The Dark Eye Blackguards 2

[Jaedar]

How it itemization this time around? It was rather problematic in first game, so I'm curious to see if they fixed this.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Tell me.. theres harder maps ?

I have no idea, I haven't played it much past Lorfas. I was mostly 'uh-oh'ing at the 'played for 15 hours and starting to regret it' given some of the previous comments itt that 'GUYS MAYBE IT'LL GET BETTER LATER!'

 

[Infinitron]

'GUYS MAYBE IT'LL GET BETTER LATER!'

Well that's actually no "maybe" according to Bubbles?

Bubbles, seems there's a new patch or something: http://steamcommunity.com/app/314830/discussions/0/620703493321099818/

 

[KoriTama]

http://www11.zippyshare.com/v/5Jsyw3iW/file.html

Blackguards 2 Animation Speed Mod For Blackguards 2 v1.1.8454.2 (Steam)[ (23rd of January) ]
Movement Speed = 3x
Animation Speed = 2x

 

[vonAchdorf]

The soundtrack isn't as memorable as the first one. I still remember when the spanish melody started to play in the guards' room (2nd battle map?) in BG1. I've listened to the new soundtrack repeatedly now and it's at best unobtrusive. You forget about it, it's not distracting, but also far from being memorable like the BG1 soundtrack.

Also where are my steam trading cards? Not that I need them, but it, in addition to some of the more critical bugs, hints that the game was released a bit earlier than it should have.

 

[Bubbles]

Well that's actually no "maybe" according to Bubbles?

Bubbles, seems there's a new patch or something: http://steamcommunity.com/app/314830/discussions/0/620703493321099818/

Yeah, the game is getting daily hotfixes at the moment. Thursday they fixed a critical bug that only affected the Steam version which invalidated your save files if the game crashed. Friday's Steam patch hasn't actually been released for the retail version yet; I guess they weren't able to get it done before the weekend.

I'd expect another patch early next week to fix a critical issue with attacks of opportunity (apparently dealing AoO damage with a player character can break enemy AI and cause the game to lock up).

 

[abnaxus]

I might eventually get this on a discount. I always wanted to play something in the vein of Best Served Cold.

 

[veevoir]

Currently in 36th place on Steam with 59% postiive reviews.

sample review:

It's true theres a few maps with infinite respawns, those are a chore , just doing it one right now. Once again its easy to figure the strat, i have a feeling of deja vu, move the characters to the crystals and destroy them then flee. However those crystals seems to be resistant to blunt weapons and i cannot change the equipement .Those crystals take two turns to destroy and while you are doing that ,once again with the few units able to, an enemy caster is slowing you even more ,paralyzing , making it even more tedious and impossible unless very lucky. Enemies spawning and spawning again , with full health regen each turn, blocking any escape route , respawning faster than you kill them.

Either i steam roll the maps, or i get one of those dull crystal autoregen infinite enemy maps. The RNG is the least of this game problem.

Fuck the adamant mission. Sincerely, yours truly.

Who's brilliant idea was to create map (a second mission in a row without re-stock I might add) where you have to blow up crystals and they are melee-only +resistant to most damage, leaving the party with 1-2 characters able to break them. Even if I constantly CC the boss (which is easier said and done) it leads to a battle of attrition that cannot be won.

So time to rewind the save back to camp, stock everyone on axes and go back. Good I actaully made maunal save before that.

This is shitty encounter design from some weaboo game. "Either i steam roll the maps, or i get one of those dull crystal autoregen infinite enemy maps. " is my general feeling as well.

 

[Mortmal]

Currently in 36th place on Steam with 59% postiive reviews.

sample review:

It's true theres a few maps with infinite respawns, those are a chore , just doing it one right now. Once again its easy to figure the strat, i have a feeling of deja vu, move the characters to the crystals and destroy them then flee. However those crystals seems to be resistant to blunt weapons and i cannot change the equipement .Those crystals take two turns to destroy and while you are doing that ,once again with the few units able to, an enemy caster is slowing you even more ,paralyzing , making it even more tedious and impossible unless very lucky. Enemies spawning and spawning again , with full health regen each turn, blocking any escape route , respawning faster than you kill them.

Either i steam roll the maps, or i get one of those dull crystal autoregen infinite enemy maps. The RNG is the least of this game problem.

