The Blackguards games are currently 90% off on Steam until 28th March.

According to MMORPG, the definitive edition of Blackguards will be available on PS4 and Xbox One later this summer.

Features of Blackguards – Definitive Edition:

• Strategically demanding – More than 180 unique Battle Maps keep your tactical skills sharp with new challenges. With 40 special skills and over 90 spells, you decide how to dominate the battlefield
• Turn-based strategy meets RPG – A complex combat system facilitates tactical and immersive battles with interactive objects and traps
• Questionable companions – Criminals, murderers and addicts will accompany you on your quest. But don’t worry – you’ll fit right in with the seven playable and customizable characters
• An epic story – Murder and treachery are a fact of life in the world of Blackguards. Your decisions have far-reaching consequences both for your group of ‘heroes’ and the fate of the entire world
• More than 60 hours play time – Countless main and side quests provide variety and ensure there's never a dull moment
• Exotic locations – Discover the most remote corners of Aventuria and become enchanted by the idyllic, hand-drawn scenery
• Exclusive content – The Definitive Edition includes the "Untold Legends" DLC which sheds light on the dark past of a Blackguards character and also comes with new weapons, battle maps, quests and music

Thanks Todd.

Stream has a new daily deal sale for the next eleven hours for Blackguards. They offer both the standard, and deluxe versions of the game.

Blackguards - Standard Edition - 66% off for $13.59

Blackguards: Untold Legends DLC - 66% off for $2.03

Buy Blackguards - Deluxe Edition - 66% off for $20.39

Includes Blackguards, PLUS Artbook with ~150 pages, Soundtrack, digital World Map, Developer Interview Videos and 6 Exclusive Wallpapers.

Invision Game Community has a short review of the Blackguards: Untold Legends DLC. The site gave the DLC a score of 4/5, and it's safe to say they enjoyed playing it.

If you enjoyed Blackguards before then now is a great time to get back into it! With the patch having made a significant set of minor tweaks which visibly improve the game, and the DLC providing something fresh for players to spend a couple of hours enjoying, there is more to the experience than ever. The DLC also comes at a relatively reasonable price tag if you are looking for a bit of cheap yet fun and interesting gaming for the weekend, at only £4.99 on Steam UK(correct at time of writing!). If you were not a fan of Blackguards, you should know that little has changed and this may still not be the game for you. If you did like it however, it is a great addition to go and pick up!

Daedelic Entertainment has completed their set of four video guids for Blackguards by adding the last video about decisions and questing.

GameBanshee has finally managed to post their review of Daedalic Entertainment's SRPG Blackguards. The reviewer comes to the conclusion he can't recommend it.

From my experience, turn-based games have always been pretty good, and I always figured it was because developers knew they were going to have an uphill battle convincing publishers to take their product seriously, and so they worked extra hard to make the game impressive.  But these days, with online retailers and Kickstarter campaigns, publishers aren't as necessary, and developers don't have to deal with as much interference -- which is good, usually, but not in the case of Blackguards, which is about as sloppy and frustrating a game as you're ever likely to encounter.

The premise behind Blackguards works pretty well.  You're presented with an intriguing murder mystery, and you're put in command of a disreputable band of outlaws to figure out what happened, which is different and fun.  Blackguards also has everything you'd like to see in a strategy-RPG hybrid, including well-written dialogue, lots of character options, and a big battle at the end, but there are just so many problems in so many areas (including stuff that never should have made it through QA testing) that the game is more irritating than fun.  I always came away from my sessions with Blackguards in a foul mood, and so it's not a game I can recommend, no matter how it's priced, but certainly not at the $40 mark where it is now.  Maybe in about a year when the price drops in half and the patches have come out it will be a better idea.

Blackguards: Untold Legends the first DLC for Blackguards was released today, and is available for purchase on Steam and GOG. Here is the launch trailer.

Untold Legends sheds new light on the background and heritage of Takate, the former slave and arena fighter, who joins the player's party in chapter 2 of the original Blackguards. Takate's home is in the foothills of the rainforests in Southern Aventuria, where most of the native people of the Moha originate from.
In Untold Legends, players will learn how Takate became a slave gladiator, and get the chance to take revenge on all the slavers that caused so much pain to him for much of his life.

Along with the release of the DLC we get a new patch.

General Changes

- Adds the feature ‘free character creation’ to Blackguards. (Patch 1.2)
- Added an NPC to Neetha who gives advice to new players.
- Added an additional autosave at the beginning of every fight. This also applies to each fight in a series of fights.
- Some minor bugs in cutscenes have been fixed.
- Some dialogues have been fixed.
- Some text- and NoKey-errors have been fixed.

I have two more reviews for or Daedalic Entertainment's Blackguards. I consider both to be a mixed bag as one praised the game, and the other is way to negative.

RPG Codex - No Score

Blackguards is, in my opinion, a perfect first RPG for a company new to the genre. It doesn’t try to bite off more than it can chew, but delivers much more than you would expect, and it learns from the games that came before it, while also adding something new of its own. Not to mention the bravery of releasing a PC-exclusive turn-based tactical RPG nowadays. Personally, I would love to see Daedalic develop even more creative and unorthodox approaches in a sequel or future game. Instead of wasting time and money on a fully explorable 3D world like everybody else, they should keep the FFT/Arkania map and focus on making dungeons explorable in a Dungeon Master/Legend of Grimrock style, using their adventure game expertise for puzzles. In an age of sequels and reboots, Daedalic have entered the RPG world with a great first step, and I hope they keep striding far, not afraid to walk off the beaten path.​

Next is PC Gamer who gives the game a very low score of 58/100.

Much of my time in Blackguards was spent waiting. I waited for my turn, as enemies slowly plodded around hex-grid maps. I waited for tactical diversity, yearning to unlock the more interesting attack options. Mostly, I waited for earnest fantasy stereotypes to finish performing their questionably accented dialogue and unlock the next fight.

Based on The Dark Eye pen-and-paper rule-set, Blackguards is a turn-based RPG so focused on combat that it’s more fantasy XCOM than fantasy Fallout. At the start the character you’ve created is convicted of murder. Escaping from prison, he or she must team up with a band of roguish misfits to figure out who – or what – was really responsible. Yet that mystery isn’t much more than a flimsy tool to link each battle.

Masochistic stat-chasers will find much to enjoy, but Blackguards’ varied combat is no substitute for a fully-formed RPG.

A first DLC for Blackguards has been announced. Release will be on March 4th, together with the next patch.

Announcing the "Untold Legends" DLC
  
Humiliated. Enslaved. Thrown into the dust of the arena to die.

This is the heritage of Takate, native of the Moha, before he joined the Blackguards. But even now the wounds of the pasts still hurt. It's a pain that only revenge will ease.

With the "Untold Legends" DLC the Blackguards will once again return and follow Takate's tracks into the darkness of his past. A past that lies in the foothills of the rainforests in Southern Aventuria, where staying alive is a feat of its own due to beasts and monsters of the wild.

Key Features
Seven new quests
Four new weapons
Ten new battle maps and one proving ground that can be visited again and again to test your strategies, skills and items
25 songs added to soundtrack

The DLC will be available on March, 4th 2014 at a price point of €4.99 / $5.99 / £3.99 directly through Steam. Players who already bought the Contributor Edition during the Early Access will get the DLC for free.

The upcoming patch 1.3 for Daedalic's tactical RPG Blackguards will bring add a lot of things the community asked for. Here's the official blurp:

Our intentions for Patch 1.3
  
Hi Blackguards players,

with the help of a lot of very good feedback from you - thanks for that - we have decided for some changes we would like to make to the game with next patch. Our impressions are that the communication of the ruleset / understanding the rules, being able to make choices based on detailed feedback and some re-balancing are what the game would benefit the most from.

