BLACKGUARDS 2 Videogame Preview

I’ve been fortunate to have a little play of Daedalic Entertainment’s upcoming sequel, BLACKGUARDS 2, on the PC. A complete newbie to the game, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The game is a turn-based strategy RPG where you play as Cassia, an upper class woman who finds herself locked in a prison. Determined to find herself on the throne, Cassia plans to escape the prison but it won’t be easy.

I was pleasantly surprised by the gameplay which combines RPG elements, including stat and power upgrades and dialogue choices, with combat strategy and puzzle elements. The game feels very old school and with all the controls and help text boxes, I thought I’d be overwhelmed but instead I found it easy to understand and remember. The game eases you in quite well, introducing new features gradually and presenting them in almost a tutorial style way.

The game uses an hexagonal grid system for the character to move along the varied environments with all sorts of nasty enemies in the way, from skeletons to spiders, and with various levers and such to interact with to reach the destination. When face-to-face with an enemy, you have the option of moving a short distance and playing an attack, be it melee, ranged or spell-based, or you can move a longer distance in one go without attacking. Each character takes it in turn to play their desired move. When it comes to combat, the game even highlights how successful you’ll be, in the form of a percentage, when attacking the enemy with a weapon.

The storyline of the game on first view looks really engrossing and I like the fact you have a choice of answers during the dialogue sections which will affect the gameplay. This aspect involves the player a lot more than having all the choices pre-made for you. The levelling and stat upgrade system is neat too, so you can upgrade Cassia’s abilities in your preferred way, be it predominantly combat with weapons, spells or ranged or an even mixture of the three.

I’m not quite sure if there’s many games out there with this style, and prior to playing Blackguards 2, I’d have probably stayed away from them as the idea of these type of games have always been too complicated for me and my style (or so I’d imagine). However, after playing Blackguards 2, I’ve been seduced by the gameplay and am keen to play the full version when it is released on 20th January 2015 via Steam.