BLACKTAIL tells the Slavic fairytale story of the Babayaga, in what seems to already be a dark and beautiful mindbending magical journey.
When first stepping into The Parasight’s small demo of their new game BLACKTAIL, I was at first expecting the game to be another open-world crafting survival game. Maybe a bit of magic thrown in and barely any dialogue. That expectation went out the window the second the game loaded up.
You play as Yaga, a young teenage witch/sorcerer/cursed girl who has yet to be properly defined in those categories in the just under an hour-long alpha preview. Controlled and influenced by the evil witch Baba Yaga, Yaga sets out on a quest to find her sister. Both Baba and Yaga are excellently written as well as beautifully voiced, talking often and commenting on the happenings around Yaga, a far cry from the expected silent protagonist of survival games.
BLACKTAIL‘s story is difficult to pin down in the short time I had with the demo, but the magical happenings of the forest area that are open during the demo positively show how trippy and bizarre the story might be. I had a conversation with not only bickering giant mushroom siblings but also an ant queen who wanted to help me destroy a local village and a Larva postman who seemed a bit annoyed by his job.
The demo painfully makes apparent how “moral choices” will shape the world around you, something we have heard thousands of times and usually are left disappointed in. Yet, BLACKTAIL does seem to handle it a bit more gracefully. Baba, who constantly whispers in the ear of Yaga in a sinister manner, told me to shoot at a bee’s nest. Doing so resulted in an evil laugh from Baba and a negative morality marker. Being mean to nature, minding its own business, is more impactful than the classic and oversimplified to kill or not to kill people morality system.
Every couple of minutes, another morality marker popped up from my actions, and I have to say I am excited to see how far the full game takes this. The setting of Slavic fairytales seems to be a very promising and interesting take on the classic “morality” norms, and BLACKTAIL could choose to do something new, to take the idea further from the expected design norms.
Other than moral choices and exploration, the gameplay is at least in the demo, is very basic. You have a bow and one spell that lets you push enemies back. You can dodge around, but this feels a little unpolished but this is to be expected in an Alpha preview. BLACKTAIL also currently has a basic crafting system currently just for arrows and antidote potions.
The demo doesn’t have much on offer in terms of gameplay, other than a few small enemies you can kill in one or two shots. The demo ends with a boss fight, which, in total honesty, was designed. The boss is a giant mushroom that digs down underground every 3 seconds and jumps out so fast it’s difficult to dodge. The mushroom often jumps out of view and disappears. I found myself running around for 5 minutes as I had run out of arrows, and the only spell I had at my disposal didn’t deal damage. After running around, a resource node for the sticks I needed for more arrows spawned, letting me finish the dreadfully annoying fight.
The combat is certainly boring and negatively simplistic at the time of the alpha, but this could change in the full release, at the very least I hope so; as the world and potential hinted story seem to be extremely interesting. Even the little forest I started in was an absolute feast for the eyes. Heart and soul have been poured into building the level, flora and fauna flood the forest, which makes it feel as magical as it declares itself. The rivers flow and the world breathes. If the rest of BLACKTAIL looks this way, then I would happily play through the bad combat just to explore its lush vistas and experience the bizarreness that is the fairytale ahead.
BLACKTAIL‘s alpha presents itself with a strong first step, yet the combat and the potential for misstep with the morality system down the road could ruin what seems to be an extremely original and magical journey through Slavic folklore. BLACKTAIL is certainly on my list for its full release, but I do hold reservations about whether the team behind it can deliver on its ambitions.
BLACKTAIL is set to release sometime in 2022 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. In the meantime, check out our latest news to keep your ear to the ground on the latest releases and previews. We also recently published our GOTY selection, so have a gander and see if any of our GOTY choices pique your interest to give something new a try.