Thus, you will see some bigger alterations to the gameplay with the next major patch 1.3. The most important of those are:

- Hit chances will now always be visible. By everyone and against everyone. With every ability. - This is inteded to allow you to make better choices at any time and no longer have to guess what you hit chances are, no matter if you skilled 'Warcraft' or 'Animal Lore' or not. Those talents will be reworked accordingly to give better passive stats against opponents of the corresponding type, so that investing AP into them will still be worth it. 
- A mouse-over text will show you whether a certain character is still able to parry in this turn or if the parry is already gone. Blue = can parry. Red = can't parry. - It's a very important game mechanic that a character is only able to parry once a turn. Characters who cannot parry are only able to evade, which is in most cases less likely to succeed. Exploiting this mechanic allows for a much more tactical approach in battle, so it should help you to have a better overview on who's more vulnerable right now. 
- Detailed battle log. - You'll be able to optionally activate a 'verbose' kind of battle log that will show you the dice rolls the game made, so you are able to investigate in retrospective what exactly worked and what did not. Based on that feedback you should be able to make better skill and item choices for you characters. 
- Skill (talents, spells, abilities) descriptions will be reworked to show the exact benefits and disadvantages. - This is yet another change to allow you to make better choices, especially before investing AP into a certain skill, but also when using one. 
- More clear item descriptions, better comparability. - The way item stats are shown will get a complete overhaul to allow for better stat comparison and understanding. 
- Autosaves between follow-up battles. - It was often requested that saving the game between two follow-up battles should be possible. We'll adress this by auto-saving the game before any battle now. 
- Equipment changes in flashback fights. - Some players mentioned that flashback fights were really tough because they didn't get the equipment their characters we're skilled for. This will be solved by granting players the needed skills and weapons temporarily. 
- Reworked skills - Alongside the changes to the talents 'Warcraft' and 'Animal Lore', the abolish poison spell 'Clarum Purum' is too weak because poison can simply be applied again and again if the attacker hits, forcing the caster to cast 'Clarum Purum' again and again to no significant avail. 'Clarum Purum' will thus be reworked to grant posion immunity for some turns, based on the spell's level. 
- Some balancing changes regarding items and spells. - We'll provide details in the patch changelog.

The ETA is March 4th, together with the first DLC.

Daedalic Entertainment has posted news of a new patch for Blackguards on Steam.

Patch 1.2 is Here

We have a major game update for you right here! Along with improved balancing, some new items and better stability it'll also bring the a completely reworked Russian language for our Russian community.

Time for another round of reviews for Daedalic Entertainment's Blackguards.

Gaminglives - 7/10

Blackguards is a good game. It has got some very enjoyable moments, there is plenty to experience and you can sink plenty of hours into its world. Equally, I can’t ignore its shortcomings, in the form of some truly frustrating combat, and lacklustre graphics and sound. I can recommend Blackguards; just make sure you come ready for a fight and with an extra calm spell.

Den of Geek - 6.2/10

In the end, Blackguards is a strange, boring beast of a game. While the unique turn-based battle system sometimes allows the game to shine through its creative and strategic setups, it’s hard not to get the feeling that this is just a wannabe adventure game wearing an RPG’s clothes that just don’t quite fit right

Pixeljudge - 3.5/5

Blackguards is probably a guaranteed hit for Dark Eye fans. For everyone else, I'd advise a little caution as the game has its snags. But if you can't wait for another AAA release and don't have anything to play now, you could do much worse. Much, much worse.

Hardcore Gamer - 2.5/5

Though I feel incapable of giving Blackguards the fair shake it would get with fresh eyes, that’s ultimately nobody’s fault but the developer’s. Early access works for emergent play – games like Rust and Starbound where no play session is the same and every update changes the dynamics – but it’s ill-suited to more linear, directed experiences.

GamePlanet - 7.5/10

Blackguards is a strong RPG with top-notch tactical combat that's let down by some needless complexity and less-than-convincing voice-acting.

RPGamer - 2.5/5

Blackguards is a fairly decent first go, and fills up the roughly forty hours it takes to complete, including most side quests, quite nicely. However, there are several areas that could see significant improvement, particularly when it comes to building the world and story, and the very sub-standard ending leaves a feeling of untapped potential and a game that isn't as complete an experience as it could've been. On the whole, it's certainly a passable first effort but still quite rough around the edges.

And for last I have a video review from PCGMedia that gives the game a 59/100.

I have a new batch of reviews for the recently released Blackguards.

ZTGD - 7/10

This is a pen and paper/table top game that is not afraid to kill you if you are not careful. It has its moments of brilliance, and those really overpower the frustrations if you allow yourself to be patient. Hardcore RPG fans and pen and paper purists will get their fill with Blackguards both in combat and story. Just be prepared to do a lot of planning and possibly losing in order to succeed.

Canadian Online - 75/100

It was rather fun to play a turn-based tactical RPG in this style, but I wish it had just a bit more life to it and not feel so stiff. Don’t get me wrong – it is still very enjoyable, I just wish it had a bit more to it.  If you’re a fan of games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Tactics, and similar games, I would say that Blackguards is definitely worth checking out!

IGN -  7.8/10

I wish that Blackguards' character progression system wasn't such a mess, because if it worked, I'd be delighted to recommend the entire low-fantasy role-playing package without hesitation. But character development is such an important and defining part of any RPG that this cluttered and confusing system has a big impact on what is otherwise an excellent tactical game with well-designed battlefields.

Capsule Computers - 7.5/10

Blackguards is a solid game for RPG fans looking to check out a new system. The Dark Eye is one of the most popular systems in Europe and hopefully Blackguards will bring some attention from players around the world. Although the game provides a strong audio/visual experience and a good, but tame, story, there are some problems with the combat system that may scare off non-hardcore RPG fans. There is a ton of content for $39.99, with more than 40 hours of adventuring.  It’s a shame that Blackguards needs some tweaking before it’s ready to break into the mainstream; however, Daedalic Entertainment has made a great step towards that goal with the game.

Games Radar - 3.5/5

Blackguard had a lot of promise--The Dark Eye provides an interesting setting and a compelling set of tactical mechanics for a turn-based strategy game. And if you’re looking at just the combat, Blackguards works--it’s just a shame that everything is so unpolished. You’ll find incomplete translations; an awkward, imprecise control scheme; and frame rate issues, all of which keep Blackguards from realizing its potential.

Leviathyn - 6/10

Daedalic Entertainment’s new tactical RPG is filled with great ideas and mechanics that are never used quite right. Blackguards has fun characters, great battlefield design and open-ended character building, and with a little more attention given to its pacing, it could be a fantastic game. As is, Blackguards will please fans of both RPGs and turn-based strategy games looking for something a bit more straightforward, but only if they are willing to come to the game with a great deal of patience.

Daedalic Entertainment released a new trailer for BlackGuards.

What happens when the only hope of a threatened world lies not with heroes in shining armor, but in the hands of a band of misfits and criminals? Blackguards, a new turn-based strategy RPG, explores this very question. You will discover over 180 unique hex-based battlegrounds within a dark and mature story of crime, drugs, and murder.

 Strategy Informer reviews Blackguards , and gives the game a final score of 6/10.

If you’re looking for an interactive board game with role-playing elements, a ton of stats and moderately interesting writing you could do a lot worse than Blackguards. If you’re looking for a proper RPG, look elsewhere. Throw some turn-based combat and XP into Memoria and it’d be more of a Dark Eye RPG than this. There is fun to be had and Daedalic have done their best to keep battles interesting, but often things can get very frustrating and it’s hard not to come to the realisation that you’re just doing the same things over and over again. Daedalic have made two excellent adventures out of The Dark Eye, but they’ve yet to make a good RPG.

I have two more reviews for Blackguards to share today.

NoobFeed

Daedalic Entertainment have outdone themselves and Blackguards is one of the best adaptations of a pen and paper RPG that I have ever seen, transforming the original into an amazing digital version that still retains the heart and soul of a pen and paper, whilst getting rid of the inconveniences such a game implies. The in-depth gameplay and the great dungeon design will give you tens of hours of entertainment and the morale system gives the game a lot of replay value. Blackguards is surely a game that will engulf you and will have you invested in its story for the entirety of the game, and it’s a must play for every RPG fan out there.

TotalBiscuit

TotalBiscuit takes a look at a recently released turn-based RPG from Daedalic Entertainment.

Here are a few more reviews for the recently released Blackguards.

Cheatcc - 4/5

Daedalic may have had the intent to spin a tale of treachery and malevolence with Blackguards, but from the outset you'll find that each character has a conscience that is rarely tested, ultimately weaving an only slightly less-than-virtuous tale. That being said, every encounter is exciting and challenging, and the massive amount of class tailoring gives you plenty of reasons to replay the adventure and sample different character choices. It's a great foundation, especially for a game developer not accustomed to the genre, and I am eager to see if Daedalic can do anything more with the series, be it with a sequel, new content, or tools for players to create their own adventures.

Expansive DLC - 8/10

Considering I’ve played ten or so hours and barely got past the content being offered in the demo (It’s actually a seriously generous demo, and therefore well worth a look) I’d be hard pressed to call this a ‘final’ analysis, but what I was able to play of Blackguards was reasonably impressive. By keeping their focus on the combat system and abandoning or neglecting the rest of the genre’s usual features, Daedalic have produced an extremely refined and well thought out strategy game that strikes a good balance between usability and functionality.

Softpedia - 7/10

Blackguards is a role-playing game that will appeal to those who love the more classic experiences linked with the genre and it’s always nice to discover a game that uses a universe other than that of Dungeons & Dragons.

And for last Leviathyn has a video review.

Join Eric and Andrew as they dive headfirst into the distinctly European fantasy setting and explore the impressively large world map, work with some shady dwarves in a nearby town, and get a taste of the all important combat with some ruffians in a warehouse.

