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Have you seen the mainstream sites? The do exist in the vacuum, only 3 cRPGs that were released this year are South Park, Dragon Age and D:OS. The rest were too niche or too obscure for them, Wasteland included.
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The Dark Eye Blackguards 2
- Thread starter Crooked Bee
- Start date
GrimoireFTW
Learned
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2013
- Messages
- 192
Did they kill my fucking cat in the intro video? FUCKing rude man, that sucked..... so what is Cassia supposed to be like a female John wick? Anyways she seems like an interesting character and the intro was pretty cool.
and by intro I mean cassia in the dungeon getting lost in the labyrinth and being hideously deformed and driven insane by giant mean ass spiders. Not the random strange INTRO video where they kill my fucking cat and throw it out the window. what the fuck was that....
and by intro I mean cassia in the dungeon getting lost in the labyrinth and being hideously deformed and driven insane by giant mean ass spiders. Not the random strange INTRO video where they kill my fucking cat and throw it out the window. what the fuck was that....
Diablo169
Arcane
The site I use to get around our work internet filter to read gaming news reviewed it:
http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/games/pc/Blackguards-2-Review-470261.shtml
http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/games/pc/Blackguards-2-Review-470261.shtml
Bubbles
I'm forever blowing
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 7,817
Played 3.5 hours so far, just liberated Lorfas:
- hard mode is much easier than in BG1, feels way too easy in general, but I might still be in the "tutorial". No need to reload anything yet, wounds, hp, mana, stamina, everything seem to auto-cure after battle
- I have the feeling that combat mostly runs itself with little input needed from my end except clicking on the nearest enemy. Maybe that's because I've played BG1.
- I haven't had a to-hit chance lower than 78% yet - again, on hard mode. Quite a change.
- army of infinite soldiers means you have at least two characters in every battle who are just cannon fodder with no repercussions for them dying. No reason to use anything but the swordsmen yet, since they upgrade first and you want them to stay on the front lines anyway to soak up damage
- archery range indicator seems broken in the current version
- the dialogue is "bleaker" than in BG1, don't like it much. Cutscenes where the bad guy is sitting in his low-poly throne room talking about blood and torture to show you're progressing through the game, that sort of thing. The title finally makes sense though, everybody is just a horrible human being who hates everybody else because they are also horrible human beings.
- Story doesn't seem to flow naturally at all, but the PC is insane so I'll withhold judgement.
- Move as Lightning or whatever it's called in English is still OP, can be maxed out straight out of the tutorial area if you save your points. Same goes for that Elemental Wrath spell.
- game is 1/10 for the first three hours, really horrible could-beat-this-blindfolded tutorial stuff, gets tolerable once you're allowed to use the world map.
- everything feels extremely streamlined, if you wanted to make choices between different pieces of equipment this is probably not the game for you.
- hard mode is much easier than in BG1, feels way too easy in general, but I might still be in the "tutorial". No need to reload anything yet, wounds, hp, mana, stamina, everything seem to auto-cure after battle
- I have the feeling that combat mostly runs itself with little input needed from my end except clicking on the nearest enemy. Maybe that's because I've played BG1.
- I haven't had a to-hit chance lower than 78% yet - again, on hard mode. Quite a change.
- army of infinite soldiers means you have at least two characters in every battle who are just cannon fodder with no repercussions for them dying. No reason to use anything but the swordsmen yet, since they upgrade first and you want them to stay on the front lines anyway to soak up damage
- archery range indicator seems broken in the current version
- the dialogue is "bleaker" than in BG1, don't like it much. Cutscenes where the bad guy is sitting in his low-poly throne room talking about blood and torture to show you're progressing through the game, that sort of thing. The title finally makes sense though, everybody is just a horrible human being who hates everybody else because they are also horrible human beings.
- Story doesn't seem to flow naturally at all, but the PC is insane so I'll withhold judgement.
- Move as Lightning or whatever it's called in English is still OP, can be maxed out straight out of the tutorial area if you save your points. Same goes for that Elemental Wrath spell.
- game is 1/10 for the first three hours, really horrible could-beat-this-blindfolded tutorial stuff, gets tolerable once you're allowed to use the world map.
- everything feels extremely streamlined, if you wanted to make choices between different pieces of equipment this is probably not the game for you.
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Stem says 3 days and 16 hours till its unlocked. Maybe this 
thingy is good, keeps me from being too hyped about it.
Was hyped for AC Unity and we all know how that turned out.
thingy is good, keeps me from being too hyped about it. Was hyped for AC Unity and we all know how that turned out.