Fuck the adamant mission. Sincerely, yours truly.

Who's brilliant idea was to create map (a second mission in a row without re-stock I might add) where you have to blow up crystals and they are melee-only +resistant to most damage, leaving the party with 1-2 characters able to break them. Even if I constantly CC the boss (which is easier said and done) it leads to a battle of attrition that cannot be won.

So time to rewind the save back to camp, stock everyone on axes and go back. Good I actaully made maunal save before that.

This is shitty encounter design from some weaboo game. "Either i steam roll the maps, or i get one of those dull crystal autoregen infinite enemy maps. " is my general feeling as well.

The 5 crystal map is even worse than the adamant mission . Luckily for them the mainstream reviewers probably never past the few first maps, and based their review upon it .I have not finished the game yet, too many free weekends offers(sims4), but bubble did and i bet he will give a much harsher review than those.

 

[chandl34]

The last battle is broken on the GOG version (1.1.8454). I killed everything but two permanently petrified bugs, and nothing's happening. The fight itself wasn't too difficult on hard mode; guess I'll try again when it's fixed.

The game was definitely much easier on hard than Blackguards 1. This playthrough, I took all the northernmost cities first, heading to Dujar. Having early access to the assassin helped. There were only 2-3 battles that gave me a really hard time, although part of that may be because I rushed to Dujar. Dujar portal was nasty, but all the insta-kill chandeliers made it possible. Overusing archer troops makes many of the battles a pushover.

I'm not sure if I consider the game an improvement over the original, but I am grateful for the lower number of enemy mages casting map-wide debuffs.

 

[Infinitron]

Patch 1.1.8 released!
26 JANUARY - STEF.DAEDALIC

Hi all,

patch 1.1.8 for Blackguards 2 has been released on Friday afternoon. Please find the changelog attached.

Patch 1.1.8 Changelog:

• fixed a potential blocker in Takates arena causing dialogue options not being selectable
• fixed a couple of issues with achievement tracking
• fixed rare freeze when curiers spawn while legionnaires are trapped in a swamp-holes
• fixed multiple bugs in Japanese and Korean language packages
• fixed training fights so they no longer trigger game over if lost
• fixed a problem with interface input that made the GUI disappear on some occasions

We thank so much you for your ongoing support as well as your patience! And now: Have a great time conquering Southern Aventuia!

Best,
Your TeamDaedalic

 

[Roguey]

The peak concurrent players for this thing looks really bad compared to its predecessor, couldn't even reach four digits (and at this moment more people are playing 1 than 2). Looks like my prediction was off by one.

 

[vonAchdorf]

The peak concurrent players for this thing looks really bad compared to its predecessor, couldn't even reach four digits (and at this moment more people are playing 1 than 2). Looks like my prediction was off by one.

More people are playing BG1 at the moment, than BG2:

BG1: 265 in-game
BG2: 264 in-game

 

[Infinitron]

Wow, I didn't think I would be this right.

And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou slam-dunked, and also streamlined? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Dragon Age II shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.

 

[Agesilaus]

two flops in two years, great job!

 

[veevoir]

Wow, I didn't think I would be this right.

And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou slam-dunked, and also streamlined? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Dragon Age II shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.

I wouldn't be *that* harsh, the dreaded streamlining wasn't strong with this one. Still a lot of headscratching trying to build a character. Shame to see attributes go though, but the very same bonuses they gave are still to be bought in a separate skill tree - so they were not axed, just transformed.

And aside for 2 shitty encounter designs and general forcing of the main character to be mage - it is ok*.

Having more/same fun as Bg1 (heresy!)


*Also petrify and frenzy as a must on all mages, otherwise any boss encounter fucks you like a beast

 

[Whisper]

Some reviews say that there are still "too many" skills and spells.

 

[veevoir]

Some reviews say that there are still "too many" skills and spells.

They probably get lost when a dialogue in RPG has more than 6 options (out of which 2 do anything and rest is exposition).

 

[CreepyJohn_Daedalic]

Now, I guess I will play part 2 eventually, so I'll withhold my final judgement until then.

It's always best to build your opinion on your own observations. (Also more helpful for us, because we can only trust the feedback of people who actually played the game).
So thanks for your rational approach!