Dealspwn reviews Blackguards and gives the game a 7/10.

Blackguards is a monstrous slab of ruthlessly tough yet massively rewarding strategy that fans of old-school RPGs will find impossible to resist. The more esoteric and chance-based aspects of its mechanics and presentation will put many players off -- not to mention a difficulty curve that makes The Shard look like The Shire -- but chances are you already know where you stand.

I'm sure by now most of you know Blackguards is available to buy. Daedalic Entertainment sent out a new pres release with more information.

Blackguards now available worldwide!

Time to go rogue…..

Hamburg, Germany 23^rd January 2014– Calling all bandits, Blackguards, the sinister turn based RPG by Hamburg-based publisher Daedalic Entertainment is now available worldwide via Steam and GOG for PC and Mac.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/249650/

http://www.gog.com/game/blackguards_special_edition

Players who purchased Blackguards via the Steam Early Access Program will receive an automatic update including the full version of the game. This will also include new features implemented as a result of feedback collected throughout the time the game was in Early Access.

For players who would like to get a taste of the game, Daedalic Entertainment have released a free demo containing the first chapter of the game:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/249650/

Blackguards is available now for PC and Mac for the RRP of £29.99 for the Standard Edition and £44.99 for the Collector’s Edition.

Gamespot is the next site to review Blackguards, and award the game with a 7/10.

Blackguards is the kind of game that's best enjoyed on a second playthrough. And there's the big question: is it worth suffering through all this a second time? It all depends on your devotion to the demands of its gameplay. Even a tumble through the first two chapters yields enough experience to justify starting over on normal difficulty, while a full playthrough should prepare most players for the seeming impossibilities awaiting on hard. And if you like a good story? The quality of Blackguards' story is generally good enough to justify tinkering with different choices to see how they lead to different outcomes. But make no mistake: this is a game aimed at the hardcore crowd seeking a good struggle above all else, and on that front, it mostly delivers.

Daedalic is running a reddit AskMeAnything about Blackguards thing in cooperation with GOG right now. They're giving away no less than 40.000 GOG keys to one of their other The Dark Eye games, the adventure Chains of Satinav.

We've just received word that Blackguards release date will be released earlier than expected.

Here’s some news you won’t hear that very often: Development of our turn-based RPG has been finished early – we’re happy and excited, and we want to share our excitement with you as soon as we can.
Thus, we are in the lucky position that we can move the release of Blackguards forward to tonight – from 5 pm CET / 4 pm GMT / 8 am PST onwards, the official full version of Blackguards will already be available on Steam and GOG.

Until then, Steam Early Access will continue. Everybody who has purchased or purchases Blackguards in Early Access will receive an automatic update to the full, final version of Blackguards.

Daedalic Entertainment has sent a new press release about a new demo of Blackguards

First chapter of upcoming RPG available as a free demo

Hamburg, Germany 21^st January 2014– Hamburg based adventurers Daedalic Entertainment today release a free demo for the upcoming turn-based RPG Blackguards. The full game will be available on Friday 24th January for PC and Mac.

The free demo contains the finalised first chapter of Blackguards incorporating new features that have been implemented as a result of the feedback collected throughout The Early Access program. This will include the advanced character creation announced last month. Players will be able to continue saved games started in the demo in the full version of the game.

Blackguards will release on Friday 24th January 2014 for PC and Mac for the RRP of £29.99 for the Standard Edition and £44.99 for the Collector’s Edition.

The Escapist has posted an early review for the Turn-Based RPG Blackguards.

Blackguards is an inoffensive and average game. It has great strengths and surprising weaknesses. If you're like me, you'll put 40-50 hours into the game depending on what difficulty you're on or how many side quests you do. Once you put that into perspective of price - $25.00 at launch in the United States - you're getting really great value for money. It's a very consumer friendly game for RPG fans, and if you're not sitting on a huge backlog it's a worthy investment of time.

 The score given by the site was an average 3/5. Here are the details.

In the end, Blackguards feels a lot like the first time I played Neverwinter Nights in all the good ways and all the bad. Take from that what you will.

Recommendation: SRPG lovers and those tiding themselves over until the next BioWare RPG would do well to check out Blackguards.

Bottom Line: Blackguards has its up and downs, but at $25 for 40 or more hours of good gameplay, it's hard to beat.

GameGrin previews the Early Access version of Blackguards.

While there are still a few kinks to be ironed out; some misspellings here, a little faulty lever there, and could really do with an option to change certain key bindings (for those of us without a middle mouse wheel), the game is still in beta so these will of course be changed in patches.

To be honest, Blackguards is very impressive and for those of you who love RPGs, this will make your heart beat a little bit faster. As for Daedalic, the company have produced so many gems in the past few years that it’s worth pondering whether they are in fact genius robots who don’t sleep. How do they do it?

Deadelic Entertainment will provide a series of video guides for Blackguards over the next weeks, starting with this first video covering character class selection.

Daedalic Entertainment has sent us a new press releases with information that Blackguards Early Access is now available for Mac users.

Blackguards Now Also Available for Mac

Hamburg, January 10th, 2014. Today Blackguards, Daedalic Entertainment's turn-based RPG will be available on Steam's Early Access program for Mac. This way, all Mac users can enjoy the first four chapters of the game even before the official release on January 24th.

store.steampowered.com/app/249650

Early Access allows players to play the first chapters of Blackguards months before the official release and to have a chance to influence the development process through their feedback based on pre-release builds.
 
Blackguards will be published chapter by chapter while in Early Access. As of now, the first four parts of the game are available. All five chapters will be made available in the upcoming weeks.
 
Daedalic Entertainment offers several packages for interested Early Access participants. In all cases, players will secure access to the final version of Blackguards by paying a lower price compared to purchasing the game after its official release.

Additionally, they have the opportunity to buy exclusive extras that will only be available before the official release. For $24.99/£18.99/€24.99, players receive the Standard Early Access Edition of Blackguards, including all chapters for PC at their earliest availability, and the full PC & Mac version of the game after the official release. For $34.99/£26.99/€34.99, players receive the Blackguards Early Access Deluxe Edition, an approx. 150 page artbook, and access to developer interview videos and six exclusive wallpapers. For $49.99/£29.99/€49.99, the Blackguards Early Access Contributor Edition additionally includes an appearance of the buyer’s name within the game’s credits, as well as the first Blackguards DLC and a copy of the The Dark Eye point & click adventure Chains of Satinav for free.

All additional content will be accessible once it has been completed.

The official release of Blackguards is scheduled for January, 24th 2014. The game will be available for PC & Mac, priced US$39.99/£29.99/ €39.99.

Spiderduck takes a look at the Early Access version of BlackGuards.

At the end of the day, Blackguards has some good things going for it and features a deep character customization system for you to choose the skills you want and challenging combat that makes it a challenge while not being frustrating. For me, I love being pulled in by a great story and that can be the thing that keeps me playing. Early on, Blackguards just doesn't give that to me. I'll definitely keep playing the game as I find the combat enjoyable but I'm hoping the story really picks up and gives me a change of heart. The game is in Steam Early Access right now, and is pretty close to being finished and should be out in its entirety within the next few months. The developers are taking criticism seriously, but major parts of the game being overhauled doesn't seem likely at this point. For those who want a great RPG story, I would wait until the final product comes out and see how the full story turns out before jumping in. For those who are looking for more turn-based strategy, this is a good pick from what I've experienced so far and would be worth the price of admission ($24.99 on Steam) and could turn into a great pick once we see the final release. It's certainly a game that I will play more of, and you can expect a review once the game is finalized.

Daedalic Entertainment has released a new five minute video that gives a look at how character class selection works.

To make your start into the game just as smooth as sliding into a new year, we have prepared a series of video guides for you. In every video we will show and explain a special aspect of the game and its rules and give some helpful advice.

You may remember the short post about chapter four being available on Steam Early Access. Well Daedalic Entertainment sent us a new press release with more info.

The Dark Eye: Blackguards - Chapter 4 released

Hamburg, January 2nd, 2014 – Daedalic Entertainment continues the regular updates to their turn-based RPG Blackguards on Steam’s Early Access with the release of Chapter 4.
 
store.steampowered.com/app/249650
 
Early Access allows players to play the first chapters of Blackguards months before the official release and to have a chance to influence the development process through their feedback based on pre-release builds.

Blackguards will be published chapter by chapter while in Early Access. As of now, the first three parts of the game are available. All five chapters will be made available in the upcoming weeks.
 
Daedalic Entertainment offers several packages for interested Early Access participants. In all cases, players will secure access to the final version of Blackguards by paying a lower price compared to purchasing the game after its official release.

