There are few game concepts quite as immediately strange as BLACKWOOD. During the day, Anton Blackwood runs a small DVD shop in 2012 New York, while at night he heads downstairs to his hidden arsenal and takes on work as a contract killer. It is an odd combination of mundane retail simulation and cinematic violence, but one that initially seems to have considerable potential. We actually got our first chance to go hands-on with BLACKWOOD when we met the team at Gamescom, where the combination of its grimy New York setting, gunplay and elaborate takedowns certainly made an impression. Having now spent considerably more time with the PC version, however, that initial promise is accompanied by the realization that BLACKWOOD is an ambitious game that has not yet managed to make all of its disparate parts work together.
The double-life concept remains one of the game’s most interesting aspects, even if Act 1 does surprisingly little with it. Anton’s daytime existence revolves around the DVD shop, where stock can be ordered, shelves filled, customers served and the occasional bit of cleaning performed. At night, the tone changes completely as contracts take him into shootouts and close-quarters confrontations. There is a certain charm in moving between these two extremes, and small touches such as the shop cat, Anton’s apartment, different outfits and the distinction between legitimate and illicit income help sell the idea that he is maintaining two separate lives. Unfortunately, the connection between those lives is mostly superficial. The shop generates money with very little intervention, while most of its chores are repetitive enough that it is tempting to skip them altogether. That undermines one of the game’s central ideas: if the mundane half of Anton’s life barely matters to his progress, it becomes difficult to see why the player is being asked to live it in the first place.
The narrative suffers from a similar problem. Act 1 introduces hints concerning Anton’s past, his mother and the dangerous world surrounding his contracts, but it largely feels like the opening chapter of a story rather than a satisfying story in its own right. That is understandable given that two more acts are planned, with Act 2 scheduled for March 2027 and Act 3 for September 2027, and those future acts will be provided to existing owners at no additional cost. Still, the current chapter ends just as some of its threads begin to become interesting. Anton himself is deliberately quiet and withdrawn, which could have worked well for a protagonist carrying a mysterious past, but the writing and voice performances do not consistently provide enough substance behind that reserved personality. Some of the dialogue and cutscenes also have an awkward quality that occasionally makes the intended gritty tone feel unintentionally amusing. The contrast between ordinary shopkeeper and professional killer is inherently compelling, but BLACKWOOD has yet to give either side enough narrative weight to make the contrast truly meaningful.
It is when the shooting starts that BLACKWOOD comes closest to delivering on the promise we saw during our Gamescom session. The third-person gunplay encourages movement rather than simply sitting behind cover, with dives, slides and other evasive manoeuvres helping to create a more kinetic rhythm. Ammunition can be limited, making close-range takedowns an important part of surviving encounters, and the game does a good job of making those executions spectacular. There is a considerable variety of contextual takedowns, including attacks that make use of nearby objects, and Anton’s ability to regain health through them gives players a genuine reason to get dangerously close to enemies. When gunfire tears apart scenery, glass breaks and enemies are dispatched in quick succession, the game can briefly capture the kind of exaggerated action-movie energy it is clearly chasing. The weapons also benefit from some nice tactile details, including chamber checks and weapon customization in the basement armory, where attachments can be physically fitted to firearms.
Unfortunately, the moment-to-moment controls do not always support those ambitions. Free aiming feels considerably better than the aggressive auto-aim setting, which can interfere with precision by snapping too readily toward targets, but even then there are inconsistencies in hit detection and enemy reactions. The cover system can be unreliable, while the camera becomes particularly troublesome in enclosed spaces, sometimes shifting into positions that make it difficult to see an attacking enemy at exactly the moment when awareness is most important. The melee system is an even bigger problem. The spectacular contextual finishers suggest a much deeper hand-to-hand combat system than the one actually surrounding them, with basic attacks, dodges and parries often feeling imprecise or lacking useful feedback. Fights against multiple opponents can quickly become chaotic rather than choreographed, and the katana-focused encounters are particularly unforgiving. BLACKWOOD clearly understands how an action sequence should look; it is less successful at making the player feel equally and consistently in control of one.
The driving sections do little to improve matters. They are an attempt to broaden the gameplay beyond shooting and fighting, but the vehicle handling can feel awkward and unforgiving, particularly when minor collisions result in a restart. This is unfortunate because there are otherwise some welcome attempts to vary the structure of the missions, including movie-set assignments and other short side jobs. Stealth, on the other hand, is barely developed, despite certain missions presenting situations that appear designed to encourage it. There is consequently a strange mismatch between BLACKWOOD’s cinematic ambitions and the systems supporting them. A sequence can be staged like an action movie while still feeling mechanically rough underneath, and the difference becomes particularly obvious when an encounter is undermined by an awkward checkpoint, an enemy appearing in an inconvenient position or a camera that suddenly loses track of the action.
Visually, BLACKWOOD is similarly inconsistent. The recreation of 2012 New York has atmosphere, particularly when the darker environments and lighting are working in its favor, and the basement armory is a particularly convincing space. Weapon customization is presented with a tactile attention to detail, while the sheer quantity of DVD covers, posters, websites and other background details suggests a team that has put considerable effort into establishing its world. At the same time, character models and animations can look rough, environmental interactions are sometimes limited, and clipping and other visual artifacts occasionally break the illusion. Some of the more densely populated areas also reveal repeated NPC models and animations. The overall presentation therefore sits somewhere between convincing period detail and obvious technical limitations rather than establishing a consistently polished visual identity.
The audio is another mixed bag. The music does a good job of establishing the period and atmosphere, with the soundtrack helping the quieter sections of Anton’s life feel distinct from the violence of his nighttime work. The gunfire itself can also provide the necessary punch when a firefight comes together. Unfortunately, some sound effects and voice performances are less convincing, while inconsistent audio mixing can see ambient NPC chatter become disproportionately loud during scenes that are supposed to be tense. These problems are especially noticeable because BLACKWOOD is trying to present itself as a cinematic experience. The technical issues extend beyond presentation too, with stuttering and other performance problems, and performance can vary considerably depending on hardware and settings.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about BLACKWOOD is that there is clearly a good game buried somewhere inside it. The weapon customization, elaborate takedowns, unusual premise and carefully assembled DVD-store setting demonstrate plenty of personality, while the Gamescom build already showed why the developers’ idea was worth paying attention to in the first place. The problem is that Act 1 feels more like the foundation of that game than the finished realization of it. The shop needs more meaningful mechanics, the melee combat needs considerably more refinement, the camera and driving require attention, and the narrative needs more room to connect Anton’s two lives. The relatively short first act compounds the issue, because just as some of these ideas begin to become interesting, the credits arrive. Buying the game does mean that Acts 2 and 3 will follow without another purchase, so there is a potentially much larger experience ahead, but this review has to judge what is actually available now.
BLACKWOOD is therefore a difficult game to dismiss because its best moments genuinely work – at its best, it’s Max Payne meets John Wick. A well-executed takedown followed by a desperate firefight can produce exactly the kind of over-the-top action that initially made the game stand out, and there is something inherently appealing about returning from an assassination to worry about DVD stock. Yet too many of the systems surrounding those highlights feel underdeveloped, and the rough controls, uneven combat, repetitive shop activities and technical problems repeatedly pull the player out of the fantasy. There is a strong idea here, and the team clearly has the enthusiasm to pursue it, but Act 1 leaves BLACKWOOD feeling more like an intriguing work in progress than the fully formed action thriller it wants to be. The future acts have plenty of room to build on what is here, but for now, the game’s most memorable moments are also reminders of how much more potential remains to be realized.
Score: 6.5/10