Developer: Drakkar Dev
Publisher: Blowfish Studios, Gamera Game
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Blackwind – Review
Blackwind is a top-down combination of a twin-stick shooter and a hack and slash game that puts you in the shoes of the young James Hawkins in a high-tech battle suit. You’ll join him on his quest to save his father after their spaceship crashed into a nearby planet. Compared to the PC and other console versions, the Switch doesn’t offer impressive graphics, but its gameplay still stands quite tall on its own.
Story
In Blackwind, you play as the teenager James Hawkins, the son of a great scientist that invents the most advanced battle suits. On their journey to delivering these powerful battle suits to use against an alien invasion, their ship is shot down and James is put inside of his father’s latest prototype that is equipped with an intelligent A.I. that will assist whoever wears the suit. Before the ship crashes into the nearby planet, James’ father sends him to the planet. After landing, James gets to know the A.I. that powers his battle suit, and together, they forge a path to the crash site of their ship to save James’ father.
Graphics
Blackwind is a perfect example of a game that looks great on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation consoles, but looks a lot worse on Nintendo’s Switch. From your battle suit to the environment and all the flying particles, it just doesn’t look that good. That being said, the battle suit has a decent design, there are many different enemies with unique appearances, and the environment perfectly fits the setting of the game. When talking about animations, all the gruesome executions performed by the battle suit look awesome as well. While graphically this version may be inferior to its PC, Xbox, and PlayStation counterparts, it doesn’t detract from the overall fun to be had.
Sound
First of all, Blackwind is fully voiced, meaning all interactions between James and the A.I. of his battle suit and the other NPCs you meet on your journey are a lot more fun to watch, compared to all dialogues being subtitled like in many other ‘smaller’ games. The voice cast does a good job at bringing this game to life. Aside from the voice acting, the game also features quite a good soundtrack that fits the game like a glove. The quality of the sound effects is also quite good.
Gameplay
Blackwind is a top-down sci-fi action game that gives you control over a powerful prototype battle suit piloted by James Hawkins. James is on a quest to save his father after he crashed the spaceship you were on before your father put you in the battle suit. With the help of the intelligent A.I. present in your battle suit, you make your way through various areas indoors and outdoors. Be ready to face a lot of different enemies in your powerful battle armor while destroying them with your blades and a machine gun.
Your battle suit is equipped with quite a few weapons to defend yourself. It has a machine gun that infinitely shoots bullets at your enemies, as well as a few special weapons, like a missile launcher, that get unlocked as you progress. While the machine gun can be fired infinitely, the special weapons need power to be used. Aside from these ranged weapons, your battle suit is also equipped with blades that are used for slicing up enemies in close combat. You can perform a normal and a strong attack, and by combining these, you’ll deal even more damage. After dealing damage to enemies and they reach low health, they will start flashing red. When this happens, you can perform special execution moves that freeze time around you to perform the execution. These executions also have an increased chance to replenish your health and power. Performing these moves will be key to healing yourself and keeping enough power to use your special weapons.
Blackwind has three types of resources in the form of colored orbs that are dropped when you destroy objects and kill enemies. The green orbs provide you with health, yellow orbs provide you with power that is required to use special battle suit powers like the missile launcher, and the blue orbs are used for purchasing upgrades for your battle suit.
Your battle armor can be upgraded in three upgrade trees: General, Combat, and Special. The General tree is used for upgrading some basic things like dash effectiveness, increased health, and increased drop chance after killing enemies. The Combat tree is where you can upgrade the damage you deal, increase the number of bullets fired with each shot by your machine gun, and you can also learn new melee attack combos. The Special tree is where you unlock new special attacks and make them more effective and stronger.
Sadly, the game also has some weaknesses. You can’t control the camera as it moves and rotates automatically, and it doesn’t really function that well all the time. At many points, you’ll find the camera moving in different directions for no reason. While the game also uses some platform mechanics to reach higher places, it can be dangerous to jump on smaller objects in this game as you can get stuck above it in a falling motion. When this happens, your only way out is to restart the game and lose some of your progress. The game also lacks a consistent map system, with only indoor areas having a map, and then this limited map is only viewable through a minimap. This means you can never get a proper overview of the location you’re in.
Conclusion
Blackwind is quite a fun top-down sci-fi action game with a fully voiced narrative and a good combat system. Surely, the Switch version looks far worse than other versions of the game, but the overall gameplay quality is quite good. Killing enemies with executions can be lots of fun and it also functions as a great way to replenish health and power, which keeps you alive for a lot longer. Sadly, the game has some issues, such as getting stuck after jumping on objects and an annoying camera system, but these are luckily fairly minor issues that can still be fixed. We’d still recommend Blackwind as a game, but it’s best to buy it on a different platform for the best possible experience.
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