Additionally, they have the opportunity to buy exclusive extras that will only be available before the official release. For $24.99/£18.99/€24.99, players receive the Standard Early Access Edition of Blackguards, including all chapters for PC at their earliest availability, and the full PC & Mac version of the game after the official release. For $34.99/£26.99/€34.99, players receive the Blackguards Early Access Deluxe Edition, an approx. 150 page artbook, and access to developer interview videos and six exclusive wallpapers. For $49.99/£29.99/€49.99, the Blackguards Early Access Contributor Edition additionally includes an appearance of the buyer’s name within the game’s credits, as well as the first Blackguards DLC and a copy of the The Dark Eye point & click adventure Chains of Satinav for free.

All additional content will be accessible once it has been completed.
 
The official release of Blackguards is scheduled for January, 24th 2014. The game will be available for PC & Mac, priced US$39.99/£29.99/ €39.99.

Daedalic Entertainment announce in a new post on Steam that Chapter Four of Blackguards is now available for Early Access buyers.

Chapter 4 released

Hi there,

We hope you had a great Christmas and you are now fully recovered to visit the new chapter 4 of Blackguards. And because there are always some people who have to work at New Years Eve we thougt we release the update on Sunday. And because we couldn't wait to share it with you.

So have a lot of fun with this chapter and don't stop giving us your feedback. Again we did adjustments with the difficulty level, so let us know if it is to hard for you now ;).

Have fun and stay awesome,

Your Blackguards team

CalmDownTom reviews the second chapter of Blackguards Early Access version.

Visually Blackguards is fairly impressive. However the soft focus and blooms often get carried away and make what is supposed to be a dark world rather dream like. I appreciate the art though and it is consistent throughout the whole game.

The games interface was a problem for me. Without proper tutorials the UI was fairly cumbersome and item management a chore. Speaking of tutorials, the game was fairly difficult; not overly so but enough to keep me on edge. This in of itself would perhaps be something to congratulate the game over. However with such dense stats and abilities I couldn’t help but feel that I was perhaps levelling my character incorrectly or that I was missing the opportunity to use them to the best of their abilities. This is great for RPG trailblazers who like nothing more than to delve into the game mechanics and wrestle out optimal builds for each play style. However if you are looking to pick up a fun RPG without any pre-planning this may put you off.

Blackguards is a good solid game. It perhaps misses a few of its loftier ambitions and I doubt it will be remembered as a classic in years to come but if you are looking for a good turn based RPG I wholly recommend it.

Fresh out of the news pipeline:

Daedalic sent out a German language PR with details about their Blackguards Early Access campaign. The most important point is that based upon player feedback they will implement full character generation in addition to the 3 archetypes you can choose from now. A patch will add this functionality before release.

More details when the English PR arrives.

Edith says: Here's the English PM:

New features to be added to upcoming RPG Blackguards

Player feedback via Early Access shapes game development

Hamburg, Germany 19th December 2013 – Hamburg based adventure game specialists Daedalic Entertainment today announce new features will be added to the upcoming turn-based RPG Blackguards following community feedback received via the Steam Early Access program.

“Launching on Early Access three months ahead of release has been a really beneficial part of the development process for us,” senior producer Kai Fiebig explains. “The community have provided detailed feedback which is allowing us to add and modify features where viable prior to the official release in January. How the community feels about the direction we’re taking with the game is incredibly important to us, and we appreciate and take what they have to say seriously”

One of the new features the team are implementing is an advanced character system mode. “Currently players can choose their character from three archetypes allowing people unfamiliar with the source material to access the game with more ease.” Fiebig explains. “After the first chapter was released on Early Access the community expressed a desire to build their character from scratch and we are happy to fulfill this request!’ The feature will be added to the game via a patch at release in January 2014.

Launched via Early Access in November, the first three chapters of Blackguards are currently available with the final two planned to release in the coming weeks. Three different packages of Blackguards are available through Early Access, all of which include the final version of the game upon launch. Players are also able to buy additional extras exclusive to the Early Access, more information can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/249650

A new video incorporating the community feedback can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/pFLPdVIKyCM

Blackguards will release in full in January 2014 on PC and Mac for £29.99.

Last weekend the 3rd of 5 chapters in Daedalic's tactical RPG Blackguards was released on Steam Early Access. Daedalic sent us a couple of Steam keys for the Deluxe Edition, and if you are among the lucky winners you can enjoy the first 30-40 hours of the game later this week.

All you have to do is post your answer to a simple question in the comment thread. It doesn't matter whether your answer is serious or funny. The winners will be picked randomly.

The question is:

Why is turn-based combat better than real-time combat?

I'll draw the winners in a couple of days and give notice at least 12 hours earlier.

Update: You can still participate until Dec 19th at noon (CET).

Update 2: The contest is closed. We'll announce the winners in a couple of hours.

Update 3: The raffle is over. Thanks to everybody who participated and to Daedalic. We've sent a PM to all winners. Please respond within 24 hours to claim your prize or it will forfeit.

6aming has a new preview of the Early Accesss version of Blackguards, and just like some of the other previews they are not impressed.

Blackguards could have been a great little game, but a lack of time and polish on the key part of any good RPG – story – lets it down somewhat. The combat is compelling stuff, but the unnecessarily complicated nature of the inventory screens and skill tree is a hindrance to the fun.

Feel free to skip it though as the reviewer is not a fan of old-school RPGs.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a preview of the Early Access version of Blackguards, and they are not impressed by the game. Please send all the hateful comments to them not me.

In a way, I’m glad that early-2000s-style fantasy RPGs are still kicking about on PC – a game like Blackguards was bread and butter of my reviewing job a decade ago, and I tended to enjoy sitting down with something far too long and involved even if the writing and acting was inevitably terrible. Things are different now though, more so once the glut of Kickstarted ‘old school’ RPGs start to arrive, and we’ve extremely focused fare such as Avernum on one end and mega-glossy Biowarefare on the other, with assorted roguelikes/roguelikelikes lurking somewhere in the far reaches. I really do want a middleground, but not like this.

I know it’s early access, but it’s also just one month from full release. Despite an interesting and uncommonly elaborate combat system, Blackguards feels cheap, stodgy and uncertain of purpose, attempting to make do with one voice actor trying to do a dozen different accents, sloppy translations and a UI about as intuitive as a large hadron collider. It talks and talks and talks and talks and talks, woeful words with hokey, stilted performances, and like a dinner party guest who only has anecdotes about his time selling air compressors in 1974, it thinks if it just keeps talking we’ll somehow become interested.

Daedalic Entertainment announce in a new post on Steam that Chapter III of Blackguards is now available on Early Access.

In this very moments the biggest chapter to date is becoming unlocked for our Early Access audience. The third part of Blackguards is about two times as big as the first chapter was, so be prepared for a journey of epic scale!

Again we are really proud of what we have achieved so far and are eager to hear your feedback, as we are still working hard on the game to shape it the way you told us. So keep up telling us what is on your mind - whatever you like about the game and what you do not like.

As always, you can read about our changes to the game in the changelog below. We wish you a lot of fun with Chapter 3!

Your Blackguards Team

NoobFeed has a new preview based on the Early Access version of Blackguards.

Daedalic Entertainment did a great job at adapting a pen and paper RPG and transforming it into a digital version that still retains the heart of a pen and paper, while getting rid of the inconveniences such a game implies. The in-depth gameplay and the great dungeon design will give you more than a hundred hours of entertainment and the morale system gives the game a lot of replay value, but the lack of polish will easily break your immersion at times.

I can't wait to see the replies for the preview.

Geeked Out Nation takes a look at the Early Access version of Blackguards.

I am really glad to see that there are games, and developers, out there that still treat gamers like adults with functioning frontal lobes. When I suffer a death in Blackguards I don’t blame the game in a fit, but rather I ask myself what I did wrong and how next time I can better handle the situation. This gives players a real sense of achievement and dare I say, makes them better at life in general at applying problem solving logic and thinking before the end their turn.

Blackguards is still Beta right now with a release window of late January on Steam for both PC and MAC. This is great because there are still a number of bugs for the developers to work out such as player targeting not always registering and various sound and voice over miscues. The great thing about Steam is that with early access you can watch and be a part of the final product. I am really looking forward to Blackguards and we will keep you posted on more information as it comes in here at Geeked Out Nation.

Daedalic Entertainment announces in this new press releases that chapter II of Blackguards is now available on Steam Early Access.

Daedalic release Chapter II of Blackguards via Early Access

Hamburg, 26^th November 2013 – Acclaimed German publisher Daedalic Entertainment today release the second menacing chapter of the upcoming turn-based RPG Blackguards through the Steam Early Access program.

Launched via Early Access last month, each chapter of Blackguards will be released in three week intervals, giving the community the opportunity to play the game and give the developers feedback prior to the official launch.

