The Dark Eye Blackguards 2

[vonAchdorf]

It's already 57% off, not the best sign:

https://de.gamesplanet.com/game/blackguards-2--2739-1

 

[Bubbles]

It's already 57% off, not the best sign:

https://de.gamesplanet.com/game/blackguards-2--2739-1

It was released two weeks ago, which is an eternity in gaming. Most games are at least 75% off at this point. Actually, maybe they switched the tens and the ones by mistake.

 

[Whisper]

After playing a bit in BG2 (killed Druid), i am back to BG1.

Started to play Blackguards and - it is a lot of fun. Much more diverse fights, better arenas, i try to finish fights with less loss of hp, fights themselves require more tactic. AND having extra 5-6 characters on each side during battle makes game less fun. Best game is when you controll 3-5 characters max. Also BG1 is more close to crpg.


p.s. BG2: I have two mages, both use lvl 4 cold aoe spell, 10 dmg to all on map. I can use it 4 times in 2 turns. Then in 2-3 turns i use 2 times. It is broken.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

holding off counterattacks in blackguards 2 reminds me of exalt missions in XCOM: EW

shit tier filler content that adds nothing - no story, no challenge, no material rewards

 

[Bubbles]

holding off counterattacks in blackguards 2 reminds me of exalt missions in XCOM: EW

shit tier filler content that adds nothing - no story, no challenge, no material rewards

It's supposed to be interesting because it lets you place traps.

 

[vonAchdorf]

holding off counterattacks in blackguards 2 reminds me of exalt missions in XCOM: EW

shit tier filler content that adds nothing - no story, no challenge, no material rewards

It's supposed to be interesting because it lets you place traps.

The problem is, that the traps aren't interesting – and mostly useless. Only in the jungle map where you have two narrow pathways leading up to the defenders the reusable where quite useful and of course made the battle even easier than the other defenses.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I think the ultimately failed with everything they wanted to improve compared to BG1.

1. The fixed protagonist doesn't make the story better. It's of course a matter of personal preference, but I never could relate to Cassia, while I got used to the derpy slacker you got to play in BG1. The story is often more grimderp than grim dark and IMO even takes more of a backseat than the story in BG1. The epilogue feels tacked on and while there is lots of "C&C" it's utterly pointless, unless they try to salvage it in a DLC, which is unlikely because
   Spoiler

   all characters could be dead. Especially Takate's end was really lacking

   Spoiler

   killed by 5 HP spiders from battle map 1
   The battles mostly felt same'ish, the few to stick out do that because they were annoying. I also think that the creator stories were really bland and weren't implemented to the full potential of the idea.
2. The open map isn't really interesting. There were lots of complaints about the linearity of the first two chapters in BG1, but at least they conveyed some urgency. They set out to repeat the fan loved chapter three, but it didn't turn out that way. They removed the minimal exploration BG1 chapter 3 had and traded it for an open map where you can see most battles (and their effects) from the beginning. No little surprises to find in a city, the camp talk was definitely more boring than the NPCs in the BG1 towns. Even a rambling feminist Telemache beats those two super training dispenser every day. They also ditched all non obvious or mysterious stuff, like the black metal parts, the goddess temples, or the goblin tower.
3. The streamlined mechanics didn't work as intended either. For veterans (especially with TDE proficiency) it didn't become easier (or more "readable") and I don't think it helped newcomers a lot. I'd say the only change I liked was the reduction to 4 tiers for skills instead of combining tiers and skill points. Magic, which was a bit weak in BG1 – but still useful became extremely powerful in BG2, Zurbaran, Cassia and mercenary mage with fireballs pretty much ruled the battle field for me, and unlike in BG1, I didn't even have to use many magic potions (or poison). Their solution to the problem – upping the fire resistance of the most common mobs is a cheap way out. Auto healing lets you ignore wounds almost completely, and makes gauntlets pointless.
4. More interactive elements in the battle maps, once again, they proved much more useful and sometimes even decisive in BG1 (luring tigers or crocs into patches of burning grass). Here the only time I remember a really useful environmental object was the collapsing wall to block pursuing enemies in the mission where you had to collect crystals and then flee. Did anyone use the melodies / organs?

