Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Twitch
    Game on Aus
    • News
      What’s coming to PlayStation Plus in June 2023?

      What’s coming to PlayStation Plus in June 2023?

      June 1, 2023

      IT’S JUNE! — and that means two things: it is officially the rainy season & it’s time for the next…

      ANZPL Split 1 2023 Trophy

      ANZPL Split 1 2023 LAN Finals: Champions Crowned

      May 30, 2023

      This is it. The ANZPL Split 1 2023 LAN Finals. Who would win the Lower Final and make it to the Grand Final to face the Skorpions?

      Company of Heroes 3 Xbox console give-away

      Company of Heroes 3 Xbox console give-away

      May 30, 2023

      TODAY’S release of the Company of Heroes 3 Console Edition released on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, FiveStarGames…

      Assassin’s Creed: Mirage details emerge

      Assassin’s Creed: Mirage details emerge

      May 25, 2023

      AT the PlayStation Showcase this morning there was a few moments of excitement for me, one of them being the…

      PlayStation ’23 Showcase report

      PlayStation ’23 Showcase report

      May 25, 2023

      PlayStation went ahead with its PlayStation Showcase earlier this morning and kicked off the old E3-style season presentation of a…

      View All
    • Reviews
      Diablo 4 Review – A Dark and Thrilling Return to Glory

      Diablo 4 Review – A Dark and Thrilling Return to Glory

      May 31, 2023

      Diablo 4 is the long-awaited continuation of the iconic action role-playing game series developed by Blizzard Entertainment. I had the…

      Alienware AW510K Low-Profile RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

      Alienware AW510K Low-Profile RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

      May 25, 2023

      When I reviewed the Alienware AW720M Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Mouse at the start of the year, I came away intrigued…

      Fabledom review –  A Charming Blend of Town-Building and Fantasy

      Fabledom review – A Charming Blend of Town-Building and Fantasy

      May 25, 2023

      Embarking on a whimsical journey through a fantasy medieval countryside, Fabledom invites players to immerse themselves in a world reminiscent…

      Planet of Lana Review – A Captivating Journey of Beauty and Emotion

      Planet of Lana Review – A Captivating Journey of Beauty and Emotion

      May 24, 2023

      In a gaming landscape filled with blockbuster action titles and adrenaline-fueled adventures, Planet of Lana emerges as a breath of…

      After Us Review – What Have We Done?

      After Us Review – What Have We Done?

      May 23, 2023

      IT’S the end of the world as we know it. Humanity has continued down its path of ignoring the signs…

      View All
    • Podcasts
      Nuts & Bolts Ep 84 Hero Card

      Nuts & Bolts Ep 84: What Is The LCS Doing?

      June 3, 2023

      The World Of Tanks ANZPL LAN Finals have decided the Split 1 champions. Jim takes us through the action! Lots…

      Nuts & Bolts Ep 83 Hero Card

      Nuts & Bolts Ep 83: Let’s Get Down To Business

      May 20, 2023

      There’s lots to cover this week. Join Mercury and Jim as the World Of Thanks ANZPL heads towards their LAN…

      The Weekly Show Ep 279 Hero Card

      The Weekly Show Ep 279: Tech Issues: The Show

      May 19, 2023

      Doomcutie joins Stormie and Jim as they talk through mods, leaks and so much more! Plus our Bloody Good Game Of The Week thanks to Aussie Broadband.

      Nuts & Bolts Ep 82 Hero Card

      Nuts & Bolts Ep 82: We Missed You!

      May 13, 2023

      It’s been a couple of weeks so Jim and Mercury catch up to talk all things Dreamhack Melbourne. Plus Snoop…

      The Weekly Show Ep 278 Hero Card

      The Weekly Show Ep 278: Look Who Just Drops In

      May 12, 2023

      Doomcutie joins Stormie and Jim as they talk through mods, leaks and so much more! Plus our Bloody Good Game Of The Week thanks to Aussie Broadband.

