Blackwind

Blackwind is as utilitarian as a bank statement and painfully middle-of-the-road. It's tough to recommend that you play this game because we can scarcely remember anything notable about it from our own playthrough. Yet at the same time, it doesn't actually do anything egregiously wrong to make it instantly destined for the garbage bin. If you're looking for an entirely unremarkable and unoriginal sci-fi themed hack 'n' slash, Blackwind certainly ticks those boxes. Unfortunately, if you're looking for a meaningful way to spend your limited time and hard-earned money, this ain't it. We won't go so far as to say that you should definitely give Blackwind a pass, but we'd understand entirely if you did.

Have you ever wondered, how playable would be a mixture of James Cameron's story from Avatar and God of War's hack & slash mechanics? Because Blackwind offers you just this experience, wrapped in a janky camera, poor voice acting and borderline boring gameplay. Oh, and there are cool mech suits too'

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.

Groundhog slay

Sadly, as it is, I can’t really recommend this to anyone because whatever little good it may do, the bad outweighs it by quite a bit.

Ultimately, Blackwind is very much a budget experience. If you go in knowing what to expect however, there’s a lot of fun to be had here. Its combat is competent and engaging, there’s a solid upgrade tree to work your way through, and solving puzzles to explore its environments adds a little more variety to the mix. Its environments lack any real excitement, however, and it’s missing a spark of innovation. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t provide enough entertainment for those looking for some basic action.

Blackwind is a beat 'em up with fun combat and progression that feels hampered by a mediocre story.

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.

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?

Much like a bag of your favorite salty snack food, there is a fair amount of dead air in Blackwind; but there is just enough to consume to keep you interested if action games are your thing. And much like your junk food, don’t share it with anyone else, or you may walk away feeling kind of cheated.