Bubbles
I'm forever blowing
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 7,817
Put in another hour, starting to feel less like torture now.
The C&C system got unlocked after Lorfas; there doesn't seem to be much more to it than
- butcher the people you conquer or spare them
- turn your companions into true scum or appeal to their better natures
but it's an improvement over BG1. The dialogue is still nothing special though (playing in German).
AI seems braindead, enemies beeline for a lever to call reinforcements, then stop in their tracks for one round to take a swing a Naurim before pulling the lever.
Still can't figure out if everything regenerates after every battle or only in camp, because every won battle after the tutorial has returned me to camp so far.
Fought a goblin shaman with full mana bar who just took swings at me with her club until she was dead.
The "puzzles" are getting very repetitive. Every map it's either "prevent the enemies from pulling the levers for reinforcements!", "reach the exit while dodging constantly respawning waves of enemies" or "kill all but one enemy, then keep them alive while you open chests". They're already hinting at another puzzle, "lure enemy into circle and use environmental item x to turn them to your side" that will apparently see a lot of mileage later on.
Doesn't help that the vast majority of maps is based around either "conquer this place and its entrenched defenders" or "defend this place against waves of attackers".
Battles feel longer than in BG1, courtesy of "trash mobs" that can't really hurt any of your group members and can spawn in groups of six or more. And, of course, each one gobbles up valuable time with combat animations.
I remember BG1 where a mage could get mowed down by a random lizardman soldier in the first act; this is most definitely not the case here. It amounts to an increase in combined enemy hp, but a decrease in individual and combined enemy damage.
The actual combat is basically the same as Blackguards 1 with the exact same abilities (and some improved spells nobody was using) as well as a "take cover" button that's supposed to take advantage of the new height mechanics but seems a bit of a waste of time so far. You also hit a lot more often and the enemies can take more hits. I'm assuming that makes direct damage magic relatively weak against the hp-bloated enemies, but BG1 taught me to avoid pure damage spells anyway.
Also, there's a bit where the main villain projects a hologram of himself to taunt you.
The C&C system got unlocked after Lorfas; there doesn't seem to be much more to it than
- butcher the people you conquer or spare them
- turn your companions into true scum or appeal to their better natures
but it's an improvement over BG1. The dialogue is still nothing special though (playing in German).
AI seems braindead, enemies beeline for a lever to call reinforcements, then stop in their tracks for one round to take a swing a Naurim before pulling the lever.
Still can't figure out if everything regenerates after every battle or only in camp, because every won battle after the tutorial has returned me to camp so far.
Fought a goblin shaman with full mana bar who just took swings at me with her club until she was dead.
The "puzzles" are getting very repetitive. Every map it's either "prevent the enemies from pulling the levers for reinforcements!", "reach the exit while dodging constantly respawning waves of enemies" or "kill all but one enemy, then keep them alive while you open chests". They're already hinting at another puzzle, "lure enemy into circle and use environmental item x to turn them to your side" that will apparently see a lot of mileage later on.
Doesn't help that the vast majority of maps is based around either "conquer this place and its entrenched defenders" or "defend this place against waves of attackers".
Battles feel longer than in BG1, courtesy of "trash mobs" that can't really hurt any of your group members and can spawn in groups of six or more. And, of course, each one gobbles up valuable time with combat animations.
I remember BG1 where a mage could get mowed down by a random lizardman soldier in the first act; this is most definitely not the case here. It amounts to an increase in combined enemy hp, but a decrease in individual and combined enemy damage.
The actual combat is basically the same as Blackguards 1 with the exact same abilities (and some improved spells nobody was using) as well as a "take cover" button that's supposed to take advantage of the new height mechanics but seems a bit of a waste of time so far. You also hit a lot more often and the enemies can take more hits. I'm assuming that makes direct damage magic relatively weak against the hp-bloated enemies, but BG1 taught me to avoid pure damage spells anyway.
Also, there's a bit where the main villain projects a hologram of himself to taunt you.
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Disgruntled
Savant
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2012
- Messages
- 400
Sounds like
I like this assumption :
"Those who loved the original Blackguards will be probably happy to use their gaming time with the sequel"
So they made it easier for casuals who arent going to play it anyway and proceeded to ruin it for the hardcore fans who wont want to play it now that its shit. Its worked out perfectly for reviews, so many kudos points gained for giving them an easier time. Ill eat my non-existent hat if this translates to increased sales.
