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Quick Look: Blackguards

Drew discovers it's never wise to bring a torch to a sword fight in the world of The Dark Eye.

Sit back and enjoy as the Giant Bomb team takes an unedited look at the latest video games.

Jan. 31 2014

Cast: Jeff, Brad, Drew

Posted by: Vinny

In This Episode:

Blackguards

70 Comments

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Tennmuerti

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Edited By Tennmuerti

Blackguards gave me a good early impression in the demo. Mostly due to the solid foundation it had for it's rpg and combat system.

Unfortunately it fails to make good on this foundation and squanders it on very mediocre and repetitive combat that you do over and over again (it's the only thing you really do period). This is further compounded by the combat taking entirely too long to animate every action, making each (even rote) encounter take way too long. If you make a turn based tactical game your animations better be either snappy, or skippable, or with a speed slider. As well as the skills/spells being terribly unbalanced and bland. It's complex on the surface but lacks depth.

And unlike say The Banner Saga this game does not have the cool setting, art, music or survival aspect to help prop it up.

2c.

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GuidoAnchovies

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Finally, a game about St. Louis... wait a sec...

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baka_shinji17

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Be on your guard! There be Quick Looks about!

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Darji

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Man I never thought I would see a blackguards quicklook here. The only game left is no Might and Magic X Legacy. Do It Giantbomb do it it is reallly a good game XD

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xite

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This Quick Look's gonna need some explanation.

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Tennmuerti

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Edited By Tennmuerti

@darji said:

Man I never thought I would see a blackguards quicklook here. The only game left is no Might and Magic X Legacy. Do It Giantbomb do it it is reallly a good game XD

Seconded, a QL of Might and Magic X Legacy would be neat.

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das9000

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Edited By das9000

"What do I need ... What do I pu... What can I ... What do I put ... into ... that makes what I need bigger." Nicely said Drew. The answer is viagra.

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Blackspur

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I know this is nit picky but the name of the game is pronounced like 'Blag-gaard' not Black Guards.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Blackguard

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Amikron

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CakeTeleporter

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Edited By CakeTeleporter

@tennmuerti: Agreed, theres little tactical complexity and as long as you observe some sanity in character building you can get through most of what the game has to offer.

For how in depth the RPG mechanics arethey offer much less actual variety and meaningful choices than the Job system in say Tactics Ogre.

I think the Banner Saga was guilty of similar sins in terms of staid combat scenarios but for all it's simplicity I found It much more tactically compelling.

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deactivated-5ab2c5344517a

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So it looked like Drew was sitting on 550 XP, and that battle in the swamp gave him 50. For anybody familiar with the game, was he having as much trouble as he was because he hadn't spent his XP or is the game just hard? Because that save the Baroness battle looked impossible.

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deactivated-64162a4f80e83

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That was a shapely Quick Look

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Edited By Tennmuerti

@bedurndurn: Kinda, you really need to spend all those points as much as possible at the start. It's still tough going in act1, but it would be easier if he spent those points into skills and bought some weapons.

It's basically hardish until you figure out what is overpowered and what is a complete waste of time to progress with and get those skills.

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CakeTeleporter

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Edited By CakeTeleporter

@bedurndurn: It's neither 500 ap isnt enough to make a significant difference to a warrior at that stage of the game it was more that Drew hadn't bought a weapon and given his people the right ones.

That Battle isnt too bad once you observe the activation order, yes you are outnumbered but the enemy hit chances are real bad.

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VooDooPC

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The demo of the game is like the first chapter. From what I remember it's like 400xp to level up a single stat point.

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JermainJuniorMartinez

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Looks great, I plan on purchasing this after Banner Saga, I just hope I am not burned out by the end of such a long Epic game.

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fisk0

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fisk0  Moderator

@darji said:

Man I never thought I would see a blackguards quicklook here. The only game left is no Might and Magic X Legacy. Do It Giantbomb do it it is reallly a good game XD

Seconded, a QL of Might and Magic X Legacy would be neat.

I'm sure there'll be a QL of that. While it's been available on Steam for about 6 months, it was an early access game until just last week or so. Now when it's officially out, I don't think they'll just skip a new game in one of the most important and formative RPG series.

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GnaTSoL

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OH HELLS!!!

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Ganthet2814

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All these games coming out just tells me I need a gaming PC. This game looks cool.