      View All
    • Categories
      • BY PLATFORM
        • Playstation
        • Xbox
        • Nintendo
        • PC
        • Mobile
        • VR
        • Retro
      • BY GENRE
        • Action
        • Action-Adventure
        • Battle Royale
        • Fighting
        • FPS
        • Horror Games
        • RPG
        • Simulation
        • Sports
        • MMORPG
        • MOBA
        • Platformer
        • Strategy
        • Survival
        • Indie
      • GOA ESSENTIALS
        • Esports
        • Conventions
        • Tabletop
        • Hardware
        • Funny
        • Streaming
        • Win
        • Podcast
        • Video
    • More
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
    Game on Aus
    Home » Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game
    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game
    GAMING REVIEWS

    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game

    GOA StaffBy GOA StaffJanuary 19, 2022
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    Blackwind is a decent hack-and-slash action game with fast agile gameplay and a good mix of puzzles and platform sections.

    Blackwind is an isometric sci-fi action game developed by Drakkar Dev and published by Blowfish Studios, releasing on all platforms on January 20. Drakkar’s last game War Tech Fighters released in 2018 and some inspiration is evident in this hack and slash game as you take control of a battle frame prototype and take out alien monsters on the planet Medusa-42. While I fought with the camera angle often, the environmental puzzles and steady stream of upgraded abilities, as well as utilising a drone that can be played local co-op, Blackwind was a lot of fun to play.

    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game

    In a fully voice-acted and cartoon-stylised introduction scene, we see the starship “Pandora” shot down and James Hawkins gets separated from his father, who created the battle frames. Ejected from the ship, James finds himself hurtled down to the planet below, trapped inside a military battle frame which is like a mech suit. This suit is the Mark II version, and it contains an experimental cognitive neural network codenamed the Blackwind Protocol that guides you through learning how to control it. “Trust the AI, it will keep you safe”, are the last words James heard from his dad. James must learn the powers of the battle frame to survive the alien forces across different planet locations while searching for his father. The voice acting throughout the game was well done.

    Blackwind will be playable on all platforms and this review will focus on the PC version. Using WSAD to move the battle frame, space to jump and double-jump, shift to dash/dodge and the mouse to attack, we start out using ranged attacks. As turrets and aliens die, they drop various orbs – blue orbs upgrade the battle frame, green orbs repair the frame and yellow orbs replenish special ammo power. It’s here I first felt I was fighting the fixed camera as I ran around stone pillars and explored the colony. Sometimes the camera followed closer to behind the battle frame, preventing me from seeing what was up ahead. I usually had to dash forward to see where the enemy shots were coming from, then dash back whilst aiming in that direction. If you choose to do so, you can put points into your dash ability so that it can damage the enemy, and that really makes it a useful escape and slay skill.

    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game

    Thankfully Blackwind feels very agile as you have no limit on how many times you can dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. You can shoot/bash crates and other objects to collect more orbs, so early on the enemy weren’t too challenging which helped me to find my preferred play style, especially once you learn melee attacks. As you start to kill an enemy, it will get to a weak point where it flashes red. Pressing ‘e’ will perform an execution move, picking the alien up and slamming it into the ground, or ripping off their wings and stabbing them with them. If you’ve played Drakkar Dev’s War Tech Fighters, you will be familiar with how cool some of these executions can be against the various types of aliens. You will fight spiders, drones, swarms, and other dangerous forms, some of which can block your attacks or are shielded, so you’ll need to do a ground slam to disrupt them.

    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game

    There are also platformer areas where you’ll jump up/down to different levels, unlocking distant doors or lowering barriers, and sometimes you’ll need to jump up to a ledge and run sideways along the wall until you can drop down or jump up to progress which was a good addition and changed up the gameplay. Again, with the camera angles, I sometimes struggled to be able to double jump up onto some pipes. Other times my view was obscured by things in the foreground, and I just had to test jumping locations before working out how to get up or jump down. These times were a little frustrating while playing Blackwind, but thankfully didn’t occur too close in succession.

    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game

    As you build up your collection of blue orbs, eventually you’ll come across upgrade platforms. Here you can specialise your skills, change the skin of the battle frame once you have unlocked them by finding pink helmet icons in the world, as well as fast travel to previous platforms you have visited. There are three skill trees you can put orb points into – general, combat, and special, so you can customise your specialisation to suit your playstyle. Later, you’ll find locked doors and no way to open them, but you’ll see a small vent.