DramaticPopcorn
Guest
Thanks, mang. I guess I'll hold out on trying this
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 99,697
New lore video:
Kem0sabe
Arcane
So I downloaded the "demo", played the intro and proceeded to uninstall it...
Whomever at the studio that was responsible for approving the script should be fired... Beyond ridiculous even by budget rpg standards.
Whomever at the studio that was responsible for approving the script should be fired... Beyond ridiculous even by budget rpg standards.
Bubbles
I'm forever blowing
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 7,817
I'm now a bit more than halfway through at about 13 hours played (the bad guy helpfully tells the player that you're halfway there). The game keeps getting better, but it isn't really good yet. The most entertaining change so far are the elite recruits (assassin, battle mage, black ogre) that all seem to specialize in burst damage and can be used in every battle. This is a nice break from the usual chip-chip-chip combat of hard mode - faster and easier battles are very welcome at this point. Of course, recruits auto-level and can't be equipped.
Balance is still horrible; there's a mandatory battle at the halfway mark - your last stand against overwhelming odds - that's extremely easy, then there's another mandatory battle straight afterwards on a map with infinite spawns of invulnerable enemies, including the lizard crystal mages from part 1. You run around the map smashing a ton of crystals (whee!), then run to a gondola to leave the map. Of course, by that point the map is already overrun by enemies (especially if Zurb doesn't have Move As Lightning), so I just parked one guy in the gondola at the start and let everybody else die after the final crystal. Much easier, but not really good design. Lack of any sort of penalty for death doesn't really work with this combat design.
Also had some battles one straight after the other, can confirm that everything regenerates and wounds disappear between battles.
AI goes brain dead a lot, just standing there skipping its turns for no reason. In one battle a commander ordered its units to retreat, which amounted to running around for a bit and then engaging my party in battle again.
Fought two more boss battles so far; they still need fine tuning, which may come with the release patch. In one battle you're supposed to fight a ton of enemies while running around a swamp arena, but the units drop poison fields that are hard to see on the swamp terrain and do an absurd amount of damage to party members moving through them. One wrong click means you have Naurim go from full health to minus 14, taking 18 damage per turn once resurrected.
The other battle was another crystal smashing gauntlet, with certain levers opening certain doors and closing certain other doors. There's also an invulnerable enemy that can swallow party members and close off the main corridor by just sitting there and doing ranged attacks, which means you can just go sit in a corner for 20 turns hoping it will move out of the corridor. The other invulnerable enemy guards the levers and does 1/3 of your health per hit. Combine that with not knowing which lever does what until you've tried them all in sequence, and possibly having only one or two party members who can smash crystals (always give your mages an alt weapon set!), and you're looking at at least an hour of fun.
Worse, the loot is very bad for the effort involved, so it would probably have been better if I'd just saved the boss battles for last. The bosses are supposed to unlock ways to control certain mini bosses, but it's just a plain useless mechanic.
I wouldn't attempt to play this on Hard without making a mage PC who can heal and haste. The huge maps with waves of spawning enemies and the high mana regen rates (currently my mages are regenerating 5 AP each per turn, which translates to at least 20 hp - half a character's health bar - of healing per turn) really encourage a long-term oriented playstyle. Spells that affect every enemy/ally on map are good to, as long as the effect itself is worth a damn.
You start with magical affininy anyway, so you'd be deliberately nerfing yourself by not using magic.
Balance is still horrible; there's a mandatory battle at the halfway mark - your last stand against overwhelming odds - that's extremely easy, then there's another mandatory battle straight afterwards on a map with infinite spawns of invulnerable enemies, including the lizard crystal mages from part 1. You run around the map smashing a ton of crystals (whee!), then run to a gondola to leave the map. Of course, by that point the map is already overrun by enemies (especially if Zurb doesn't have Move As Lightning), so I just parked one guy in the gondola at the start and let everybody else die after the final crystal. Much easier, but not really good design. Lack of any sort of penalty for death doesn't really work with this combat design.
Also had some battles one straight after the other, can confirm that everything regenerates and wounds disappear between battles.
AI goes brain dead a lot, just standing there skipping its turns for no reason. In one battle a commander ordered its units to retreat, which amounted to running around for a bit and then engaging my party in battle again.
Fought two more boss battles so far; they still need fine tuning, which may come with the release patch. In one battle you're supposed to fight a ton of enemies while running around a swamp arena, but the units drop poison fields that are hard to see on the swamp terrain and do an absurd amount of damage to party members moving through them. One wrong click means you have Naurim go from full health to minus 14, taking 18 damage per turn once resurrected.
