| Blackguards 2, Daedalic Entertainment’s upcoming sequel to their successful SRPG, will not only get numerous gameplay improvements, but a high-quality soundtrack as well: Today, the developers can announce the engagement of Peter Connelly, who composed the game’s soundtrack.
“Peter’s career within the video games industry began in 1995, though his musical and sound engineering background spans four decades. Peter has been employed at various levels of audio expertise including roles as composer, sound designer and audio lead. Peter has composed soundtracks and created sound effects for many AAA titles including Driver: San Francisco, Herdy Gerdy, Fast n Furious and the legendary Tomb Raider series, of which the Angel of Darkness soundtrack was performed by the world famous London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios. His most recent projects as composer, audio lead and sound designer include Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, The Crew and Assassins Creed: Identity.”
Blackguards 2, scheduled for release on January 20th, 2015, is the sequel to Daedalic Entertainment’s successful SRPG set in the universe of The Dark Eye. The game, consisting of roleplaying- and turnbased-strategy elements, will take players back to the dark south of Aventuria.
Three years after the events of the first Blackguards-game, the slave trader Marwan rules the country with an iron fist from his throne in the city of Mengbilla. The Blackguards still know him as the owner of the Nine Hordes – deadly gladiator games in the arena of Mengbilla – remembering him not very fondly. It’s not a surprise that despite their criminal past, they are the first choice to dethrone Marwan and to end his terror regime. But they will not get involved in aventurian politics voluntarily, too much has changed in their lives in the last few years: Dwarf Naurim, for example, has rest on his fame as a successful gladiator and defeater of the Nine Hordes. He used his popularity for shady businesses and excessive parties and got quite potbellied – not a very good condition for battles, and so he hung up his axe and ditched his old gang, as long as they wouldn’t yield any profit. Wizard Zurbaran was even less lucky: His mistress could track down the former slave, who was able to escape his servitude. She shackled, mortified and sold him for one symbolic copper piece at the slave market. Takate, on the other hand, is back among the forest people and arranges his own gladiator games, letting humans fight for their destiny, just as he was forced to. He believes that there are no challenges left, after he has defeated the Nine and gets bored with sending others to their death. Only a very special character like the new main protagonist Cassia is able to rally the Blackguards around her.
The ultimate goal of the game’s turn-based battles is to conquer as much territory as possible and free it from Marwan’s influence, so that Cassia can claim the Shark Throne of Mengbilla herself. Battles, no matter if fought by one or more squads, range across multiple screens, lead through dungeons, ruins, or bridges spiked with traps and are, of course, inhabited by dangerous creatures. The fiercest among these monsterous foes are the chimeras; magical beasts created by Marwan’s chimerologists. Their unique abilities make them formidable opponents: Sandghosts, for example, can turn into a whirling sandstorm, passing through obstacles with ease, leaving devastation in their wake. Just like in the the first game, the battles in Blackguards 2 offer numerous optional elements and interactive items, which the players as well as the opponents can use for their advantage. The additional and alternative quest goals make every battle a unique experience.
The gameplay focuses on turn-based battles and the players have to conquer cities and territories in the south of Aventuria, as well as defend them against intruders when the need arises.
Available to Cassia are not just the heroes of the first Blackguards, but also bands of mercenaries. Their leader is a bloodthirsty and ruthless man named Faramud. Up to ten mercenaries can join Cassia and her champions in battle. Because of the mercenaries players now have the possibility to interrogate prisoners as well. With these interrogations Cassia is able to receive important tactical information for upcoming battles, surprise attacks or other rewards.
Furthermore, the community feedback to the first game was significantly taken into account while developing Blackguards 2: Enhanced and improved gameplay, new features and weapons, complex battle maps and much more await the players of Blackguards 2.
Blackguards 2 will be released worldwide on January 20th, 2015 for PC and Mac for 34.99 US$/ 23.99£/ 29.99€/ 699RUR/ 3,980Yen, featuring full English and German localization as well as subtitles in Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese and Korean.
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About The Dark Eye:
The Dark Eye has been Europe’s most best-known fantasy RPG universe since 1984. In addition to the popular pen&paper adventures, The Dark Eye is the basis for a successful series of videogame adaptations.
The Dark Eye is licensed under Chromatrix GmbH.The Dark Eye is a trademark of Significant Fantasy Media Rights GbR.
About Daedalic Entertainment:
Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, Daedalic Entertainment is a developer of multiplatform narrative-driven games.
The company employs a staff of approximately 100 people, and its famed Writer’s Room, with its cadre of authors, is a unique feature in Germany’s media industry.
Since May 2014, Daedalic Entertainment has been part of the Bastei Lübbe group of companies, and in August 2014, Daedalic opened another development studio in Düsseldorf — dubbed Daedalic Entertainment Studio West.
Over the last few years, Daedalic has earned 21 German Game Developer Awards (incl. “Studio of the Year 2009, 2013”), five German Computer Game Awards (incl. “Best Game 2011”), and more.
Upcoming Daedalic titles such as “Silence – The Whispered World 2” and “The Devil’s Men” will raise the bar for the adventure genre. With “Blackguards” and “Blackguards 2” the company has also set itself up as a key RPG developer.
As a publisher, Daedalic entertainment publishes uncommon and remarkable games like “Divinity: Original Sin“, “Oh my Gore” and “Randal’s Monday”.
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