Blackwind Review: Just a story of a boy and his Battleframe.
James Hawkins. What a fitting name for a young teenager who is traveling across space towards a human mining colony on the planet Medusa-42....
Gameplay
Battleframe plays out mainly from a top down/isometric perspective where you run through multiple areas where you have to fight various enemies, hack computers and solve environmental puzzles in order to progress. Destruction is pretty much the name of the game. Whether you use your gun (hand blaster, Ironman style), melee combat with laser swords or ground stomps, the more you break, the more you earn. These earnings can come in form of health, upgrade currency or power that is used for your special attacks such as missile barrage. Upgrading the Battle Frame’s skills across three branching paths, general, combat and Special. To do so you have to visit special upgrade stations found across the game world.
These stations also function as a place to change the looks/skin of your battleframe and allow you to fast travel as you progress.
Certain powers do not get unlocked until later in the game, so there is the option for some back tracking and enter areas you could not go before to collect a skin or powerup. However the backtracking is often optional and not as much recurring as in a game like Metroid.
One of those upgrades is a small drown which is perfect to travers small areas such as airducts and hack the security doors from the other side.
As a hack n slash shooter you are pit against hordes of enemies and frantic battles that take place in places that vary from narrow corridors to open fields. With easy controls you can quickly adjust between long distance shooting and then use your dash to come in close and cut the enemy down with your energy blades. Weaken the enemy enough and a prompt will inform you that you can perform a powerful and often brutal takedown. Fighting feels fast , visceral and powerful.
Even though some of the animations such as running felt a bit wooden the battle controls did a very good job to make fighting the multiple attackers a lot of fun. Even on normal it was challenging enough to have to make smart decisions. When to come up close and when to back off during a fight mattered. Make a mistake and you will get destroyed. The third attack such as missile barrage was more limited in use but could deliver devastating damage. These combat moments did deliver the experiences I was expecting based on the premise of the game. Not disappointed.
But there is a second part to the game that did not work very well for me and at times had me want to walk away from the game all together. That part is the puzzle solving element of the game. I am not saying that the puzzle concept is hard as often it is a matter of pulling a lever here, push a button there. No, what made the game hard to deal with was in part caused by the lack of information shared with you. The camera is in such a weird angle of up so close that you cannot see certain areas of the map and sometimes they would be straight up be blocked by scenery. There were moments where I jumped or shot blindly into a direction, hoping something would explode and I could find my way.
Presentation
Final thoughts
Battleframe is a game from a small developer with big ambitions and it ends up succeeding in some parts while failing in others. The combat portions worked well, and were fun and challenging. The presentation is fun and though the story is not unique to anyone who is into sci-fi it is a great tribute too the genre and the length has the right balance. That said the failings in exploring bring the experience down some as they kill the pacing of the game and introduce frustration. Some of the glitches and tech issue can absolutely be fixed with patches and at time of writing I am not sure if there is a day one patch or not. In case of the lack of maps, compass or any form of direction in what to do in cases of some of the puzzles/platforming bits I am less certain. All in all battleframe brings fun combat and feels like Alien Breed but with mech suits. There is a good amount of content spread over 14 areas and you can collect tons of upgrades and battleframe skills. If you can get over the more frustrating exploration bits and pieces he glitches (Which could be patched) you will be in for a fun time IF you can get it for the right price.
Parental note: There are some visceral kills in this game and that includes on humanoids and there are blood splashes as a result of the kills. Language wise things are fine. Based on this I would not recommend this for the younger kids but it is fine for teenagers and above. With the coop added it is also offers the opportunity to enjoy the game together.
Review platform: Playstation 5
ESRB: N/A . Geeks opinion [T for Teen]
About the writer: DadGeek (Rob) is the co-founder of GeeksVsGeeks. He is a product of the eighties and never let go of his geek interest and hobbies no matter how often someone told him to stop. His love for gaming and all things geeks has been part of his parenting style and permeates throughout the whole family. A family of Geeks vs Geeks