Before we first got to play Blacktail, we already had high hopes for the game. A Slavic-inspired first-person adventure? One that stars none other than Baba Yaga herself? Boy howdy, how's that for a video game pitch? What happened afterward, though, was basically the best-case scenario!

Blacktail not only received raving reviews, praising its originality and subject matter but also a remarkably high user score on Steam. At the time of writing - late December 2022 - it's sitting at above 80% approval, with a 'Very Positive' review score in total. Note, too, that this is the developer PARASIGHT's first official outing, making this achievement all the more impressive.

But! Abstract review scores aren't what makes gamers decide to try something new, generally speaking. Especially not when it comes to something as strange and out-there as Blacktail. If you're even remotely interested in the game, you're going to want to learn something specific about it, and that's precisely where this article comes in.

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Why You Need to Play Blacktail this Holiday Season

To be perfectly clear right off the bat, there's really no feasible way for us to explain all the reasons why you ought to jump into Blacktail. It's a special game in all the ways that matter - the kind of stuff that only rarely gets released, and almost never gets the sort of attention it actually deserves. That, however, is to be expected.

Don't believe us? Just check out Blacktail's Metacritic page. Critics almost unanimously praise the game! This, of course, isn't that uncommon on its own, but taking into account just how strange and out-of-the-box Blacktail gets, it's hardly a mainstream offering. The game was always going to be a niche title, to be sure, but to see it so widely acclaimed is worth every praise. What is it, then, that makes this game so interesting?

The Wyrd and The Wild

"It’s astounding just how deliberate each detail truly is in Blacktail," said DualShockers' Elijah Beahm. "It’s all incredibly elegant and simple to describe on paper, yet so deep once you dive in." Though it's not a very short game, sitting at 12-15 hours' worth of playtime, Blacktail interviews a whole slew of unique gameplay systems into something Beahm had described as an 'ecosystem'. Basically, the protagonist - Yaga - gets to interact with an organically-realized world, rather than just a series of explorative setpieces and combat arenas.

One of the main reasons to play Blacktail, after all, is to immerse yourself in Slavic myth. This is afforded by taking what few bits and pieces are firmly established in existing folklore, and then letting them burgeon into a living, evolving legend. Morality, you see, is a crucial element of the game. It's not a simple binary choice at select moments in the game, either. How does your Yaga interact with her surroundings? Is she vicious and cruel? Merciful? Indifferent?

"The only thing Blacktail has against it is that it calls for patient, curious players," which is a fair assessment. At face value, it's a shooter - true enough. It doesn't take long to realize that this is just what the developer felt would work best in gameplay terms. This game could lodge itself into any genre or niche, really. The one that the developers have chosen favors immersion and action over most other things, and Blacktail is all the better for it. Quite simply, you get to go toe-to-toe with some wild things you hadn't seen before.

A first-person perspective works wonders when it comes to establishing the sort of threats Yaga faces, we believe.

A Surprisingly Satisfying Foray into Forgotten Myth

"The player is meant to feel alien in this admittedly alien world, even if your character doesn’t," explains WCCFTech's Rosh Kelly. One of the biggest reasons why you'd want to jump in and play Blacktail is for it to throw you off balance. As Kelly puts it, "Blacktail is a deliberately uncomfortable game."

While it's certainly not the only way to depict Slavic mythology in a video game, choosing to co-opt it into something foreign and weird was the right way to go in our book. The game definitely wears its inspiration on its sleeve, but when the closest comparisons one could draw are Pathologic and Ghostwire: Tokyo, you know you've got something special at hand. Really, Blacktail may as well be taking place on a wholly different planet.

It's odd, then - delightfully and deliberately so. The game throws you one loop after another, always willing to nudge you into one more leap of faith, lore-wise. How Yaga develops is in your hands, of course, but the world changes accordingly, too, and the game is all the better for it. In summary, Blacktail won't be for everyone. But! If you're even remotely interested in experiences such as the ones we've described over the past couple of sections, you'll have been starved for something new and exciting to play.

Don't Forget to Join the 2Game Giveaways and More!

As you can probably tell by now, Blacktail has left quite a wonderful impression on us here at 2Game. It's a unique game that not only tackles a woefully underused topic, but also does so with impeccable grace. Such games are very few and far between, even when it comes to super high-tier AAA releases. As it currently stands, Blacktail doesn't really have a parallel or something to be compared to. Though, we do hope that it leads to more developers attempting to adapt Slavic lore, rather than just focusing on the more popular worldly mythologies.

If you'd like to read more content such as this article, the 2Game Community Hub is the place to be. In fact, if you head on over to the 'Giveaways' section, specifically, there's a huge array of special promotions for you to join. In fact, we just wrapped up a big collaboration with a prominent Slavic folklore artist, Sanja Kolenko, earlier today! That's just the start of it, though.

There's more to come over the coming days and weeks, too. In the interim, the 2Game team would like to wish you a very merry Christmas and happy holidays!

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