If you are a seasoned turn-based strategy gamer, you can really sink your teeth into this one and get a run for your money. If you are not, you will still get both that run for your money and a crash course in applied survivor tactics.

Blackguards is a good romp with a rich established RPG world to draw from.

Blackguards was a nice surprise: gaming system is solid and interesting, and the puzzle-like battles hold interest until the end. At times they are even challenging. Although patches might have changed that. [Feb 2014]

The game mechanics remain faithful to its tabletop roots.

It's a gorgeous game with memorable battles. But because the game's focus is obviously on combat, no matter how pretty the towns are, they feel like backdrops for your character sheets and inventory.

If you can get past traveling the world map on rails, every location and quest chosen in order for you, the combat is rich enough to make Blackguards worthwhile, and I think comfortably places it near the upper end of that range.

Blackguards is a great success for Daedalic Entertainment, a great achievement not only for the remarkable playability and exceptional turn-based setting, but also and above all as the first role-playing game of the hanseatic software house.

Blackguards is a wonderful tactics game with some rough edges. The core gameplay and character progression elements are easily some of the best in the genre, but as battles tend to drag on and more and more enemies scream “owAUGH,” the interest tends to fade.

The five chapter campaign offers dozens of hours of gameplay, but I would be ecstatic with the prospect of creating my own adventures.

It sure took its sweet time, but in the end, Blackguards managed to really enthrall me. If the Hamburg-based developer continues in this manner, The Dark Eye fans have a lot to look forward to.

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.

The interesting cast and subtle writing (with plenty of subtle plot points to uncover) paper over the cracks. [Apr 2014, p.78]

Blackguards isn't a bad game. Far from it: actually, it's pretty good. But there is plenty of unused potential here, both in story and in gameplay.

With lots of different opponents, unpredictable battles, varied battlefields and lots of specializations, Blackguards is one of the most diverse strategy games lately, but it high degree of randomness can be frustrating.

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.

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

Daedalic's first time in the world of RPG is one of those to remember. Blackguards is not a flawless game: it has a slow gameplay that after hours and hours can be boring, technically it is not that great and has an annoying problem of balancing the difficulty. Yet it remains a great role-playing game.

Blackguards feels like a role-playing session of The Dark Eye RPG led by a rookie dungeon master. If you’re willing to look past a few silly mistakes, you will enjoy the experience.

It's beautiful, it has an interesting story and the turn-based battles can become epic, but it's too damn difficult and unforgiving even to hardcore gamers.

An interesting tactical strategy game with features of an RPG is addressed mainly to game veterans. It's regrettable the game has several combat system issues along with stereotype that's taking up after an end of the third chapter. Still, Blackguards is an excellent game piece you should not miss.

Despite being rough around the edges and extremely frustrating at times, Blackguards delivers an enjoyable balance of story and strategy. [Apr 2014, p.64]

Blackguards is the Dark Souls of Tactical RPGs. Hardcore gamers will love its incredibly high difficulty, but most players will rage-quit.

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.

Blackguards is an entertaining game and traditional role players will love many of its mechanics. The game could have been used to restore part of the essence of the great RPGs that were released during the early years of the last decade, but would require a story influenced by the decisions of the player and a good artificial intelligence. It would have been an excellent tool for Game Masters who want to display combats for his roleplaying group. As a videogame some things are left on the shelf.

Daedalic manages to offer a deep experience, with many customization options and possibilities, and rich enough to belong to The Dark Eye universe.

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.

Solid combat mechanics get bogged down by lackluster story, poor A.I. and an overbearing reliance on luck, that destroys any sort of achievement. It's not tactics that decide who wins, but the roll of the dice.

This is pure turn-based mediocrity. It is conservative in every aspect and takes no risks whatsoever. On the other hand, it doesn’t do anything particularly bad.

A sort of diamond in the rough perhaps, in that Daedalic did a fine job with many aspects of Blackguards, yet a handful of problems, certainly some more crucial than others, and yet all patchable, keep the overall experience stunted.

Blackguards is an interesting game that tries to merge classical cRPG elements with some interesting novelties. But beware - right now it has a lot of issues considerably limiting its potential. Fortunately the story is great and rewards any suffering the game may cause. Fans of the genre should be very pleased, everyone else - wait for some patches.

There's no denying that Blackguards has tons and tons of content that can keep you busy for days. Just don't expect a game that will blow you away, because it's mediocre at best.

A game that could have been released 5 years ago and even then wouldn’t be anything special. [03/2014, p.66]

A tactical game this good deserves better. [Issue#145, p.120]

With Blackguards, Daedalic takes a step back both from narrative and gameplay perspectives. A boring quest, uninspiring characters and a frustrating combat system cast a shadow over some good ideas.

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.

Outside of the combat the game fails to impress in any way and often frustration at the user interface, the loading times or the embarrassingly jerky cutscenes drive the player away.

With Blackguards, German Daedalic offers an adventure in the vein of a dice RPG. Unfortunately also some irritating moments follows from that kind of games, and when pure chance can decide a difficult battle it all feels quite frustrating. But Blackguards is an entertaining game with well-made elements, and definitely deserves a chance to prove itself.

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.

Some drawbacks and glitches aside, this is hardcore fun for the turn-based enthusiast. The not so enthusiastic player needs to brace himself for a steep difficulty curve. [Issue #239]

Play it in short bursts, however, and you could find yourself spending many an intriguing hour in Blackguard’s universe.

A rather plain RPG, not particularly bad nor good, that doesn't make the most of an interesting premise. Coming from Daedalic, it also surprisingly lacks visual appeal.

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

Blackguards is enjoyable enough for diehard strategy fans, but nagging bugs and a poor UI keep it from its full potential.

Blackguards is a fairly decent first go, and fills up the roughly forty hours it takes to complete, including most side quests, quite nicely.

Blackguards is tolerable, if plodding, but I don't have anything nicer to say about it.

Daedalic must be held accountable for the negative impact their sales model has had on the game. Even without this factor marring it, this overly random, poorly written adventure can’t hold a candle to its competition.

There's a lot of content in Blackguards, but memorable moments are few and far between. This is a game that feels like it has a lot of ambition, but it's held back sharply but budgetary constraints and, perhaps, an engine so unfamiliar to the development team that they couldn't compensate for its inherent flaws.

Under the auspices of creating a “hardcore RPG experience,” Daedalic has instead created a rage inducing time waster.