If you remember, we did a review of Blackguards earlier this year, and while it was an immensely enjoyable game…it definitely had some rough edges. Though the patches and DLC fixed some of them, many of the more annoying ones remained untouched. Good news however: Daedalic Entertainment sneaked in a lengthy demo of their upcoming sequel to their cult SRPG hit, and it actually looks like they’ve listened to complaints about the first one.

This Gamescom demo goes into depth about the game’s differences from the previous one and shows off quite a big chunk of gameplay as well. Though much of the core game remains, such as the overworld map system and the deliciously oldschool turn-based/hex-based combat, the underlying support systems in Blackguards 2 have been tweaked to allow for a much less aggravating trip through the world of Aventuria.

Besides the obvious inclusion of new classes (an assassin class should be fun), there are also changes to the way attacks are handled. Chief among those is a yellow stamina bar under your health that depletes as you perform melee attacks. How that will work out remains to be seen, since nearly every European CRPG I’ve played that has had stamina bars has used them incorrectly. (Gothic 3, anyone?)

On the bright side, Daedalic seems to have listened to the fans who want more feedback from the GUI, since they’ve included the option to see every single statistic and value of every character. The presenter did laugh a little when showing it, so you know *they know* how big of an issue this was in the first game. (Pic below) Other small changes were touched upon, such as the ability to now seek cover behind objects in the field and a better display of enemy dodge and parry chances.

If you’re curious about the game, or like me enjoyed the first and are eager for more, you can check out the official website. Unfortunately no release date has been mentioned, but we’ll keep you updated as more details become available.