And I say this from a neutral standpoint, as I haven't played either installment of Blackguards yet. I was just fearing that deviating from core TDE mechanics is a very dangerous step to take with TDE fans. They are usually very unappreciative if they hear anything like that.

The thing with "deviating from stuff" is, that there's always factions of players who like and hate your changes. But if you think about it almost every P&P GM brings in his own perspective on the ruleset, his "house rules", because he thinks it improves the gaming experience for his players. At the moment I`m actively playing in three P&P rounds (three different P&Ps hosted by three different GM) and in each one the GM introduced their own "rule deviations".
About the TDE fans: I attended the "Dreieichcon" with one of our game designers last year, which is THE "The Dark Eye" convention in Germany. We even gave a workshop where we discussed the changes to the mechanics in Blackguards 2. In the end everybody saw reason (or at least said so), because designing rules for a P&P is not the same as designing rules for a video game.

2 CreepyJohn_Daedalic,
Thanks for probably best NPC (voice-overs, especially). Zurbaran and Naurim are best.

You're welcome! Our author actually supervised the recordings himself this time.

How it itemization this time around? It was rather problematic in first game, so I'm curious to see if they fixed this.

The balance and distribution of items has been changed. The items have a bigger influence on your stats and there are some comfort functions for seeing the differences between items with half an eye. Also there are generally more items (armor sets, more unique weapons, etc.).

The soundtrack isn't as memorable as the first one. I still remember when the spanish melody started to play in the guards' room (2nd battle map?) in BG1. I've listened to the new soundtrack repeatedly now and it's at best unobtrusive. You forget about it, it's not distracting, but also far from being memorable like the BG1 soundtrack.

Also where are my steam trading cards? Not that I need them, but it, in addition to some of the more critical bugs, hints that the game was released a bit earlier than it should have.

Thanks for the feedback on the soundtrack. We actually worked with a person of renown this time (Peter Connelli), so you being more fond of the BG1 soundtrack is valuable information.
The trading cards are currently pending in steams approval process.

I wouldn't be *that* harsh, the dreaded streamlining wasn't strong with this one. Still a lot of headscratching trying to build a character. Shame to see attributes go though, but the very same bonuses they gave are still to be bought in a separate skill tree - so they were not axed, just transformed.

And aside for 2 shitty encounter designs and general forcing of the main character to be mage - it is ok*.

Having more/same fun as Bg1 (heresy!)


*Also petrify and frenzy as a must on all mages, otherwise any boss encounter fucks you like a beast

Thanks for your commendation! However, we know that there are still people facing problems in Blackguards 2 and are working towards solutions with the whole team. That's also the reason for my meager contribution to this thread (I did read your comments, though). I will continue to read your comments, but reserve replies until the next week.

For the german-speakers: There will be a 8-hour livestream on twitch by HerrDekay on saturday 18:00 CET. Florian Pett (Game Designer) and I will attend, comment the gameplay and answer questions.

 

[Infinitron]

Eurogamer review: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-01-29-blackguards-2-review

Blackguards 2 review
Fatal attraction.

Often, the end of a relationship is accompanied by such familiar, cliché-ridden sentiment as "It's not you, it's me", "You're still my best friend" or "I love you, I'm just not in love with you". Occasionally, that parting shot is less bittersweet and altogether more final, something along the lines of "I don't love you anymore, so I'm casting you into these labyrinthine catacombs to have your face and mind vandalised by giant-spider venom." So it is for Cassia of Tenos, who thankfully is a resourceful lass and one for self-empowerment so that after just four years and a 30-minute tutorial she's back on her feet, a tad miffed and crazy enough to frequently argue with herself.

What follows is a single-player, turn-based tactical jaunt across a sizeable world map, seizing control of towns, fiddling with stats and choosing just how dastardly anti-hero Cassia will be as she beats a bloody hexagonal path to her former beloved's door. Accompanying Cassia is a bunch of shady reprobates who all have their own reasons for signing up and whose fate will ultimately be decided by the choices you make along the way. Each of your companions, from the greedy dwarf with anger management issues to the mopey but dashing mage, have their own thoughts on the wider world and on Cassia's tenuous grip on her sanity, not all of which are complementary. There are also a band of mercenaries brought on board to help bolster your numbers and provide the mainstay of your forces when your meddling provokes your deranged-ex to strike back against some of the settlements that you've "liberated".

