Blackguards

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 256 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 143 out of 256
  2. Mixed: 69 out of 256
  3. Negative: 44 out of 256

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  1. paprik
    Jan 27, 2014
    4
    Blackguards is a poorly balanced turn-based RPG based on what seems to be a very limited and flawed rule system. Some battles can literally be impossible to win with your current party, especially if you lack certain must-have spells. Mages are strictly better than warriors, as you can fully customize both, except warriors don't have access to spells. And while it may look like you have aBlackguards is a poorly balanced turn-based RPG based on what seems to be a very limited and flawed rule system. Some battles can literally be impossible to win with your current party, especially if you lack certain must-have spells. Mages are strictly better than warriors, as you can fully customize both, except warriors don't have access to spells. And while it may look like you have a lot of options at first, the opposite is true: you're going to be using the same few skills over and over. You can't even plan your characters since you're reliant on the trainers that you have access to.

    Equipment-wise there is not much customization either. Items provide no fun mechanics, just minor stat improvements, that you won't even notice. The only difference in defense is whether you have a shield or not.

    All of this makes your characters very linear which deprives combat of any strategy. All you can do is pray for better RNG rolls.

    That said, the game is pretty well executed in the graphics, sound and story department, but has some weird camera control and the dialogue is far from "hilarious" as other are describing it.    … Expand
  2. malcolmm
    Jul 17, 2014
    4
    This game could have been very good, and some parts of it are very good. As a fan of strategy/RPG games, this game should have been very enjoyable for me.

    The graphics are nice, and the game has a good variety of interesting monsters for you to fight. Battle maps are custom designed, which I prefer to random maps. There isn't any grinding, which normally would be a positive for me, but    This game could have been very good, and some parts of it are very good. As a fan of strategy/RPG games, this game should have been very enjoyable for me.

    The graphics are nice, and the game has a good variety of interesting monsters for you to fight. Battle maps are custom designed, which I prefer to random maps. There isn't any grinding, which normally would be a positive for me, but given how stingy the game is doling out experience (action points), this is a negative.

    However, the game balance is terrible, many battles are boring because they are so easy, but then you will get battles that are very frustrating.

    The character development is also extremely poor. It's very hard to know which skills/attributes work and which ones are next to useless. Even if you are careful you could end up with characters that aren't very effective because you choose the wrong things to upgrade.

    The developers pretty much abandoned the game a few months after release to start development of Blackguards 2. I use to be a fan of Daedalic games but their last few games, including Blackguards have not been very good.    … Expand
  3. astragoblin
    Feb 20, 2015
    3
    Dreadful experience.

    Slow-paced and difficult, with too fine a stat/ ability granularity for how clunky and random the tactical combat actually is. The story was ok, just enough to give you a veneer of something to care about, but the beginning was too cheesy and plot-holey, and it all felt really small and unimportant. Game difficulty doesn't ramp well... as a starting player I felt    Dreadful experience.

    Slow-paced and difficult, with too fine a stat/ ability granularity for how clunky and random the tactical combat actually is. The story was ok, just enough to give you a veneer of something to care about, but the beginning was too cheesy and plot-holey, and it all felt really small and unimportant. Game difficulty doesn't ramp well... as a starting player I felt always behind the curve, with crappy equipment and not enough gold to do much about it, and I spent more time redoing missions I lost than enjoying any sense of progression or accomplishment.    … Expand
  4. pazmacats
    Jan 23, 2014
    4
    It's a solid turn-based game that's 15 years late. Battles are repetitive, only 8 out of 100 skills are actually useful. Gameplay is a series of (very similar) tactical battles. The RPG-part is clicking through dialogue. Game gets boring really fast.
  5. aykarus
    Apr 26, 2014
    0
    Avoid. Ridiculous game. It starts out well enough - actually quite enjoyably. But then the game turns into some demented killer DM fantasy. Things started going sideways in the Gladiator fights - I should have realized I was wasting my time when I was outracing killer crocodiles who are trying to eat food off a plate…where if they eat all the food the prisoner you're trying to protect diesAvoid. Ridiculous game. It starts out well enough - actually quite enjoyably. But then the game turns into some demented killer DM fantasy. Things started going sideways in the Gladiator fights - I should have realized I was wasting my time when I was outracing killer crocodiles who are trying to eat food off a plate…where if they eat all the food the prisoner you're trying to protect dies and you lose. I finally quit when I went into an encounter that was supposed to be in a warehouse that turned out to be trapped in 27 different ways. This game is so un-immersive. So retarded. Is there more than 1/20 players who actually enjoy games that are to a *huge* extent about avoiding traps and getting poisoned? Well if that's you, then this is your game. If you want a real great RPG there are plenty of great ones. Dragon Age/NWN this isn't.… Expand
  6. Grim13
    Jan 28, 2014
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is supposed to be a turn-based tactical RPG... only there's very little RPG, and the random number generation masquerading as combat mechanics destroy any illusion of tactics having meaning.

