BLACKWOOD Review: A DVD Store Owner With a Very Different Night Job

There is no question that BLACKWOOD is heavily inspired by the John Wick movies. From the way Anton checks his weapon to how he moves, takes cover and deals with enemies, the influence is there from the first few minutes. Far from us minding it. There aren’t many games that let us play out this kind of action-movie fantasy while also letting us to run a DVD store during the day.

BLACKWOOD starts strong.

We start in the sewers, wounded and on the run, while the game slowly introduces its movement, cover and combat systems. There was also a light puzzles that showed us that the game can do more then creatively killing people.

It works well as an introduction. At that point, it made us hopeful.

Moving Around Feels Good

Our boy can walk, run, duck, jump over obstacles, use cover and dive around the environment. The movement feels surprisingly fluid, and when things start happening around us, we usually don’t feel like we’re fighting the controls to keep up.

There are also some nice little contextual moments. We can scare a cat, get soaked while moving through the sewers and come across civilians who need help. Some of these situations are completely optional, and we can easily run past them without realizing there was anything we could have done.

We liked how at one point, we can pull an innocent person out of a car and move them away from the line of fire. It isn’t presented as some huge heroic moment. It’s just something happening around us, and we have to notice it and decide to help.

The puzzles work in a similar way, although they are much simpler. One has us figuring out which game we need to stop the water, checking a notebook to see which switches need to be turned on or off, and then doing exactly that.

Nothing complicated.

But these little sections give us something to do other than kill people. Small changes of pace came like an icecream on a hot day.

The Takedowns Are Fantastic

There are a lot of takedowns in John Wick and so are here. They range from weapon-based takedowns to using the environment around us. Every time we get close enough to an enemy, there is that little temptation to see what Anton is going to do this time.

And when the slow motion kicks in, the game really gets the John Wick idea right. The takedowns are also important because they restore health, so they aren’t just there to look cool. They can save us when things go wrong.

Using the guns is a little different. The weapons have noticeable shaking and recoil, and it takes some time to get used to each one. Shooting can therefore feel less comfortable than running up to someone and turning them into the next entry in Anton’s growing collection of extremely unpleasant animations.

That doesn’t mean shooting isn’t satisfying. Quite the opposite. When we finally get that headshot with a handgun that has been shaking all over the place, that little sound when the bullet connects feels great.

The problem is that the takedowns can sometimes feel like the easier solution. That, it seems, got us into a world of trouble.

Don’t Get Too Cocky

When we first got out of the sewers and onto the streets, we were almost immediately found and surrounded. We could have stayed behind a car, taken shots, repositioned ourselves, watched the enemies and slowly reduced their numbers.

Instead, we started doing what the game was practically begging us to do. Run from one enemy to another. Takedown. Run to the next one. Takedown. Hide for a moment. Wait for the next group. Repeat.

The enemy AI doesn’t always help.

Some enemies take cover in places that don’t make much sense. We had one hide behind a bench that was behind him, leaving him completely exposed to us. Others move left and right in strange patterns right in the open, while some simply pick a spot and wait for us to come to them.

This can make the aggressive approach surprisingly effective.

At one point, we managed to take down five enemies while they were shooting at us. We hid behind a car while another three were around 20 metres away, then sprinted towards them and took all three down one after another. Anton can double-tap the space button to dive, which gives us a very Max Payne-like move, minus the slow motion.

We then repositioned towards another group of three.

That group got us.

We had to start again.

BLACKWOOD can let us get away with some ridiculous stuff. The checkpoint system eventually reminds us that we aren’t actually invincible, especially on higher difficulty.

Once we stopped trying to turn every fight into our own personal action movie and started using the cover system properly, reducing enemy numbers and only going in for takedowns when the opportunity was there, the combat became much more enjoyable.

A Double Life

BLACKWOOD takes place in 2012 New York, where Anton Blackwood spends his days running a DVD store and his nights working as a contract killer. It’s a strange combination, and for the life of us, we couldn’t take this rhythm seriously.

Alas, that’s what this cold blooded killer likes to do during the day. So, we can deal with the store, restock DVDs, set prices and take care of the more ordinary parts of Anton’s life. There is also an apartment to interact with and some smaller things to take care of before heading out for the next job. It isn’t a full-blown shop simulator, but, hey, it’s there to give another purpose beyond the missions.

As soon as the night comes, we head out into the city, take contracts and start dealing with, ahem, other kind of customers.

The story is decent. The voice work is solid, the sound design does a good job during both the quieter sections and the firefights, and there is enough happening around Anton to make us interested in what comes next.

The environments themselves can look quite good. There is a nice use of light and shadows, and the locations have enough small details to make them worth exploring. But then a cutscene starts and we get some facial expressions and character movements that look like they came from the PS2 era.

We aren’t sure how much of this is a deliberate artistic decision and how much is simply a limitation of the game, because the rest of BLACKWOOD looks considerably better. Either way, it creates a strange contrast.

A Few Rough Edges

We’ve had takedowns where the camera gets stuck against a wall, meaning we can’t actually see what Anton is doing. On other occasions, pressing the takedown button can make an enemy almost teleport into Anton’s hands from a short distance away.

These aren’t game-breaking problems, but they are hard to ignore in a game where the takedowns are supposed to be one of the main attractions.

The hand-to-hand combat also left us wanting more.

We can block, avoid attacks and exchange blows, and it works well enough, on a highly basic level. But considering how much effort has clearly gone into the takedowns, we expected more from actual hand-to-hand fighting. Going from one of Anton’s elaborate executions to simply standing around and trading punches feels like a step backwards.

Worth Following

BLACKWOOD has a strong core, and when the movement, shooting and takedowns come together, it can be a lot of fun. The enemy AI and a few rough edges hold it back, but Act 1 is of to a promising start and we can’t wait to see where Anton’s story goes next.

Score: 7/10

Game: BLACKWOOD
Developer: AttritoM7 Productions
Publisher: IZilla Games, AttritoM7 Productions
Platform: PC
Release date: September 16, 2026
Genre: Third-person shooter / action
Players: Single-player
Current content: Act 1
Act 1: Four main story missions + side missions and DVD store management
Future Acts: Act 2 – March 2027; Act 3 – September 2027
Future content: Free updates for existing owners