Blackguards 2

Blackguards 2 feels more like an expansion. Most players will complete the game fairly quickly, but it seems to have lost the formula or charm that the first game had.

The game starts off with your character waking up in a jail, and this tutorial section is nicely structured so that players can learn the basics of the game. After you escape, you seek out the heroes of the nine hordes, and quickly recruit the characters from the first game. Certain missions are a bit too overwhelming, with a lot of waiting on the computers turn. Most of the missions result in this constant waiting on the numerous computer enemies, and it kills the pacing of the game entirely.

This time around, unlike in the first game, there is no character creation. You play as Cassia, and her goal is to overtake the map by building up a massive army. I liked the story, but it felt very short compared to the first game, which had many side quests.

There isn’t really anything new about this game, and most of the balance issues and problems that occured in the first game haven’t been fixed – it comes across as if they have not addressed these issues at all, whilst somehow managing to add more aggravating map design and situations.

In most missions your forces will fight against enemy groups which are double or triple the size of yours. This leads to a horrendous waiting time until they move, with no option to skip the computers turn or speed it up. Additionally, in every fight I have been in, the enemy can call reinforcements unless you stop them, and indeed in some missions seem to have an infinite supply of forces, dragging out battles, reducing the player to mostly watching instead of actually playing.

Genre: Turn-Based RPG