Blackguards: Deluxe Edition

Daedalic's first attempt in the RPG genre is a solid one. An experienced software house, mostly famous for their many graphic adventures, managed to bring us a game which delivers a grand amount of turn-based tactical rpg goodness, focusing on combat, even if it doesn't shine in terms of storytelling and pure roleplaying. What is mainly fine with the game is the fact that it never gets boring, since every battle is different, well thought and characterised, other than being intelligent for example making the battlefield often interactive with the party characters skills: a mix of variety and possibilities with a functional adaptation of the TDE combat system. Personally enjoyed all over the long duration of the campaign, planning and battling with satisfaction on a game that needs attention and ability over situations thankfully non-easy nor banal. Dealing with improvements on the less considered sides of this role-playing game, like story, characters history or C&C, would make a perfect sequel for an already substantial and well-directed game. Really suggested to fans of the genre.

I highly recommend it! If you've ever played Dragon Age: Journeys ( a DA turn-based flash game) and wished it to get improved ( like I did ), this is great! Also, if you are a fan of XCOM, consider playing this. It may be not as futuristic, but sure is intense. I believe there is a demo version on the official website, and you should definitely get that first, since the purchase price is high. The Deluxe Edition doesn't really justify the extra price for me, since there is no extra content for the game, but I'll be glad if there are no DLCs planned.

I bought this on GOG (before GMG had a sweet discount/voucher on it...) but I don't regret the purchase one bit. It's crazy addictive, I've already got about 10 hours into this (was released 2 days ago and I work full time). Anyways, the game uses the rules from The Dark Eye (very similar to DnD, but German) and because of that, character progression/skill trees/development is very deep. This makes the combat that much more satisfying (more so than XCom in my opinion) because of the high level of customization you can do to your character. The environment is usable and can sometimes make the difference between life or death. Fights can also get pretty damn challenging; you can get heavily outnumbered, or be facing something much stronger than you. Strategy is very important, you can't face roll your way through every fight. Huge variety of maps, some are small and others are massive. The massive ones are usually riddled with environmental triggers (rocks falling down on you or your enemies from above and etc) Besides gameplay, there isn't much in terms aesthetic customization. In the beginning you get to pick from male/female and 5 faces each. I'm okay with that but some other people do like to have that customization available. The voice acting gets a bad rep but I find it to be decent, it fits the campy humour in the game. To summarize, if you like DnD games and enjoy turn based strategies like XCom, you will love this game. P.S. Not sure if this is allowed in a GMG review or not but the Steam community for Blackguards has a pretty great guide on The Dark Eye rules and also the main important stats for the classes. The link's here: (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=192905991#)