BLACKTAIL Review

When I first saw the trailer for BLACKTAIL, what excited me most was to see a bow and arrow as the primary type of weapon in a story based on Slavic Folklore. This is a dark game and definitely not a feel-good style title. You play as a young version of Baba Yaga, a supernatural being, this is traditionally depicted as a deformed, older woman living deep in the forest in her hut. The story goes, that Yaga and her older sister Zora were out late one night after curfew. Before she went missing, the girls came across a red oak tree and promised they would meet up there if they were separated or if anything happened. Suddenly we see the tree burst into flames; her older sister is missing. Here you decide if you will follow the path of darkness or light. 

It’s been a year since Zora went missing, and Yaga is still in the forest. She doesn’t feel she can return to her home village without her sister. Before she left, the village residents accused her of having an unholy alliance with the witch Baba. Along our journey, we discover that Baba once lived in the village and was banished. Yaga has had dreams for the last three years, with a strange voice telling her to find the hut in the forest. Once you locate this mysterious hut, the voice decides to stay with you. It tells you to take off your mask and put it onto the statue in the room; once you do this, she leaves a trail of crumbs to lead you out and to where you need to go. Does this entity have good intentions, does it care about you, or is it more malicious?

BLACKTAIL is a first-person action RPG that has you exploring this mysterious world and interacting with all its inhabitants. Some are definitely more friendly than others! Luckily you have your handy bow to use when confronted with enemies or when you have to shoot items at a distance. You will not find arrows for your bow scattered around; you will learn how to craft them using the branches and feathers you find. If you run out of arrows, you will have to run away from your enemy as, in the beginning, you have no other method of attack. The bow lets you perform a variety of shots depending on how fast you want to shoot. A quick shot will do less damage but is more rapid, or a charged shot that does more damage, though, it may be harder to line up your shot when your target is constantly moving.

There are numerous temporary status effects that can affect Yaga, some positive like Focus, Haste, and Regeneration. In contrast, others are negative, like Confusion, Poison, and Slowdown. You will learn how to craft different potions to recover from these effects as you progress in the game and move up the skill tree. The Skill Tree has a lot of techniques that Yaga can learn; to unlock them, you will need to collect the ingredients required for its “recipe”. There are eight different items that you can find in the environment, including feathers, branches, red flowers, honeycombs, eyeballs, crystals, meat, and owls. The meat you receive from hunting deer, I will warn you not to shoot birds as the game declares this is an evil act and will alter your morality bar. 

BLACKTAIL has an interesting Morality system in the game. Every action you do, from helping someone to killing a bird, will change your ranking on the morality bar. If you are trying to be a good character and accidentally do something considered evil — like my act of hunting a bird when Yaga said she was hungry — you can do good actions to make the metre tilt more to the good side. Your moral stance isn’t there to say how good or evil you are; your stance will affect your skills. It was cool to see that every choice you make in the game makes a difference in your playthrough.

BLACKTAIL is a beautiful game; I loved exploring the forest and the surrounding area collecting all the unique ingredients required to learn new skills. The mountains, trees, and flowers all looked realistic and made you feel like you were walking through a forest, especially when paired with a great soundtrack full of natural ambience — like bird calls. I loved the fantasy-like creatures that you meet in the game. They all looked amazingly realistic and unique; talking with the giant mushrooms was especially memorable. One of my favourite characters that you encounter is a black cat. This kitty is used to teleport from one area of the map — which looks hand-drawn, by the way — back to the hut where you find the cauldron so you can learn new skills. This saves you a ton of time, and besides, who doesn’t love an animal that will travel around the world with you to help you out?

The controls in BLACKTAIL are interesting and may not be the easiest to learn when you start out. I found using the bow to be tricky, as shooting an arrow isn’t instant like a gun; you have to consider how far away you are from your target and if they will move. So you will have to learn to lead them on a bit so your arrow will get there when the enemy moves. If the enemy spots you and comes rushing towards you, it can be challenging to get a shot in time when they are coming at you so fast! While exploring, you will find that Yaga isn’t like Lara Croft, she can’t scale the sides of cliffs or swim in deep water, but if vines are growing on the obstacle, she can pull herself up. If Yaga happens to run out of hearts or dies, you will spawn at the spot you last saved. So I recommend saving as often as possible. To do this, you will find shrines around the map that replenish your health and act as checkpoints. It will require you to place a red flower at the monument, so make sure you grab red flowers whenever you find them. If you need to replenish your health and aren’t near a shrine, look for blueberries growing in the forest; these are easy to spot as floating red hearts surround them.

BLACKTAIL is sure to appeal to anyone who loves RPGs with tons of exploration and crafting involved. The visuals and soundtrack are wonderful, along with the voice acting that is done by the characters. If you want a game with a darker story that will test your morality by the choices you make, this is a game that you will want to check out. Will you find out what happened to Zora? Will you be a good witch or an evil hag? It is up to you to decide.