomplish that is good.
Some missions are like rescuing people. or getting some stuff and escaping which really mix up the battle in a good way.
There are missions though that are so mindlessly designed to be frustrating just to spite the players. I remember 2 of them. One is in the arena where you go in this maze like area full of neverending lice enemies unless you cover their nest hole. They put a lot of single hex area so just look up what I said on the QoL of VH2 vs Blackguard as it can really show the glaring issues. Same as the Neetha graveyard there are single hex lane with infinite enemy ghouls. Those 2 missions make me pissed as those battles are not really hard just tedious and frustrating in a very bad way and most likely your game will crash anyway and I won't waste my time.

Anyway I give this game a small thumbs up, its short alright game but don't give such high expectation if you give this a chance.

The Krozzus
The Krozzus

There are issues with the game freezing and dying documented since 2014. They have not been fixed, they will not be fixed. And community solutions only work sometimes.

it doesnt matter what this game is like, there is a good chance you won't ever be able to properly play it without crashing in the middle of a battle you sat in for far too long.

Descartes
Descartes

Honestly tried to like it, but it just isn't fun. The game has potential. The world design is quite good. However, the biggest problem is that it has too much 'breadth' and not enough 'depth'. There are too many towns that have 2 or 3 NPCs. The loading screen feels like a recurring phantom. This is all amidst frequent crashes during combat, which makes it worse. The story is lackluster, the gameplay is mediocre. There are plenty of better CRPGs out there, with actual *role playing*. This is not a true role playing game since there really isn't much of a character choice other than the superficial combat builds that don't really do much to distinguish the characters.

The game crashes a LOT. It's a glitch fest.

Santiago
Santiago

The story is good, the atmosphere is quite good, but it is a very boring game in terms of gameplay.

Slappy White
Slappy White

Diamond in the rough! I really grew to love this RPG. Battles are fantastic and devious. Plot is almost amazing, with a few unsatisfying parts, sometimes meanders and gets confusing. The characters themselves are some likeable, quirky bastards. Long game, lots of content. Character leveling is confusing at first, but very custom and tweakable. Magic is one of the best parts of the game, all sorts of spells with very intresting effects. You can make a shadow duplicate of yourself, do all kinds of fire damage, create impassible barriers, pretty great stuff. love all the traps and interactions with the battlefield environment. Lots of fights you can't win straight up, you have to get creative with spells and the battlefield itself. trap the monster in a cage, THEN kill it. Difficulty is high in most battles, very easy in some. Buy the second game too

UnwantedTrouble
UnwantedTrouble

this game is too rgn based...so much that it runs the fun.stay away from this and you will be sane

CthulhuTactical
CthulhuTactical

Sadly i have to give the game negative review. The game starts up nicely, with good pacing and a mystery murder plot. The first fights are easy, and introduce you to the tactical part of the game. As the story progresses so do your characters, gaining AP that you can spend on many skills. Skills are generally balanced, with some unbalanced spells and abilities. Cities are very generic, and graphically speaking the game is really unimpressive -it's Unity engine after all. Music is allright, with few tracks being really good, like the main theme. The gameplay loop consists of battles->loot and money->buy better armor, find unique weapons->quest->repeat again. At 2/3 of the game i already become bored, because the battles were often similar, similar enemies and you basically max your abilities and spells. So you repeat the same tactics over and over again.This is main reason why i gave negative review -i was forcing myself to end the game, because of this drag. The plot has holes everywhere, just to push the narrative, often with 180 turn. Voice acting is good, for this kind of budget game.
Speaking of running the game -the game freezes constantly, unless you add "-d3d9 -force-gfx-direct" to startup options. And then it stutters when cutscenes appear, or enemies.

Overall it's a 6/10 maybe 6+ game, it's decent but nothing special. If you are bored, give this one a shot.

IcyCold100Degrees
IcyCold100Degrees

In short super hard even on normal difficulty but I loved every moment of it. A lot is offered here in the character creation section and maybe it can become really confusing to people who try it for the first time and have no patience to continue.

A lot of people complained that it's a boring/difficult/soulless game but I think such whiners are better off playing CoD or some other games where they barely have anything challenging to deal with. Storywise the game is also okay nothing great but nothing bad either. But What makes the story interesting is the interactions that these party members they have amongst themselves. Really really enjoyed it(Unfortunately the same level of interaction is almost absent in Blackguards 2).

Yes, the game can be punishingly difficult at times but to beat this game is not something which isn't possible. And right now at this price it's definitely a buy.

I hope someday I get to see another Blackguards game in future. My fingers are just crossed.

TO DEVS: Don't give up bros. We love Blackguards. You guys did a fantastic job in developing this game.

Richie Radix
Richie Radix

Only one in five players even makes it to chapter 3, because there is no guidance on how to spend adventure points, and only one incredibly specific skill set gives you even a chance of winning. Oh, and you'll need a lot of potions to survive, each of which costs twice as much gold as you win fighting a single battle.

IoannisMar
IoannisMar

Totally worthed the 1,5 euros that i got it from sale...i didn't expected that a game that requires so low spec computer to be so fun
(usually the fun games require like 8 or 16G of ram and some Ryzen latest series and 8G of GDDR5 at least graphics card but this game put all the fun within a tiny spec)

I very highly recommend it for the price i got it++

Danthrax
Danthrax

Just an absolute waste of time. The tutorial is worthless. You're given missions way beyond your skill set that I assume you're supposed to come back to later, but if that's the case, the game seems to be one long list of things you're supposed to do later, because I don't know which fights these incompetent idiots are supposed to be able to win.

EDIT: For the sake of thoroughness, I tried this game again. Very close to the beginning is a mission called Dwarf Games. Your opponents never miss. One has poison, the other has knockdown arrows. Both have 40+ HP and, as far as I can tell, unlimited healing potions. IF my guys manage a hit, it's for four HP at a time. They, of course hit me in the teens every time.

Uninstalled, not looking back, and not giving them any more money. Don't waste your time.

Koni Koni
Koni Koni

A bit difficult but gives a lot of fun.

Umbra
Umbra

I completed this game last night. Could have made a review then but will come back to why I didn't later. Blackguards is polarising, as there's certainly a lot of heart in this game, but it has issues. Early game is slow, your characters ineffectual in combat. There are several types of damage in this game and it is tough to know what the cause is when you're hitting for low numbers. Some missions are also frustrating in that you don't know if it is simply you being unlucky or not using the right approach or whether indeed your damage is too low.

I did look up guides on at least two occasions out of complete frustration. Once during the arena with the caimens where the walkthrough video was part of a series by some Czech guy and the other was when I came back to save a maiden and had to pivot what my characters could do. That's another thing. You have these points that you spend on a wide variety of things sure as passive and combat actions, some which effect the world outside of combat. The possibility of spreading a character's points too thin so that they become completely useless in certain situations is all too real. If I had not been saving up my character's points I would have never had enough to make my characters useful. Hint, it was ranged combat.

The worst thing about this game isn't any of that though. The noise for consuming a potion is the most annoying sound you will hear and not a noise anyone would be able to tolerate from any person, say, sitting next to you. The rage inducing gulping is made worse because you've just watched several turns worth of progress evaporate before your eyes and is barely more bearable making your characters use potions. The fact that you can still come back from a foe chugging does teach you to take things a bit slower, but it becomes difficult to truly gauge how strong your characters are when two fights back to back can have such large performance differences with them in how fast a battle goes. This game is also more of a puzzle game sometimes than a rpg, working out the puzzle you didn't know existed all along is interesting...sometimes.

