Daedalic Entertainment is taking a run at the RPG genre with a dark, turn-based game starring a convicted murderer.
If the name Daedalic makes you think about anything at all, it’s probably light-hearted point-and-click adventure games like Deponia and Edna and Harvey. But the studio will soon branch out into something a little different: a turn-based fantasy RPG entitled Blackguards.
Blackguards will boast a “significantly darker” story than previous Daedalic releases, putting players in the boots of a convicted murderer wandering through the fantasy realm of Aventuria. And yes, that would the same Aventuria featured in the popular German role-playing game The Dark Eye, probably best known to videogamers as the setting of last year’s Daedalic adventure The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav.
They’ll be accompanied on their travels by companions of low moral fiber and dubious loyalty, including a drug-addicted half-elf and a lecherous wizard. Homicidal history notwithstanding, players will (as usual) have to save the world from an evil menace while grappling with tough moral conundrums that can directly impact the course of the game and the fates of its denizens.
Daedalic claims that Blackguards will offer elaborate 3D environments, more than 170 “individually crafted battle maps” and a host of “major and minor” quests adding up to more than 40 hours of total gameplay time. And while there’s almost nothing of it to see right now – the Blackguards website currently redirects to Daedalic.de – Daedalic’s history in the adventure genre leaves me guardedly optimistic.
Blackguards is being developed for the PC. No release date has been set.
