Blackguards is a turn-based RPG set in The Dark Eye world of Aventuria, setting for Daedalic's Adventure games The Chains of Satinav and Memoria which I previously enjoyed so much. The main story is about a bunch of misfits stopping a supernatural cataclysm, partly told with flashbacks.

One great aspect of Blackguards is the balance of story and gameplay, there's less of a feeling of mining as there is in many RPGs to get your characters stronger. Each battle comes with a dollop of story, and though there may be fewer battles than other RPGs the battles tend to be larger in scope and significantly give your characters the equivalent of XP.

There's a great variety of battles too, requiring a range of strategies and abilities to succeed. From the word go how you develop and arm your characters is important - in passing I found customising one's character at the start better than using one of the precooked characters. There is a sense of achievement when you win the battles, you haven't just gone through the motions as you do when mining in other RPGs.

The ruleset used is different to other RPGs, as is how you use the XP (here called Adventure points). Understanding the ruleset is key to doing well, there is some explanation of it. You can enhance your character at any time using the Adventure points, there isn't levelling up as in many RPGs.

On the downside there are times when you find yourself in a sequence of battles, more or less unexpectedly. Until you've gone through once you don't know the strategy to follow - this is a bit unfair. At times the graphics misbehave, the dead don't lie down properly. What you can do or ought to do can be non-obvious. Perhaps something is lost in translation.

This is a very addictive game, so addictive I've started playing it again to see if I can get a better ending!