As I said in the beginning, when talking about an adventure game like Blackguards 2, the storytelling is the thing. It seems as if the writers for this particular game went out of their way to make the beginning of the game especially confusing. I started out as Cassia who had been taken out of her palatial palace and put into the dungeons far below and left with no one to talk to but a single solitary guard and a number of giant mutant spiders.

"It seems as if the writers for this particular game went out of their way to make the beginning of the game especially confusing."

It’s possible Blackguards 2 does this specifically because Cassia eventually does go a bit nutty and it plays into that nuttiness to not really know why you have been captured and stuck in prison. To me, it just came off as clunky writing from people who didn’t want to spend all that much time filling in a back-story. That back-story does eventually get filled in, in bits and pieces as I played throughout the game, but not enough and not near quick enough.

The beginning of the game is also a bit annoying because it walks you through a tutorial that literally serves no purpose but to teach you the absolute basics of movement and battle. For reasons passing understanding, while you are a prisoner in the dungeons, you are able to come and go as you please into mazes that run throughout the catacombs. Once I got through the first run-through of this maze, the game might as well have said, “we wanted you to waste five minutes.”

In this first run through, I did figure out how to move around the map and fight the spiders that lived in those catacombs. This also becomes an important plot point because Cassia wouldn’t be able to lose her mind if not for how this particular part of the story is laid out. That doesn’t make starting off all that entertaining or engaging, even once I realized why exactly they had me do it that way.

"While there is plenty that went wrong with this game, the art style isn’t the only thing that went right. Despite some rather clunky interactions between the characters, there is also enough dialogue (written, never spoken out loud) that I really did get a feel for the rather dark and foreboding world of Blackguards 2."

This first little bit is also where I found the second thing that makes Blackguards a game that isn’t calling out for me to play it over and over again. The movement controls are rather clunky and seem uneven at times. One “turn” I can simply click a square I want to move to and will see my character move right away. Other times I was having to double and triple click in order for the game to figure out I wanted to move.

The same can be said for manipulating items inside the world. Moving levers is a big part of the early portion of the game, (though there doesn’t seem to be a reason since they are never locked nor hidden). You need to pull a lever in order to raise or lower an obstacle so that you can continue on the map. At times, the lever is easily illuminated and quickly manipulated. Other times, I had to move all the way around the lever in a circle in order to find the right square (which didn’t seem to be any different in position from any of the others) that would actually allow me to pull the lever.

While there is plenty that went wrong with this game, the art style isn’t the only thing that went right. Despite some rather clunky interactions between the characters, there is also enough dialogue (written, never spoken out loud) that I really did get a feel for the rather dark and foreboding world of Blackguards 2. While you start off as the single solitary Cassia, there are other characters along the way, both those that join your party and those you go up against that have plenty of personality.

"There is something to be said for an added layer of strategy against the tougher enemies here as well but eventually Blackguards 2 just seems to feel like a game where I’m constantly fighting against a game that was perhaps a bit too smart for its own good."

Blackguards 2 is the perfect game for those who enjoy adventure games for their long battle scenes that can require a great deal of strategy in order to complete them with your party in tact. The further I went into the game, the longer the battle scenes seemed to take. This is great for the side of me that loves to plan out every move and see a real battle unfold. It was less appealing for the side of me that started to really just want to move onto the next scene and see if the story was ever really going to take me to a place that was satisfying.

Part of the problem when it came to the length of the battles is that most of the hits simply don’t take away that much damage. When you’re fighting enemies that only have five hit points, that’s enough to kill in one blow. When you are facing off against tough enemies that are harder to kill, it can be quite annoying to muster up your best weapon or best spell and watch it bounce off nearly harmlessly. There is something to be said for an added layer of strategy against the tougher enemies here as well but eventually Blackguards 2 just seems to feel like a game where I’m constantly fighting against a game that was perhaps a bit too smart for its own good.

The memorable characters and a storyline is certainly different from most other adventure games you’re going to find on the market and it almost makes up for it, but for a game like this, I need to want to spend hours at a time really getting into the world. Blackguards 2 didn’t have that kind of pull for me.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Game Overview:

Blackguards 2 is a direct sequel to the original and takes place a few years after Blackguards. The game retains its strategy role playing mechanics and will once again on turn-based and strategic battles. A few Blackguards from the original game also make a return in the sequel.

Blackguards 2 is now available for Windows on PC. The game is developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment.

Check out the video walkthrough of Blackguards 2 below and let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below.

For video game guides, tips and wikis, check out our gaming portal here.