During the midpoint of Chapter 3 I got stuck and didn't want to proceed any further. I left this game alone for nearly FIVE YEARS. Then I came back this November. I was wondering about the story, I wanted to finish it. I could have looked it all up online but decided to give this game another go and glad I did. The character banter is excellently directed and a joy to listen to. The VA's really make the characters feel real and true to themselves. Characters will have conflicting options come up and you can pick them to say something to guide a conversation with an npc. It was nice getting back into that. The playable characters are all full of personality but some performance of more important npcs come across a little flat at times. For bored shopkeepers, disinterested traders and rescued npcs this actually adds some character though and makes the more brightly directed characters stand out a bit more.

Unfortunately a particular party member doesn't seem to have had all the needed lines recorded so just used the default male voice from time to time, which is unfortunate. The further I got the more I was hearing lines I hadn't heard before, and they are infrequent enough so that you're not going to hear a character cry out or laugh at the defeat of their target every single time, which was nice.

After coming back, the further in the game I went, the more the cracks in the game begin to show. NPCs would talk about rewards but I wouldn't receive anything, extremely important information was left to be discovered in the quest log, not told to me as important exposition that the character I was just talking to should have just told me. As far as I'm aware, branching possibilities open up much, much more Chapter 5 onwards. That means you're going to either save at that point and create a whole lot more saves for each branch or replay the game...how many times? Anyway, back to tonight. Or last night, rather.

So on the final mission my party all died. 'Oh well, I wonder if there will be a losing cutscene?' I wondered. And there was. While neat, I wasn't entirely ready to give up. Unsatisfied, I decided today to go back and do the mission again, shore up a few things and give it another go. Zurbaran got mobbed immediately before he could act and went down. *Restart*. I think it was on the fourth attempt where I managed to win the final mission, which was nice, wasn't actually that hard, but you know what? The cutscene was the same! I'm not angry, just disappointed.

This is a game where you can probably play it once for the story and if you want to see how things might have gone a little differently you can play it again. But a lot of that challenge is random chance and loading screens. While I can't speak for the source material, the world of Blackguards is very interesting and I would be interested in more, only it is a shame to read what happened with the second game. Maybe they did not know what they had. And you might not know what you have, if you don't try out this game. Blackguards as a whole is not greater than the sum of its parts, but those parts can be enjoyable.

jordiws
jordiws

Combat is boring, repetitive and the equipment options are not worth mentioning

Loom
Loom

Not that bad as everybody claims.

Galactico Supremo
Galactico Supremo

I jumped in with a lot of excitement and enjoyed the process of building out the protagonist. After a few failures in learning the battle system, I got a good MO and worked my way through the game. This was fun. But I stopped playing after hitting a certain point that felt a little pointless... contrived, even. It's probably a fine experience and I may pick it up again to complete the game but for now, I've moved on with other titles.

luk
luk

Great turn-based RPG. It's also cheap and often on bundle. So I don't really understand the negative reviews. If you find it too difficult there's an EASY option. Yes, it has a slow pace, but if you find it boring maybe it's just not your genre, or maybe a walkthrough can help (check this one out: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2077916462).

Ranged_Archer of annihilation
Ranged_Archer …

Bought a bunch of games during the sale. Didn't think much of this game but it has sucked me in and its the one I keep coming back to.
It's addictive. The overworld part has an old Sierra game vibe. Combat is strategic like Hitman go but as an RPG.

Whole game can be played with a mouse and it's turn based strategy so the pacing is pretty relaxed. While still feels like it has a lot of depth.

Voice acting and story are good. Characters have personality.

ICIEYES
ICIEYES

very interesting , taking a bit for me to catch on but making me a better player

Putt
Putt

Its better than most trash released today

seriaon
seriaon

Huge DSA fan and I tried to start this game 2 or 3 times, but it never grabbed me :/

Babyjester
Babyjester

Ok this game is actually fairly good but the lack of items cause a rinse a repeat feeling.
This could have been awesome if the game had more items to switch about and constantly let you improve but you will find that you have the same items in your inventory and using the same skills each battle until you get bored.
I didn't make it to the end myself before I started a new game but the mechanics are good just shallow on the content for characters.

AlveriaDieKraeuterhexe
AlveriaDieKrae…

I'm a fan of the genre and even more so of the world setting of this game, so maybe I'm being partial here, but I loved everything about it – especially the semi-interactive battle maps and the story, which I found to be a very nice take southern Aventuria.

edonway
edonway

Holy crap this game is hard but the writing is good and it's a good old school DnD type game... very complicated IU.

HaTcH
HaTcH

I picked this up for 99p and was surprised how good it was for the price. Turn based and easy to get into. Blackguards is a really good game in its own right you will find similarities with other games in its class but I will let you find this out yourself.

hellspwan101
hellspwan101

This game had a lot of potential. It starts off well enough. Decent characters and voice acting. Seemed like there was some good potential story.

Where the games goes to heck in a hand basket is combat. The game has one of the most horrible hit calculators I've ever seen. You can have 100% chance to hit something and it just is immune. No invulnerabilities, no special abilities, no buffs. Nothing. They will just MIRACULOUSLY dodge everything. I had literally my entire team attack one generic guard NPC for 3 turns and not hit him ONCE! Every attack/spell had a 90%+ hit/cast chance and they just dodge. But a standard enemy NPC has a 90%+ hit/effect chance on your characters. I maxed out 2 characters resistances to knockdowns and negative effects, but they still had a 100% knockdown rate on ALL my characters. In 2 turns, my entire team was not only knocked down, but they were completely unable to get up. so the AI just casually walked around and slaughtered all my characters. I ran this fight dozens of times and this pattern is almost identical every time. I have all my characters target them or try to move to a different area.. ALL my attacks miss. they casually stroll across the battlefield. Knock ALL my characters. Then just slaughter me. If this games s*** hit system didn't just destroy combat, this game would be good.

mhorrill.lorientrust
mhorrill.lorientrust

SHORT REVIEW.
Blackguards is a cRPG / strategic turn based combat game with the emphasis very much towards the strategic turn based combat rather than cRPG elements of the game. Blackguards is a okay to good game that could have been an excellent game but is ruined by a few exceedingly poor decisions on the part of the developers.

1: Linked combats with no opportunity to manually save between then. (If you get hammered in the second fight of a set of three and you have to play the whole lot again. The game autosaves after each section and as you got hammered in the second fight the autosave the game takes is useless to you.)
2: Far too much use of poison. (Seems to be used as a cheap way to increase monster damage and makes the Clarum Purum spell essential.)
3: Some fights are just too long (1-2 hours for a single fight).

Overall definitely worth picking up despite the issues. Pricing is pretty competitive anyway but watch out for offers.

LONG REVIEW.
Blackguards is a cRPG / strategic turn based combat game with the emphasis very much towards the strategic turn based combat rather than cRPG elements of the game. Blackguards is a okay to good game that could have been an excellent game but is ruined by a few exceedingly poor decisions on the part of the developers

PLOT: The plot is reasonable but is extremely linear. The is one extremely lousy point at the end of Chapter 2 which I won't elaborate on to avoid spoilers.

