Imagine a world where John Wick didn’t retire, but decided he wanted to open up a DVD rental store and still take on a few contracts for extra money. Since this takes place in 2012, and the economy was slowly recovering, you didn’t have to do a little murder on the side to make a small business work; it just helped. That’s the premise for BLACKWOOD, and its presentation was pretty solid, with a trailer that, admittedly, pulled me in, even if through a flashy veneer.
I keep hearing people trashing the current AAA offerings, saying developers are letting them down, that we should actively seek out and embrace gems in smaller, less-bloated titles. So, here I am, trying to do that. Ambition is a hell of a drug, however, while fast cars, bullets, and movie rentals can only cover up for so much.
Maybe I gave them too much of my hope and enthusiasm. I was anticipating that classic, rich feeling of finding a new little-known treasure that people missed. A winner I could back and share with the masses. Some may accuse me of being foolish here, even though I went in expecting some level of jank, a fair amount of bugs, maybe a couple of poorly timed crashes, but I received all of that and an avalanche of growing pains on top of it all.
I’ll admit, these first impressions were doing a ton of heavy lifting; we’re talking about something deeper here. It’s like having a new friend everyone tries to accept, excusing their flaws and weirdness at first because we all think they have potential, even holding their hand through the rough times, and before anyone realizes it, the yelling and frustration are just hitting every time you hang out. Okay, maybe I’m not the best of friends sometimes.
The truth is I don’t like to just shit on anyone or their work, especially when it seems they’re standing on a solid foundation and comprehend what needs to be done—then there’s doing it. There are things I liked in BLACKWOOD, and numerous others I wanted to, but the longer I played or thought about it, the more problems began to pop up: not cracks in the exterior, but fundamental flaws, poor execution, rotten building materials, and that was all before I read that some of the posters and DVD covers might be stolen or AI-generated.
I need a bland protagonist who looks okay doing it
Our main character is Anton Blackwood, and he lives a dual life. By day, he supplies 2012 New York City with a wide array of DVDs and popcorn to make lives better, and at night, he does business as a contract killer for the criminal underworld, ending them. Players will need to master this work-dangerous work life balance, engaging in fast and exciting third-person action and a shop sim that requires us to order new stock, clean up messes, and recommend movies to some truly impatient motherfu—you know, I’m so sorry, my retail career flashbacks kicked in a few times while playing this.
I love the concept and thought it had a mountain of potential, just didn’t realize how quickly it could be dragged down. The visuals are not amazing, but I thought they were good and worked for what the game was trying to do. Sure, things are amazingly dark, there is some serious clipping, the uncanny valley characters run and move awkwardly at times, and there are only so many models – we can stand in the middle of a single stage, like the subway, and spot three of the same people – but I appreciate a lot of what was put into the presentation.
I liked John Wick and The Matrix too. The environments overall were a strong point, especially when we can use some of the set dressing to our advantage; just don’t look for too long or a player might realize not all the objects loaded in, like items NPCs are supposed to be holding, or tables and walls.
Visuals are one thing, but I’ve never let them stop me from liking a game—besides, I am often told that gameplay is king. In that case: movement is a bit clunky, the cover system feels unreliable, and collision often seems too loose, but we’ve all dealt with worse, I’m sure. The gunplay isn’t that bad. They have us switching positions, swapping weapons, and diving so much I can’t help but think that AttritoM7 Productions, the developers of BLACKWOOD, are also massive Max Payne fans. We have that and a love of action movies in common.
It’s just a shame the physics feel a tad off, the hitboxes are inconsistent, and the hand-to-hand fighting is frustratingly poor after playing something like 007 First Light. No, we should not compare a title like BLACKWOOD to something with the backing and team size of an IO Interactive joint, but something a little tighter would ease the pain.