The story opens with the player taking on the role of Cassia, who has been imprisoned for reasons that someone who just picked up and played the game for the first time wouldn’t know or understand. It appears the game is setting players up to find out if there was a reason for her very long imprisonment, but there isn’t much of a payoff for quite a while. It almost appears as if the writers of the game knew they wanted a tortured creature to take center stage of the adventure but didn’t do quite enough work to decide what the backstory would be.

"Moving is as simple as pointing and double clicking on the tile you want to move to, the item you wish to operate (such as a number of levers that will open doors and release bridges) or fight enemies."

This part of the game also serves as a kind of tutorial as you lead through Cassia through a number of different labyrinths, apparently just because she wants to go through the mazes. The story behind this part of the game isn’t remotely flushed out, nor is it told well enough for players to get a full grasp of what exactly is going on. After getting through a number of different labyrinths, Cassia ends up realizing they apparently only lead her back to her cell. Here she whiles away the years (the game tells us many have passed) becoming horribly disfigured thanks to the effect of some of the creatures she does battle with as she attempts to escape through the mazes.

Eventually, she also apparently starts to lose her mind, and we begin to wonder whether she is eventually going to turn into a kind of anti-hero. Whether Cassia will eventually turn into a warrior princess, you first get to take on giant spiders and skeletons with little more than a wooden club. As you win these first few battles, you also learn the control scheme, which is simple on its face, but becomes more difficult as the battles go on.

This is where the game massively succeeds and also falls a little short. Moving is as simple as pointing and double clicking on the tile you want to move to, the item you wish to operate (such as a number of levers that will open doors and release bridges) or fight enemies. As the game progresses, right clicking offers up a ton of different options such as casting spells, going into a defensive position and ending your turn. Blackguards 2 architects did this part right, because there is more than a little strategy associated with moving. You can only move a certain number of spots in any given turn, and there are some traps that will be sprung in the wrong tile.

"At the beginning of the game, this is just a one on one or one-on-two scenario where you are basically just bludgeoning at an opponent or two in order to see just how quickly you can lose health points and how much damage you can do to an enemy with some very basic attacks."

When moving around some of the map areas, the game’s scale is quite impressive and Daedelic did a good job of working around this by allowing you to zoom into different parts of the map once you reach those points. The art style for Blackguards 2 is identical to Blackguards (unsurprisingly), and this is definitely a checkmark in the “positive” column for the game. Moving and finding different ways through any given map is a large part of this game, but battles, are where the Blackguard 2’s bread is buttered.

At the beginning of the game, this is just a one on one or one-on-two scenario where you are basically just bludgeoning at an opponent or two in order to see just how quickly you can lose health points and how much damage you can do to an enemy with some very basic attacks. As Blackguards 2 goes on, and Cassia makes some much-needed allies, the battles become much bigger in scale.

Eventually, there can be as many as 15 different characters going at one another. These battles are another big part of the strategy Blackguards 2 asks players to use. The character needs to be positioned in just the right spot in order to make an attack and in order to move away from attacks if they are low on health points.

Just like in the regular maps, there are some pitfalls your heroes will fall into that can get them quite hurt or even killed. The monsters and villains also encountered  become quite a bit more formidable, and this can lead to some incredibly long battle scenes. The further in Blackguards 2 I ventured the more extended amount of time I realized I needed to dedicate to getting out of a location alive. This is good if you are very much invested in long lasting battles. This is not so good if you are attempting to move onto another part of the story.

"By and large, Blackguards 2 is a game that is going to appeal to a certain type of gamer. If you love throwing around all kinds of magic and if you love the kind of turn-based adventure games Blackguards 2 evokes, then this is right up your alley."

The good news for those who enjoy time-consuming skirmishes is that the story isn’t really good enough to want to rush through and move to the next plot point. The battles, the many powers you can pick up and the scenery are by far the best parts of Blackguards 2. This is, in fact, another spot where the game falls very short. There is no real explanation as to why characters suddenly have the ability to cast rather complex spells. Usually a throwaway line about reading a book for a while gives the character the sudden skill of throwing flame or bringing down a lightening strike.

By and large, Blackguards 2 is a game that is going to appeal to a certain type of gamer. If you love throwing around all kinds of magic and if you love the kind of turn-based adventure games Blackguards 2 evokes, then this is right up your alley. For me, I was looking for something with a little more in the way of explanation, but that doesn’t make it a bad game. There is still fun to be had in the same way people can enjoy a Michael Bay film. When I allowed myself just to get caught up in the action, I had a good time.