Blackguards Beta Preview

Blackguards is the latest game in development from Germany's own Daedalic Entertainment. Yes, it is from the same folks who brought us The Night of the Rabbit and the hilariously chaotic Deponia trilogy. Blackguards, like their past games, spells a narrative of a grand adventure. Within the intro, your created hero is accused of murder, tossed into jail and sent off to the guillotine. This is where Daedalic Entertainment twists the narrative. It's clear that your companions are closer to rogues than they are heroes: Naurim, your first companion, is a tough-as-steel dwarf whose dragon hunting career is as elusive as his temper is quick and forceful. Zurbaran, a charismatic mage, was imprisoned after his desire and libido were aimed at someone else's woman. And the elf Niam is a huntress whose problems make her yearn for the comfort of drugs. 

Trust no one, including yourself"

Only playing the beta's first chapter, it's easy to see the ambition behind Blackguard's narrative. Quests, like your companions, aren't exactly black or white in the Dark Eye universe; the value of one truth held against another poses the question of justice versus self-gain. Some missions allow the player to pursue the goal how they want. In one quest, after defeating a troll who pilfered a weapon from a local merchant, Zurbaran actually suggests to the party they should say nothing and keep the staff for himself. There is no morality or karma system like the Fallout series, but Blackguards definitely reverberates Fallout's question of ethics. Different quest outcomes definitely adds depth to the game, but if the majority of these missions are simply resolved with an exchange of gold or a simple weapon then that depth is lost and is substituted with the lackluster. It's impossible to tell how player decisions will affect the narrative but the early quests I've played through do set up a precedent for a dark and interesting story.

Those familiar with Daedalic Entertainment know many of their games are driven by the narrative. Unlike previous Daedalic titles, however, Blackguards is a turn-based role-playing strategy game: think X-Com drenched in fantasy, while echoing aesthetics of the Fable series. Battles, influenced by Dungeons and Dragons, take place on a hexagonal-style chessboard where initiative determines turns, strength determines hit chance, and agility determines a character's ability to dodge. The combat has a lot of potential given the battlegrounds encourage players to use the environment to their advantage. Flowing creek beds may cause characters to slip and lose a turn, swamps are riddled with deep mud puddles that leave players trapped and defenseless and the occasional chandelier, if severed from its rope, is able to do quite a bit of damage to foes standing beneath it. 

Combat in the beta works well. The three classes, warrior, mage and rogues, offer a plethora of weapons, items and spells that either do damage or heal or buff your party members and allies. There are 11 weapon styles to outfit your warparty to your playstyle, including fencing weapons, throwing knives, crossbows, two-handed weapons, spears and staffs. Of course, the effectiveness and proficiency in each weapon depends on the character wielding it and their particular stats. This is where the beta marks some problems. 

ATTACK!

While battles offer a great challenge from the enemies and navigating the environment, I found some battles in the first chapter overwhelming. I suppose the balance could have been due to my party's lack of experience since Blackguards handles leveling up in a non-conventional way. Instead of collecting a lump sum of experience and upgrading your characters then, players are able to upgrade stats, weapon proficiencies, spells and talents anytime they can afford it. I felt the pace of the game is challenged through this leveling-up system. Characters feel as they don't progress, especially when fighting tougher bosses or tackling tougher side quests like the Dwarf brothers' coliseum challenge in the first chapter. However, to better balance characters and increase customization, Daedalic Entertainment updated Blackguards so players can tune their characters to their style. In an update released today, Daedalic wrote, "The advanced character creation mode will allow players to shape the character to your liking right from the start. You will be able to spend the character's adventure points for the skills and spells you'd like to have instead of taking the choice we made for you." And for those players whom aren't too familiar with role-playing aspects, Daedaelic adds "the entire advanced creation mode will be optional. So, if you'd rather go for a premade character, you'll be able to do that as well. 

While the game supports an almost final version, there are a few minor problems with the aesthetics: Blackguards voice acting is superb. However, the characters mouths don't move during cutscenes and when they do, it isn't synced. When a character speaks, the lines of code identifying the characters are displayed. Of course, these minor problems are to be expected in a beta. The only major complaints so far revolve around Blackguards completely freezing  and low frame rates in some areas. Luckily, these occurrences weren't often and did not dissuade me from continuing.

Overall, the beta provides a great preview on Daedalic's newest game all the way up to the third chapter. The graphics reverberate the feel of fantasy while the combat mechanics cohesively tie into that through its D&D-like gameplay. Of the trouble attributed to my first chapter playthrough, most were only minor problems. Hopefully, along with dropping frame rates and game crashing glitches, the release  will see players get a better polished version. Blackguards' beta feels like a rough translation to a great game and I cannot wait till the full version is released.