Blacktail
Baba Yaga's origin is a tale of choice in a twisted world.
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Blacktail
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Blacktail is a first-person fantasy role-playing adventure, available on Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles, as well as Windows-based PCs. The game's based on the Slavic legend of Baba Yaga, a supernatural entity of mercurial alignment. The story is an original one of sorts, with players serving as the basis of the legend. The game gives a wide range of moral choices to the player, with their decisions affecting not only the direction of the story, but how the world reacts to their character as well. There's a fair amount of violence in the game with some blood shown onscreen from time to time. The game also has a surreal and creepy vibe that's just shy of horror. Parents should also be aware that the game's dialogue does occasionally include use of some profanity.
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What’s It About?
Legend and fable come to life in BLACKTAIL. Slavic folklore tells the story of the mysterious witch of the woods, Baba Yaga. In some of these tales, Baba Yaga is a vile witch that hunts for wandering souls, especially children, dining on their flesh and consuming their souls. In other stories, Baba Yaga is a guardian of nature and a catalyst for change to those that cross her path. But this isn't the story of what she was, but rather the story of how she came to be. You are Yaga, a young girl forced to hide her face behind a wooden mask, branded a witch and tormented by superstitious villagers. When children, including your own twin sister, begin to go missing, you are accused of involvement and cast out as a witch. Alone and abandoned in a supernatural world filled with strange magical creatures, you seek out your lost sibling and the fate of the other missing children. Along the way, you uncover a dark and sinister force, infecting everything it touches. But are you meant to be the one to save the forest from this corruption? Or are you its source? It's up to you to choose which path you will follow … and which version of Baba Yaga you are fated to become.
Is It Any Good?
In Eastern European folklore, the character of Baba Yaga has been portrayed as everything from a child-eating hag to a maternal goddess of nature. This makes her origin story a perfect foundation for the morality system in Blacktail. While you know from the start who Yaga will ultimately become, which version of the character is still completely dependent on the choices you make. Do you help the Queen of the Ants in stage a bloody war against the humans? Do you help a hungry hedgehog struggling to reach a high hanging fruit? Do you give in to the dark impulses speaking in your head? Or do you oppose that voice, and follow a path of light? While a morality system like this is nothing new, seeing the more subtle ways it affects play gives it surprising weight. The choices you make don't just affect your nature, but they actually affect nature itself. The creatures in the woods react differently depending on your alignment, and the world around you becomes more tranquil or more foreboding.
Gameplay in Blacktail isn't overly complex. You'll go through armed solely with your trusty bow and some innate supernatural skills. It's a bit odd to be exiled from your village after being accused of witchcraft, only to survive that exile by actually using witchcraft. The archery component of the game is pretty solid. You'll need to constantly craft more arrows on the fly, but thankfully the resources to do so are rarely hard to find. The game seems to have more of a focus on exploration and advancing the story than it does fighting. This makes it easier to follow the story, but also means there's a lot of time you don't feel like you're doing much beyond running in circles. And while most of the minions you come up against are easy to clear, boss battles can be punishingly difficult. It's frustrating to glide through large chunks of a quest, only to get pummeled over and over by a giant, angry mushroom. Still, Blacktail paces itself well, and rolls out its story in such a way that you can't help but want to see how it's all going to turn out in the end.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about choice and consequences. How can decisions we make not only affect that moment, but also impact events farther down the road? Do you tend to follow your moral conscience when given the chance in a game, or do you like to explore a darker side?
How were fairy tales and fables used as cautionary tales in the past? What sort of influence do these tales have in modern day entertainment?
Game Details
- Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid ($29.99)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Focus Entertainment
- Release date: December 15, 2022
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires, Science and Nature, Wild Animals
- ESRB rating: T for Violence, Blood, Language
- Last updated: December 15, 2022
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