Game Impressions (Blackguards)

Nothing so, an entertaining little thing. Especially with such a meager selection of tactical RPGs.

I liked the game, I did not regret it and I still go through side quests that turn up very unexpectedly, when changing the class, the impressions did not deteriorate)) I changed the war to a magician and was all pleasantly impressed))

I wanted to create a theme myself, I was ahead =)
It was just the other day, the impressions are the most mixed, on the one hand, the game is like a drop of honey in a barrel of tar, on the other hand, there are so many failures in the game related to the mechanics of the game that one gets the impression that this is the first game for studios, and the first pancake, as you know, is lumpy. It can be seen that they have no experience at all in creating tactical RPGs (although the game is far from RPGs).

In order:
The gameplay at first seems very deep, the battles are varied and difficult, the pumping is very twisted and with complete classless freedom, it seems, what could go wrong? Yes, that's all ... 90% of the battles in the game are - beat the enemy to death, there are no tactics, or almost no, with extremely rare exceptions, pumping is hell, those who do not understand in time what is what and what needs to be downloaded, and that in no way case it is impossible, further on in the game they will fall into very, very tight moments. The game is replete with randomness, it seems that the dice are being thrown, but in reality you are playing roulette, those who are aware of the D&D rules will agree with me. The best example that comes to mind: imagine XCom EW in which you and your enemies have immeasurable hp, but no one can hit anyone ... as a result, closer to the middle of the game, when your Persians become tanks, the enemies will be the same, and then turn on your fantasy ... that is, the simplest battles can last for hours. In general, the game has a lot of failures in terms of the design of the battlefield and the provision of tactical options, everything is somehow too clumsy ...

The most creepy feil of the game (which at first you don't realize) is that you cannot choose party members, that is, no matter how you play, you will run with the same companions because plot and neither left nor right, because of this you need to VERY, VERY carefully choose the build of your chapters. hero, because you can get it wrong and the whole game becomes uber-hardcore simply because your party is out of balance. Another failure is that when new team members join us, their points have already been allocated, and we can only set the path. I don’t know if the developers are really idiots, or are they on purpose so cruelly pumping characters? In fact, the only competently pumped Persian will be yours, the rest will be horror and darkness.
Mages in the game are made very stupidly, they become strong only at the end of the game, and because of the hexagonal system and a very small battlefield (sometimes with a bunch of obstacles) to place warriors forward, mages do not always come back, moreover, a full-sized person or a high obstacle obstructs archery distance, spell, etc. so it often turns out that magicians in rags stand side by side with warriors in heavy armor just so that they can be cast, and as a result they are shocked to the fullest, tk. AI on heavy armor does not aggro and always chooses targets weaker than mages, then archers.

Extremely important info for those who have not started the game yet:
If you are not a die-hard fan of magicians (like me) IN NO EVENT! do not make your GG a magician, also IN NO EVENT! do not choose the default builds, they are crooked, create yourself, read carefully, scatter points, all by yourself.
The best choice as gg is an archer / crossbowman in heavy metal armor (it makes sense to take a leather jacket if he is a magician, but an archer magician is not an option, skills thrown away), take a Persian without fail (not immediately, but during the game) combat skill with blunt weapons, clubs, maces, even axes will do, it doesn't matter, one-handed / two-handed. DO NOT TAKE piercing (spears, tridents), and it is advisable not to take cutting (swords, daggers, etc.) as an extra. skills, as well as rifle max and always have arrows / bolts with you in a cool way and a lot.
The second best choice is a warrior in metal armor with a blunt weapon, if it's not worth it at all for long-range ones, it makes sense to take a shield and be a tank, the build is simple, there is nothing to paint.
Why won't I say it like that, for spoilers, but then you will say thank you, and more than once.

There is no RPG component in the game, it is interesting and fun to follow the plot, there are interesting quests, there is a choice, but there is no roleplaying at all, in fact, our hero is already with a given character and we can only choose lines that have little effect, also in dialogues we we can choose the replicas of our companions, but again, no revelations. The game has a whole bunch of side quests (I seem to have seen all of them), which are not always easy to find and take. Although the plot is fascinating, but the ending? ... True, it was not better, it feels like the developers were already sick of everything in the end, but they had to somehow finish the whole thing, and they finished. In the end, you feel like an idiot, not understanding why it was necessary to go through all this hemorrhoids? ... You will see for yourself, spoilers are evil.

The picture is very nice, good 3D graphics, the most ingenious invention that you don't need to wander around the city and in all sorts of back streets, we have a background and interactive NPCs with icons, which is very convenient, nice and pleasant. Some locations are made in the manner of games in the style of Dungeon Crawler, that is, we have a scheme in front of us and we choose a destination point, the location is immediately loaded there and the battle begins, that is, there is no need to wander around in a step-by-step mode (like in XCom, his mother) and look for enemies around every corner, it's easier.

