#BLACKWIND DECENT UPGRADE#

These environments are generally labyrinthian but the minimap viewable on screen really only displays the room you're in and the edges of the rooms around it. To start, generally only levels that take indoors give you any sort of map, and when they do there is no way to pull up the whole map at once. Here, a variety of issues coalesce to significantly detract from the overall experience. It's a simple yet interesting mechanic that reminds me a bit of a Metroid-style morph ball in some regards.Įxploration is generally where Blackwind runs into trouble. When the drone is detached from your mech, it takes with it your ranged weapon, leaving your mech with only melee attacks. One such ability is a remote drone which can be sent into ventilation shafts to explore and unlock doors.

#BLACKWIND DECENT UPGRADE#

As you progress you’ll be able to use points to upgrade your abilities and new abilities will be unlocked. When using your ranged weapon the right stick allows you to aim in a setup similar to a twin stick shooter. Your mech possesses both quick and heavy attacks along with a ranged weapon. Even the ability to just slightly rotate the camera to a limited degree, similar to Super Mario 3D World, would make a huge difference.Ĭombat is fairly straightforward and generally satisfying.

They were a regular problem for games of this type and a major reason why we rarely see entirely scripted camera systems in modern games. These issues aren’t unique to Blackwind, of course. A necessary objective would often be obscured from view until I was very close to it or enemies would wind up behind scene geometry and attack me from blind spots. You are not able to influence the camera in any way, and while it spends most of the game logically positioned, I still ran into plenty of issues with it. It's presented from an generally orthographic point of view with a camera that adjusts dynamically as you move through levels. Trapped inside, you have no choice but to fight your way through alien hoards in an attempt to reconnect with your father, assuming of course that he’s still alive.īlackwind is a hack and slash brawler with some occasional platforming. However, only your father can provide the access needed to open the suit and escape from it. Inside your suit you crash land safely on the surface of the planet below. Blackwind is very much in the vein of the original God of War, and while that certainly offers a hit of nostalgia, it’s hard not to recognize that evolution can be a very good thing.Īfter your ship is shot, your father seals you inside an AI-driven mech suit. From a game design standpoint, outside of the general existence of combat, very little has stayed the same. For example, take the original PlayStation 2 version of God of War and compare it to the modern incarnation. As genres evolve they often hit a point at which the modern incarnation is unrecognizable compared to where it started.

Blackwind decent