Maybe if the final boss wasn’t a giant pain in the ass fistfight that felt so unfair, maybe there would be nicer things to say. I’d love to tell everyone that elements like the driving or takedown mechanics save this title, except I try not to get into the habit of outright lying. Those are two perfect examples of gameplay extensions that seem cool at first (less time for the driving) and then fall apart more the longer we deal with them. So much here is immediately jarring or becomes annoying as soon as the initial shine rubs off.
Saving the world, one VHS at a time
I’ll hate myself if I don’t compare this experience to seeing a great movie cover and the actual film turning out to be shit. It’s happened to me too many times. I thought, even if the action isn’t engaging, I may appreciate the idea of running my own little video store, as a front for my crime. We can arrange the shelves, talk to customers, and—oh, I went too close to the front or took too long, and it triggered a cutscene I didn’t want? I didn’t see that customer right away, so they left? Well, that actually feels somewhat realistic.
Getting the store’s rating higher seems quite difficult; I’d almost rather deal with the enemies that randomly spawn behind Anton for cheap deaths than try to recommend movies to people who I know won’t appreciate them or the hard work I put into cleaning this place. There is more to it, though. We have Anton’s apartment, his store, and a cool basement pad where we can train, order guns, modify them, and all three places have internet connections we need to use. This man has a lot going on. It can also be hard to figure out how to see our objectives or discern what the game wants us to do for certain activities.
I know many people hate how over-tutorialized some games have become, yet sometimes they are helpful when there appear to be multiple options, but the developer wants us to do this one specific thing. Hints and directions also help with pacing, making sure we’re allowed to take as much time as we want while still progressing toward the next encounter, so it never feels like meandering. BLACKWOOD is a great example of an experience that would have benefited from more, or better-utilized, instructions.
Easy to find, hard to beat
Okay, but I’m a story guy, so even if other aspects don’t quite cut the mustard—nah, the story didn’t do much for me either, not enough, at least. I’m not sure why we’re supposed to like Anton, but he’s so soft–spoken – a lot of the audio is weak, to be fair – and seemingly standard in this role that I almost feel like he could have been a silent protagonist and gotten the same effect across. There are scenes that explain why he’s being hunted and that it involves his family; now, if they could have just been more interesting.
Just remember to have him sleep, or you’ll lose that precious progress. Don’t quit in the middle of a mission either, and don’t let it crash! BLACKWOOD did that to me five times, once in the room before the final boss. Thankfully, most of my other issues were visual, typical glitches, the controller not working with certain menus, or plain funny, like punching enemies into walls. I just wish it didn’t feel like portions of the game were held together by chewing gum and string.
I know this has sounded (rightfully) harsh, but BLACKWOOD really attempted to give its audience a more thoughtful experience, with how players could approach the encounters and react in combat, to juxtapositions of running a mundane business, and plenty of options all around in an experience that costs less and maybe even tried more. It just didn’t meet its ambitions, and now I’m not sure it can.
Oh, there’s more
This is Act 1 of the story, which is about 4-7 hours of gameplay, depending on how much messing around someone does with side missions, training, crashes, and running the store. Act 2 is currently set for next March, with Act 3 following in September of 2027. The developers are responding to criticisms and seem to be trying to fix known issues, as there have been at least four patches since I received my review code.
They’ve said they also want to add more side content as we approach the new chapters, keeping some interest in the project, hopefully, while people wait, but I have to question how many chances players might be willing to give the game, especially if they have to wait a year for the rest of it. BLACKWOOD is currently available on Steam, and it seems AttritoM7 wants to get it to consoles eventually – there is more of that ambition – but I wonder if they’ve bitten off too much here.
I’m a dreamer; I want to see everyone succeed, and if new AAA games are going to continue to be this bloated, expensive, and take so long, it’d be great if we could look at some other options. This just might not be it. I really wanted to simply enjoy running my little not-BLOCKBUSTER (a NOCKBUSTER, if you will) and shoot some people in my downtime to blow off steam. Is that so much to ask? However, BLACKWOOD could be a lesson, a learning experience for the creators, and a glimmer of what could be down the line (hard maybe).
