BLACKWOOD is John Wick by night, store owner by day

AttritoM7 Productions is a developer/publisher that I’ve come across before, but the studio’s Zero Hour is an “online team-based” tactical FPS similar to SWAT and Ready or Not. I go together with “online team-based” like politics and good human beings. Well, announced yesterday, the studio’s next title is a simple single-player third-person thriller that might just look familiar and interesting.

“Step into the shadows of 2012 New York with BLACKWOOD, the cinematic third-person action-thriller from AttritoM7 Productions, publisher and developer of the acclaimed Zero Hour,” notes the press release. It goes on to note, “Scheduled for release on PC via Steam in 2026, BLACKWOOD plunges players into a brutal, unforgiving world where every night is a reckoning, and every choice shapes your fate.“

Ok, so what is so familiar about it? In one of the screenshots, you have what is meant to be the Washington Square Arch, albeit with Siegestor-like adornments on top. If you haven’t worked it out yet, you’ll be playing as the guy holding what looks vaguely like a G19 and a carbine on a sling. So it is a John Wick game, and that very scene in front of a faux Arc de Triomphe was in John Wick: Chapter 4, albeit with a G17 rather than 19.

The press release continues, “By day, Anton Blackwood runs a small DVD store in Brooklyn, a place of quiet routines and fleeting moments of normalcy. Among the customers and shelves of old films, there is someone who sees a side of Anton that few others do: [A] woman who works in the store and notices the gentler side of him, the part he rarely shows to the world. Hang out in your apartment, manage the store, and experience the life of a man trying to maintain balance in a city that doesn’t forgive weakness.

But when the shutters roll down and the streets go quiet, Anton heads to the basement, a private space where there’s more than movies to rent. By night, he moves through the city as a deadly assassin, guided by the choreography of his favorite crime thrillers. Execute devastating melee takedowns, stage environmental kills, and survive high-octane on-foot and driving chases.

Anton thinks he’s the protagonist in his story, but someone is always watching, directing from the shadows. In BLACKWOOD, style and brutality intertwine, and the story bends to both choice and consequence, where every fight is a reckoning, and every decision matters.”

Ok, looking in a bit more detail at screenshots and the cinematic trailer, there are bits that look like a double-A development budget is behind it. Blackwood isn’t going to be a blockbuster hit out of the gate, is my point. However, I’m not saying I’m not instantly interested either. In fact, quite the opposite. If the team at AttritoM7 can pull off that combat style to feel as good as it is supposed to look, then yeah, I’m sold. Give it to me now.

The team continues on in the press release to say, “BLACKWOOD blends tight, close-quarters combat with slow-burn storytelling. From the basement of a quiet Brooklyn DVD store to the neon-lit streets of 2012 New York’s underworld, every encounter is choreographed, every fight feels cinematic, and every choice has consequences. The quiet moments with the woman in the store remind Anton, and the player, that even in a world of darkness, glimpses of his humanity endure.“

The press release also notes, “Authentic 2012 New York – Detailed world-building, from street ads to hidden lore in apartments.” So if I don’t see one uninspired half-torn Mitt Romney poster, it is clearly not authentic enough. Jokes aside, I’m certainly interested to see how the team blends the daily DVD store owner bit with midnight Wick action, how fluid the gunplay and CQB happen to be, and generally how it improves leading up to the release window. No solid release date for BLACKWOOD yet, of course, but we do have a Q3 2026 window – so around this time next year.