"If a developer decides to iterate closely on a previous title he’ll either have a lot of success if he learned from the first game (like Dark Souls) or he’ll make the wrong assumptions and suffer in the fire of the righteous wrath of his existing fan base without luring new buyers in."

 

[Bubbles]

Alright, let's see how the achievement stats have changed after a week. Then:

- all the ones involving the "lure a creature into a circle and dominate it with a melody" puzzles are sitting at 0.1%. Just a completely useless mechanic.
- 62% of players have recruited Zurby and Takate, but only 46% have recruited Naurim, which takes about ten minutes extra. His mission is too hard!
- 38.4% have recruited the army, that's about 3-4 hours into the game.
- 8.1% of players have killed two of the game's world bosses (roughly the halfway mark of the game, takes about 8-9 hours)
- 2% have cleared the world map, and 1.6% have reached the epilogue.

Now:

- at least 1.7% of players have completed one of the melody puzzles. Clearly there is some demand there after all
- 71% have Z&T, 58% have saved Naurim. The gap has gotten slightly smaller, but it's still a big drop for a single short mission
- 51.9% have recruited the army
- 12.9% have killed two creators, 11% have killed all the creators. I suspect people are avoiding the bosses early on and then killing them all in one go, otherwise the play time difference alone should account for a greater difference.
- 9.5% have cleared the world map, 7.2% have reached the epilogue

And now:

- 2.4% solved a melody puzzle
- 73.7% got Z&T, 60.8% Naurim
- 55.4% got the army
- 17.5% killed two creators, 16.6% all creators
- 14.8% cleared world map, 10.8% reached epilogue

10.8% completion rate is fantastic for a hardcore RPG. Banner Saga has 13.1% and is almost impossible to lose.

 

[Mortmal]

Alright, let's see how the achievement stats have changed after a week. Then:

- all the ones involving the "lure a creature into a circle and dominate it with a melody" puzzles are sitting at 0.1%. Just a completely useless mechanic.
- 62% of players have recruited Zurby and Takate, but only 46% have recruited Naurim, which takes about ten minutes extra. His mission is too hard!
- 38.4% have recruited the army, that's about 3-4 hours into the game.
- 8.1% of players have killed two of the game's world bosses (roughly the halfway mark of the game, takes about 8-9 hours)
- 2% have cleared the world map, and 1.6% have reached the epilogue.

Now:

- at least 1.7% of players have completed one of the melody puzzles. Clearly there is some demand there after all
- 71% have Z&T, 58% have saved Naurim. The gap has gotten slightly smaller, but it's still a big drop for a single short mission
- 51.9% have recruited the army
- 12.9% have killed two creators, 11% have killed all the creators. I suspect people are avoiding the bosses early on and then killing them all in one go, otherwise the play time difference alone should account for a greater difference.
- 9.5% have cleared the world map, 7.2% have reached the epilogue

And now:

- 2.4% solved a melody puzzle
- 73.7% got Z&T, 60.8% Naurim
- 55.4% got the army
- 17.5% killed two creators, 16.6% all creators
- 14.8% cleared world map, 10.8% reached epilogue

10.8% completion rate is fantastic for a hardcore RPG.

Not really, with such low sales, its only the hardcore players who got it this time , those who already play blackguards.Well i assume sales are low, i dont remember seeing it on top .

 

[Gord]

I would like to know how many people got it outside of Steam.
Just going by Steam Charts, BG2 is doing pretty bad in comparison, but on the other hand at least in Germany it is sold much cheaper in retail and on Amazon than on Steam (15-20€ vs 30€ on launch).

 

[Bubbles]

I would like to know how many people got it outside of Steam.
Just going by Steam Charts, BG2 is doing pretty bad in comparison, but on the other hand at least in Germany it is sold much cheaper in retail and on Amazon than on Steam (15-20€ vs 30€ on launch).

Blackguards 2 on Amazon.de has 3 user reviews and is their 286th best selling game today.

 

[Whisper]

Playing Blackguards 1: having a blast!

Swamp troll fight --> Save baroness fights -> Dwarf games (took 4 chests).
All challenging, fun.

If anyone didnt get BG1 yet, get it ASAP. Fights are diverse, battlefields are just right size, you control 3-4 heroes max.

 

[Infinitron]

Didn't think they were still making these.

