14 DAY TRIAL // Blackguards is an interesting project that aims to take the core ideas of the action role-playing genre and change them in meaningful ways both in the story and the gameplay department and Daedalic might have a hit on its hands when the full experience is out, in early 2014.
On the story front, the studio is abandoning the idea that heroes are required to save the world and focuses on a group of rather unpleasant misfits, although a few knight in shining armor characteristics show up here and there.
The world of Blackguards will be instantly familiar to fantasy lovers, with medieval looking towns, plenty of mischievous characters, dark places to explore and plenty of monsters and humans to fight.
Gamers navigate the world by choosing which location they want to explore next and once they arrive in a certain place, they interact with other characters or they enter a tactical battle.
These are hex and turn based, with each character having access to a variety of potential moves based on their weapons and their abilities.
Players need to pay attention to how they arrange the members of their party, making sure that ranged characters and spell casters get as much protection as possible.
Most of the time, a solid defensive line will win a battle in Blackguards, but much depends on the tactics a gamer uses, the frequency of spell failure and the amount of special attacks that manage to find their targets.
There’s plenty of loot to pick up and trainers and merchants can be found in towns, ready to give characters new abilities and deliver some improved weapons to use on the more powerful enemies.
Blackguards also looks pretty good, with a solid art style that uses somber tones and flourishes to suggest a world in decline, and a lot of detail for characters during the tactical battles.
The game is at the moment available via the Early Access program from Steam, which means that the team at Daedalic is still working on the game and will introduce improvements before the official launch date.