Some enemies appear ill-prepared but ineffective weapons can still make fights drag out for far too long.

Interaction with your ragtag bunch takes place when you set-up camp or in bigger towns that you capture along the way. Here, you'll also visit the blacksmith, merchant, alchemist and trainer and uncover the main crux of the story as you question townsfolk and make some ugly choices that will affect how your new subjects perceive you. The scenarios are suitably grim and take in ritual slaughter, torture, and your own fragile state of mind but Blackguards 2 is not without moments of humour. These are mostly deliberate, although the occasionally wonky script and voice acting conspire to turn it all into a bit of a pantomime that undermines its otherwise dark overtones.

Regardless of the reasons for your actions, the meat on the bones of Blackguards 2 is its hex-based combat, myriad skill trees and the tactical decisions presented by its interactive maps. Strewn with precariously stacked boxes to tumble, traps to spring and chandeliers to drop atop foes, the levels themselves are a particular highlight of Blackguards 2. They add an additional layer of options when it comes to besting your enemies and combine well with mission objectives that help explore their variety, be it fleeing for an exit and dropping obstacles to slow pursuit or opening-up pathways for reinforcements to join your cause. Experimenting with the many levers, pulleys and obstacles strewn across levels is an entertaining part of Blackguards' combat, which is otherwise too pedestrian for too long as the game struggles to get up to pace during its opening hours.

It takes a long time for weapons and abilities to deal enough damage to feel effective, which is particularly jarring when you've just spent a significant portion of your gold on new weapons only to find that it still takes several hits to down a foe wearing little to no discernible armour. Special abilities and offensive spells, moderated by endurance and astral energy, are typically a good bet for dealing more significant damage. Using traps or level furniture to herd foes into a bottleneck before unleashing destructive abilities forms a useful strategy early on, especially as enemies often outnumber your motley group by three to one.

Occasionally, suspect AI sees enemies behave in curious ways but it also has wounded enemies try to take-up a more defensive position. Sometimes, they will effectively avail themselves of cover or break from combat to run to a nearby alarm bell or unleash a caged menace, but at other times it will see them run headlong through a cloud of poison or box themselves into a corner, thus sealing their fate. For the most part, the AI relies on sheer force of numbers, or one or two hard-as-nails super-baddies, rather than exercising genuine strategy. This brings with it the downside of fights that often drag on for longer than is welcome or necessary and after just a few battles you'll wish for the ability to fast-forward through enemy turns. Later in the game, as more exotic and powerful enemies are introduced, things become less of a drag, although with no option to save mid-battle or even quit to the world map it's a case of winning or having your entire party wiped-out in order to escape.

Being able to change the pitch of the camera is all well and good but more comprehensive control would help avoid mis-clicks.

There's plenty to fiddle with in between battles to avoid them becoming overly tiresome, though. Five skill trees range from general passive perks to weapon-specific abilities and a comprehensive spell book, and while each of Cassia's companions comes pre-skilled in particular areas, there's still plenty of scope in how best to equip them for battle and which areas they might specialise in. Cassia, on the other hand, is a blank slate and can be moulded into a ranged terror, a melee expert or a spell-flinging menace, with early specialisation being advantageous if she's to grow capable of doing serious damage later on.

There's also a subtle balance between attack and defence stats that can be tweaked for each weapon set. This, like much of Blackguards 2, becomes more readily apparent and genuinely useful several hours into the adventure. The UI, which feels unnecessarily fiddly and opaque at first, eventually reveals scope for creating heavily customised warriors, while the sedate pace of the game lends itself to poring over character development and micro-managing your minions.

One of the delights of settling down to a turn-based tactical RPG is poking around to understand how its systems combine and then utilising those systems in imaginative and tactically satisfying ways. In this regard, Blackguards 2 delivers. Eventually. The writing and presentation are serviceable rather than spectacular but there's a decent level of scope for customisation and engaging combat if you can push past its trudging opening hours. Cassia and co's deep-seated issues and baggage make them an entertaining bunch and while they won't set your world alight, they eventually prove capable of providing many hours of surprisingly amiable companionship.

