By Engadget | Created at 2026-09-19 12:11:21 | Updated at 2026-09-19 15:06:31
3 hours ago
Blackwood: Act One
Developer: AttritoM7 Productions
Publishers: IZilla Games, AttritoM7 Productions
Platforms: Steam (Windows), with plans for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S at an undetermined date.
Price: Usually $25, with a 10 percent discount until September 23. Includes access to acts two and three, which should both arrive in 2027
The debut of Blackwood snuck up on me amid an extremely busy spell for game releases. Still, I managed to play a chunk of the action-life sim hybrid this week.
This game has an irresistible setup. It's 2012 and by day, you run a DVD store. At night, you become an ersatz John Wick. The first act, with around six hours of playtime, is out now and two more will follow next year.
This game caught my eye when a trailer popped up last October. I thought the gun fu looked neat and the DVD store used to be my happy place, so I was into that aspect too. It clearly wears its influences on its sleeve, not least because you can dive toward the ground to trigger Max Payne-style Bullet Time and slow down the action for a moment. I also dig that the game drops you into an action sequence to help you get to grips with combat right off the bat.
However, Blackwood is rough as things stand. Hand-to-hand combat is clunky, the audio mix is often out of whack and the car handling is atrocious. The action is just not as fluid as it ought to be for a game like this either. For instance, it takes far too long to pick up a weapon, which is tough when you're out of ammo. On top of that, the DVD store aspect can't really hold a candle to Retro Rewind.
It's a shame because there's real potential here. There are some neat ideas (like weapon customization and trying to balance the protagonist's double life) and cool takedown moments in there. I wonder if taking an early access approach rather than an episodic one would have been a wiser strategy. A buggy launch is more forgivable for an early access title.
At least the developers are responding to feedback quickly. They released a day-one patch that resolved a few issues. AttritoM7 plans to make further changes before releasing Act Two. Among other things, they're adding an autosave function, so you won't have to wait until you sleep to save your progress. More side missions are on the way too. I hope the studio can polish things up in the coming months, as I'd like to come back to this when it's in better shape.
Rig Riot
Developer/publisher: Sage Boatman
Platform: Steam (Windows; playable on Steam Deck). Demo available on Steam and Itch
Price: Usually $20, with a 10 percent discount until September 28
Sage Boatman did everything possible in Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, but was left wanting more. After failing to find another game that was likely to fill the void, the developer decided to create their own mech action title that they (and perhaps others) could keep coming back to. As such, Rig Riot is a roguelike.
Boatman wanted to iterate on the Armored Core formula and took feedback from AC6 players into account while designing Rig Riot. Among other things that makes this third-person shooter distinct, it has thousands of different parts that you can equip on your mech.
In a recent dev log video, Boatman said they're going to be laid off from their day job soon. If Rig Riot sells well enough to allow the developer to work on the game full-time, they plan to look into adding a co-op mode. Console and GOG releases are possibilities too.
Lily's World XD
Developer: SonderingEmily
Publisher: Kwalee
Platform: Steam (Windows)
Price: Usually $12, with a 20 percent discount until September 24
This psychological horror title reminds me a bit of Screenlife movies like Unfriended and Searching. It's a desktop exploration game in which you scour the laptop of a teenage girl in the 2000s. As you learn more about Lily's life, it'll become apparent that all is not well and she may just be in severe danger.
I've seen some positive buzz around Lily's World XD, not least because it breaks the fourth wall at certain points. SonderingEmily (who is also a creator) used real photos of her and her friends as teenagers to help tell Lily's story and add some extra authenticity.
OpenFront
Developer: OpenFront Inc, Evan Pellegrini
Publisher: OpenFront Inc
Platform: Steam early access (Windows, Mac, SteamOS/Linux). Also available on browsers
Price: Usually $7, with a 29 percent discount until October 1
OpenFront is a fast-paced, real-time strategy multiplayer game that landed on Steam after racking up more than 2.5 million monthly players on the web. In each match, hundreds of players duke it out for control of a map. You can team up with others (there are hundreds of OpenFront clans), betray rivals, take control of the seas and launch game-changing nukes. There's said to be a thriving competitive scene, so if you feel like you're good enough, you can jump into tournaments that have cash prizes.
You'll be able to link your account so that when you play on Steam or in your browser (including on mobile), you'll have access to all of your progress and purchases. Both versions of the game run on the same servers.
The Steam version is said to have improved performance — the ability to preload assets will help with that. There are achievements and exclusive cosmetics too. The three developers behind OpenFront are aiming for the full version of the game to have better offline support for matches against computer-controlled opponents. It's not my usual kind of game, but the action looks fast-paced enough to convince me to give it a go.