    Case and point: at the first hub, after escaping the dungeon, your character's suggest purchasing some goods from the local merchants... "Hey, good idea! I think I will"... ONLY, I have very little money. I realise that if I sell all my characters' torches, I'll be able to afford a couple daggers... thinking I'm equipping them with better weapons than torches. Nope. The next battle I face involves skeletons who don't take ANY damage from piercing weapons. ROFL Needless to say, my Mage certainly wasn't going to be able to take them all on himself...

    The ENTIRE game is a series of events similar to that.

    Upgrade the wrong character stats? Start over/reload. Buy the wrong equipment? Start over/reload. Run into set of rules the game neglected to even hint were possible? Too bad, start over/reload.

    No, thank you.

    Most of the character upgrades are useless and will ultimately lead to death. Most of the equipment drops are useless. Most attempts at hitting an enemy are useless. The story is poor and the game is on rails.

    Like others have previously stated: there are more tactics involved in Rock, Paper, Scissors than Blackguard. And what kills the game for me, as I can overlook most of the rest, is the realisation that there is little to NO skill involved in this game at all... and very little player control over battle outcomes.

    ..What you CAN control, however, is whether you choose to play it or not... and I won't.    … Expand
  7. motocrtc
    Feb 5, 2014
    4
    Blackguards is full of great ideas, but fails to really deliver on that potential. The story is okay but generic. Combat is so random that strategy is largely irrelevant, as even basic spells like Heal and Cure Poison have a random chance to do nothing. There are plenty of options for character customization in theory, but since each ability requires a specific trainer that you can'tBlackguards is full of great ideas, but fails to really deliver on that potential. The story is okay but generic. Combat is so random that strategy is largely irrelevant, as even basic spells like Heal and Cure Poison have a random chance to do nothing. There are plenty of options for character customization in theory, but since each ability requires a specific trainer that you can't access until you've completed a certain set of quests, you have little choice but to simply learn what's available and every character ends up identical

    It's one of those games that makes you want to overlook its flaws because it could have been a great game, but in all honestly it's just not fun to play as it doesn't feel like your choices ever make any difference. Not during quest dialog, not in character customization and definitely not in combat.    … Expand
  8. MirandaNC
    Feb 5, 2014
    4
    The Miss chance just drag the combat forever. I'm not a fan of the turn based combat, but after Banner Saga i thought i could try Blackguards, and that got me disappointed.
  9. Der12te
    Feb 16, 2014
    1
    This Game ist a pice of Crap. Why ?

    You have EXACTLY Skill your Toons like its given from the Devs. Any Hints about that ? ROFL !
    You have to play this Game to learn it by yourself. and start over and over and ......

    Dadalic make Point and Click for Germans please. No More RPG, please !
  10. dplehwalder
    Jan 26, 2014
    1
    Horrible! Do not waste your money.

    I had this game on my wish list for a long time. Then the Demo came out. I downloaded it and tried the game. The first few battle where ok, I did notice a bug or two, but nothing big. I got to town and went for the first dungeon. This is where the game really feel apart. It is almost impossible to beat any battle there. I tried killing the lice about    Horrible! Do not waste your money.

