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Sunday, December 18, 2022 10:12:32 PM

Blacktail Review (Mesarthim)

Okay, where to begin? If you buy this game hoping you will get to be an evil witch with cool powers and make people suffer and laugh while learning about Baba Yaga and maybe doing a second run through while trying to save her soul... Well, let me tell you how wrong you are.
The story revolves around Yaga and her sister Zara, Yaga is an outcast and she's bullied by her friends, protected by her sister who is just much better than her.
There is a witch named Baba and she seems to be the reason why everything goes so badly around there. Gosh, I really have a hard time not spoiling the story because it was terribly disappointing.
You will spend your time running after your lost "friends" to learn about your past while seeing a story develop through the tales of a black cat with a weird accent.
The morality system is not that important in the end (except for a few things maybe? Not even sure the morality change cinematics because it's all pretty neutral in the end, what the morality will change is the npc shrooms you will befriend at the very begining)
But the good thing is, along the way, you will meet a few mushrooms which talks are rather fun and they make the story pretty nice and will bring you into a weird tale about honey. (forget about the cat and all that)
Now, the game is divided in 5-ish regions (Well, 4 since the first one is pretty small and is the tutorial region), you will progress through the story as in a metroidvania, not an open world.
1 main quest and 3 secondary quest in the 3 main regions, the last region beeing the "grand final" in which you can't do much. The hut of baba yaga is the central hub where you will upgrade your powers.
Now, the gameplay is pretty disappointing, you have a bow and that's it ! It's the only weapon you will have through the entire game with 3 different arrows, a normal one, an honey one which slows and damage over time and a crystal arrow which applies crystals on the enemy, firing a crystal arrow on him after that makes him explode, the more crystals on him the bigger the damage... Then you have a broom which attracts the attention of enemies.
You have a power to use three different ways, a single press on F and you will send some kind of shockwave in front of you, a long press and you'll use a power associated to your morality, and using that power while charging shot can release one of the three power you decide to chose in your skill tree (you can change anytime you go back to the hub)
You also have two potions, one to cure poison and another one to run faster (basically)
Basically, you will create all those items by "crafting" them on the fly, press "TAB" and a wheel shows, if you have enough items (wood, feathers, crystal, ...) you will craft them instantly with a single click.
This system wouldn't be such a problem if the game wasn't sending enemies in your face as if you were playing doom !
It was pretty refreshing to have a break from monsters.
You can also meet a devil giving you temporary boost powers with some side effect, cost nothing, influence nothing in your morality path. This morality will give you a few passive abilities like getting health orbs and whatnot. When you reach max morality by doing good or bad stuff, you will have a task to accomplish asking you to do 3 things (kill a bird, a hedgehod and a fox) before being fully dedicated to path (good or evil) and you will get a final bonus which will be removed if you destroy the wrong the thing by accident making this system horribly frustrating.
The skill tree isn't anything exceptional, carry more stuff, potions now also heal, more damage, faster arrow charging, more mana, ... You will be able to chose a special power and what they call a hex which can "specialise" you in one kind of arrow (either jack of all trade, honey, wood or crystal)
So you will move forward, gathing ingredients for your items, gathering teeth and hearts to unlock stuff in your skill tree and most important of all, gathering lost page which basically allows you to move further in the skill tree (without those, you can't improve). The world is pretty okay-ish to bland to explore, a few cool things to find, some npc with some fun quest and winks to various things like lord of the rings or Goldielocks and other stuff.
Now blacktail isn't a bad game but it's tiring and boring in the long run, the gameplay never renew itself with incredible new items as in a metroidvania, you never feel you're really getting stronger. The things you will unlock are traversal powers (to move a bit faster through the world) but nothing that will blow your mind, just another fast travel idea.
There are interesting things but I feel like the devs lacked of time to develop the game more (more items, more powers, ... more fun stuff, making good and evil more impactful), instead you're left with a character who can never decide if she's evil or not even when you spend your time killing stuff to be evil. A character who's on the verge of crying when you should be an evil sorceress wreaking havoc.
Recommending this game is really hard for me because I kinda liked it but got frustrated by little things which could have been improved with time. The game can feel a bit janky but I think it's mostly because the bow is the only weapon you'll ever have and the dash is limited. Otherwise, it plays well, voice acting is fantastic, music is pretty well made (nothing unforgettable but it goes along with the story). There are some really cool moments while exploring and while doing side quests but the main quest is not really what one can expect while playing a game about baba yaga.
As it stands, price is okay with what you're offered, limited replayability, new game plus is included so it's a thing for people interested.
In the end, I was glad to play that game but I'm happy I finished, I will class it in the "finished" title and will probably never touch it ever again and it's a good thing from my point of view.