Three different packages of Blackguards are available through Early Access, all of which include the final version of the game upon launch. Players are also able to buy additional extras exclusive to the Early Access*:

- Blackguards Standard Early Access Edition – £18.99:  Includes each Early Access chapter of Blackguards for PC at the earliest availability as well as the final version of the game at launch for PC and Mac.

- Blackguards Early Access Deluxe Edition - £26.99: Includes the Standard edition and a 150-page digital art book of the game, bonus developer interview videos and six exclusive wallpapers.

- Blackguards Early Access Contributor Edition - £29.99: Includes the Deluxe edition and the first Blackguards DLC, a copy of point & click adventure Chains of Satinav as well as the buyers name featured in the game credits.

*The bonus items won’t be available until the final release of Blackguards.

A teaser trailer for the game can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/0CBGhGymP8Y

Blackguards on Steam Early Access: http://store.steampowered.com/app/249650

Blackguards will release in full in January 2014 on PC and Mac.

Here are two more previews of the Early Access version of Blackguards.

Twinfinite 

All the elements are there: lovely environments, great voice acting, diverse characters, good story, big skill trees, plenty of abilities, but none of these things can work if the heart of the game isn’t pumping the right blood into the veins of Blackguards. The combat, a major part of any turn-based strategy RPG falters in the silliest ways. There’s a great attention to detail in the whole package, except where it really counts, and that’s just not enough to drive the game home. Strategy is left nearly completely moot when victory winds up heavily reliant on luck, and character building takes too long to help it.

GamingLives

Daedalic are relatively unproven outside the world of adventure games but Blackguards shows a lot of potential. It’s very pretty, has a well-written – if a little clichéd – story and generally enjoyable combat. It still needs some polish, there are a few balance issues that seem to be related to your starting class, the RNG can be brutal at times and it would benefit greatly from a bit more of a helping hand for those of us unfamiliar with Germany’s most popular RPG ruleset, but I have high hopes for it once the game is complete.

LevelSave has a short preview of the Early Access build of Blackguards.

The leveling system in Blackguards is again, deep and somewhat easy to understand. I say somewhat, because after spending some time with it, I can understand it enough to enjoy leveling in the game and I still know that there are plenty of layers underneath. After each battle you are awarded AP points for each character. There are dozens of ways these AP points can be spent. For instance, you can choose to level up your character’s offense, which is actually three different aspects of your character or you can level those three aspects separately. You can level up different weapon skills and then choose whether these weapon skills help with your character’s offense or defense. Some of the skills you upgrade can even affect your character’s initiative, and this affects how often and in what order your characters attack.

The quests in Blackguards range from the main story which is always leading you to the next town, to a nice amount of side quests that will have you fighting trolls, leeches, humans, you name it. The battles can be a simple kill everything on the screen to rescue missions and even mission where enemies will continue to spawn until you find out how to stop them.

On top of all of this Blackguards is a great looking game. The maps are detailed, colorful and unique with the character models and animations being just as good.

GameBanshee has posted a new preview of the Early Access version of Blackguards.

Blackguards still has a lot of work that needs to be done.  Daedalic will need to continue polishing the text (it was in a terrible state when I first started playing, with typos, untranslated phrases, and missing text being all too common, but the first patch took care of a lot of those issues), working on the interface, and balancing the classes.  Right now warriors seem to be way more powerful than hunters or (especially) mages, but I don't know if this means that certain skills or classes need work, or if like in a lot of RPGs warriors start out strong but then get bypassed by the more complicated classes as the game progresses.

If I had to evaluate Blackguards right now, then I'd say it looks like it could be a fun little game.  It feels more like an RPG to me than a tactical strategy game (despite the structure), and a lot will depend on how well the mystery in the main storyline plays out.  You don't learn much about it in Chapter 1, as the majority of your time there is spent dodging the authorities and making your way south to meet with somebody who can shed light on your situation.  If the story can provide enough twists and intrigue to keep players guessing, then I think it and the combat can complement each other enough to make the game enjoyable.

Chapter 1 took me about 8 hours to complete, and so the full complement of five chapters might take around 40 hours, which would be fine for the game's $25 asking price.  Look for the full version of Blackguards to come out sometime around the end of January.

Action Radius posted a new preview of the Early Access version of Blackguards.

Daedelic has done a nice job at using their adventure game expertise and make a tactical action RPG out of it, while at the core you will still enjoy a sense of adventuring and intriguing storyline to keep you tied to your seat; but the game does need some polishing in both visuals and gameplay to be perfect.

Daedalic Entertainment has released a new seven minute Developer Diary Video.

Have you ever asked yourself, how the idea of the turn-based RPG Blackguards was born? Follow us into the Daedalic Dungeon! You can find even more information in the developer diaries which are included in our Early Access Deluxe and Contributors Editions on Steam.

The RPG Codex has posted a preview of the Early Access version of Blackguards. Just remember the usual warnings of crude humor, and bad language apply.

Roxor: Blackguards surprised me many times when I played it. In fact, the game was the complete opposite of what I expected – I assumed it would have been at best an RPG-lite, more of an adventure game with stats, with plenty of dialogue, puzzle-solving and a very advanced narrative. Instead, the combat system turned out to be great, but the narrative part disappointed me, or at least the parts of the narrative that I saw. The main plot seems to be an unexciting mess, the way it progresses makes little sense, and the whole “bunch of criminals” aspect is underplayed.

Felipe: True, it strikes me as odd how the game is constantly being marketed as a “dark story”, in which you play as a convicted murder, testing your moral compass and all that. The first 10 minutes of the game have you being unjustly arrested, and after a short while your group of fugitives is acting just like any other RPG party, helping out random people, and even attacking slavers without any really good reason besides “slavers are bad”. Some of your party members (especially Takate) seem to have no reason to even follow you other than the fact that you’re the main character in a game.

Roxor: This is a shame, because at this point in development “fixing” any combat and mechanics flaws is the only possible thing Daedalic can do, as the narrative is pretty much set in stone. But to be honest? I don’t care. I swear, I haven’t had this much fun whacking enemies in turn-based combat since Knights of the Chalice, and while it would obviously be ideal for this RPG to cover all the bases, I’d much rather see one with a combat system that actually puts some classics to shame while sacrificing the story, than another drop in the ocean of pseudo-choice oriented storyfag LARP simulators.

Felipe: Same here. However, the game does hint at a darker, larger scheme in the background, and I would be very impressed and forced to swallow my words if they manage to execute it well in the end. I do fear that the long and linear story might diminish the game's replay value, and I would have certainly preferred a game where I could create my own party and explore different paths, but in the end, this is still quite an impressive title.

Overall, it's amusing that after all those RPG veterans on Kickstarter promised a return to old-school RPGs and all that over a year ago, in the end it's only in a semi-obscure title, from a company that has only made adventure games, that I find a good hardcore old-school turn-based RPG experience.

Daedalic Entertainment sent us a new press release informing us that Blackguards is now available on Early Access on Steam, and released a new teaser to go with the news.

Blackguards: Early Access

Hamburg, November 6th, 2013. Today marks the start of Daedalic Entertainments Blackguards in Steam’s Early Access programme, giving gamers the opportunity to try out the game three months before the official release. A new teaser, published today, gives a little taste of the captivating battles, the game has to offer:

http://youtu.be/0CBGhGymP8Y

http://store.steampowered.com/app/249650

Blackguards will be published chapter by chapter while in Early Access: Today Daedalic Entertainment releases the first part of the game, all other chapters of a total of five will follow after three weeks’ time each.

Early Access is designed to allow players to play a game before its official release, and to influence the development process by mailing in their feedback based on pre-release builds.

Daedalic Entertainment offers several packages for interested Early Access participants – in any case, players will secure access to the final version of Blackguards, by paying a lower price as when purchasing the game after its official release. Additionally, they have the opportunity to purchase exclusive extras that will only be available before the official release: For $24.99/£18.99/€24.99, players receive the Standard Early Access Edition of Blackguards, including all chapters for PC at their earliest availability, and the full PC & Mac version of the game after the official release. For $34.99/£26.99/€34.99, players receive the Blackguards Early Access Deluxe Edition, additionally including an approx. 150 page artbook, as well as developer interview videos and six exclusive wallpapers. Priced $49.99/£29.99/€49.99, the Blackguards Early Access Contributor Edition additionally includes an appearance of a buyer’s name within the game’s credits, as well as the first Blackguards DLC and a copy of the The Dark Eye point & click adventure Chains of Satinav for free.

All additional contents will be accessible after each item’s completion.

The official release of Blackguards is scheduled for late January 2014. The game will be available for PC & Mac, priced €39.99, further local prices to be announced.

Daedalic Entertainment announces they will be releasing Blackguards on Steam Early Access in November.

Sharpen your blades!