The music in the game is masterpiece, well, it fits very smartly into the general surroundings, perfectly complements the backgrounds, during a battle it sometimes changes depending on how the battle unfolds, there are no words here, just great and atmospheric. The voice acting (at least English) is at a height, not a ceiling, but not very bad.

Outcome:
If you think about it - the game is an echo from the past, there was a time when such games were popular and very high-quality made, and looking at Blackguards one gets the feeling that the game is not a development of all that was the best in old games of this genre, but a new experiment, which it appeared for the first time in genre, and have not yet learned to work with it. But as they say - there is fish for fishlessness and cancer, so the old fans are eating the game, but they obviously won't ask for supplements ...
The developers can be praised for their efforts, but no more, too weak, this is the second such game after Shadowrun Returns. It's a little sad ...

Maybe someone will be interested in reading before getting to know the game, and after that too (=

Well, yes, it's definitely not worth doing as a magician. I now have 3 magicians in the team and there is no way to change the developed idiots.

khuk,
at the end, the magician's granny will be taken away, so that 2 magicians will be okay, the main treatment is to pump them to the maximum, and for those who start playing I advise the warriors to join the party members to download two-handed bludgeoning weapons along with the skills of combat, strength and evasion, these are super tanks, it is better not to swing the pikes , the quest spear, which you collect the whole game from 9 pieces and was not lying around with two-handed axes, and all other peaks are even worse, also poison damage is useless for half of the monsters, immunity to it, especially at the end, the best option, in my opinion, is the crossbowman in armor, a pair of fellow party mages with 2 attacking spells and maximum healing and 2 tank warriors with two-handed axes

I fundamentally disagree about the magician archer, as well as about the two-handed weapon in principle. Two-handed swords / axes have too low a hit percentage, and even with details like a powerful blow, so if you don't want to have a tank in your team that will constantly miss and miss hits, give him an ax / mace in his hands, which gives access to skills powerful blows and a shield that increases attack and parry (be sure to download shield skills). Pikes are good only in that they reach through the cage and inflict wounds with the help of special abilities, however, due to the low damage and percentage of hits, the insensitivity of many enemies to wounds, they are again inferior to shields and axes. The situation with the mage archer is quite different. Ranged combat quickly swings to level 27 against melee 22-23 for warriors, which means 95% hits on almost all enemies. The triple shot skill on the level of damage equates bows to two-handed weapons. A hail of arrows is useless against single targets, however, large creatures (ogres, salamanders) can be killed with one shot and greatly spoil the life of the dragon. With magic, the archer becomes a monster at all: shadow cloning is useless for ordinary magicians (cannot conjure) and warrior-magicians (a ban on metal armor) creates a second archer in your team, who, moreover, does not consume arrows. With an acceleration of 3 levels, the archer and his shadow hit twice per turn. There is also a hawk eye that adds +10 to hit and +5 to damage, but I did not use it, because I feel sorry for mana and skill points. salamanders) can kill with one shot and greatly spoil the life of the dragon. With magic, the archer becomes a monster at all: shadow cloning is useless for ordinary magicians (cannot conjure) and warrior-magicians (a ban on metal armor) creates a second archer in your team, who, moreover, does not consume arrows. With an acceleration of 3 levels, the archer and his shadow hit twice per turn. There is also a hawk eye that adds +10 to hit and +5 to damage, but I did not use it, because I feel sorry for mana and skill points. salamanders) can kill with one shot and greatly spoil the life of the dragon. With magic, the archer becomes a monster at all: shadow cloning is useless for ordinary magicians (cannot conjure) and warriors-magicians (a ban on metal armor) creates a second archer in your team, who, moreover, does not consume arrows. With an acceleration of 3 levels, the archer and his shadow hit twice per turn. There is also a hawk eye that adds +10 to hit and +5 to damage, but I did not use it, because I feel sorry for mana and skill points.
As a result, the composition of the party was as follows: two warriors with shock weapons and shields that inflict moderate damage and distract enemies, a support mage with healing lvl 3, protection from poison lvl 4, acceleration lvl 3, fire strike lvl 3, sparkle lvl 4 ., and two archers-magicians with an acceleration of 3 lvl., shadow cloning 2-3 lvl. shooting three arrows four times per turn. Of the minuses, it is worth noting the weak choice of bows (3 simple and one unique), a small number of special arrows that need to be spent wisely, and it is better to let the clone shoot them and the weight of the arrows that you will carry in your inventory.