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sanderjk

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Edited By sanderjk

So it looked like Drew was sitting on 550 XP, and that battle in the swamp gave him 50. For anybody familiar with the game, was he having as much trouble as he was because he hadn't spent his XP or is the game just hard? Because that save the Baroness battle looked impossible.

Unfortunately, and I find a flaw in this game, on harder maps you only win with luck and by reloading until you know all the hidden traps/environmental thingies.

This particular encounter was maybe the third hardest I've encountered so far, of the 20 or so (I'm in chapter 2). To save the lady you basically need to be lucky with AI movement because they can block paths easily, and after that your position is such that often you can still lose based on dicerolls.

This game is oldschool in the good and bad way. It feels like BG1 at times: You have little hp and mana, debuffs can totally screw you, and if you get critted, wounded or poisoned you may just have to reload. It's a challenge but also frustrating.

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Astromarine

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@bedurndurn: Kinda, you really need to spend all those points as much as possible at the start. It's still tough going in act1, but it would be easier if he spent those points into skills and bought some weapons.

It's basically hardish until you figure out what is overpowered and what is a complete waste of time to progress with and get those skills.

Also, there's no way fireballs are 45% chance routinely. That mage had an issue. If I had a guess I'd say Drew loaded him up on armor or something similar. In my game, fireballs are like 80 to 90%

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fisk0

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fisk0  Moderator

The camera movement in the intro was in that very distinct early 90's CGI cutscene style, with very awkward and robotic movements. Kinda fascinating.

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@tennmuerti said:

@bedurndurn: Kinda, you really need to spend all those points as much as possible at the start. It's still tough going in act1, but it would be easier if he spent those points into skills and bought some weapons.

It's basically hardish until you figure out what is overpowered and what is a complete waste of time to progress with and get those skills.

Also, there's no way fireballs are 45% chance routinely. That mage had an issue. If I had a guess I'd say Drew loaded him up on armor or something similar. In my game, fireballs are like 80 to 90%

The fireball is actually 46% if you never level it. It weirded me out, because other spells start at higher success chances (the single target is 78% base, and even cure poison starts at 52%)

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AMyggen

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This looks kinda neat actually.

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mathey

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Waiting for Drew to notice his dorf was fighting with a lit stick drove me nuts.

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OrfBC

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@blackspur: Thanks for the pronunciation tip, blaggspuurr.

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ectoplasma

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Edited By ectoplasma
Loading Video...

To the people confused about the skill system and Drew, the developer released a pretty good video explaining everything.

Edit: She's pronouncing the words soo weeeeeirdly.

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l4wd0g

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@bedurndurn: It's neither 500 ap isnt enough to make a significant difference to a warrior at that stage of the game it was more that Drew hadn't bought a weapon and given his people the right ones.

That Battle isnt too bad once you observe the activation order, yes you are outnumbered but the enemy hit chances are real bad.

A small party cutting through a bunch of baddies... feels like D&D to me.

It also seems like Drew could have turned his sword abilities from balance to attack, but I'm not sure how much that would have helped. But I'm new to the game and I just started playing it.

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hammondoftexas

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Edited By hammondoftexas

"You are blamed for the death of a princess who you knew..." - Drew

"What was her neck like?" - Jeff

"Umm it was kind of like a square." - Drew

"Huh, so shapely" - Jeff

Had my crying laughing!

And

"But you don't know if you did it or not" - Drew

"Ha ha! Isn't that always the way!" - Jeff

I love Drew lead Quick Looks!

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CakeTeleporter

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@sanderjk: Some of it's the RNG but I think iIt's more that the encounter design is all over the place.

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velamo05

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Learning about this game's connection to this immediately made me think of Ryan and his utter disdain toward it, which made me miss him.

Hilarious QL though, gotta love Jeff and Drew together. Or just Drew by himself even.

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Sessh

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Thanks for taking a look at this one, Drew. It might have passed under my radar, but now I'm definitely gonna give this a shot.

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Sparuscus

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Combat system looks like it drew some inspiration from Wild Arms: XF. Looks fun!

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ICantBeStopped

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Edited By ICantBeStopped

I know this is nit picky but the name of the game is pronounced like 'Blag-gaard' not Black Guards.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Blackguard

If they don't want it to be pronounced Blackguard, they shouldn't spell it that way. Since it is spelled 'blackguard' though, we're going to go ahead and say Blackguard, as we speak English, and not whatever garbage language would have us say it differently.

