BLACKWOOD: DVD shop owner by day, contract killer by night, and the other two acts are free

Start with what ought to be standard and is not: when you buy BLACKWOOD, you buy the whole game.

The story unfolds across three acts. Act one launches today, the second is announced for March 2027, the third for September 2027. Both later acts arrive free for anybody who bought the game, with extra missions between the major acts.

In an industry where every chapter comes with an invoice, that clarity deserves flagging at the top of a review.

The premise

You are Anton. By day you run a small DVD shop in a recreation of New York in 2012. By night you descend into the underworld as a contract killer, caught between survival, morality and a past that refuses to stay buried.

The idea is not new, but the setting is: a video store in 2012 is precisely the moment that trade was disappearing. The studio chose a year and a business that already say something before the first contract arrives.

The combat

The studio promises a third-person action game, fast, with fluid movement: dives, rolls, slides.

And it puts forward its signature mechanic: contextual takedowns, in quantity. One-on-one hand-to-hand, or using the environment around you. The stated intent is clear, every encounter should be a chance to finish somebody with style.

That is a bet on feel rather than systemic depth, and it is a bet judged with hands on it rather than on paper.

What to know

The game launches today, developed by AttritoM7 Productions and co-published with IZilla Games, with no price or reviews as I write. It is single-player, with full controller support, subtitles and adjustable difficulty.

Two honest reservations.

An act is not a complete game. Today you are buying the first third of a story whose ending is planned a year out. The model is honest and announced, but you should know you are signing up for a wait.

And the schedule is ambitious. An act every six months for a studio this size is a pace many have promised and few have held. I note it without impugning motives: it is simply the point I will return to in March.

That said, an action thriller carried by genuine urban atmosphere, sold as one block and delivered in pieces at no extra cost, is a proposition worth giving a chance.

Did you have a favourite video store in 2012? We are doing nostalgia on the InsertCoins Discord.