Blackwind Reviews
What is the first game to come to your mind when you think of top-down shooters? How about hack n’ slash games? What I think of is Halo: Spartan Assault for a top-down shooter and I think of Devil May Cry for a hack n slash game. With Blackwind, you get the best of both worlds, but at a cost. What’s that cost? Your sanity. I have been playing this game now for at least five and a half hours, and I have wanted to just chuck my controller at a wall. More on that later.
Blackwind has very entertaining combat and a well thought out progression, but its platforming, camera, and certain enemies, as well as bugs and glitches, make the game clunky and undercooked.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Overall, Blackwind is a regrettably forgettable game. Unable to decide if it’s a twin-stick shooter or a hack-and-slash, with repetitive (and sometimes downright boring) level design, and cringe-inducing voice-acting, there’s little to recommend here. Honestly, the best way I can describe this game is in terms of food: Blackwind would be unflavored, plain oatmeal. Sure, it’s edible, but do you really want to eat it?
Overall though, Drakkar Dev and Blowfish Studios’ science fiction action adventure platformer mech based hack & slash Blackwind is a fun little adventure. You trek through the various areas that you’ll get to explore on the planet Medusa-42 as you play James Hawkins as he looks for his father.
Failing to stack up anywhere near it’s contemporaries, Blackwind is a hollow exosuit complete with unengaging combat, mind-numbing exploration and puzzle elements, repetitious presentation, poor story and baffling design choices. There are plenty of potentially great ingredients to this package, but unlike the age-old adage, the sum is certainly no greater than the parts. A meek gust of breeze as opposed to the promise of a gale-force wind.
Blackwind is a decent hack-and-slash action game with fast agile gameplay and a good mix of puzzles and platform sections. The story and cartoon-stylised cutscenes were enough to keep me invested in wanting to find out what happens next, and the voice acting was great. I often fought against the camera angle, particularly when trying to be precise with platform jumping sections, but the combat and execution takedown animations was great fun.
Blackwind is a third-person hack-and-slash game about a teenager piloting an experimental mech suit to search for his dad and fight aliens. It’s fast, visceral, and mostly satisfying to play. Unfortunately, it also suffers from weapon imbalance, repetitive combat animations, and a few technical problems.
It is accurate to say that BlackWind didn't present anything really inovating, but it combined several formulas (successfully) and presented a very pleasant experience. A title for players who like different styles and enjoy a gratifying gameplay, without many compromises. Nevertheless, we highlight the available difficulty modes (which are reflected in enemy fire rates and higher HP), which manage to adjust this title, from a more casual to a more frantic experience.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The potential for something fascinating was there, but unfortunately, the game's first hour gave us a false impression, as the promising combat model and exploration became a repetitive, prolonged slog way before the end credits. Too bad.
Heavy mechs smashing up alien threats is always going to be entertaining, but just be wary of expecting too much out of Blackwind other than straightforward action with some slight detours.
Blackwind is an ambitious game that proves it can do it all – just not at once.
It’s difficult to recommend on a story basis thanks to its generic narrative, and even harder to recommend on a gameplay basis thanks to the slew of glitches, loose controls, and boring progression. With more time and refinement, Blackwind could very well have been an enjoyable experience, but alas, it didn’t seem to be written in the stars.