The stealth new work "Black State" created by Motion Blur using Unreal 5 engine provides DEMO trials at the Cologne exhibition, and foreign media IGN brought the 12-minute real-time trial and trial reports of the game.In the trial report, IGN claimed that "Black Country" is a bullet time sci-fi story shooting game inspired by "Inception", with stunning graphics.
IGN Preview Report:
When Black State made its debut with a stunning trailer similar to Metal Gear, some people doubted the credibility of its game: Will it be just a tech DEMO pieced together to showcase Nvidia's RTX ray tracing technology? Or is it another "looks too good to be true" project, destined to follow in The Day Before? However, after I tried Black State myself, I can be happy to tell you: it is not only a game, but also a potential work full of explosive gore action and cinematic sci-fi styles—with eye-catching graphics and a fun-filmed physics engine.
At the beginning of the trial, I was controlling a man wearing a stealth combat suit and with long hair, who was on a cargo ship.It's hard not to recall the opening clip of Metal Gear 2: You're sneaking on the deck, enjoying the metal reflections of the hull and the churning sea water.Omer Faruk Gungor, the game developer and director of Turkish studio Motion Blur, kept emphasizing the graphic performance of this game, and he did have reason to do it - the game is quite amazing and dazzling during my about 20 minutes of trial play.What is even more surprising is that its performance is equally excellent - even if ray tracing is turned on, the frame rate is almost stable at over 60; in non-combat scenarios, the test machine based on the RTX 4080 can even stabilize at 140 frames.
But as I said, it is also what Gungor repeatedly emphasized - "Black Kingdom" is by no means a technical DEMO, but a drama-oriented action game with huge ambitions.After boarding the deck, I entered an iron gate inside the hull, and it was at this moment that the ambitions of the game began to show off.In Black Country, the door is not a normal passage to an adjacent room, but a portal connected to a completely different scene.For example, when I stepped in from the heavy door of the cargo ship, I was immediately in a museum - the bright wooden floors and flawless glass display cabinets formed a sharp contrast with the previous marine steel world.I hope this design can not only create narrative suspense, but also bring creative levels across scenes.
As for the story, Gungor reveals little, just suggesting it is a sci-fi adventure—it may be deliberately confusing at first, but ultimately connects these "portal worlds" through a linear plot.He mentioned that Inception was the main source of inspiration, and I could indeed feel this sense of déjà vu during the trial.Not only that, there are many of the atmosphere and gameplay in the game that reminds me of Nolan's "Creedy": the combination of shooting and close combat, and the enemy is a special combat team full of black equipment.
However, "Black Country" is actually closer to the high-intensity action of Remedy, rather than Hideo Kojima's "tactical intelligence action".The first battle in the trial took place in the museum corridor, with a squad of enemies falling from the sky, while Renaissance portraits hanging on the wall seemed to be watching the bloody chaos coldly.At this time, I immediately chose to use bullet time - this feature has a cooling limit, but the frequency is high enough to be used repeatedly in most battles.The visuals and operational experience are excellent, as in the first generation of Marx Payne, rolling out of the bunker at a quarter-speed, pouring bullets onto an unresisting enemy for a while.
The trial offers four weapons that allow me to create complete destruction in a "elegant" environment.In addition to conventional pistols and assault rifles, there is also a powerful shotgun that can directly knock out enemy limbs at close range, as well as a "energy-gathering gun" with science fiction.This energy weapon can inject electric current into the enemy's body, and after a moment of delay, it will blow it into a pool of flesh and blood.Especially when used in conjunction with bullet time, you can enjoy the "elegant" scene of blood and bones flying in slow motion - disgusting, but addictive.
In addition to guns, you can also use some gadgets during trial play.Among them are devices similar to "The Entire Blockade" that tracks landmines - they can automatically crawl towards the enemy and explode or electric shock; there is also a charge version that can effectively deal with robot enemies in the subsequent plot.
The end of the trial takes place in a secret laboratory hidden behind the portrait of "Mona Lisa".This place brings together almost all the inspiration for "Black Kingdom": a bit like the experimental science of "Metal Equipment", a fully armed scientific researchers in "Quantum Broken", and a cruel and violent scene like "Creedy".This level was designed as a large-scale battle, with more than ten enemies siegeing from all directions, forcing me to flexibly use all the weapons and props in my hand.If subsequent battles can maintain this structure and tension, "Black Kingdom" will undoubtedly become a work that goes beyond "solid shooting".
The result of the battle was a piece of flesh and blood flying, and the white laboratory surface was shockingly dyed.Another inspiration mentioned by Gungor—Qentin Tarantino-style violent aesthetic—is also fully displayed here.For example, when the enemy eats a shotgun at close range, it will be bombarded like the bloody gunfight in the final scene of "The Rescued Django", and the whole person will fly over half of the room.It can be seen that Motion Blur has extremely high goals, and judging from the current trial play, "Black Country" has shown strong potential in basic gameplay.Next, it depends on whether it can continue to explore the concept of "cross-scene switching" through level design and gradually evolve player tools.The plot part is still a mystery, and I can't confirm whether Motion Blur's narrative skills can match its performance in combat.But even if it is officially released, I still have a long wait, and I have already been looking forward to it.Its eye-catching first trailer only aroused my curiosity at first, but after trying it out myself, "Black Country" has firmly grasped my attention with sci-fi settings, cruel but beautiful time-controlled combat, and stunning picture performance.