COMBAT: Combat is strategic turn based combat and is based on The Dark Eye role playing game (which I am not familiar with). Overall the combat isn't too bad but it can be a bit slow with some fights taking too long (1-2 hours for a single fight). There is one really bad thing about combat which is the overuse of poison. This makes the Clarum Purum spell “essential”.

GRAPHICS & SOUND: Good, nothing spectacular but more than adequate for the game and quite pleasing.

REPLAY VALUE: Virtually none. (Plot is extremely linear.)

ISSUES AND BUGS: The game runs “straight out of the box” without any difficulties. It does very occasionally “hang” (I think twice in about 70 hrs of game play) but is pretty stable. The same cannot be said for the steam achievements which are extremely buggy.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND TRADING CARDS: There are achievements and trading cards for those interested but the steam achievements which are extremely buggy and tend not to trigger when they should.. There is a reason for the low completion rate on a lot of the achievements in this game, Top of the Food Chain, Iron Bladder, Hand of Boron, Three times the Fun, Traveller, Red Salamander and A True Stoerrebrand are all know to be buggy, there may be others.

VALUE FOR MONEY: Pretty good value for money anyway as its competitively priced. Better price if bundled with Blackguards 2 in the Blackguards Franchise Bundle. Often gets discounted in sales so watch out for special offers.

Fauxnel
Fauxnel

ℝ𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕘𝕒𝕞𝕖 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝟚𝟘𝟘𝟘𝕤 𝕔𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕕 𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕒𝕟𝕘? "𝔹𝕝𝕒𝕔𝕜𝕘𝕦𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕤" 𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕪 𝕤𝕦𝕔𝕔𝕖𝕖𝕕𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕔𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕒 𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘-𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕟 𝕔𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕔.

If there is one thing Drakensang did RIGHT was how open, deep and complex characters' customization was. The truth is, no matter how many tried to clone Drakensang (especially River of Time), nobody ever could. Your options were literally limitless; you could be a ninja who'd cast Fire Spells, a Sorceress so tanky she could take down a whole golem, a ranger who would just instantly flip out on you and swiftly brings you down with a two-melee weapons wield... Plus, the story was quite nice; it was new back then to drop the "Chosen One" bomb on your created character and have these greatly written NPCs follow you to glory. Let's talk about Blackguards now. You get the gothic feel of Drakensang games and all that jazz, except the battles do not happen in real time (as is the case in Drakensang games) but when there's a battle coming up, you're taken to the GRID TACTICAL COMBAT SCREEN. Let me tell you, you will fail, miserably and countless times... and it certainly doesn't help anyone's case that there isn't any "Speed Up" option you can activate through the menu screen... So if you lose a battle, which will probably happen many, many times, you have to sit through tedious enemy movements again... and again... and again... until somehow, the RNG God smiles upon you and you land a spell. Let's talk storyline; this is your typical "chosen hero" tale that you probably know all too well by now; the dialogue is completely voiced and voice acting is actually quite good for an Indie game. The characters are likeable, but not permanent (Try not to equip anyone with high-end gear until the last chapter). Some characters WILL die, some WILL leave and the only person you can rely on is yourself (almost like in real life). You can be one of three MAJOR classes, that are customizable in the way I stated above! You can be a ninja who casts spells, or a dual-wielding druid; it is ALL up to you. Mechanics-wise, this game is RUTHLESS but for all the wrong reasons: Spells getting miscast at 100% success rate, enemies literally cheating (some carnivorous plants will knock out your heroes despite having a resist check of 100%), the same AP system in Drakensang for leveling up applies here but not tuned and all over the place etc... The graphics are also not THAT good and the side quests do little to provide a sense of understanding for this world or how it's become this gloomy.

All in all, this is a great Tactical RPG that relies heavily on RNG sometimes. Other times it feels so unfair you think about dropping it, yet will indubitably keep playing. The bugs that plague Steam achievements for this game are ridiculous, so if you're one of those Achievement Hunters you might want to steer clear as some achievements will unlock for some players, but not all players. I guess I'm one of the lucky few who unlocked those achievements early in the game by means of outsmarting the game's code, but more on that in the discussions. It's a 7.1/10 game that all TACTICS fans will love.

Shiny
Shiny

Ok tactics game. Not great. Not bad. Too bored to finish. But still.......

2 Stars!!!

1 star - Big heap of garbage with no redeemable value.
2 star - I found fun in it, but it is objectively flawed.
3 star - Solid experience. Not stellar in any regard, but a safe bet and easy recommendation if it is up your alley.
4 star - Real gem. Great game and you should check it out.
5 star - You haven't played this yet? What is wrong with you? This is so gooooood.

Anonymous
Anonymous

This game is unbalanced but playable. You will not win without the walkthrough. Gets easier halfway through with the right abilities and spells.

TheUtherElkanah
TheUtherElkanah

Great Game! Can't wait to try Blackgaurds 2

Cinderella Goat
Cinderella Goat

Finished the game in around 40hrs. In general, it was a nice strategy game, and i've been looking forever for a similar dungeon crawl with hexes and turn-based party game.
Pros:
- Good story. I felt engaged with the characters. Whenever I got a chance to play the game, i played 4 hours at a time (minimum) and up to 8 hours in a row. I just couldn't get myself to stop at the cliff hangers.
-Music is amazing
-Likable characters with diverse dialogue options
-Interaction with environment during battles is a plus for me

Cons:
-Combat is somewhat basic and straightforward.
-Inventory managements sucks! (wish there were filters in this clumpfest of clutter)
-A couple of quests trigger before their intended timing, so I had to google them to figure out what was going on.

In the end, BG1 is a pleasant time passer game, with good story and nice nostalgic strategic flair to it. If it is on sale, i recommend buying it.

Meowish
Meowish

Okay... normally when it comes to SLG game (turn based tactic), there's always a mix of love and hate from the players. So it's not really a safe genre for game making and the reason why we are seeing less and less of this genre nowadays... the word "SLG" is not even heard of for a lot of newer game players. Mainly because this genre being invented by the Japanese to compete with the up rising trend of RTS back in the days. And most players often mix the 2 together for comparison while they are actually both completely different game play.

SLG's game play idea is a basic old school JRPG game skill set mixed with a Chess Board game. It's a game that gives you all the time to wait and implement your moves (just like the Chess) while RTS is real time and more exciting in a way to some players. So "Strategy" has been divided into 2... SLG isn't really widely accepted even in Japan, as most preferred RTS, and the trend actually being picked up by Taiwan back then and caused a bloom there, due to their love of chess in the culture.

With that said... If you like Chess board game, be it Japanese/Chinese/International (aka Western) Chess or even Checker, then SLG is probably something you can swallow and looks good on your plate. For players who hated chess... well SLG probably has all the reasons you hated Chess there.

SLG used to be my favorite food until i can't find anyone selling it anymore... until Final Fantasy Tactic set another bloom of this genre and finally crack its way into the west... even still... there's chess lover and hater so yeah... these type of games often ended up with mixed rating not because of the game but preferences of the player. One who enjoyed Chess can enjoy a SLG game even without a story base. One who can't simply won't enjoy it at all no matter how good the story is.