 

[Whisper]

Banner Saga has 13.1% and is almost impossible to lose.

Is it possible to lose in Banner saga? Serious question.

 

[Bubbles]

You can lose the final battle.

 

[Whisper]

Ok, finished game.

Some impressions:

- 50%+ of time i have to wait for enemy movement. Despite clearing maps in "fast" way (see below).
- If you dont want to wait 15 enemies with slow animations (can take 1 min just for them to move in one turn!) max 4 lvl cold shock spell. 9 dmg to all enemies on map, you can win 95% of fights just with spam of this spell.
- Playing on hard and most fighters/archers hit for 5-6-7 damage. This true for your troops and enemy troops.
- Special hits are much weaker, probably this is done to balance "always hit" ideology of game. Hammer blow for 15-16 dmg with Naurim axe.
- Buffs (archer. melee) are useless. Hawkeye was critical in BG1, here just skip.
- All magic is overpowered and much stronger then melee. Only good damage beside magic is triple shot (with chainbreaker arrows).
- Dwarf had 100 hp at end, mage 90 mana and 10 mana regen/turn. Compare this to BG1, 50-60 hp max for dwarf, around 50 mana and 6 regen.
- BG1 fights were also fast because enemies could 2-3 shot your Zurbaran or archer hero. But you could also 2-3 shot enemy.
- Fights are much more intense with 5-6 strong enemies instead of 15+ that hit for 5-6 dmg.
- Only fight that i really like is Takate fight (what would happen if i wasnt warned in advance in forum and didnt take bow?)
- Story was worse then BG1 but better then 90%+ games out there.

 

[Darth Roxor]

- Playing on hard and most fighters/archers hit for 5-6-7 damage. This true for your troops and enemy troops.

- Dwarf had 100 hp at end, mage 90 mana and 10 mana regen/turn.

Jesus Christ

 

[Whisper]

- Playing on hard and most fighters/archers hit for 5-6-7 damage. This true for your troops and enemy troops.

- Dwarf had 100 hp at end, mage 90 mana and 10 mana regen/turn.

Jesus Christ

To be fair: last few maps (storm of mengbilla/palace) had enemies that hit light armored characters for 15-20 damage.

But for 90%+ battles the above is true.

 

[Bubbles]

stuff

I agree with everything you posted, although the extra action spell is also very good (if only to cast it on a mage). If you don't have a ranged weapon for Takate, you just have to keep restarting until the spiders randomly spawn on his side instead of hers.

 

[Whisper]

Extra action spells is 2nd best spell (after cold shock).
Also good is: 2 lvls of healing, 2 lvs of paralyse, 2-3 levels of fireball. Dont think i used any other spell.

p.s. Idea to make _all_ spells cost same AP to improve is really bad one. BG1 system was better.

 

[Whisper]

I also dont understand logic behind some fights - seems broken.
Shinna creator battle - she refuses to come down, so what? Your archer can just safely kill her.
2nd battle before finale, boss mobs can be safely killed with archer, they cant hit back.

There was 0 fights in BG1 with broken logic (didnt find any in 2 full runs).

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Whisper]

Video is full of BS. Just few of things.

1. Fights are much longer in BG2. Takes fucking forever to kill someone unless you abuse magic, since melee/archer damage is very low.
Archer dmg is more then melee btw (chainbreaker ignore armor), fact.
2. Stats are not leveled automatically (behind the scenes). Lie. There are no stats at all.
3. You could always see effect of skill go up in BG1.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[SCO]

Ok this game, is simultaneously rushed, slamdunked and dumbed down, which i previously thought to be impossible. Disregarding the dumbed down part which was already beaten to death, what really crystallized the rushed part to me is the endings cinematics. The slightly different portion of the binary ending cinematic which is preceded by a lot of 'ruling' decisions which you'd think would affect the ending cinematic/narration in significant ways beyond 'the people love you' or 'the people hate you'.

I expected something like the fallout/troika vignettes i got something like diablo ending. Durrrrrrrrrr
Not sure if better than Blackguards 1 ending? More disappointing after all the setup certainly. Do it with text-only if you have to (like Dragonfall) but don't tease with choices at the ending and show nothing but 'you're popular or not', not even making the effort to give a decent epilogue for the npcs if not the future of the city... dude.