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sissylion

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Man it is so goddamn weird that The Dark Eye is now some sort of brand and series, however small it is.

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@blackspur said:

I know this is nit picky but the name of the game is pronounced like 'Blag-gaard' not Black Guards.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Blackguard

If they don't want it to be pronounced Blackguard, they shouldn't spell it that way. Since it is spelled 'blackguard' though, we're going to go ahead and say Blackguard, as we speak English, and not whatever garbage language would have us say it differently.

Hrm.. not sure if serious.

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MeatSim

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I played the demo of this, and the UI felt kinda clunky and it also bugged out on me a couple of times.

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GasparNolasco

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Edited By GasparNolasco

I don't know, guys... I think Rdthdrtd is actually the wolf.

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LustRazor

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It's cool to see Drew step up to the hot seat on a quick look.

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SaturdayNightSpecials

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Blaggard is more fun to say.

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Efesell  Online

@blackspur said:

I know this is nit picky but the name of the game is pronounced like 'Blag-gaard' not Black Guards.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Blackguard

If they don't want it to be pronounced Blackguard, they shouldn't spell it that way. Since it is spelled 'blackguard' though, we're going to go ahead and say Blackguard, as we speak English, and not whatever garbage language would have us say it differently.

Delightful.

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Igniz12

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Edited By Igniz12

Disappointed to hear that the game is very luck based from the comments. Looking at the all those pages of character stats and development made me excited that maybe you could make really interesting and unique builds in the game but whats the point if in the end you're forced to stick to cookie cutter builds :/

Complains about overwrought animations also remind me of that Lucas Arts Gladiator game. Cool setting, fun combat but having to sit through long ass animations takes its toll on you eventually.

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Dagbiker

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@igniz12 said:

Disappointed to hear that the game is very luck based from the comments. Looking at the all those pages of character stats and development made me excited that maybe you could make really interesting and unique builds in the game but whats the point if in the end you're forced to stick to cookie cutter builds :/

Complains about overwrought animations also remind me of that Lucas Arts Gladiator game. Cool setting, fun combat but having to sit through long ass animations takes its toll on you eventually.

From what I have played, it feels luck based only in the sence that it relys on dice rolls, and a lot of dice rolls never really make sence in dnd. Such that you could be right next to a guy and try to stab them and miss, Just because you rolled a 1. But the idea of leveling up and putting points into things is that, hopefully, if you do it right, when all the modifyers are added that 14 you roll will turn into a 17 and 17 is just enugh to take down that dragon. Its very dark souls in that way.

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jacksukeru

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@dagbiker: I'm not super familiar with DnD itself, but the whole "standing next to a guy but still miss" happens because you're dealing with the Armor Class system, where it's not about physically hitting something as much as it is hitting a part of them that's unarmored or otherwise vunerable to damage. If something has a high AC it's because they are covered in some kind of armor (that could be natural in the case of some monsters) that your weapons bounce off.

I really like the idea of that system because then armor actually protects you from damage, rather than just mitigating it a bit, which seems more realistic.

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Edited By tourgen

Looks fun, I'll try it. Somehow I managed to play most Dark Eye games with out intentionally trying to. River of Time was awesome and fairly difficult too. Demonicon was bad. This one looks better than decent.

Oh wow, just saw that Chains of Satinav has a sequel now.

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Edited By MerxWorx01

Been Following this and it seems pretty interesting. Aside from a few balance issues and combat idiosyncrasies it is one of the many games that I fully intend to play. Plus its no longer in early access so that is always a plus that the devs finished up their game.

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HerbieBug

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Edited By HerbieBug

This reminds me that i need to buy a 3ds and play Fire Emblem.

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mdmac92

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Love the look of this game and the feel of the world, but the gameplay looks too complicated for my taste.

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The_Vein

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I downloaded and played the demo after watching this QL and as soon as I get paid I'm going to get this game, it's a pretty complex and old school RPG, plays a lot like actual PnP D&D which is really awesome for me. The characters seem pretty cool, the mage in particular I was developing a liking for and the combat seems difficult but doable. Anyone interested should go get the demo, it's really long, the whole first of 5 chapters. I played through all of it, doing all the side quests I could and probably spent like five or six hours on it so I can imagine the game is pretty hefty.