For Blackguard... as a hexagon SLG game.. this is to be expected... but... setting that aside... the game still has its own problem. (Comparing to other SLG)

The tactic battle are great and challenging. A real fun for chess lover. But the rest of the game is a bit shabby... like the old trend of SLG, devs like adding branches in story to let the players replay the game adding replayability (replay value) to their game. but those are branching up to different battles and different story time line... Blackguard couldn't grab hold the of the concept and the whole story and quest line is messy. They even have unfixed bug after all these years.. and bug that's intolerable like a future dialog popping up and become a spoiler before you even started the quest. (eg. the carpenter)

And this game is walking on tightrope under a fan base title of the "Dark Eye" series... so it attracts fan no matter the genre of the game and those who doesn't like chess will just hate.
For SLG lover, the implementation of the Dark Eye dice roll system (similar to D&D) is another burden as the whole chess battle become unstable over RNG stuffs, like playing chess moves and throwing dices at the same time every turn. Not a good mix if they want to really bring the true fun of SLG to their player... plus.. Dark Eye rules is based on 5 characters. So we only get 5 max all the way in the game. While other SLG provide an army of selection to fully utilize our tactical needs. So yeah, this game has it's limits and can't provide the same fun as other SLG games imo... But they did cover up with stage planning and all making it challenging and fun so it's still worth the buy... but will i call it a top SLG game? No. Because too much depends on Luck makes this more of a gambling game than strategy game. The stages are fun but the links between the stages are a mess, makes this game looks more like a "testing prototype" of a game idea.

futhark
futhark

More unbalanced and frustraitng than Pathfinder Kingmaker...
Tried to play on easy settings, but it didn´t change anything, so this game is not for a casual gamer.

Frenchie
Frenchie

lmao the game lets me cast spells even when I don't have enough mana - and then even gives a message in the battle log "tried casting - not enough mana". This type of optimization I have not seen since NES Final Fantasy 1 (where attacking an enemy who gets killed in the same round renders your attackers attacking a blank spot). Garbage.

bizimdenge
bizimdenge

Been playing about 2 hours and satisfied with what's going on.
Storytelling and visual variety is a bit crippled. But decent RPG mechanics. Nice gameplay, kinda complicated but good skill trees, decent level design. It might get better later but seems like I will spend some time on it.
Is it the best turn based RPG there is? No. But its fun exceeds its price by far. Totally recommend it.

spidabaer
spidabaer

I cant understand Blackguards is a good base turn based strategy/tactics gamer that I have seen... When some people, (me of course and others.) play a game
Emersiveness, play-ability, pleasing to the eye...injection of some humor into it...It has all of these in varying degrees of quality..but its in there...I recommend if you have played the the full spectrum of what STEAM has to offer...then BLACKGUARDS is a thumbs up...
Its when you look at the higher end of the spectrum and compare then BLACKGUARDS falls behind but not to the extent that you dont want to play it.
Its the packages that they offer you regarding a game you have purchased Below is a prime example of why buy a package when its cheaper to buy individually......?????
ITEMS INCLUDED IN THIS PACKAGE

$9.99
Blackguards
RPG, Turn-Based, Strategy, Tactical
IN LIBRARY

$0.99
Blackguards: Untold Legends
Strategy, RPG, Indie
IN LIBRARY
-90%
$129.99
$12.99
The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
Adventure, Point & Click, Fantasy, Singleplayer
-90%
$129.99
$12.99
The Dark Eye: Memoria
Adventure, Point & Click, Puzzle, Story Rich
$36.96Price of individual products:
$34.99Cost of this package:
So if I wanted the whole package it would be $129.00 when I only want two out of the package which as part of a package is $34.99 and if I purchase individually it is $24.99.......It may seem like a small matter but I have over 170 games..
Its like an epiphany....How much are they ripping us off...Bring back REGANOMICS lol STEAMONOMICS kinda blows...

selmi
selmi

interesting story, nice graphics and music, good voice acting

my only regret is a bit clumsy user interface and also sometimes it is too dark for my monitor. gama or brightness setting would be nice

Hrik
Hrik

An enjoyable game, similar to others I've played, but I'm still getting used to elements of the game. I like the turn-based system, rather than a real time mad hack and slash.

davideno10
davideno10

I bought this game a few years ago....never played it till a week agoo.
Well, i wish to come back on time just a week, to make sure not to install the game.
This could be a potentially a great game....but something make me believe that was designed to be played with feet, like the designers have given up right at the end of the making. Terrible approach from the game to the gamer,terrible interaction game/gamer .Do you actually test game? I wouldn't suggest this game not even to my worst enemy.

Pivo
Pivo

mostly tedious, you need to find the one little trick of each battle

Nithmal
Nithmal

This game is challenging for me, but enjoyable. I'm not familiar with the rule-set from the rpg this game is based on, but it's easy to get behind. The hex-map element is comfortable, as it seems identical to table-top rpgs that use hexes for combat. Aspects of the game, such as the zones between battles, is a fun change from the standard in the genre. Takes a bit of getting used to, as not all things may be obvious. I recommend this game.

atoboleski
atoboleski

I like! It's a very straight forward turnbased rpg. I bought one and two, playing one first and I'm hoping 2 has some more indepth functions, mostly in the character building. I like that the story is easy to follow and it doesn't get all complicated and diluted. Side missions are quick and for XP building. Unique leveling system which I'm ok with outside of the fact that it's really hard to get the HP and MP needed to have long fights. The coolest part is that every character is what you want it to be. While some come stock with a focus, it's not hard to refocus them. I'm not a huge magic fan so I'm running with 3 DPS melee and then two archers that can heal. I like it! Magic seems cool but without being able to really invest in the magic and also MP, it has been difficult to sustain. MP runs out WAY before enemies die in large battles. First time through though, I'm sure I could respec and figure it out. Worth the purchase (I bought it at like 99 cents).

T2Co
T2Co

This was a tough decision for me about recommending. I decided on Yes but only if it's on sale, and if the type of gameplay appeals to you.

So here's the deal, the game is advertised like it's an RPG but it's not. It fundamentally plays like an older FB or Flash game with very set progression and no real choice. The story is linear and you can only really choose to skip a few optional battles. But to progress the story/game you have to go through a specific set of battles, each on a specific map and in most cases giving very specific AP (experience) points and items as a reward. Even the vendors have an exact inventory and never replenish their stock.

You have a large variety of ways you can configure your character and party to try to win these battles - but that's literally all it is. It's also easy to screw it up and make it extremely difficult to win a particular battle. And you have to win to move forward. You can start the battle over as often as you like, but until you win you can't continue the game. There's no perma-death either as any of your party that are knocked below zero HP are just disabled until the next battle (although you usually have 3 turns to try to heal them).

So it's more of a tactical combat game on a hex map. The RNG during battle can be cruel and made me yell at the screen a few times, but if this is your type of game then it can be enjoyed at your own pace. And the last BIG negative note is that some of the achievements seem to be bugged.

I feel like I've beat up on the game a lot but the story and writing is fun, the voice acting is really good, and it works well as a tactical game. I certainly put in a fair amount of hours so lots of value if you get it on sale.

I highly recommend reading through the various guides. It'll help with configuring your party to win/progress with each of the battles as if you're set wrong you'll have to load an earlier save, change a few things/gear, and then do the battle again.

