Sort of an update.
I haven't played Blackguards since my last update. Actually, haven't played any games for a while. However... When I bought last bundle from Humble, there was a game Mars: War Logs. It was the first time that I became aware of it's existence. Seemed interesting, so I redeemed and downloaded it.
My very first launch of the game was a little interrupted by gamepad being turned on. I wanted to play the game with mouse and keyboard. But at least I can say that ability to play with gamepad is integrated and well developed.
So... From the very first scenes the game caught my attention. Actually, the story did. It starts with a kid's thoughts about the ongoing war. The thing is that action takes place on colonized Mars. All was well until somehow a disaster occurred - the planet shifted (on) it's axis. That resulted in a massive part of Mars being scorched by the Sun. Many have died, some were affected and became... You could say mutated, but another word could be disfigured. Those are called Dust and are treated badly in the society and abused for work. After the accident on the planet, guilds that provided water and shade became strongest. They became the new rulers. In time, people got greedy, guilds started to fight one another for more power and war began to rage. You, as hero, want freedom. And get involved in the story of freeing other people from corrupt government.
So the story starts with kid's thoughts on the war and overall situation as he is transported to some place (I shall try to avoid spoilers). I was very surprised to learn things about the main hero and this was just a beginning of the game, just a visual scene. Talking about the hero, he feels unique. Not just some guy in some game, who runs around and does stuff. He has strong personality. Which, by the way, you, as a player, are affecting a lot. What I mean is that choices matter.
Speaking of choices, game is very rich. Dialogs offer a different approach to any situation - you can act as caring and kind hearted person or you can be an asshole, or you can stay neutral. There are situations however, where you are to make important decisions that lead to either life or death. What I also liked about dialogs is that when you choose an answer, it is written short, just so you could get an idea and a feeling of what and how you are talking. The actual talking then is very rich so you are highly unlikely to skip any dialog. There is also a romance involved in the game. Basically you have a choice to get involved with one of three women. But with who... Depends on your dialog choices and even a faction that you choose to support later in the game. You can expect everything here - having to make a compromise, smart decisions, being betrayed, seeking justice... Amazing.
To sum up what I said there ^, I simply love the story. It is rich and involving. One more interesting thing is that one of the guilds are giving virtue name's as normal names for it's people, soldiers. Like... If my real name was Jake, then in the guild I would only be known as Wisdom. Or Temperance. Or Humility. It is interesting because you get involved with such people a lot and you already base your views on their name. Though by any chance, I do not mean that virtue name always represents exactly what kind of person he/she is.
One more important thing in the game is reputation. In the world of Mars: War Logs, serum is the currency. I can't tell exactly, what serum is, but... You can buy things from merchants for serum. You can sell for serum. You can make health injections (like health potions) from serum or you can make fluid injections (like mana potions) from serum. You can get serum from completing quests and side quests, you can find serum while scavenging or... And this is where reputation becomes important. Or you can extract serum from your defeated enemies (humans and Dust only). Here is the catch: when you defeat an enemy in combat, he is no longer a threat, he is defeated and lying on the ground. But still alive! If you extract serum from this foe, you kill him for good. Extracting serum and thus, killing people, earns you bad reputation. And it is almost impossible to get your rep to good (rep stages are "bad", "neutral", "good", "excellent"). Having reached any stage of rep (except neutral) gives you a specific perk. If you are bad, you get additional choice in certain dialogs to intimidate people, which helps a lot to avoid difficult fights. And it's fun. Also, since you are most likely to become bad for killing enemies and extracting serum, you would feel rather rich. If you are good, all prices at all merchants are cut by 50%. Excellent rep gives your companion (yes, you may play alone or you may have companion with you (I do not mean a multiplayer or co-op)) 50-100% more health and damage dealt.
I was bad. No regrets.
You have an interesting skill tree. Foes are able to "adapt" to your fighting style, so you are unable to just bash your mouse mindlessly. Combat is fun really. Once you understand how each enemy fights, you may even create a situation where enemies damage or kill one another.
One last thing I love about the game (from many that I didn't even begin to describe (there is a crafting system)) would be that each chapter is finished/started with a pretty much thorough and very interesting summarization, based on your choices. And the end of a game is most interesting of all. You get to know about your feelings, about the current political situation, about your regrets, about your companions, about the future. You really get a feeling that the end was worth playing for.
So, yeah... Long text. But I am happy. I am amazed by the game and it's quality. I can also say that I am going to play the game one more time, trying to get and keep excellent reputation, choosing different faction, choosing different lover, paying a bit more attention where I hadn't payed earlier.
And then I shall get back to Blackguards.
Cheers!