Hamburg, October 29th, 2013 – Acclaimed German publisher Daedalic Entertainment today announce they will be releasing the upcoming turn-based RPG Blackguards via the Steam Early Access program from November 2013.

Giving the community the chance to influence the game’s development prior to launch, Daedalic Entertainment will release each of the five chapters of Blackguards in three week intervals, starting with the first on November 7^th 2013.

Three different packages of Blackguards will be available through Early Access, all of which include the final version of the game upon launch. Players will also be able to buy additional extras exclusive to the Early Access*:

Blackguards Standard Early Access Edition – £18.99:  Includes each Early Access chapter of Blackguards for PC at the earliest availability as well as the final version of the game at launch for PC and Mac.

Blackguards Early Access Deluxe Edition - £26.99: Includes the Standard edition and a 150-page digital art book of the game, bonus developer interview videos and six exclusive wallpapers.

Blackguards Early Access Contributor Edition - £29.99: Includes the Deluxe edition and the first Blackguards DLC, a copy of point & click adventure Chains of Satinav as well as the buyers name featured in the game credits.

*The bonus items won’t be available until the final release of Blackguards.

Blackguards will release in full in January 2014 on PC and Mac.

Destructoid posted a new preview of Daedalic Entertainment's upcoming turn-based RPG Blackguards.

Blackguards is expected to be about 40 hours long, with hundreds of quests, huge maps to explore, a mountain of loot and gear to discover, and a continent to chart -- but even more post-launch content is being planned in the form of a map editor. So you can try to make even more devious battles and then upload them for others to die in, over and over again.

Though it was initially planned for a November release, Blackguards has been postponed until January. It seems like a smart move, considering that November will be an insanely busy month with the launch of two new consoles, stealing some of the thunder from any new PC releases.

The Yogscast has posted a new 15-Minute video preview of Blackguards.

I'm joined by Claas, one of the team at Daedalic Entertainment - the makers of Deponia - to play through the first part of the tutorial area for Blackguards.

Blackguards is a turn-based RPG set in a fantasy land (The Dark Eye universe), and should appeal to lovers of strategy, fantasy, and RPG based games like Diablo, XCOM and Dungeons and Dragons - see what you think!

Daedalic Entertainment has announced Blackguards will release in January 2014 on PC in this new press release. This is sad news but at least it's not a long delay.

Hamburg, October 16th, 2013 – Acclaimed German Publisher, Daedalic Entertainment have today announced the upcoming turn-based RPG Blackguards will release in January 2014 on PC. A step away from the adventure games Daedalic are known for, Blackguards sees the Hamburg based publisher break new ground in terms of genre as well as the dark storylines the game follows. New screenshots for the game have also been released.

"Of course we want to ensure the highest quality, even if we tread on new ground; and most of all, we want the players to enjoy the finished game.", Kai Fiebig says, Senior Producer of Blackguards.

"All the time we've gained now will be used to put as much effort as possible into improving the game. We'll optimize performance, implement new features and also polish the visuals."

We were sent a newsletter for Daedelic's Blackguards that features 3 characters.

Blackguards: Of Hunters and Murderers

Hamburg, September 20th, 2013 - Sinister, sly, deadly - that's how best to describe the cast of Blackguards. It's time to take a peek at the characters of the upcoming turn-based RPG.

Takate, a former slave and gladiator, makes a formidable, yet dangerous companion. Born and raised among the tribes of South Aventuria's vast jungles he learned all the skills one needs to survive in the unforgiving wilderness.

He was a promising young warrior, but during his rite of passage slavers abducted Takate and brought him to the arena of El'Halem.

The cruel world of sand and blood taught him to fight and to kill. During the first years, he served as whipping boy and sparring partner for the veteran gladiators. However, he fairly quickly joined their ranks, becoming as successful, efficient and lethal as they were; if not more. The other gladiators, who belittled him at first, now fear Takate. Whoever doubts the deadly grace of this fighter won't live long enough to tell the tale...

Takate spent half of his life on the bottom of the barrel, fighting in an arena to entertain 'civilized' people. Being the champion, though, has its benefits. Takate is rewarded with things other pit fighters can only dream of. A champion, for example, never has to share his women...

Even among the Blackguards, Takate makes an outstanding fighter and killer. Cold blooded as he may seem, however, he does have problems keeping his hatred for the pompous upper-class and especially slave traders in check.

You don't have to be a tough gladiator to be dangerous, though. Niam and her younger sister Salva, both half elven bastard children of a local baron, never had it easy. Both were cast out and disowned after their mother's death and Niam wholly committed to raising and protecting her sister.

As soon as Salva was old enough to take care of herself though, Niam gave in to her long suppressed lust for life. Bad company and excessive sprees lead her to dreamweed and a severe addiction to a herb named gods-sage. To afford her addiction, she became a poacher, selling pelts in town. She fled to the wilderness, where the long arm of the law couldn't reach her, leaving her sister behind.

Niam walks between two worlds ever since. She loathes being a poacher, but she has a knack for it and the drugs don't come free.
On the flipside ,the call of the big towns is much more appealing to her: here she can fully succumb to the tempations of her dreamweeds.

Shortly before Niam encountered the other Blackguards, Salva vanished without a trace. She returned, however, a mysterious, yet terrible illness had befallen the half elf. She was catatonic, and lost her voice as well as her own will. Ever since, Niam desperately tries to find a cure.

Quite early during their adventures the Blackguards meet a formidable and powerful opponent in Master Urias ay Kalamal.
Very few have earned the Horas Empire's respect as he did. Urias served under Empress Amene during the battle of the Troll Gate, fought the Thorwalians and lend his aid to thwart the red cough that ravaged Drôl. For his outstanding services, the Empress bestowed the title of count upon him. Urias owns a country estate near Neetha, and made it a hoard of arts and philosophy.

The aged hero was nearly devastated by the death of his daughter Elanor. He will do all in his power to hunt down the apparent murderer and won't rest until he sees him sway lifeless from the gallows for his crimes.

But nobody who arrested the murderer survived to bear witness. With the help of dark magic the murderer, in the company of several other convicts escaped the dungeons of Neetha.

And now it's on to the player, walking in the boots of a suspected murderer, to prove their innocence to Elanor's father and the people of their home.

Blackguards is available as of November 19th, 2013 for PC and Mac.

The Gamers Hub writer Vaughn has posted a new preview for Blackguards.

This isn’t just any entry into The Dark Eye series though, Blackguards casts you in the role of criminals and murderers who have set out to help rid the world of evil that plagues mankind. It may just sound like a story with no real substance, but Daedalic promise that each character in your party has its own specific traits that will reflect how they do battle, interact with others or handle certain situations. And, because these are criminals you’re playing with, the story and world adapts to your actions – or lack of – as you can leave damsels to be in distress while you keep busy with something else. You’re rarely forced into playing through something that you don’t want to play through.

We weren’t treated too too much of the story and world in our preview presentation, but we did get to take a peek into how towns have become hubs for you to rest in and work from. Here you’ll grab help for hire, extra quests and some main quest objectives, and do trade with a variety of traders. Interestingly, Daedalic decided that it wasn’t worthwhile making these into 3D explorable towns layered with NPCs as feedback from testers showed that it only slowed down the pace of play. It’s a shame too as this is one visually beautiful title.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by that, seeing as Memoria is a lavish hand-drawn affair and so is Goodbye Deponia, but as everything here is a 3D modelled world, it seems a shame to only ever utilise that for dungeons and battle. But, I’m not going to argue if it keeps the pace of play up, I know all to well that I get sucked into doing small, menial tasks in towns in RPGs.

Daedelic sent us a press release about the some of the available characters in Blackguards.

Blackguards: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – Introduction of the turn-based RPG’s sinister main characters
 
Hamburg, September 6th, 2013 – Blackguards is dark, sinister and different: The story of Daedalic’s upcoming turn-based RPG takes the player into a world where even the main character, often the brave and shiny hero, is a condemned murderer. Today, Daedalic is introducing some of the villains the player has to deal with:

First of all there is, of course, the player’s character, created by him- or herself. Before the story of Blackguards starts, players choose chose sex, name and class of their “hero”. Class-wise, they can either jump-start into the game by picking one of three class-archetypes – classic warriors, mages or hunters -, or to explore the full glory of the RPG system The Dark Eye, which Blackguards is based on. The archetypes guarantee easy access, whereas TDE and RPG pros will be able to create their desired class in detail by choosing the expert mode.

   

As descendant of a wealthy Neethanian family of merchants, the game’s main character has lived a boring and carefree life with his friends. He spent his childhood with a couple of guys, including princess Elanor.