An Archer/Mage main character is probably the most optimal for getting through all the battles. Basic tactic is to cast Shadow Clone, then Move like Lighting 3, and then machine-gun everything with Triple Shot between the clone and main. The Clone starts with the same type (and amount) of arrow your main has equipped but doesn't actually use any of your arrows from inventory. This is a great way to make use of Arrow Storm on those really large and annoying enemies toward the late game. You can one-shot some of the worst of them this way.

One last thing is that I don't see any of the guides or posts talk about Magic-Resistance enough. Your non-spell casters will have tons of AP to spend toward the end and I'd recommend dumping points into MR. I had the Dwarf up at 27 by the end battles and if you look at the descriptions for many of the area effect damage and de-buff spells they use the HIGHEST MR of the targets to resist. I looked at the battle log and the toughest enemy spell-casters only had a 5% (absolute minimum) to 19% chance of success for their spells. Effectively neutralizing some of the worst effects in the game.

Alexe
Alexe

Gonna love those misses with 90% chance to hit.

Perial
Perial

If you like turn-based hex fantasy combat and a strong plot, you'll like this game. Unlike some other games with dialog selection, there can be real consequences if you choose the wrong options.

Aasher Nightingale
Aasher Nightingale

Other than an intriguing storyline, I see little redeeming points about this game.

1. Non-existent character creation.
2. High miss rates even with character stats being maxed out.
3. The odds are literally stacked against you in all aspects even on 'easy' settings.
4. Everything from the simplest potions to a basic set of armor and weapons cost a bomb while money is scarce.

All-in-all, I'm not sure if the game can be finished before you lose your mind trying to...

Great Wight Spark
Great Wight Spark

Not badly made, just not fun. I'm amazed some people completed it. Even using a guide, you'll have to play it perfectly or get frustrated with how unbalanced it is.

NulliSecundus
NulliSecundus

Sometimes overly challenging but overall not a bad game. Lots of character in some of the NPCs. The story is good for the most part...the ending is a bit wonky but was tolerable for me. The framework is basically moving from tactical battle to tactical battle within the story...so if you are good with that, it's worth a look.

Baraz
Baraz

Warning : in about 35 years of playing video games, mostly RPGs and tactical games, this is one of the hardest I have ever played. You *will* fail some fights the first time, as you will have to discover strategies and some "puzzles" so-to-speak (traps on maps, etc.). That said, I always succeeded my second attempt much more easily. There is a sweet Retry button, which makes the pain sting less.

Still, if you do not feel like getting kicked brutally between the legs while playing a game, I really do not recommend you start this game. It is important for your enjoyment and frustration management that you know this in advance.

In the final stage of Chapter 2 (out of 5 chapters), I was considering giving up; which I generally do not. And that is after spending hours viewing guides and videos to make my character builds decent. But builds do not cut it: you need to try, fail, and find a new tactic. It turned out the final fight of Chapter 2 was actually easy once you understand the "puzzle".

Combat and difficulty : bloody hard by design !

One could say it is unforgiving, but in truth :
1) fights are designed to be challenging and risky, but winnable. It is *not* a design flaw nor chaotic: this adventure rarely gives you easy fights. So you really have to pay attention to what skills/spells you level.
2) when you win a battle, your companions have not died, and healing Wounds is not very hard (low cost in a town, spells, Treatment skill) ;
3) there is always a nice Retry button (with an autosave before each fight).

The two first chapters are rather hard as your characters are gaining skill and spells. You gain Adventure Points (similar to XP) somewhat slowly. So take the time to look at the skill choices and focus.

RPG aspects

While the main story is very linear, you have side-quests that offer dialogue choices and you can travel freely between the towns you have already visited (for gear, training, etc.). The game is more of a tactical challenge rather than deep in story choices. Yet some dialogue choices can have a consequence near the end...

The progression system is based on the Dark Eye (L'Oeil Noir) tabletop RPG system. This is both a good and bad thing. The good is that you have a lot of options and flexibility, and you must choose what you will focus in along the way. The bad is that this tabletop system is convoluted (not user-friendly). For example, you start with 10000 AP and you can spend points freely in the many attributes, weapons, talents, spells and abilities. Instead of having a potion say it gives +4 to Parry & Dodge, it will say +20 Agility for example.

While there are no classes, you must choose at the start if you will have access to spells. Being able to use spells cost about 500 or 700 AP (out of 10K). You will have one or two companions who can do magic, so it is really a free choice, but I recommend your main character have the magic option open (Mage).

On the other hand, you can pick one of the three presets (Hunter, Mage, Warrior).*

Time

Most claim to finish the main quest is about 40 hours. I did ALL the side quests, including the DLC, in 90 hours.

General Tips

a) Do not try to be good at everything. Having ten spells that you cannot succeed does not help. Having spells with only 50% chance of success will get you killed. Same for choice of weapons.

b) Some Talents are important for all characters, notably Body Control (resistance to knockdowns) and Willpower (resistance to Wounds).

c) I found having 3 casters (i.e. making your main character a mage) made the fights much more winnable, but you can do fine with 2 mage companions. As you wish, but magic can turn enemies against each other, create an illusionary duplicate, heal Wounds, etc. I also found giving ranged weapons to my mages was efficient and sometimes crucial (bows and crossbows are powerful in this game). Instead of using "mana" (Astral points) to do a damage spell, you can do a better average with a bow and keep your "mana" for much more tactical spells. Some poisons will drain your "mana", so you need a Plan B weapon.

d) The Talent Warcraft is excellent on many levels, notably for the capacity to swap weapons freely once your have mastered it. Swapping weapons allows you to adapt damage type or switch to ranged weapons without losing a turn!

Nb : my main character was a mage focused on healing (removing Wounds and poisons) and buffs (mostly Dodge and Attack bonuses). Two of your companions are very capable warriors.

* Official video to introduce character building :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv8Pksq7YFA&ab_channel=DaedalicEntertai…

Grook
Grook

a moderately interesting game with turn-based gameplay

Pompan
Pompan

The story and game is quite fun, the characters do actually have different interests and opinions. However, the fact that one can time and time again deliver results that have a chance less than one in one billion, as the game doesn't display the actual % of likelihood, along with the fact that one miss on an aoe-attack is a total miss, is BS.

About 5-7 achievements seem to be bugged and still haven't been fixed, despite BG 2 being released.

A lot of people complain about the difficulty. I don't see why, as the game isn't difficult, unless you're stupid.

fakeloo
fakeloo

Blackguards' menus are clunky and unhelpful, and the game generally fails to communicate information to the player in an efficient way. On a small level, this makes basic tasks like comparing weapons more tedious than they should be. On a larger level, it makes building suboptimally a much easier mistake to make. For example, you can place up to 18 points into any spell or non-weapon talent. However, there are only 4 discrete levels for any spell; if the spell only levels up after 8 points, there is no point in putting any resources into it until you can afford the full 8 points, otherwise you've simply wasted the experience.

Building suboptimally is lethal in this game. You've lost before combat has started. This, combined with the inability to respec and the aforementioned poor communication with the player, is why I think the reviews that tell you to treat each combat like a puzzle to be solved rather than a fight to be rolled first try are misguided. Yes, it is true that you can fail a level due to poor strategy, only to "figure it out" for the second go and perform much better. However, it is also possible that you've simply loaded the level with a build that cannot hope to win without a significant amount of RNG. In a true puzzle game, solving a level you've been stuck on for many attempts is satisfying, you think "Aha! That's what I was doing wrong!" Sometimes you get that from Blackguards, but sometimes it's just "Finally, I got the rolls I needed to get past this garbage."

