Short but awesome
MariaGlorum's Black Dagger is much better than most of Big Fish's recent offerings. It may truly be a new game! There is no journal, but the map enables teleportation and is beautifully rendered in 3D. The map also indicates when you have collectibles to find in each scene. You can customize difficulty.
The HOPs are very creative and each one is structured differently. The mini games were moderately challenging -- not too easy, but you can work most of them out with time. The storyline was fresh, and the graphics and soundtrack make you feel like you're actually fighting evil! Black Dagger has one of the best bonus chapters I've ever played, in terms of both engagement and challenge; it followed naturally from the main story.
Collectibles consist of crowns in each scene and 8 statues of characters. If you collect all 23 crowns, you can complete a jigsaw puzzle. Collecting the statues just gives you glory. :-D
Cons? Gameplay is too short (23 scenes, about 3-4 hours), which is why I have already finished and can write this review. The back button is awkwardly placed in the lower left corner, while all the other icons are squished together in the lower right. You must manually update the map constantly if you want it to flag areas where action is needed. These are minor issues, however. I didn't experience any glitches.
My rating is 4.5, and while I'd love to give this game a 5, I've lowered it to 4 due to brevity.jennifer626
Much better
Not finished yet, but so far I can only say this is much better than the last offering by BF. Minor complaint is that in the map the legend does not indicate where current activity is available without refreshing request. Enjoying this game for a change after the last disaster.Drosietwo