The game starts with the player witnessing Elanor’s brutal death: A wild and cruel, strange looking wolf attacks her and literally chops her alive. Although players will try to interfere and save Elanor, they will be far too late to safe Elanor’s life…
Players manage to defeat the beast – however, there’s no help for Elanor.
Only minutes after the battle, players will find themselves surrounded by guardsmen, arresting the player’s character. In prison, players learn that they’re being held responsible for the murder – because actually no one else saw a wolf near Elanor. No matter how hard the guards torture the player, though, there’s nothing else they can find out.
 

The player’s hero is sentenced to death, and this would have been it, almost. Shortly before his execution, though, dwarf Naurim frees him/her. Naurim spent years in prison, has been arrested for arson, assault and smuggling. He has been planning a prison break for a long time, and feels he’s finding a good accomplice in the player’s character to actually put his plans in practice.
Naruim is a typical dwarf: hot tempered and with huge anger management issues. He’s also paranoid, restless, and even often dreaming (which is pretty strange for a dwarf), and sees conspiracy virtually everywhere. Perhaps it is his paranoia that makes him a fearless warrior, and therefore a perfect tank. Not just when brawling in taverns.
Naurim turns into the second member of the players’ party of up to five playable characters at a time.
 

On the run, Naurim isn’t the only supportive figure. There is also mage Zurbaran, for example – who will later become the third playable character. Since his birth, Zurbaran was a slave for a wealthy grandee of the Florios family. When his master found out about his magical skills, he was sent to the Academy of Al’Anfa. All his master intended was to find a cheap way to get his own house mage.
Eventually, Zubaran found a chance to escape. A little and an affair with a baroness later – Zurbaran feels like he is the world’s greatest dandy – he was imprisoned. He was found guilty having poisoning the baroness’s husband.
Eventually, Zurbaran was sent to the same jail as where Naurim and the player’s character were imprisoned.
Additionally to murder, Zubaran is also accused of seducing to adultery, imposture, fraud and spying.
As a slave of a wealthy family, he saw the perks and luxury of a rich man’s life right before his eyes, all the time. After his breakout, being free for the first time, he wanted this life for himself, with bath houses, money, slaves and women, of course. Therefore, Zubaran pretends to be a grandee himself – however, he’s lacking all necessary assets, though. Not only his appearance is fake, he doesn’t really care about his vows of fidelity he gives his counterpart, too. Especially not when making them in a moment of passion.
Therefore he is living a carefree life and believes that he can own the world. He would sell someone’s grandmother to get to what and where he wants, especially when a woman is involved. There are rare times, though, when even Zubaran shows cooperativeness.
With his mighty magic skills, Zurbaran is the perfect supportive addition to the party of playable characters.
 

Then there is Aurelia. She will become another member of the party later on. She has strong magic skills as well, and she also knows the player’s character since childhood.
Aurelia is a witch of Horas and doesn’t care about rules – and therefore gets in trouble a lot. Aurelia is wanted for witchcraft, immorality and indecent behavior.
 
Lysander is a NPC, but very important. He is one of the player’s characters best buddies, and Elanor’s boyfriend. Players will experience their character’s long-lasting friendship with Lysander during multiple flash-back scenes, which open up throughout the game.
Later on, players will sharply be reminded that they spotted Lysander playing some leading role during their interrogation and torturing in prison. Seems like their friendship is not worth much here…?
 
That’s a first overview on some of the playable and main characters of Blackguards. Soon, Daedalic Entertainment will reveal more and introduce additional characters of the upcoming turn-based RPG – some will be evil, and some will be even more evil…
 
About Blackguards

Blackguards is probably one of the bleakest stories ever told in the universe of 'The Dark Eye':
What if the only remaining hope of a world is not a company of virtuous heroes, but instead a bunch of outcasts and criminals?
Blackguards will answer this very question. The player takes on the role of a convicted murderer, accompanied by a group of no less dubious characters.
They may spare the world its grim fate, but their good deeds are neither acts of kindness nor heroism, but according to their roguish nature rather a result of their attempts to save their own hides.
 
Staying alive is a feat of its own, since not only the long arm of the law wants their heads, but there are also other, mysterious powers with much more sinister intentions on their trail. As if all this wasn't enough, Aventuria's south is crawling with dangerous beasts and monsters...
 
Blackguards is a turn-based RPG with strategic combat and combines the studio's high standards of storytelling and unique characters with thrilling action and an elaborate 3D environment.
Challenging quests lead the player through a dark story of doubt, treachery and loss.

 

 NoobFeed has a short preview of Blackguards with some new info.

Daedalic has revealed more information regarding the story and characters of their upcoming title, Blackguards. It’s a gritty turn-based RPG in the vein of XCOM, but set in the expansive fantasy universe of The Dark Eye. Unlike XCOM, the moving system will be hex-based similar to the way units move in the Civilizations games, which will provide a lot more freedom when it comes to positioning your party members.

Unlike in most RPGs, where you play the knight in shining armor trying to save the world, in Blackguards you will assume control of a condemned criminal. You will be able to pick from three class-archetypes: warrior, mage and hunter; but the game also gives you the possibility of customizing your class to your liking by choosing the expert mode.

After princess Elanor’s suspicious death, you, the princess’ childhood friend, are wrongly accused and sentenced to death for her murder. In order to escape this cruel fate you’ll have to rely on some shady characters that won’t be necessary trustworthy. But beggars can’t be pickers, so you’ll settle for whatever help you get.

Daedalic Entertainment announces their starting a closed beta for Blackguards. Here is how you can apply if your interested.

Hamburg, August 30th, 2013 – Daedalic Entertainment is looking for gamers who are interested in taking part in an closed beta test phase for their upcoming turn-based RPG Blackguards.

Players from all over the world will get the chance to play-test the sinister RPG which centers around a party of criminal „heroes“, way before the actual release in November 2013, and to influence the development with their feedback.

All players need to do to be part of the open beta test phase, is sending an email to betatest@daedalic.de, and mentioning why they want to be chosen, and what their gaming experience is. Participation slots are limited, chosen participants will receive more details from Daedalic Entertainment. The closed beta test runs from September 04th until October 02nd, 2013, participants need to be at least 16 years of age. Participants will also see their name appearing in the creadits of the final game.

GameInformer has a new preview for Blackguards. The article has a few spoilers about the beginning of the game so you have been warned.

When a princess is mysteriously slain by a dark beast, a band of criminals must uncover the source of these darkspawn and purify the land.

Daedalic Entertainment is a German software developer that has released a number of point-and-click adventure games. The company is hoping to break out of this mold with an upcoming turn-based strategy title based on The Dark Eye pen-and-paper roleplaying rule set that is much loved in Europe.

Blackguards still looks a little rough around the edges, but we’re interested to see what really happened to Elenore and explore more of its interactive maps. You can uncover Blackguard’s mysteries yourself when the game releases this November.

StrategyInformer has an interview with Daedalic Entertainment about their new game Blackguards.

Strategy Informer: With Blackguards having only been announced in the last couple of months, can you give our readers an overview of what they can expect from the game?

Daedalic Entertainment: Well, the first thing is controversial. It’s not usual that you play as the bad guys. But that means that players can do a lot of things in this party-based game that they wouldn’t be able to do in other titles. So they will have a lot of fun with the story itself.

And the battles as well. The game is very focused on the battles, on the tactics and the way you can develop your characters. We’ve placed a lot of focus on interactive environments to give players more options, more creative ways to win battles.

We wanted to translate the cool things about pen-and-paper RPG battles: the creativity with which players approach tactical situations.

Strategy Informer: With Blackguards having only been announced in the last couple of months, can you give our readers an overview of what they can expect from the game?

Daedalic Entertainment: Well, the first thing is controversial. It’s not usual that you play as the bad guys. But that means that players can do a lot of things in this party-based game that they wouldn’t be able to do in other titles. So they will have a lot of fun with the story itself.

And the battles as well. The game is very focused on the battles, on the tactics and the way you can develop your characters. We’ve placed a lot of focus on interactive environments to give players more options, more creative ways to win battles.

We wanted to translate the cool things about pen-and-paper RPG battles: the creativity with which players approach tactical situations.

Strategy Informer: You mentioned playing as the bad guys. The central character a convicted murderer and his companions a collection of misfits and rogues. It’s quite a change from the usual virtuous heroes of RPG games. Can you talk about how the story plays out in Blackguards, and why you chose to go down a darker route?

Daedalic Entertainment: The story is pretty simple. You start the game with a choice of making your main character male or female, you return from a long journey to your home city and you find your best friend has been murdered by a wolf. You try to slay the wolf, but it’s you that gets in big trouble, as no one else witnessed the wolf and you’re the one near a body with a blood-stained sword in your hand.

You’re thrown into prison, tortured by your best friend and condemned to death row, due to hang the very next day. And then the real game starts, as you escape from prison and find yourself on the run and meeting up with various teammates along the way. And you start to wonder: was there ever a wolf there? And if not, what actually happened?