Those of you who are familiar with turn-based tactics games may be drawing the connection to games like XCom and Darkest Dungeon, which are also frequently criticized as RNG-heavy. I would argue that these games provide far more consistent options to the player. Pretty much every spell in Blackguards has a %chance to fail, including those that don't target the enemy like healing spells and buffs. Compare with the aforementioned games, which at the very least provide limited sources of consistent damage or healing in the form of consumable grenades and dedicated healers. Even curing debuffs is RNG-based: my mage's poison cure spell had only a 60% chance of success, and the ability to cure wounds (which are also incurred randomly from regular attacks) with a bandage is also seemingly random. My friend once joked that XCom should feature a random chance to randomly trip and fall when you move one of your soldiers—Blackguards pretty much has that too, in the form of terrain hazards like pools of water you can slip on or swamp holes you can be completely immobilized in for several turns. In one particularly egregious example one of my characters spawned in a corner separated by a running stream, then slipped and fell as I tried to make her cross, then fell again on the very next tile as I tried to get her away! I'm sure an optimal build will mitigate some of these chances, through levelling up weapon skills to increase chance to hit, and Body Control to prevent some of these knockdowns, and whatever you level up to increase the success rate of the best spells, but playing blind was a fairly miserable experience at points.

The level design highlights the weaknesses in the progression and combat systems. If your party isn't optimally built, the levels that randomly take away your gear or party members are going to be brutal difficulty spikes. If you didn't know to get Perception levelled up enough before a level with lots of invisible traps, prepare to savescum: they don't move between reloads, so rather than an interesting point of strategy, they become a minor nuisance and a source of tedium. That's pretty much my biggest complaint with the game as a whole, there's so much emphasis on optimizing character sheets that the game's challenges stop feeling like actual tactical gameplay and more like stat checks. What's the point of having five pages of numbers to play around with if you're at such a handicap for picking anything than what's optimal?

There are also a few technical problems with the game, ranging from minor bugs like characters T-posing in the background of cutscenes to very annoying ones like the save button being unresponsive and the game crashing after alt-tabs.

I want to like this game, there are genuinely interesting elements to it, but my experience thusfar is that it simply is not a fun game. If I choose to pick this up again, it will be with a build guide—I suggest you do the same if you choose to play this.

gallaghan2000
gallaghan2000

So, I actually like this game. Well, less the game and more the battle system it uses alongside some of the allowances the developers created for tactical battles. Part of my problem, however, is that you really need to know what you're doing to create effective characters that don't 'waste' xp on crap.

Another issue, is that no one in America really has access to the lore of the world of the 'Dark Eye' and its associated connotations. Including the 'grim dark' elements that pop up pretty quickly.

My last issue, however, is the story. The overarching elements are great, but the details are shit. The implementation is shit, and if we're really playing the evil/bad guys as a great many of the quests and title push for, there aren't enough evil options. Including the equivalent of deliberately knocking people out to send them (sell them) to the arena among other options.

My advice to the developers: Work on Blackguards 3, in the process overhaul everything including adding an in game weapon tab so that you can see how a weapon is affected by strength. When making Blackguards 3, come back to this game and 2, interconnect them, add further options like choosing to fight your way out of being turned into a slave (as killing off Niam should always be the bad route and not actually part of the base story), and just generally make a wholly good game rather than use cheap and crappy story tricks to try and add emphasis on your world being grim dark, cheap, and edgy (I mean, really, half the reason why people even like Niam is because she gets 'Move like Lightning' long before you ever find a teacher for that absurdly powerful spell).

I'd also recommend elaborating on the MC's history with Lysander and making it so that he genuinely hates the MC for Eleanor deciding he was a love interest. Hell, I'd even recommend the first branch of the 'alternate' story being the player getting 'killed' by the wolf for refusing to fight it and waking up in prison regardless.

Also, it might be a good idea for you guys to hook up with the 'realms of arkania' remix group and work alongside each other. They work on the non-combat elements of the game with their engine, while your engine/layout is used for the combat segments.

Jode
Jode

Summary:
Very special game. Some love it, some hate it. Very cheap on sale, but at the point that you realize you don't like it, you already lost some precious hours of your life in a frustrated state. If you love it, you can easily live with it's problems and it will be an absolute bargain.

Main problems:
- Ruleset. Intimidating at first. And after some hours, when I know how it all works, I want to build a new character and restart. Possibly great as pen and paper but unnecessarily clunky for a pc game.
- Uneven difficulty: Often very easy, sometimes very hard. I was rarely in my comfort-zone (challenging, but not frustrating)
- Slow pacing (combat itself is quick and has no issues, but I had to keep track about which trainer is where and what does he train. Also, there open up tons of different shops early in the game, everybody sells different stuff. Travelling around a lot is slow due to loading times)
---> RESULT: It needs a lot of dedication for unnecessary reasons

Main Advantages:
- Every combat feels different, challanges offer lots of variation
- A lot of raw content (playtime)
- Every village looks different, nice music, great voice-acting, solid story (no "find 4 crystals"-shit)
- The way I got loot here was awesome! I got EXACTLY enough to feel progress, but not too much to be oversaturated. I was HAPPY about every coin, every item I found. THIS IS HOW YOU IMPLEMENT LOOT!

I would have enjoyed it much more if they reduced the content by 20% and gave more attention to the remaining 80% (especially getting access to shops/trainers on the overworld map and evening out the difficulty a bit)
See for youself if you could live with the disadvantages. I stopped playing.

Bleden Mark
Bleden Mark

their translators can only hiss. it makes negotiations difficult

Roxinho Ancião
Roxinho Ancião

Good game, good mechanics. For me, some achievements did not work, but I really enjoyed the game.

RocketMan
RocketMan

what a frustrating experience so far. Now i understand why this game is so cheap.

Klepto-Narcissus
Klepto-Narcissus

Flawed, definitely not a masterpiece, but has its merits. The blend of point and click in town with a psuedo-XCOM combat system is something I personally appreciate. What makes me hesitate to recommend this title are the clunkier aspects of the game. Backtracking for skill trainers, bizarrely fluctuating difficulty, notoriously frustrating RNG that contradicts the input the game is giving, and really buggy achievement unlocks. All in all these are just a few of the many scuffed aspects of what I had hoped, back when I played it, would be a good romp of an RPG with the kind of turn-based combat I've come to enjoy. I'm sorry to say, you won't find that here if you can't look past the myriad of flaws I couldn't.

Shitteru-baka
Shitteru-baka

Bland representative of its genre, that is nevertheless somewhat enjoyable at least at first, mostly due to some interesting characters and an intriguing, if pretty predictable story. However, the game balance, that is at first passable, devolves into absolute crapfest by the second half of the game and turns most end-game encounters into patience-testing slogs which have nothing to do with skill or tactical thinking as the game showers you with infinite battles with respawning enemies, mini-boss spam, several repeated major bosses and a slew of other annoyances - minor to major.

