Villordsutch previews Blackguards 2…
Some of the best-known Blackguards from the first game will be part of the team again -unfortunately, their lives didn’t go very well since then. Although they are a shadow of their former glory, Cassia, the main protagonist of Blackguards 2 is looking for the remaining Blackguards as she sees in them the fighters and power she needs for her plans. The group will travel through South Aventuria completing quests to fulfil Cassia’s dream of ruling from the Shark Throne at all costs even if just for one day.
Firstly it has to be said that this write-up is based purely on a preview copy of the game; updates were streaming in for Blackguards 2 as I was bashing spiders and monkeys in the life-force stealing faces, so just be aware this game isn’t finished and this is just a preview not a review.
Having never played Blackguards I didn’t know what to expect from this game before its initial load other than it’s a SRPG (Strategy Role Play Game) and also a turn-based game, which in my old days of the ZX Spectrum with Rebelstar 2 and Chaos I adored this playstyle. On PC games I now lean towards the constantly moving games but I’m more than happy to give Blackguards 2 a fair crack of the whip.
Saving a Dwarf and his goldAs you can see Blackguards 2 looks okay, it isn’t overly amazing however and as you play along each level has the feel of a level editor being used to copy and paste barrels and boxes, or placing a lever at Point A to move Point B with the end goal to reach the end of the level as quickly as possible, whilst battling ‘X’ number of mobs. This starts off rather easy enough on the first level as random spiders appear and our hero dispatches the mobs with a quick blunt smash, but later in the game I was at the mercy of two skeletons stood upon an unreachable platform and albeit while I had a bow I just couldn’t equip it! This could be an issue with the preview build but this led to one member of my team being slaughtered and unusable for the entire level and in-turn led to me having to think a wee bit smarter to complete it.
Unfortunately I’m currently not a fan of the story, which seems rather disjointed and somewhat odd starting in a Labyrinth, then suddenly as years of attempting to escape we find ourselves in an Amazon style gladiators fighting pit, then a Dwarfs home, onto a pirate bay to trade and back to fighting in what looks like mine/shipyard where the dwarf keeps his money. The story is confusing and it currently feels more like the words are being added to link the set pieces the game designers have generated.
A minor bugbear – and this is more my own fault than the game’s – is the gear. The first trader I came to I had assumed that the starting gear I was wearing would be rubbish and because I’d looted around 16 gold, I bought all the armour I could and swapped it; it turns out the starting gear for this hero is rather good and I wasted my gold. The thing is everybody knows that your starting gear in every game is just paper pants and a tissue t-shirt!
There are other issues within the game but these appear to be more pre-releases bugs I’d say, from mob pathing (mobs walked away my character to start smashing crates), chests on occasion tend not to open on first try, if a character in your group dies he’ll still speak to you from beyond the grave mid-level and other such oddities.
At this moment I’m not a fan of Blackguards 2, but it’s still in preview as said and there is still more to come. I’ll be interested to see the final package and how it plays out.
Blackguards 2 is available to buy on the 20th January 2015 and you can find more information via the website here.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoHXAqSnD5g&list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F
Originally published January 9, 2015. Updated November 7, 2019.
