Blackguards - Review @ The Escapist

Couchpotato

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The Escapist has posted an early review for the Turn-Based RPG Blackguards.

Blackguards is an inoffensive and average game. It has great strengths and surprising weaknesses. If you're like me, you'll put 40-50 hours into the game depending on what difficulty you're on or how many side quests you do. Once you put that into perspective of price - $25.00 at launch in the United States - you're getting really great value for money. It's a very consumer friendly game for RPG fans, and if you're not sitting on a huge backlog it's a worthy investment of time.
The score given by the site was an average 3/5. Here are the details.

In the end, Blackguards feels a lot like the first time I played Neverwinter Nights in all the good ways and all the bad. Take from that what you will.

Recommendation: SRPG lovers and those tiding themselves over until the next BioWare RPG would do well to check out Blackguards.

Bottom Line:
Blackguards has its up and downs, but at $25 for 40 or more hours of good gameplay, it's hard to beat.
More information.
 
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Blackguards feels a lot like the first time I played Neverwinter Nights

If that is true, I hate Blackguards more than a phonegame.

Luckily, learned to never trust journalists.
 
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3/5 sounds low for how much fun I've had with the pre-release, but I can see how that might be fair for the general gaming public. RPG lovers would give it a 4-4.5 I'd think.

Had to laugh at the "where you click a dialogue you think is relatively innocuous only to shank a beggar in the streets" line though.
 
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Neverwinter Nights?! I don't remember that to be TB ... and it was one of the most boring RPGs ever.
 
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I don't think they've reviewed the final version of the game. Release is set for January 31 and if the final build would have been available I'd know, I also have a review copy. Anyway, if you're not content with Escapist's review wait for ours (Softpedia). I bet at least it won't be SO disappointing:)
 
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I understand people won't like this review, but guys not everyone is going to like what you do. It's not the job of the reviewer to please everyone.

Anyway I learned a long time ago myself to never trust any review completely. If I did I would of never bought, played, or watched all that I have.^^
 
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From what little I've played of it, I don't think it's that special. 3/5 seems pretty reasonable unless you're a big fan of tactical turn-based combat.

Obviously, that's based on very little playtime - and I'm looking forward to the full version, so I can see what all the fuss is about.
 
I don't think they've reviewed the final version of the game. Release is set for January 31 and if the final build would have been available I'd know, I also have a review copy. Anyway, if you're not content with Escapist's review wait for ours (Softpedia). I bet at least it won't be SO disappointing:)

Oh, I thought release was set for the 24th of January. Any way to verify your claim?
 
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The release is on Jan. 24th. The review embargo was lifted on Jan 20th.

Jeuxvideo has another review in a strange language I can't understand. They gave it 14/20.
 
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I never pay attention to the final score. I read the review and make my own opinion on that. Many times a reviewer will lower the score for things I don't care about or that I actually prefer that way. For example, many reviewers lower the score of a game if it doesn't have multiplayer options (I actually prefer if it doesn't). Others would lower if voice acting is not cinema quality (I just read the text and ignore or disable the voice), etc.
 
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It would be great to have something like "dynamic" reviews, where the reviewer rates certain aspects of the game (multiplayer, visuals, sound, combat, story,...) and gives them each a default weight, so a final score is calculated.

The user then could alter these weights and would see his personal score.
 
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It would be great to have something like "dynamic" reviews, where the reviewer rates certain aspects of the game (multiplayer, visuals, sound, combat, story,…) and gives them each a default weight, so a final score is calculated.

The user then could alter these weights and would see his personal score.

Or you could just read the review =)
 
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I still would need to calculate myself. :(
 
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The release is on Jan. 24th. The review embargo was lifted on Jan 20th.

Jeuxvideo has another review in a strange language I can't understand. They gave it 14/20.

True, I've just asked the devs and they said we can only play Early Access version until January 24. The final build will be pushed in a few days, but Im not sure if there are any major changes. I don't want to review an Early Access game ...
 
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Personally I'm okay with a 3/5 rating; too many scores are over-inflated as it is. Just as long as it is a playable 3/5 and has elements I enjoy.
 
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3/5 seems about right to me, but it's nothing like Neverwinter Nights and the developer isn't the same that made Torchlight. Take this review with a grain of salt. The gameplay is more like Kings Bounty (except battles are against singletons rather than groups), with more story, more NPC interactions, a little choice and consequence, and more RPG mechanics, no overland map looting, though.
 
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I don't have a problem with the 3/5 score. I'd give it 4/5 though as I'm more combat focused anyway.

I don't understand the Neverwinter nights comparison, unless he's trying to draw a parallel between the steep learning curve of the D&D ruleset and the Dark Eye rule set. The game is nothing like NWN otherwise.

I also don't understand the complaint about difficulty spikes. The game should have a range of difficulty in battles from easy to very hard, we don't want oblivion level scaling.

I think the complaints of some battles being too hard is exaggerated, maybe it's just because this is my kind of game but I never felt any battle was overly difficult in the first 3 chapters that I played. The hardest battle IMO was the last fight of the dwarf games.( which most try to tackle too soon I assume) It was the only battle I got beat down in but I passed it on my second try so it was hardly unbearable.

I will say that combat is more about resource management than actual battle tactics. If you get in to a string of fights where you can't rest and you use all your spell points or arrows in the first fight, then you have pretty much Zero chance of survival. To me that's not unbalance difficulty, It's common sense.

I assume the majority of difficulty complaints are from people that don't play much TBS.
 
Yep, a helpful trick is not to finish the battle too quickly. Get your tank to absorb damage while the rest of the party heals and regens mana. Classic tactic.
 
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3/5 seems about right to me, but it's nothing like Neverwinter Nights and the developer isn't the same that made Torchlight. Take this review with a grain of salt. The gameplay is more like Kings Bounty (except battles are against singletons rather than groups), with more story, more NPC interactions, a little choice and consequence, and more RPG mechanics, no overland map looting, though.

The combat actually reminds me most of Betrayal at Krondor, except BAK used a square grid instead of hex. Which is great, I loved that. What worries me is the game seems a bit simplistic. For instance, it seems you navigate through the game world by teleporting around from zone to zone using an overhead map? Might be OK for a strategy game, but an RPG? Especially if they drop you into the middle of encounters. Seems like not much player involvement, there.
 
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