7 / 10

 

[vonAchdorf]

Regarding the concurrent / maximum player numbers on Steam, I wanted to add that this time, Blackguards 2 was available DRM free from launch, IIRC BG1 was a Steam only game until it was release on GoG (and maybe bundles) and also the retail versions were bound to Steam. This time the cheapest version in Germany was actually the 20€ DRM free retail version. And it seems, that in Germany parts of the TDE fandom are as anti-Steam as parts of the Codex. So I think the numbers cannot be compared directly right now.

 

[veevoir]

I wouldn't be *that* harsh, the dreaded streamlining wasn't strong with this one. Still a lot of headscratching trying to build a character. Shame to see attributes go though, but the very same bonuses they gave are still to be bought in a separate skill tree - so they were not axed, just transformed.

And aside for 2 shitty encounter designs and general forcing of the main character to be mage - it is ok*.

Having more/same fun as Bg1 (heresy!)


*Also petrify and frenzy as a must on all mages, otherwise any boss encounter fucks you like a beast

Thanks for your commendation! However, we know that there are still people facing problems in Blackguards 2 and are working towards solutions with the whole team. That's also the reason for my meager contribution to this thread (I did read your comments, though). I will continue to read your comments, but reserve replies until the next week.

I really hope you also taken into consideration my sincere "fuck you" for Adamant and 5-crystals-smash mission designs in my previous post :D. This needs improvements - the adamant mission can even be semi ok (despite the fact you must have a way to CC the boss and party strong enough to kill the wraith in one turn..), though it would at the very least use a little boost in difficulty shown on map. Currently it is "6" I believe, when it is closer to 8-9 (I'd give it 10-11 considering final mission is 10_. But at least you can choose to go there or not.

5 crystals is just a random shitfest, "try again" until gods of RNG honor you. What's worse - Adamant can be postponed until you beef the party, 5 crystals just happens and you're pretty much fucked. This is a badly designed mission.

For a mission that keeps pressure (aka forever respawning dudes) but is well designed - see Naurim recruitment mission. Mission itself is easy IF you don't touch any chests, but that's not the point, is it?
Trying to get all/most of the chest creates the challenge (and frustrations and curses to RNG gods). But at the same time the mission is not progression blocker - you can just 'fuck it' and just run for the exit.

That is an example of good balance of risk vs reward.

On that note: it would be useful if all heroes would start as a blank slate with free points instead of invested skills. But that's just me, playing master of puppets with skill direction and barbie with outfitting


EDIT: And a general question: what has to be done to get the Cassia melee/archer/mage achievements? I certainly dumped all her XP into magic, still no achievement.. The little Xbox xxx360noscopeXX kid in me is sad for not getting it. UR M0M!

 

[Snorkack]

Hey guys! I'm not so keen on BG 1 and only played it for a few hours. However, I heard some contradicting stuff about BG 2, so I'm not sure whether I should give it a shot.
What kept me from playing BG1 further:
-boring Itemization nvm
-Ultra linear and therefore...
-...nothing to explore
-Nothing to do outside of combat.

Is it worth to try BG2 because they changed some of this for the better, or is it just more of the same?

 

[twincast]

Regarding the concurrent / maximum player numbers on Steam, I wanted to add that this time, Blackguards 2 was available DRM free from launch, IIRC BG1 was a Steam only game until it was release on GoG (and maybe bundles) and also the retail versions were bound to Steam. This time the cheapest version in Germany was actually the 20€ DRM free retail version. And it seems, that in Germany parts of the TDE fandom are as anti-Steam as parts of the Codex. So I think the numbers cannot be compared directly right now.

Well, there was the month or so of Steam Early Access, but I'm pretty sure the actual release was concurrent on GOG. Either way, the retail version was definitely DRM-free from the get-go, and I think that unlike Blackguards 2 the first game didn't have a Steam code as an extra in the box (me not using such, I might be wrong about this last part, though).
Chains of Satinav is the only TDE game of Daedalic's that originally was only available with Steam-registration (and IIRC the only game of theirs period that had mandatory online DRM).

 

[twincast]

For a mission that keeps pressure (aka forever respawning dudes) but is well designed - see Naurim recruitment mission. Mission itself is easy IF you don't touch any chests, but that's not the point, is it?

The map is mind-blowingly easy (on normal, and since you shouldn't engage in any fighting, likely on all difficulty levels), even if you go for all the chests.