Blackwind leaves a bittersweet so it could have been and in a few moments it manages to reach.
When we approach critical spirit to a work – and especially a video game -, which is categorized on a solid nucleus is one of the fundamental issues. However, in a few occasions are the details that, in theory, have to contain large doses of genius and raise the titles to the altars… or collapse them in an inexorable way. Soon it serves to lift a solid scaffolding if, a posteriori, the rest of the auctions do not scratch at the same height.
And that is, basically, what happens to Blackwind.
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Basic information
- Developer: Drakkar Dev
- Editor: Blowfish Games
- Platforms: PS5, X / S, PS4, SWITCH, PC Series
- Proven version: PS5
- Availability: 20/01/2022
Developed by Drakkar DeV and published by Blowfish and Gamera Games, Blackwind puts us on James Hawkins’ skin, a kid traveling with him, Professor Hawkins, heading to the planet Medusa-42. Whenever they arrive there, they will deliver the last prototype of Battle Frame – a kind of exoeskeleton / combat armor – to the Marine expedition that faces the Rakdos on that planet, some aliens with very bad flea and worst teeth and claws. After delivery, the Hawkins will be able to go home and see the final of the Petanque Interplanetary Championship… or at least that is what would have happened if it were not because their ship receives an unidentified attack from the surface of Medusa-42 and The teacher is forced to use the armor to save the young James of the imminent collision, giving openness to our adventure.
An adventure that, without going further, has the basic structure of a twin-stick shooter with small brush strokes of Hack’n Slash. Our Battle Frame, very reminiscent of some models of Gundam, is equipped with high-power weapons and a state-of-the-art AI. Thus, we can use our particle rays to eliminate enemies that are at some distance and finich with the swords of energy to those who have the hassiness of approaching too much. And since not everything will be distributed, when our enemies get braves will touch pulling evasive resources such as the impulse or put them in the sights of our remote control missiles. All this is added to a correct control and a stable frame-raate to establish a playable basis that, in its first measures, provides quite positive feelings.
However, it is to deepen the approach of Blackwind when we begin to perceive the multiple edges of it. Several of them have to do with an artistic section that, although it is fulfilled in general terms, yerra the shot in details that jump in sight easily. With cinematics elaborated with a style very close to the American comic-book, it should be noted that the dialogues in-game are bent and adorned by portraits that follow the same style as those. However, our protagonist and the AI of him constantly repeat a small number of prefixed phrases at times as the appearance of enemies, executions and interaction with objects of the environment as doors. This fact slut the general set of the title and, especially, at times in which some dramatism is intended to collide with phrases with a very different t1. It is inevitable that the player does not question the decision to raise a protagonist who questioned the morality of ending the enemies of him if at the next time he released a _one-liner. Similar problem arises when facing music, which at some moments has sparks of inspiration close to obvious reference materials such as Transformers and their guitars mixed with synthesizers, but the abuse that makes their counted songs makes them lose, in the long term, the Impact of them.
That is a bit what happens with the rest of the gameplay. While the concept of crushing enemies to open field and in somewhat more claustrophobic locations does not present a priori problems, these do appear when this dynamic we add certain roughness as the monotony of their rhythm and the lack of so basic elements as objective markers and maps that can be consulted. Regarding the first, we will find ourselves repeating a playable scheme that will consist of visiting an area, cleaning it from enemies and continuing to the next. Along the way, Blackwind tries to introduce a certain variety with light situational puzzles using a separable drone from our armor or squeezing the jump and movement mechanics that we will also use in combat. However, these variety brushstrokes fall into the same mistake as combat and soon we will realize that these puzzle sections have easily recognizable structures. Find a key or a password remote from the door that we must open, travel ventilation ducts to manipulate terminals with our navsencilla or use a switch here to facilitate step there are interludes to which we will soon recognize its seams for the obvious repetition of schemes that They present.
Ultimately, the biggest problem of Blackwind is that, despite a truly solid basis – who would not want to be mounted on a giant wick to distribute hosts and paste shots to giant aliens -, none of his elements go beyond what strictly basic. So much so, despite not being a note of a notebook duration, some of its dynamics seem to make us feel at a much heavier game than it really is. Backtracking, A brief list of enemies, very similar environments with each other and situations that resemble themselves prevent us from focusing on what we would really expect from a title of these characteristics. That is, stick shots at a variety of bugs, unbridled action, ambience that enters us through the eyes and a vibrant rhythm. Blackwind had armed a suitable exoskeleton for all this. The problem is painting.