PS: Buy the book of shadows as soon as you save up money the second time you can return for it closer to the end of the game
PPS: And support Aurelia or you will have to kill her, and she is the second archer in the team

The game is good, that's just interesting ... Is it buggy for me alone? The saves are not loaded, when you exit the dialogs, they throw them onto the map, the quest pointers freeze, and in general, in the BAG game on the BAG, or is it just me? I got to the middle - then it froze, the saves did not work, I played it again, so I just deleted the game. I'll put it when there is a patch.

Only you, I still had a stable version without glitches in Vevra

Sergey Shchudlyak
means I'm lucky))) but in general I figured it out))) when I cleaned it with a cleaner, I deleted one file, so it did not load) he is responsible for the game "finding" files with save files. Well, something like this))

I have just completely completed the game, I will describe my fresh thoughts on this matter. I immediately noticed the game on Steam, being a lover of turn-based tactical strategies, and decided to buy it right away.

In general, at the moment the game is replete with bugs, such as non-activating merchants, healers, and quests and dialogues, which is more offensive. But apart from the second chapter, where the medic does not work, this is not so critical.

In the gameplay, it is worth noting that the emphasis is solely on battles, they are really worked out here, especially in the first and second chapters, some battles had to be replayed ten times, or even more, but then the hardcore begins to decline sharply, and given that the battles - almost the only thing that this game can boast, it loses in interest. Honestly, I went through the fourth and fifth chapters already through "I do not want". Affected by the rush before the release. As for travel, everything is reduced to a primitive - a map with markers and cities in the form of an animated picture, but as I said, this is not the point of the game, personally I quickly got used to it.

The game is rather short, the first chapter, after passing which I immediately said to myself: “Is that all?”, Turned out to be the longest in the game. With all the additional quests, the number of which also drops sharply with each chapter, it will take a maximum of 50 hours to complete. The plot itself is pretty good, unexpected turns of events are present, but by the fourth or fifth chapter it is almost not interesting.

In general, to be honest, I regretted the purchase, because the game was not finished yet. The first two chapters intrigued and made a very positive impression of the game in terms of hardcore fights, the third chapter gave you the opportunity to enjoy leveling the character, and then ... There is no desire to go through again.

I look at the forum and see that interest in the game has faded. It's a pity, the game is very good. In the last patches, the bugs were corrected and the mechanics of the game were somewhat balanced, the places of taking some achievements were changed, for example, the lamillary armor was removed from the merchant in the first city, the DLC was added.
Let me give you some basic tips for newcomers to the game.
1.Play on easy mode, it is already difficult when you first master the game.
2.GG construct in expert mode by a magician.
3. As a GG, take an archer / mage, as the most versatile Persian.
4. I strongly do not recommend playing as a pure battle mage, as there will not be enough mana.
5 The main basic values ​​for a cunning man are intuition, dexterity, dexterity, it is better to max them out at 14, in second place in importance are strength and courage, the rest are 8. As you put it, do not swing anymore until you have pumped the necessary combat skills, special skills , skills and spells.
6 The main combat skill is a bow, swing it first from 8 to 16. The second combat skill is better to take a two-handed strike weapon, in the first city buy a Neets sword for 30 gold and you will be happy in close combat.
7. Skills: self-control, willpower, discernment, survivability, traps, martial arts, wound healing - by 0.
8. The most useful special skills at the beginning of the game are aimed shot, powerful blow, evasion 1, wearing armor 1.
9. In the future, take special skills for the bow: accurate shot, triple shot, storm of shots, and passive: evasion 3. If you wear metal armor, swing it to level 2-3.
10. I made a gnome with a tank in heavy armor with a one-handed strike weapon (Naurim's ax), a southerner - a magician / archer with a bias in the treatment of health and poisoning. archer, swing the bow to the witch.
11. At the end of chapter 3, learn the "Shadow" spell for yourself and all party members with a magic branch, it is better for them to wear bows and have the special skill "Triple Shot", in conjunction with a level 3 lightning speed cast, get a lethal total damage with saving arrows. Equip the Indian with the crossbow.
12.To master the game, use the tactics guide and walkthrough on the site http://igrasan.ru/proxozhdenie-igr/gajd-po-blackguards-taktiki-sekrety-pomoshh/
I wish you a pleasant game.