The game is lauded as complex by the developers and some players, but it really is not, aside from some aspect of skill management. No combos - magical or otherwise, no bonuses for positioning in combat, for flanking or surrounding and a couple abusable skills that allow you, for example: to stun enemies for double digit number of rounds, giving you ample time to regenerate mana and just permastun enemies - or for them to permastun you. There isn't much tactics at play, aside from basics, and its a damn shame especially because the enemy AI is actually surprisingly good, it mostly positions well and can easily surround and pick off single heroes if you give it an opening, it can abuse some of the broken spells as well. With proper balance and more tactical options, it could genuinely prove to be a fun challenge, but with the limited scope of the game's combat, it's held back a lot and only shows glimpses of brilliance here and there.

In regards to spells, the game has a decent selection, though a bit unimaginative, but equipment selection is very poor, and even the "legendary" pieces you will find here and there are very bland and just stats+ with nothing special going for them.

If you can get the game for very cheap on a sale and manage your expectations, the first 3 acts of the game will be mostly fun - I'd say somewhere around 6-7/10. From act 4 onwards, things will spiral out of control, and though there were some decent encounters still, there were many very bad ones to counter tham - and they were very, very bad. I didn't actually finish the game, because the last "run" towards the last boss is just so bad, I just gave up. It would have probably taken me about 5 more hours to finish the game, if you want an estimate, and I played on the default difficulty (medium/normal I think).

Also, as cherry on top, the game is pretty poorly optimized - while, due to the nature of the game, it has very little impact on the gameplay, it is still pretty noticeable and annoying when your frames randomly, but repeatedly, drop by 20, even when nothing special is happening.

Sethrean
Sethrean

Fucking trash my heals can miss? what garbage ive never seen that shit ever in my life.

SINA-VF-02
SINA-VF-02

i bought it for trading cards & i stayed cuz of gameplay

Old Raver
Old Raver

Blackguards is definitely a game with no lack for content

Some of that time was redoing battles and such, but there were plenty of quests and plenty to do in general.
adventure/point and click game (when you are in towns, albeit with the hidden object stuff removed of course) mixed with turn based hex battles that use random number generators

auz10
auz10

I can't really say more than what many others have already said. There are aspects of this game that are pretty good, but the combat mechanics, lack of respec, and absurd "difficulty" scaling just make it not enjoyable as a whole. It's a slog to say the least.

An Ao Rong
An Ao Rong

I highly recommend trying Blackguards if you like turn-based RPGs. Both the story and characters are interesting and I had a lot of fun start to finish.

nitronate
nitronate

It's good to try, but I don''t think I will be playing this anymore>

OkLoveYouBuhBye
OkLoveYouBuhBye

Hex based tactical game with stat based growth for characters.

For those hard fights, just make sure you have a mage with maxed bow mastery. Mage lets them burn most of the enemies and the archer allows for picking off of those single targets still standing while staying at a distance.

Oh and I'm pretty sure Zurbaran is singly responsible for the massive spread of syphilis on the entire continent.

『∑∅βι∪§』
『∑∅βι∪§』

Bug Achievement Issues since 2014. Almost 10 of 45. Contacted the developer but seems they only want to take your money. Better save your money for Dragon Age if you like this kind of genre.

vizich
vizich

I really liked this game right up to the gladiator chapter. I mean, I get it. Basically an interruption to your goals to play a game within a game, complete with a mini progress to success. Really cool idea. You are stripped of all your items, weapons, and armor and thrown against other gladiators in combat for your freedom. Now you gotta learn how to wield a club and fight with your hands to survive.

But...

Instead of having the same limits as your equally enslaved opponents and the tactics that entails, you wind up against opponents that can do things you can't do. Like drink healing potions and lose arrows at far more range. You'll have a guy surrounded, pounding away with all your limited might while he literally drinks potion after potion. All this appears to be so the experience is drawn out longer. How does healing yourself as a gladiator even fit the fantasy? I could have drummed on with this and googled the solution, but it just got too boring to care. It was a cool idea, but I don't think the devs were all that excited about it. It just felt like filler to me.

Could have been really cool, though. Simple tactical battles with simple weapons, no heals, no magic, and no gross advantages to overcome. And once freed, you would have all those extra melee skills to brag about.

Callagham
Callagham

Is it really that hard to fix all the broken achievements?

Beerman
Beerman

Good game with interesting story and characters.
Solid 4/5 score from me.

ASDF-
ASDF-

Highly recommended for those who like TB combat.

Rakshasa
Rakshasa

Maybe my character sucked. Maybe my team did. Maybe I'm just not strategic enough. I found the game to be too difficult and not properly balanced. I wouldn't recommend unless you're hardcore.

J.Little
J.Little

Blackguards is a deeply conflicted game: On the one hand, it wants to be a tactical skirmish game, but lacks the nunace and options to make the battles feel like scenarios to tinker with. Added on top is the terrible probabilities, which vary wildly, often for no apparent reason, and straight up don't work out at all. This makes every fight a chore. An obstacle to be shoved out of the way, so you can finally make some progress. There is also the lack of truly interesting environmental effect and the visual aesthetic of the scenes being (at best) generic as hell. In terms of such effects, some are extremly disabling, if you don't have the correct skill on a high enough level, or straight up laughable, because you cannot use it properly in the heat of battle or it is completely ineffective to do so.
On the other hand, it tries to be a sprawling fantasy epic, using the world and lore of the German TTRPG system as the backdrop. Characters talk a lot and then some, while never having an actual point to make. Their motivations are interesting in the abstract, a mage hoping to be more than he is born into, a dwarf serching for companionship after being pushed away by his own family (as examples), but don't amount to anything more than this very literal reading. They're static and have no push and pull with the antagonistic forces, because those are simply evil cultist eviling for evil purposes. As a small spoiler: There is a powerful litany of the nameless god involved, while some political struggles relate to this - allegedly.
The skirmishes are lacking in options, have some truly unfair and terrible design to them, while the plot is so convoluted, it manages to lose its way a few times with an unmotivated ending. Here you go. At least you get to fight the antagonists yourself, more than the sorce material allows you for the most part.

Khalthehunted332
Khalthehunted332

Very good! Its an enthralling story but Blackguards 2 is better. Only get this if its on sale and if you want to know the background story of the characters and how it all started

b.call
b.call

Really good Turn-based-combat with great Character costumization.
It uses the REALMS of ARCANIA ruleset, but you DO NOT need to know the
system in order to play it (but it is helpful)
The game got a decent story, but the highlight are clearly the turn based battles.
It is a goog looking game with hand painted grafics and good combat animations.
Fans of DUNGEON of NAHEULBEK or X-COM should try this.
Really good fantasy setting.

DSapsan
DSapsan

The game is in terrible tech condition. Has outdated graphics. And the worst is rng-based gampeplay.

Daelganis
Daelganis

I quite enjoy the game and it has a really well written story with great voice acting, but I do have an issue with the game constantly crashing. I followed the forums on how to fix said issue and can't seem to find a fix. It crashes roughly 5-7 times an hour. Frustrating but overall I'm still enjoying the gameplay.. Despite the constant relaunching.

