DVD Store Owner By Day Assassin By Night: AttritoM7 Unveils BLACKWOOD
- AttritoM7 Productions announces BLACKWOOD, a noir action-thriller set in 2012 New York
- Players live dual lives as Anton Blackwood, DVD store clerk by day and assassin by night
- Gameplay features over 30 contextual takedowns and a grounded combat system
- Launches on PC via Steam in 2026 with an original in-house soundtrack
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A Noir Thriller From The Shadows Of Brooklyn
AttritoM7 Productions, best known for the tactical shooter Zero Hour, has revealed BLACKWOOD, a cinematic third-person action-thriller set in 2012 New York. The studio’s latest title is described as both a slow-burn character study and a brutal noir revenge story, following a man split between two worlds.
At the heart of the story is Anton Blackwood, a quiet DVD store owner in Brooklyn who maintains a façade of normality among customers and co-workers. The city outside moves at its own rhythm, but Anton lives between borrowed moments of calm and something much darker waiting below the surface.
“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,” AttritoM7 Productions said in a press release.
AttritoM7’s setting is more than set dressing. The studio has recreated early-2010s New York down to its smallest details, from street ads to apartment lore. Every environment feels lived in, reinforcing the tension between Anton’s day job and his nightly descent into blood and violence.
The Dual Life Of Anton Blackwood
By day, Anton shelves old films and keeps up small talk. By night, he descends into a basement that hides far more than DVDs. It is there the second life begins, the one choreographed by the language of crime cinema.
Players will take contracts, track targets, and execute kills that balance style with precision. BLACKWOOD promises over 30 contextual takedowns, from environmental executions to cinematic finishers that push the line between control and chaos. The game’s mechanics blend cover-based combat with fluid movement, letting players adapt to situations rather than follow scripted encounters.
The dual-life structure gives BLACKWOOD its rhythm. Days are quiet, even tender, allowing interactions with the woman who works in the shop, while nights turn sharp and violent. The contrast grounds Anton’s story in humanity, even as it spirals deeper into darkness.
Cinematic Combat Meets Character-Driven Storytelling
AttritoM7 describes BLACKWOOD as a project that merges gameplay and cinematography seamlessly. Every fight is designed to feel choreographed, and every transition between gameplay and cutscene occurs without visible seams.
The developers promise an original soundtrack performed by the studio’s own in-house band. The music will shift dynamically with the story, rising from subdued jazz and industrial rhythms in the day to intense percussive sequences at night.
Narratively, BLACKWOOD explores choice and consequence, showing how each decision reshapes Anton’s fate. The studio’s focus on flawed, human characters suggests a grounded approach, one that trades traditional heroism for moral ambiguity.
A Studio Moving Beyond Zero Hour
For AttritoM7, BLACKWOOD marks a significant step beyond the tightly wound tactical realism of Zero Hour. The shift from multiplayer combat to a single-player cinematic experience demonstrates the studio’s intent to evolve its design philosophy.
The teaser trailer emphasizes tone over spectacle. It captures the subdued menace of Anton’s world, full of flickering neon and reflections of a city that hides its sins well. The project appears to draw from classic noir cinema while keeping its roots in tactile, responsive gameplay.
BLACKWOOD is scheduled to launch on PC via Steam in 2026. It is available to wishlist now, inviting players to step into Anton’s conflicted world, one frame at a time.
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