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http://www.daedalic.de/en/Game/Blackguards

BLACKGUARDS
What happens when the only hope of a threatened world lies not with heroes in shining armor, but is placed in the hands of a band of misfits and criminals? Blackguards, the new turn-based RPG by Daedalic Entertainment, explores this very question. The player takes on the role of a convicted murderer who must use the help of a team of more than questionable characters to save the world from a dark menace. Through this wild chase throughout the South of Aventuria, the world of The Dark Eye, there is more to fight than vicious creatures. Chapter by chapter you’ll encounter a story full of intrigue and surprising twists. Time and time again, the moral compass of the player will be tested. One does not beat Blackguards without getting their hands dirty. But when life and death are in the player’s hands, how far will they go to reach their goals?

The first turn-based RPG by Daedalic Entertainment unites the studio’s high standard of a suspenseful storytelling and unique characters with gripping tactical battles in elaborately crafted 3D-environments. In a taxing campaign, the player takes part in a dark story full of doubt, betrayal and loss.

Over 180 individually crafted battle maps full of interactive objects and strategically complex situations expose the player to exotic locations and put them through deadly trials.

[Ryusenshi]

New images, and some info:

http://www.jeuxvideo.com/articles/0001/ ... review.htm

There will be a total of seven playable characters. The hero can be a mage, warrior or hunter. Relations between characters will take an important place in combat: for instance, if you decline to do the optional quest of rescuing your wizard's former girlfriend, he will refuse to follow your orders during battles.

Combat will be turn-based, and take place on a hexagonal grid. Instead of using brute force, the game will offer alternative tactics, such as opening prison cells to keep guards busy, or cutting the rope of a chandelier to knock an opponent out.

[Ryusenshi]

A preview from The Escapist:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... to-the-Hex

When you're not busy smoothing out relations among your party members, you'll be getting glimpses of the characters' backstory through flashbacks, as well as playing out bits of the storyline yourself via tactical battles. This is where things start to really look fun. As much as I appreciate trying something seemingly novel with the party infighting, it is still secondary at best to the primary mechanic of the game; a hex-based tactical battle map. If you're familiar with the Heroes of Might and Magic games, this will be familiar to you, although instead of stacks of units, you've got individual characters duking it out. You'll click to move to a hex, which is color coded to identify how far you can move without sacrificing your action for the turn, then click to interact with another character or a part of the environment. You'll get a menu when you click on an enemy combatant which allows you to choose how you'd like to interact with them. You can use a standard melee attack, or a special ability, like a power attack or magic spell. One particularly interesting bit about the battle maps is that there are a number of interactive elements on most maps, which can be used to your advantage. On your mission to avoid execution, for example, there is one encounter where you can unlock cells to unleash riotous prisoners which will distract the guards while you make your escape. Other interactive elements include deadly traps, which you can either fall victim to, or lure unsuspecting enemies onto if you're clever enough.

As with any RPG, you'll be expecting some kind of leveling system, but this is another aspect of Blackguards that doesn't exactly fit the standard model. Instead of preset levels, you'll acquire "Adventure Points" which can be used to purchase new skills piecemeal. This lets you level at your own pace, picking up many cheap skills quickly, or slowly saving up for more powerful abilities. While it's difficult to say just how well executed this system is just from seeing the demo, the idea has a lot of potential for min-maxing or just adventuring in your own way, assuming it is implemented properly.

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