Balancing a double life is hard, just ask Anton from the new Steam game Blackwood. From the minds at AttritoM7 Productions via Steam, Blackwood is a cinematic third-person action game that, upon first glance, feels like your standard shoot-em-up title with flashy gameplay, fast cars and a noir feel. In actuality, the new title creates contrast with a double life motif that is very effective.
I’ve always found myself interested in the double life aspects in games that allow players the ability to live out two different roles in one title. While many studios, indie or otherwise, have opted for this motif in the past, it feels underutilized in today’s releases. It’s a successful tool that, when applied correctly, can make all the difference.
DVD Shop Owner by Day, Cut-Throat Contract Killer by Night
Check Out Blackwood on Steam
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Image via AttritoM7 Productions -
Image via AttritoM7 Productions -
Image via AttritoM7 Productions
In Blackwood, players are introduced to Anton, your average joe working at a sleepy DVD shop in New York in 2012 trying to make ends meet. Anton is tasked with the usual things like managing inventory, stocking shelves and setting prices for the latest DVDs in stock. Scanning barcodes, chatting with regulars and feeding your pet cat are actions all akin to reality, grounding the game in real life. Players can earn cash from sales to upgrade their store and put Anton in some new clothes.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
The backdrop of New York is also very immersive and gritty, especially at night. Gameplay sees Anton in the maze-like subway system and even Washington Square Park. As someone who has lived in New York for years, seeing the layout on set pieces made me miss the city I have come to love. Getting through the game, players begin to realize not all is as it seems.
When night falls, Anton dons his John Wick-esque persona, sporting a crisp suit and working as a contract-killer.
As an assassin, Anton is quick on his feet, diving, sliding and rolling through fierce interactions, taking down bad guys with melee takedowns and showing off some fast-paced gunplay that you might see from your typical action move. Upon booting up Blackwood, players will be able to tell quickly that Anton is heavily inspired by John Wick and even the Max Payne series. This juxtaposition is a welcomed addition.
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Image via AttritoM7 Productions -
Image via AttritoM7 Productions -
Image via AttritoM7 Productions
While on the surface, flashy combat might get someone interested in this title, they’ll be staying for the contrast which gives Anton’s life more interest. If he was just another cut-throat killer, the story would have no meaning. Even worse, it could mimic something that has already been done before in so many games.
The mundane of a DVD shop owner heightens combat, making it so exciting when altercations do happen. It exemplifies what makes gaming so enthralling in the first place. Stepping out of our hum-drum lives to be someone else for a few hours. Shedding our corporate costumes, trading in our mundane for crime-fighting and contract killing to feel something more.
Games Need Contrast to Nail Impact
Impactful narratives that contrast the everyday make games worthwhile. They suck players when they least expect it, transporting someone from their couch to the streets of New York or some far off fantastical land. At their best, video games feature contrast that produces a sense of normalcy, before said normalcy is yanked away.
The Persona series, specifically Persona 5, does an impeccable job of creating contrast, making gameplay impactful and fun. Switching from the life of a normal high school student, only to transform into the leader of the Phantom Thieves by night is thrilling. Of course, having to live through being a high schooler like Ren Amamiya sucks. Balancing assignments, managing relationships with fellow students, and acing pop quizzes are just some of the activities Amamiya must do to keep up appearances. While it can seem like a drag, it makes playing Joker all the more juicy. It’s a cathartic release.
Contrast can be created, not just through a double-life scenario. It can also be utilized as a narrative technique that juxtaposes two characters in the same game. In Alan Wake 2, gameplay splits its narrative between FBI agent Saga Anderson and novelist Alan Wake. Players can switch realities at will, tapping into Anderson’s investigation of cult murders in the Pacific Northwest or Wake’s nightmarish reality in the Dark Place. Both scenarios are vastly different but work in tandem to heighten one another.
If the grim and gloomy Dark Place gets to be too much, players can switch back to an equally grizzly storyline, but one more grounded in reality. When playing through Alan Wake 2, I was extremely scared of Wake’s romp through the Dark Place because I was also experiencing the realistic-ish world Anderson inhabited. Of course, both stories scared the pants off of me, but the narrative contrast utilized heightened the experience for me, making things feel more dramatic, more scary. Blackwood’s use of contrast in this way is lovely, reminding me why I began playing video games so long ago. I am reminded that I don’t have to settle for one or the other, the mundane or the exciting. I can freely engage in both.
- Developer(s)
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AttritoM7 Productions
- Publisher(s)
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AttritoM7 Productions