Krisys
Krisys

Gameplay: 7/10

Graphics & Sound: 7/10

Narration: 7/10

+ Interesting plot, with an engaging world. The story is a bit edgy sometimes, but succeeds not to be absurdly grimdark.
+ Good depth of mechanical customisation for your characters. Being based on a tabletop RPG system helps.
+ The companions manage to have a fair amount of personality, which is rare and enjoyable.
+ A good deal of effort has been done to provide a wide variety of battles, with special interactions, interesting layouts, and alternative goals.
+ The overall balance feels very fair, providing an adequate level of challenge, while rarely being unbearably difficult. This probably depends on how well you managed to handle the character building system though.
+ Nice sense of detail on character models, equipment, and world map.
+ Enjoyable music, and fully voiced dialogues.
+ The game seems to use its graphical resources in a smart way - it doesn't seem to have a huge amount of different models and illustrations, but it arranges it in ways that avoid to feel repetition too much. The "fixed view" location displays help a lot in that direction, and have some charm of their own.

- The game lacks mechanical clarity. A lot. Many effects are not explained, the way encumbrance works is barely hinted at, and the UI is very unclear about what bonuses your armor actually provides you. Nothing explains you how exactly your spells' efficiency relies on your attributes. Nothing even explains you how your attacks are rolled and why 100% accuracy attacks may miss. Nothing explains you how perception works exactly. The game provides tons of numbers but gives no indication of how they fit together. This is my biggest grudge with this game. I had to recreate a character five times before I understood how I'm supposed to build it - and it's very kind from the game to provide prebuilt characters to avoid that mess, but you still have to deal with it on your level ups, so it only delays the problem, and I would much rather the game gave you an actual tutorial on the combat system it uses.
- Some specific battles suffer from a similar lack of clarity, where you have to fail the battle once to understand what exactly is going on there.
- Despite the effort put in differentiating the battles and creating refreshing arenas, you really feel that the battle system behind it is quite a bit boring. Luckily battles don't tend to drag, but still the lack of diversity of combat actions for non-magic characters tends to get a bit annoying over the course of the game. I definitely recommend to build a magic user for the player character, even if the magic isn't their main focus, otherwise I think that you'll find that your character turns get quite a bit monotonous - and the game already provides two non-magic characters that fill up the roles of basic melee fighters very well.
- At some points the narration gets a bit weak, and it lacks some degree of player choice to my taste.
- The interface is pretty ugly and not user friendly.

Overall despite its awful onboarding and user experience I recommend this game, because it provides a rather interesting turn-based RPG experience, supported by an enjoyable story, and actually seems to have a soul, given the amount of little details that have received a surprising amount of care by the development team. Don't expect a polished gem, the game is rough about the edges, but still an entertaining and engaging experience over the course of 50-ish hours.

Stagnola
Stagnola

Story driven. Really good voice acting and the characters are well written. Combat is on the good side of frustrating.

NerlisAkkem
NerlisAkkem

I unfortunately cannot recommend this game. I tried to like it, but could not in the end.

Pros :
-Reasonable price

Cons :
-The graphics are average (I can easily live with that given the low price of the game)
-The story is pretty boring, I did not feel very engaged.
-The combats are not very interesting, and the hit % are weird (I can miss 5+ times in a row hits that have 90% hit chances)
-The characters customization is boring. You have a LOT of options, which is nice, but most of them feels borderline useless and you need to invest a lot of points to feel a tiny difference.
-Some combats are incredibly easy while others feels very challenging. I love challenges, but I don't like the inconsistency of the game.

Final tought :
I'm not saying this game is horrible, but it feels very bland. I played the game quite a reasonnable amount of time, and I did not enjoy many of the hours I was playing. Since the game does not cost much, you don't lose much by purchasing it to try, but for me, it's a 4.5/10 game.

MyChaos
MyChaos

A game with an interesting story, where strategy involves this game, with the possibility of choosing one of the three classes available in the game. As we progress in the game, several companions will accompany us on our journey, but the RNG of this game in my opinion is a little unbalanced, which for now made me give up on the game, maybe pick up the game again in the future.

rdkehoe
rdkehoe

Don't waste your money. Been buggy since 2013 and still no fixes. Couldn't even bother to spellcheck the game. Multiple instances of Alchemist being spelled "Alchimist", wrong usage of by/bye/buy etc. Could almost look past that if the game wasn't a mess. Bugged game, bugged achievements, and a stain on my completion stats. :/

Hazard
Hazard

Blackguards is below average in almost every respect. The gameplay is samey, buggy, and opaque. The story is acceptable but uninspiring. The characters are passably written and well-voiced. But its most important failing is that it doesn't deliver on its pitch: to tell a story centered on a group of bad people. The protagonist is portrayed primarily as lazy in flashbacks. The party as a whole is chaotic neutral, but the game is quick to point out that they're typical in this setting. Ultimately, there just isn't much to recommend Blackguards as a place to spend your time, even if it is on a steel sale. Look elsewhere.

Hot Pork Sword
Hot Pork Sword

This is by far one of the most poorly made and frustrating games I have ever played. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I got somewhere in this game then got stuck. Tempted to say it is impossible but maybe they changed it.

CrookedNeckSilver
CrookedNeckSilver

played the 2nd one fully but the first one i didnt just cuz it seemed like a lesser form of the 2nd one (duh)
but it was fine really. 2 is better tho (which is a good thing lol)
totally loved 2 got it for like 2$ too best 2buckeroos i ever spent on a democrat game (lmao dems suck)

Bossonova911
Bossonova911

i really enjoy this series and once you get used to the mechanics and stats, its a dope game.

Palmino
Palmino

I can't recommend the game as it's just not good.

A lot of the battles are RNG based and most of them are frustrating as all the enemies have poison for no real reason.
From chapter 3 most poisons enemies use are level 3, so you can only remove them with a max ranked Clarum Purum as the Witch's Spirit spell can only remove up to level 2.
Oddly enough Clarum Purum rank 1 removes "up to level 1", rank 2 "up to level 1", rank 3 "level 1-2" and rank 4 mass cures all poisons, which is just silly.

Several actions such as drinking potions, applying poison and changing weapons (unless you have 18 points in warfare) take away your entire turn and some poisons are gone after a few attacks/turns making it even more silly.

The inventory management is also a giant pain in the ass and the loot is actually quite limited.
There's few sets of armor most are sets which don't cover all slots.
The special weapons seem to be mostly daggers for mages and crosbows only.

And furthermore a lot of the achievements are bugged

Invisible Sun
Invisible Sun

1/5/2022 Game is unstable & hangs after a few minutes play time, cannot use task manager to stop program so a restart is needed to escape.
Sadly this looks like an ok game but cannot recommend as it hangs & locks computer using windows 10

avilacanela
avilacanela

I am loving this game. It has been years since I have been so hooked to a videogame like this! Congratulations to the developers on such a great product, you can really tell the love and care that when into this! Phenomenal on every level, I love the characters and the voice acting.

Ciaphas
Ciaphas

This game has real simple graphics, everything looks cheap and ugly. And more importantly gameplay is just boring. After just a few fights, I feel like there is nothing else to do here, every move feels like a chore. It's surprising a game like this one has been produced in 2014, as there were so many quality turn-based RPG's that were already produced till 2014. Even if there is a sale don't buy this game, there is really nothing worth paying for.

ro.p.sam
ro.p.sam

Blackguards tells a very good story and the characters are interesting. On highest difficulty the battles are fun and some of them require the right mix of tactics and skills. Therefore the choices taken when developing characters matter.

Kumarsalib
Kumarsalib

The story, characters, and acting are great. The gameplay is frustrating and unforgiving, with high RNG and punishing consequences.