    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game

    It’s here where you’re introduced to your drone companion which you take control of. You’ll navigate the drone through ventilation shafts and other narrow spaces, then navigate through rooms to unlock the door for your battle frame to be able to continue. If you can get to the other side of the unlocked door, that’s ideal, but often I had to backtrack the whole way so that the drone could be sheathed in the battle frame. If you are playing local co-op, one of you will control the battle frame and the other the drone. The drone is more than capable of taking out aliens with its lasers but is much weaker of course.

    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game

    Some locked doors require key codes and in the first few zones I generally had no issue finding keys and unlocking the path forward, though sometimes I had to do some backtracking as I had missed seeing a key in all the chaos of blowing sh*t up. Boss fights can be challenging at first until you learn their tells and can take advantage of them, but it was cool seeing much bigger and intimidating hulking frames.

    Blackwind Review – Sci-fi Action Game

    Overall, I gave the game 7.5/10. 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.

    This review utilised a Steam key provided by Blowfish Studios. Blackwind will release on January 20 on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

    #gameonAUS


    Written by: @ChrisJInglis

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleMicrosoft To Buy Activision Blizzard
    Next Article Seagate announce Star Wars themed storage drives

    Related Posts

    Diablo 4 Review – A Dark and Thrilling Return to Glory
    ACTION May 31, 2023

    Diablo 4 Review – A Dark and Thrilling Return to Glory

    Diablo 4 is the long-awaited continuation of the iconic action role-playing game series developed by Blizzard Entertainment. I had the…

    Alienware AW510K Low-Profile RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review
    GAMING HARDWARE May 25, 2023

    Alienware AW510K Low-Profile RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Review

    When I reviewed the Alienware AW720M Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Mouse at the start of the year, I came away intrigued…

    Subscribe

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    Ads

    Categories
    • ACTION
    • ACTION-ADVENTURE
    • APPLE
    • BATTLE ROYALE
    • CLOUD GAMING
    • CONVENTIONS
    • DLC
    • ESPORTS
    • Events
    • FEATURE
    • FIGHTING
    • FPS
    • FUNNY
    • GAMING HARDWARE
    • GAMING NEWS
    • GAMING REVIEWS
    • GIFT GUIDE
    • GOA
    • GOA PODCAST
    • HORROR GAMES
    • INDIE GAMING
    • Industry
    • MMORPG
    • MOBA
    • MOBILE
    • NINTENDO
    • Open-World
    • OPINION
    • PC
    • PLATFORMER
    • PLAYSTATION
    • Press Release
    • PREVIEW
    • RACING
    • RETRO
    • RPG
    • SIMULATION
    • SPORTS
    • STRATEGY
    • STREAMING
    • SUBSCRIPTION GAMES SERVICE UPDATES
    • SURVIVAL
    • TABLETOP GAMING
    • TECH
    • VIDEO
    • VR
    • XBOX
    Related Article
    Nuts & Bolts Ep 84 Hero Card
    GOA PODCAST

    Nuts & Bolts Ep 84: What Is The LCS Doing?

    June 3, 2023Darren 'Str8JaktJim' MacneallBy Darren 'Str8JaktJim' Macneall

    The World Of Tanks ANZPL LAN Finals have decided the Split 1 champions. Jim takes us through the action! Lots of results and partnership.…

    What’s coming to PlayStation Plus in June 2023?
    GAMING NEWS

    What’s coming to PlayStation Plus in June 2023?

    June 1, 2023Gabriel ArmstongBy Gabriel Armstong

    IT’S JUNE! — and that means two things: it is officially the rainy season & it’s time for the next round of PlayStation Plus…

    Diablo 4 Review – A Dark and Thrilling Return to Glory
    ACTION

    Diablo 4 Review – A Dark and Thrilling Return to Glory

    May 31, 2023ArlentricBy Arlentric

    Diablo 4 is the long-awaited continuation of the iconic action role-playing game series developed by Blizzard Entertainment. I had the opportunity to immerse myself…

    Game on Australia Logo

    Game On Aus is an Australian games publication working across written, video and podcast, and supported by an ever-growing community of content creators and fans!

    Copyright GameOnAus 2023. Privacy Policy. Website by Digital Hitmen

    CONTENT
    • News
    • Gaming Reviews
    • Podcast
    • Tech
    • Indie
    ABOUT GOA
    • About Us
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.