Blackguards 2 Gamescom Presentation

The demo of Blackguards 2 was presented by Johannes Kiel, with Kai Fiebig adding additional information. To me Blackguards 2 looked like Blackguards 1 with changes, as could be expected. The results of the first Blackguards were apparently such to warrant a second Blackguards game and Kai mentioned it was a success in two ways. Firstly Daedalic went out of their comfort zone to make an RPG that was received well and secondly the sales were above expectation. This article reflects what was told to me and focusses on some of the changes in Blackguards 2 compared to it predecessor.

Johannes and Kai mentioned that one of the biggest problems with the first Blackguards was that players did not know how the rule system worked. The Dark Eye P&P rule system can be pretty complex and not easy to understand. In Blackguards 2 many of these more complicated rules have been implemented such that they are better understandable by the player. The word simplified comes to mind with some of the changes that were mentioned by Kai, such as the 16 attributes that are in TDE and are now grouped together to seven and the more direct relation between incrementing an attribute and the effect that would have for that character in the game.
Although things have been made easier to understand, Kai emphasizes that the game has become less complicated, but at the same time has become more complex.

Blackguards 2 takes place in southern Aventuria and will be less linear than its predecessor. The player can now freely go through the map as he or she chooses. The story will also be different depending on the way you go through it, as it is will change based on the choices you make in the game. The ending of the game depends on what you have done during your travels through Aventuria, which will add to the replayability of the game, as long as you actually play the game in a different way every time. The much darker story of Blackguards 2 supports this with more difficult decisions to make your choices count.

In order to plan your route through Aventuria better the difficulty level of opponents are shown before entering a battle. As are the bonuses you can receive from the fight, so you can pick your battles if you like. At the start of a fight you select your units to deploy and where to deploy them on the grid. Besides the heroes to choose from, you can now be aided by mercenaries you hired as well. There are mercenaries available in all classes, so you can build your team as you see fit. Next to these mercenaries you can also free prisoners during a battle (if there are any) that are being held captive. Once freed, they will fight beside you to join your cause.

Several new creatures have been added to Blackguards 2, one of them being Demons. These demons can be controlled if you have found the right tunes, which you can use on a blood object, allowing you to charm the demon. Once charmed, the demon can be added to your team in combat. To allow for all these new units you can now have up to 20 units in total under your control.
Some other changes in the combat mechanics are that it is now possible to take cover behind objects and the addition of a line of sight tool, which allows to visualize what the line of sight of a character is and who can and can't be reached. In addition the somewhat weak mages from Blackguards 1 have been upgraded by changing their chance to hit and improving their spells.

What will also make an impact during combat is the addition of stamina as an attribute. Everything you do in Blackguards 2 during a fight will use stamina, such as moving, slashing, parrying, shooting, casting a spell, etc. In this way each action will reduce your available amount of stamina, which only replenishes slowly, and adds a need for better planning of your fight.

A new location you can visit at any time during your travels, is an encampment, which grows as you progress in the game. In the encampment you find amongst others, trainers, merchants and also prisoners whom you can torture to extract important information or whom you can make to join you.

Blackguards 2 features many other smaller and larger changes, which were not all shown, but result, in Kai's opinion, in a gameplay that is more tactical and very different from the first Blackguards.

Some things have not changed much though. You still can't influence anyone in a conversation by using any skills and for the major part the interaction with the NPCs in towns is similar to how it was in Blackguards 1, but there is one other new thing related to this that Kai did not want to inform me of yet, in order to not spoil things, but he did want to say that your decisions will influence the behavior of NPCs as well.

They have no idea yet if Blackguards 2 is bigger than the first. It also depends on what you consider to be 'bigger'. In amount of maps it is smaller, but as there is more to do, the playing time is expected to be longer.

There are no real plans at the moment to bring Blackguards 2 to other platforms, but they would like to do it. They don't see it as a problem to have it running on other platforms than Mac and PC and actually already have on some, but the controls are an issue. Because of all the things you can do in Blackguards 2 the controls are not that easy to implement on a platform with a different interface.

Blackguards 1 will not see any new DLC as they need all of their resources to work on the development of Blackguards 2. Once it has been released, it is likely that some DLC will be developed for Blackguards 2 though.
There are also no plans to bring any adventure titles to this world. They are aiming for something bigger for a future game. Something that incorporates more elements of an RPG, more skills, more talents and a bigger world. Whether or not this future game is Blackguards 3 was not shared, but Kai thinks it might be a big surprise once it is revealed.

If Kai himself could make any game he likes and would have a large enough budget he would make a game with the scope and complexity of Baldur's Gate 2 including an online playing mode. In his past he worked on Baldur's Gate 2 and he misses the really complex games like that in these days. There are not many of those, so if he had the freedom and the money he would like to create that type of game.

As far as the release date is concerned Kai was somewhat vague, but it is currently scheduled for the first part of 2015.