    I had this game on my wish list for a long time. Then the Demo came out. I downloaded it and tried the game. The first few battle where ok, I did notice a bug or two, but nothing big. I got to town and went for the first dungeon. This is where the game really feel apart. It is almost impossible to beat any battle there. I tried killing the lice about 20 times before I finally had to fireball them to death. Both my ranged attacks and attacks from the dwarf NEVER hit. It will often show 35% or 59% hit chance, but they still never hit. I must have made at least 50 attacks in all my attempts at the lice and only managed 4-5 actual hits. Thats less then 10% hit chance. How stupid is that! Especially since you have to close all the holes before you kill any of them. I tried the wolves but they seem unbeatable, as I have never managed to land hit on them. Oh and of course more then 50% of the time your spell fails. This simply a game of very poorly designed mechanics.    … Expand
  11. JoceDoIt
    Jan 28, 2014
    0
    Boring game, don't waste youre time. I can't think in 2014 doing such platonic game. Playing card games is more fun than that. I played for about 2 hours to realise that you have any control of the game than moving the caracters on the board an hope that the hit will strike.

    Next game please!
  12. blackbird1
    Aug 25, 2014
    0
    .... im so sad... i realy wanted another great turn based game like xcom or something there are so less of ths kind of games and i dont play other genres , but i get the demo of this and the game feels so poor the ui so bad the german voice acting sucks******* . this "professional" speakers are not worth to get paid. The game is okay on english and thats the only good thing about it..... im so sad... i realy wanted another great turn based game like xcom or something there are so less of ths kind of games and i dont play other genres , but i get the demo of this and the game feels so poor the ui so bad the german voice acting sucks******* . this "professional" speakers are not worth to get paid. The game is okay on english and thats the only good thing about it.

    come make a good tactical turn based rpg with large ui on 1920 1080 and im happy but not this ****    … Expand
  13. qwisatz
    Mar 19, 2014
    2
    Unplayable due to a bug. The game has some promise, but it hangs up for me when the mage character's turn is over. I can't make it past the first 30 minutes of the game. I've restarted multiple times and it always hangs in the same way at the end of the mage character's turn.
  14. Blacknsilver
    Feb 7, 2014
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The good- decent visuals, interesting characters, the story is enthralling at times. A few of the skills and spells feel satisfying to use.

    The bad- A lot of quests are badly designed, badly written and badly scripted. Apparently an alchemist is willing to hire you to guard a well from the "greedy villagers" but not pay them instead. Or bring water from another town. Or even wait a couple of days. Don't want to refuse a pregnant woman a single bucket of water? Quest failed.
    A lot of fights are absurdly over or under-tuned. Don't have any archers for the Iribaar lilly fight? Too bad, that fight is IMPOSSIBLE with only melee characters. There is no warning or suggestion to specialize some of your characters for ranged combat and all of the NPCs at that point are melee (4 out of 4).

    The ugly- the game has been marketed as an RPG, in other words- it's supposed to be about making choices. Blackguards is not an RPG. There is no "choice" when assigning skills- 75% are garbage, 10% are decent, 15% are must-have. There is exactly one way to do your assigned quests and attempting any deviation will swiftly reward you with a "Quest Failed"- message.    … Expand
  15. Paulystan
    Jun 3, 2014
    3
    It occurs to me after now the 4th negative score I have given a game on Metacritic I am quite possibly hard to please when it comes to computer games. I am not quite sure when this trait started in my gaming life but I have a feeling it is here to stay. For that I do not apologise. Considering that there are simply SO many genres and countless titles in each, I do not ever feel the need toIt occurs to me after now the 4th negative score I have given a game on Metacritic I am quite possibly hard to please when it comes to computer games. I am not quite sure when this trait started in my gaming life but I have a feeling it is here to stay. For that I do not apologise. Considering that there are simply SO many genres and countless titles in each, I do not ever feel the need to waste time or money on games that are simply not good enough.

    I have found this game is simply not good enough (although better than some) and once again I find myself writing things like, it had potential, a fairly good start, interesting turn based tactics etc but after a short amount of time, it end up boring and even frustrating.

