In an industry where AAA games and starlight indies tend to get the most attention, Blackwind is a budget title developed by Drakkar Dev and published by Blowfish Studios that tries to deliver a hack-and-slash style with puzzles " brain teaser ". .
Unfortunately, Blackwind ends up creating a more frustrating and repetitive experience than anything else.
Blackwind Review: A Dull Hacking and Slashing Experience
In Blackwind, you play as James Hawkins, the teenage son of a renowned scientist who created an Iron Man-like robot suit equipped with an AI named Blackwind. En route to the mining planet of Medusa-42, the Hawkins' ship is shot down by a band of Raknos aliens.
Professor Hawkins forces his son into the battle mech to survive the drop just in time for the ship to tear apart, catapulting Dad away and leaving our young hero alone in an alien mining colony overrun by aliens.
Now James prepares to fight the Raknos and fight his way through this mining world to find his father and destroy the alien menace.
Throughout Blackwind, you'll unlock upgradable weapons like blasters and energy blades, as well as abilities like melee chains and the classic ground pound technique. In addition to an impressive arsenal, a class of special abilities also opens up a lot of combat possibilities. Rockets, shields, radial force blast, and even self-healing technologies are all unlocked.
Without going into great detail and sharing all of Blackwind's secrets, a few more secret unlocks scattered about add to a stack of weapons and powers that provide plenty of options for approaching each section of enemies.
The Raknos, alien enemies James clashes with while searching for his missing father, also come with a collection of their own weapons and abilities. Basic alien infantry and machine guns are often the least of your worries, with more powerful elite soldiers and tank-like enemies attacking you from all angles.
Each enemy type brings its own fighting style into the fray as well as its own unique weakness, sometimes pushing you to open your arsenal and push your playstyle to try new tactics and tools.
Even with this large collection of weapons and an army of enemies, Blackwind's combat often feels lackluster. There are plenty of mechanics to try on any enemy, but the majority of enemies can be taken down easily with basic ranged or melee combat. Boss fights are rare, but they can often be cleared in a minute or two with little more than basic attacks.
Melee combos and special abilities can be useful in a pinch, but Blackwind fails to push you out of your comfort zone often enough to make them essential parts of the game's combat loop.
Blackwind succeeds in character upgrades and cosmetic customization. Everything from basic weapons to special abilities can be upgraded through a skill tree, adding damage, bullet spread, rate of fire, and more. to help build combat capabilities.
The upgrades themselves are definitely valuable, and every bit of extra firepower can be felt in those intense late-game firefights when whole screens of enemies attack. Mech skins can also be found hidden throughout Medusa-42, providing plenty of new Mech skins for you to choose from.
Puzzles scattered around the world help add variety to the gameplay. A drone built into James' mechanical suit can split apart, giving you the power to switch between the two to activate panels and flip switches that unlock the next area of the map. Another type of puzzle has you unlocking areas of the map by guiding a drone through air vents and activating security panels with a few enemies scattered along the way.
Blackwind's biggest drawback is its lack of direction. While your AI finds and downloads maps for many areas you explore, there's no world map to plot your path and know where to go. The on-screen minimap gives some pointers, but with much of Blackwind taking place in sprawling military compounds with multiple levels and dozens of identical hallways, I still found myself getting lost and having to return frequently. back to find the next objective or area.
Blackwind's camera is also painfully bad. It remains static for the majority of the game without the ability to use a controller to turn it around and get a better view of the surroundings. Rather than guide you to key locations and paths, Blackwind forces you to run in all directions trying to find groups of enemies, progress through levels, and advance through the story.
It's nostalgic in many ways, as relying on finding new enemies is often the only way to know you're headed in the right direction.
Unfortunately, the nostalgic charm can't overcome how badly I wished I had a map of the world to point me in the right direction. The poorly designed camera also negatively impacts a handful of puzzles, with triggers that can be pulled just out of sight to add unnecessary puzzle-solving frustration.
Examen de Blackwind – The Bottom Line
Benefits
- Enjoyable hack-and-slash gameplay
- Fun puzzles to unlock progression
- Great Skill Tree Ability Progression
The inconvenients
- Frustrating player camera
- No world map
- Repetitive fights and dialogues
While Blackwind isn't a bad game to begin with, the overall experience ends up being extremely bland. Generic landscapes, repetitive combat, and a frustrating lack of guidance make Blackwind a forgettable budget title that can be safely ignored.
[Note: Blowfish Studios provided the copy of Blackwind used for this review.]