Unlike other games, you’re not out to save the world - you only want to save your ass! And all your companions are only out to save their asses too. During the story, the player will have many decisions to make, and those will change the overall storyline - there are three different endings - but also the relationships between you and the other characters. And while you’re on the run, you’ll find yourself drawn into a much deeper story about an ultimate evil, but if this bunch of bad people end up saving the world, it’ll be very much by accident.

Here are a few more previews for Daedelic's Blackguards.

Games.on.net

Battle maps aren’t simply static backdrops either. Some examples of interactivity we saw included: chests that can be looted mid-fight; barrels you can roll into enemies; beehives and swamp holes you can lure enemies into; even a heavy chandelier you can drop onto enemies. Some battle maps have optional objectives beyond defeating your opponents. One fight we saw took place in a prison where you’re able to free prisoners from their cells to fight on your side. The developers say that fleeing from battle can even be a valid option in some situations.

GamrReview

Where the innovation comes in is the game’s use of choices to decide how the battle will play out. Scattered throughout you will find objects that you will be able to interact with or characters to converse with that will affect the course of the game.

NZGamer

The party increases in size as the story progresses, and other skills are added to the group. Seven members can join the group, with up to five being able to take the battlefield at a time.You can also interact with objects in the environment, such as blocking paths with crates, or pulling a structure down to collapse on enemies. Or your team mates... friendly fire is an issue, and you can all too easily kill off your party members if you aren’t careful.

Slimgamer has a new impression article from the E3 showing of Blackguards.

Blackguards was, for me, one of the biggest surprises of E3.  Going into the show I’d never even heard of the game, yet I left with it taking a prominent spot on my radar and near the top of my “Most Anticipated” list.

According to the developers, Blackguards is based off of a PnP RPG system known as Dark Eye, a system that we’ve been told is very popular in Europe.  In particular, Blackguards is a darker take on Dark Eye, and this is apparent right from the beginning.  The game begins with your (fully-customizable) player character protecting a baroness who is being attacked by wild, dangerous wolves.  Unfortunately, you’re not quick enough and the wolves kill the baroness and then disappear, leaving you on the hook for her murder, after which you’re quickly imprisoned and sentenced to death.  It’s after this short intro that the game begins, meaning Blackguards jumps right into the action from the word go.

Blackguards looks to be an incredibly interesting take on the RPG genre.  Playing not as heroes, but as a group of villains looks to be a fresh perspective on the genre, and the combat system provides near limitless tactical potential.  Even the equipment system looked interesting, with every piece of your character being equip-able and customizable, including combat style being set to either offensive, defensive, or balanced for each weapon class.  Blackguards has a lot of potential and is worth keeping an eye on.

GameSpot has a video interview with two developers from Daedalic Entertainment at E3  about their upcoming turn-based tactical RPG Blackguards.

Time to be the bad guy! Daedelic pop by the stage to show us an early build of their upcoming turn-based RPG, Blackguards. Except dice rolls, hex grids, and breaking tables with your bare hands.

Rocket Chainsaw has written a short preview of Blackguards based on what they have seen of the game at E3.

The game is heavily based on the pen-and-paper system, behind each attack is an invisible dice roll. The game was created in the Unity engine, and it actually looks quite nice visually. Gameplay is very smooth. You can visit towns where you move around freely, interacting with other characters. As for the plot, The producer claims that you can’t play this game as a good guy, even if you try to, you’ll turn to evil at some point. And for quests, even if you fail to save someone, the game will still continue. Your failure has repercussions, but it does not interrupt the game’s flow

We have 10 new screenshots from Daedelic's Blackguards that have been made available during E3. Two of these are shown below. By clicking on them you can browse through the rest of the screenshots.

Gamereactor interviewed Daedalic Entertainment's executive producer Kai Fiebig about Blackguards.

"After we had made a lot of adventures and we have a lot of people in our offices, more than 120, all asking "can we do another game - something different?". And we said yes, it's a cool idea so let's start. After a while we came up with an RPG... because we can tell stories and RPGs is next to the adventure genre the best thing to tell stories."

"It's a dark game. It's a really dark game. It's about bad guys saving the world by coincidence... They don't really care about the world itself, they only care about their asses."

Daedalic hopes to release the game by the end of the year, but only if it lives up their own expectations.

"It's for Steam, PC, Mac, and we're trying to play around with some consoles and we're also playing around with iPad versions."

Gamestar has penned down a preview of Daedelic's first RPG named Blackguards. The interview is in German, so for those who are challenged when it comes to the German language, you can try this somewhat mediocre translation.

From the conclusion:

I like my role playing story-heavy and my combat turn-based. Insofar BlackGuards meets exactly my taste. In particular, the lovely designed and enormously varied battlefields. Finally also a turn-based game requires me to include the environment as part of my tactics. I'm still a bit skeptic though whether Daedalic can maintain this variety and this pace throughout the entire game or that the majority of battles will just result in 'kill all enemies'. If Daedalic will get this done right and can also provide the usual story quality, Blackgaurds could turn into a surprise hit of the year.

 

Kordanor writes in with this short preview of Blackguards, the upcoming TDE game from Daedalic:

Even the non-objective-based battle I saw had a twist. It took place in a crypt (a popular hangout spot for RPG characters), and nasties would keep popping out of holes in the floor. Characters in Blackguards can interact with objects on the map, and in this case, that meant covering holes with heavy slabs to block reinforcements. I’m told that’s just the tip of the iceberg: in other maps, we’ll destroy a bridge to cut off a flanking maneuver, or slash a rope to drop a chandelier. It sounds like whatever we expect to be interactive will be.

RiotPixels interviewed Florian Pett on the just announced strategy-RPG hybrid Blackguards.

RP: Are there any crossovers with Daedalic’s adventure games based on The Dark Eye? How is it related, timeline- and geography-wise, to other recent TDE games, like Drakensang?

FP: It is completely independent from our adventure game. While it does take place on the same continent, the locations in this game are radically different and take place in a more Mediterranean-like setting. The timeline-relation to Chains of Satinav is really irrelevant because of this. Taking place in the Horas Empire of Aventuria, Blackguards is also set far away from anywhere Drakensang took place.

RP: What is the structure of the game’s campaign? What is there to do between battles? How do we travel around the world?

FP: The campaign is played out in five acts, each of which tells a different part of the story and allows access to a different part of the world. The player’s group travels around the world on a world-map with a network of roads and ways leading from place to place with a chance of random encounters along the roads and at plot-relevant locations. The player can also visit cities or villages and interact with NPCs by ways of talking and trading equipment etc. once they have reached a location that isn’t a purely violent encounter.

Daedelic entertainment, who you might know from their adventure games, have announced their first turn-based RPG set in The Dark Eye world named Blackguards

Daedalic Announces Blackguards, Its First Turn-Based RPG

Bolstered by the success of their celebrated adventure games, the developers at Daedalic Entertainment are now off to new frontiers. This summer, Blackguards, the studio's first turn based RPG will be released.

Framed in a significantly darker story than you usually find in Daedalic games, the player will walk in the boots of a convicted murderer as he travels through Aventuria's wild south. On this journey the protagonist is accompanied by companions of varying loyalty: scoundrels and thieves like the half-elf Niam (and her latent drug addiction) or the lecherous wizard Zurbaran.

Blackguards features hordes of lethal creatures and other enemies waiting to be taken care of on more than 170 unique battlemaps. A number of major and minor quests ensure exciting and diverse gameplay through the campaign.

As can be expected in all Daedalic titles, Blackguards focuses on strong storytelling, now combined with action-packed gameplay and tactical, turn-based combat. Blackguards delivers more than 40 hours of adventure in Aventuria.

Blackguards will be available internationally in Q3 2013.

About the Game

What happens when the only hope of a threatened world lies not with heroes in shining armor but in the hands of a band of misfits and criminals? Blackguards – the new turn-based RPG by Daedalic Entertainment – explores this very question. The player takes on the role of a convicted murderer, who with the help of a team of more-than-questionable characters, must save the world from a dark menace. During the wild chase throughout the South of Aventuria, the world of The Dark Eye, there is more to fight than vicious creatures – chapter by chapter, a story full of intrigue and surprising twists unfolds. But when life and death are in the player’s hands, how far will they go to reach their goals?

The first turn-based RPG by Daedalic Entertainment unites the studio's high standard of a suspenseful storytelling and unique characters with gripping battles in elaborately crafted 3D-environments. In taxing campaigns the player takes part in a dark story full of doubt, betrayal and loss.

Whether the player chooses to go into battle as a mighty warrior, a clever wizard or a skillful hunter, the first battle isn’t far away. Over 170 individually crafted battle maps full of interactive objects and strategically complex situations lead the player to exotic locations and put them through deadly trials.

You can find two screenshots and some artwork, by clicking on the respective images below.