    I really don't understand why there are SO many games that have good concepts but are actually really poor in game play and this, for me, is one of them.    … Expand
  16. drakonx1337
    Oct 31, 2014
    0
    worthless, the update they did to it makes it crash every 15 min or so and they havnt fixed it in the last six months. it crashed on me 4 times before i got the first mission completed and thats good compared to most of the others
  17. pantswilder
    Nov 6, 2015
    0
    This could have been a good game, but relentless opaque game mechanics coupled with a silly interface make it little more than an exercise in frustration.
  18. crayno66
    Mar 10, 2016
    1
    I enjoyed this game despite the sometimes frustrating battles up to the point when I found out that I didn't have the right build and I couldn't win a single battle anymore.
    If you like a challenge and a lot of frustration then this game is for you, if you want ot actually enjoy a game without having to start over, play something else
  19. cottoneyej31
    May 12, 2015
    0
    RNG RNG RNG. I put up with the games RNG for quite a while. I thought it even added a bit of challenge to the game. But after I got stuck in a city, with no way out except proceeding forward. In a fight, where my entire party starts under a bit of scaffolding holding a bunch of rocks and the enemy kept doing a wind attack that took 3 of my 4 party memebers out before I could even moveRNG RNG RNG. I put up with the games RNG for quite a while. I thought it even added a bit of challenge to the game. But after I got stuck in a city, with no way out except proceeding forward. In a fight, where my entire party starts under a bit of scaffolding holding a bunch of rocks and the enemy kept doing a wind attack that took 3 of my 4 party memebers out before I could even move my first turn. Over and over. I was done.

    Very poorly made game. Its a shame I'll never bother to see the rest of it.    … Expand
  20. Broyax
    Dec 29, 2016
    2
    Le système de jeu au tour par tour de Blackguards est particulièrement rigide et laborieux en plus d'être assez buggué et de ne pas respecter les probabilités (un 90% rate... deux fois sur trois !). L'interface est très perfectible (impossible de faire pivoter la caméra !) pour ne pas dire bien merdique puisqu'il faut se taper un menu radial ou gérer 10 000 raccourcis (à boulotterLe système de jeu au tour par tour de Blackguards est particulièrement rigide et laborieux en plus d'être assez buggué et de ne pas respecter les probabilités (un 90% rate... deux fois sur trois !). L'interface est très perfectible (impossible de faire pivoter la caméra !) pour ne pas dire bien merdique puisqu'il faut se taper un menu radial ou gérer 10 000 raccourcis (à boulotter soi-même) et que de surcroît il faut cibler l'hexagone sur lequel est le personnage et non pas le personnage -sinon impossible de le sélectionner comme cible... (oui c'est incroyablement con, un développeur qui programme avec son fion).

    L'histoire ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard et finit par nous ennuyer mais la musique est plutôt réussie et le jeu s'avère graphiquement correct. Comme Blackguards triche en permanence avec les probabilités, on se retrouve sans cesse à la bourre pour contrer des effets très indésirables comme le poison, l'élément le plus répandu du monde de Blackguards : du poison, du poison et du poison !

    C'est un grave souci d'équilibrage qui gonfle artificiellement la difficulté du jeu jusqu'à le faire éclater comme une foutue baudruche. Et dans le cas où il faut traverser une caverne infestée d'ennemis avec une vague de poison verdâtre qui vous poursuit, bonjour les dégâts !

    Eminemment regrettable, car le jeu était plutôt distrayant malgré ses tares au début et au milieu, puis il est devenu répétitif, lourdingue et détestable vers la fin.    … Expand
  21. 3t3rnal
    Dec 21, 2021
    3
    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 doBland 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 them - 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.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

63
#63 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 48 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 29 out of 48
  3. Negative: 2 out of 48
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    May 11, 2014
    85
    Blackguards was a nice surprise: gaming system is solid and interesting, and the puzzle-like battles hold interest until the end. At times they are even challenging. Although patches might have changed that. [Feb 2014]
  2. SpazioGames
    Apr 13, 2014
    75
    Daedalic's first time in the world of RPG is one of those to remember. Blackguards is not a flawless game: it has a slow gameplay that after hours and hours can be boring, technically it is not that great and has an annoying problem of balancing the difficulty. Yet it remains a great role-playing game.
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  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 7, 2014
    60
    Some drawbacks and glitches aside, this is hardcore fun for the turn-based enthusiast. The not so enthusiastic player needs to brace himself for a steep difficulty curve. [Issue #239]
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