If your hero is an archer, then it is important to pick up weapons and special skills for him. From the very beginning, swing the bow to 16, and in the second chapter, take the special skill "aimed shot". In the third chapter, the archer becomes the best damage dealer in the game. To do this, after landing in the starting city of the chapter, go directly to Winneb and from the elf Madhavar take the quest "The Good Heart of Zubaran". The quest is a lot of steps with two battles, the first battle for the skins of the caimans is quite simple, but the second battle with the lily of Iobar will give you trouble. Play it on easy mode, immediately move the fighters to the island with a tree stump to the left of the lily. You need to hit with magic or fire, archers do very little damage (1, if you're lucky), the spearman Takata gives the same small damage, don't get involved in melee - they eat. After defeating the lily, get a unique two-handed strike weapon with damage like the spear "Pylos", damage 10-20 (if there is the last patch with DLS), and give it to the dwarf. From the elf Madovar you will receive a unique elf bow, damage 9-14, and most importantly, from the elf Ninive you will be able to learn all the Lukar skills, first of all, "Triple Shot" (1000 points) and "Master Archer" (800 points).
If your archer is also a magician, which is desirable, then in this chapter on the quest "Little beggar" from the magician Imakulo you can learn the spell "lightning speed", be sure to take all magicians and swing level 3.
The best equipment for an archer is a leather cloak (if you indulge in fire) or a set of leather armor.
So that you have enough points for the skills of the archer, do not pump anything except the bow to 16. When pumping the characteristics, first download only what increases the ranged combat and evasion to 10.
It is desirable that in the party additional archers with a Triple Shot were Takada (he does not swing a spear until he receives a quest, but swing armor up to 2 and evasion up to 2) and Aurelia (she only downloads the spells "Lightning Speed" and "Witch's Spit" up to 3 level, the main damage from the bow), and Zuraban for the main damage to give a crossbow from the very beginning.
In the Limit of Heroes, take the quest "Water!" My gnome and Zuraban went with these.
Then defeat Daria in the Arena on the "Crossed Blades" quest and she will teach you fighting skills.

I will clarify the previous post a little.
Give the witch Aurelia the bow of the elf and teach her the spells "Shadow" - Lv. 2-3, "Lightning speed" - Lv. 3. and "Bile of a Witch" - level 3. and the Triple Shot skill. During the battle, cast ea Aurelia "Lightning Speed" (two shots per round), Aurelia casts "Shadow" and creates her copy, which shoots "Triple Shot" without consuming arrows. As a result, you get two shots of three arrows, the total damage when using an elven bow is about 54-126, excluding crits and target resistance.
At the end of the third chapter, learn the "Shadow" spell for yourself and Zuraban. As a result, you will have 3 archers and their shadows, i.e. 6 archers with a triple shot in one turn, if you hit with shadows, then you do not spend arrows on their triple shot.
So, for yourself, Aurelia and Zurbaran, take and swing the bow to 16. For Naurimu and Takata swing the crossbow to 16, if you are doing well with the stock of arrows, then Takata can swing the bow instead of the crossbow and take him "Triple Shot".
In this situation, the party will calmly crush everyone at a distance.

For game version 1.4. The Power of the Shadow can be purchased in Chapter 1 from a merchant's wife in Vebran for 250 ducats.

on the one hand it is interesting: different tactics, opportunities, development, arenas are not similar to each other, but ... on the other hand: the farther the fights get tedious, infuriates when the magician cannot cast a spell, a lot depends on chance ... fight in the arena I pissed him off with fleas, and could not master it, I also cannot win the lilies ..
It seems like I want to play, but when you get into some moronic fight, I want to delete it. The game is ambiguous.

Team Daedalic is known for good and even great quests, including in the universe of The Dark Eye.
And so they swung at RPGs with tactical battles. Sooooo interesting genre, very much loved by me personally.
And what is the result?
A buggy (up to achievements) something with incredibly poor graphics. Well, okay, the poor graphics can be corrected with a powerful vidyuha, which can be at a resolution of 5120x2880. However, even here the game threw a pod. Firstly, the lack of optimization was revealed, because it is not even clear what to slow down here! So also fonts at resolutions of more than 1920x1080 are somehow clumsy.
Poor translation. Well, we are already used to distortions of ordinary and seemingly understandable phrases, but there are some that have not been translated and even completely disappear! In a couple of moments, but there is.
The fullness of the world also causes persistent bewilderment. Tactical battles, cities with one, rarely two screens and a map. That's all.
And if the battles are occasionally interesting and unusual, then from the point of view of beauty there is nothing to see at all. Although it would seem that it was possible to do something unique and interesting at least in cities, but no.
The hope for a plot in which Daedalics are traditionally strong has also failed to materialize. It seems that there are surprises and riddles, but not at all catchy. There are some interesting side quests, but mostly it's just an excuse for another tactical battle.
4/10

PyS: If you remember another series of this company in the world of The Dark Eye - the quest Chains of Satinav, then you can also recall the mediocre first part and the chic second. So I'll give Blackguards 2 a chance.