The other battle was another crystal smashing gauntlet, with certain levers opening certain doors and closing certain other doors. There's also an invulnerable enemy that can swallow party members and close off the main corridor by just sitting there and doing ranged attacks, which means you can just go sit in a corner for 20 turns hoping it will move out of the corridor. The other invulnerable enemy guards the levers and does 1/3 of your health per hit. Combine that with not knowing which lever does what until you've tried them all in sequence, and possibly having only one or two party members who can smash crystals (always give your mages an alt weapon set!), and you're looking at at least an hour of fun.
Worse, the loot is very bad for the effort involved, so it would probably have been better if I'd just saved the boss battles for last. The bosses are supposed to unlock ways to control certain mini bosses, but it's just a plain useless mechanic.
I wouldn't attempt to play this on Hard without making a mage PC who can heal and haste. The huge maps with waves of spawning enemies and the high mana regen rates (currently my mages are regenerating 5 AP each per turn, which translates to at least 20 hp - half a character's health bar - of healing per turn) really encourage a long-term oriented playstyle. Spells that affect every enemy/ally on map are good to, as long as the effect itself is worth a damn.
You start with magical affininy anyway, so you'd be deliberately nerfing yourself by not using magic.
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Bubbles
I'm forever blowing
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 7,817
Just had a boss fight that starts with the boss fleeing towards a gate over a narrow bridge. A hasted character can run past him and block his path, which is obviously very smart. Except that the guy's hp can't fall below 1 because he's scripted to go over the bridge and escape through the portal 
by the way, 3 areas left on the map with 14 hours played. May end up being a 18 hour game after all.
by the way, 3 areas left on the map with 14 hours played. May end up being a 18 hour game after all.
All those IDDQD enemies and endless respawns really sound like shit. I feared something like this might happen more often after seeing Lorfas.
Bubbles
I'm forever blowing
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 7,817
20 minutes into one of the last boss fights one of my characters started skipping his turns for no reason, even when I hasted him. I managed to pull through for another 5 minutes (about two turns, given how long it takes for 10+ enemies to move around), then another character walked through a doorway and the game got stuck in "between turns" mode. I'm going to change difficulty down to easy and see if I can stomach this again. Definitely wouldn't recommend playing this game without a huge launch day patch. Hard to see how the reviewers even managed to complete it.
edit: another 20 minutes and I beat it. Boss dialogue glitched out so I got locked out of the good ending (likely because I reloaded, so fair warning: don't reload in Dujar), the boss AI shut off, and the force field protecting the boss glitched out and wouldn't come down, but I managed to snipe the boss down by throwing knives through the geometry. Whee!
There were also six spawn portals on the maps that never spawned anything and two pulsing healing crystals that never healed anyone, but I don't want to think too closely about that.
edit: another 20 minutes and I beat it. Boss dialogue glitched out so I got locked out of the good ending (likely because I reloaded, so fair warning: don't reload in Dujar), the boss AI shut off, and the force field protecting the boss glitched out and wouldn't come down, but I managed to snipe the boss down by throwing knives through the geometry. Whee!
There were also six spawn portals on the maps that never spawned anything and two pulsing healing crystals that never healed anyone, but I don't want to think too closely about that.
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Bubbles
I'm forever blowing
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2013
- Messages
- 7,817
After suffering through a glitchy-as-fuck siege battle that involved over 30 units slowly taking turns doing nothing and the same conversation getting repeated endlessly, the location for the final battle is finally on my map! Although I can't enter it because it claims that I haven't finished two quests that I finished hours ago and that are marked as "finished" in my journal. Nothing I can do now 
Desktop Commander
Savant
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
- Messages
- 181
Good one.
I'm guessing that they took one look at the char screen and were immediately amazed that they were finally able to cognitively process what had looked like a picture from a Rorschach test to them in BG1. Not feeling oppressed by the tyranny of numbers that serve more than decorative purpose anymore, they proceeded to reward this progressive experience, that sheds the antiquated concepts of challenge and complexity which have held games back for the longest time, with a score fitting for a game that does not hurt their feelings by reminding them of the painful concept that rewards usually require effort in order to be deserved.
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 99,697
Launch trailer:
trololololo
trololololo
Please elaborate. How grimdark is it? I assume you play the German version. Does it suffer from the usual amateurish writing prevalent in German games?
LESS T_T
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 13,582
Steam says 24 hours left, even GMG where I preordered wont give me the key yet. Fuckers.
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- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 99,697
Press release:
Somewhat misleading title there.
Somewhat misleading title there.
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