Legacy Review: Blackwell

 

Blackwell

https://store.steampowered.com/app/236930/Blackwell_Epiphany/

One Paragraph Review

Blackwell is a series of 5 games

(In chronological order:

Blackwell Legacy (3 hours),

Blackwell Unbound (3 hours),

Blackwell Convergence (3.5 hours),

Blackwell Deception (5.5 hours), 

Blackwell Epiphany (7 hours))

In this review, I will clump them together as one game instead of examining each one individually as I feel all the games are fundamentally similar to one another.

Blackwell is a charming Point and Click game with an incredible, unique and touching story. For this reason alone, it is more than worth playing. However, Blackwell also sports beautiful graphics, immersive voice-acting and engaging gameplay which is bound to keep your brain challenged and content.

Introduction

So, as I said, Blackwell is basically a 5 part series consisting of point and click games. The 5 games increase in complexity and length and you have to play them all in order as they are essentially parts of the full story. 

The key aspects of the game which we can discuss are its story, gameplay and aesthetics, and it shines in all aspects without fail.

STORY

The main characters you will play in the games feature a human and a ghost spirit guide, and your overarching goal is to guide lost souls from the mortal realm to the world beyond, whatever that may be.

Right off the bat, this endeared to me. It was an interesting and innovative concept, one I had not seen before. More than that though, it was relatable, gripping and had plenty of suspense and drama.

In fact, there are moments in the game where you will cry, moments where you will stare in awe at the screen, moments where you will feel anxious at what’s about to happen next, moments where you feel downtrodden and moments where you will feel that oh so gratifying sense of peace or accomplishment after helping a ghost pass, only to have a tear roll down your cheek afterwards.

Truly, the game excels at evoking your many emotions and has no difficulty in keeping you constantly engaged.

The story even has a complete ending which doesn’t leave behind any loose ends. It wasn’t exactly my *preferred* ending, but it’s nice to see a game that can accomplish such as satisfying ending.

As for the characters in the game, I think it’s quite easy to get attached to them and empathize with them. They are very well done up, have deep backgrounds and are frankly very relatable. Full and top notch voice acting is also something you can look forward to in this game as it helps to give the characters all the life they need.

If you enjoy high quality stories in games, then be sure to check this series out. You won’t regret it. Its really more of a journey or an experience than a game, and you’d be hard pressed not to find anything in this game that touches you.

Gameplay

Being a point and click game, we can examine the gameplay with the usual framework I apply for point and click games.

Are the goals made clear?

Yes. You are always able to talk to your companion to ask for a refresher of the task at any given time. Following the story and conversations will give you a very clear idea of what you need to do next. Also, ultimately your main goal is always obvious: to rescue whatever spirits you discovered. You also have a notebook keeping track of key terms.

Do you have many tasks to work on at once?

Yes and no. In the beginning and ending of each of the 5 games, you can expect mostly linearity, but in the middle portions you will have the ability to work on multiple spirits at once. So, if you get stuck on one spirit, you can always work on the other one.  The game still has relatively more linearity than bigger games in the genre, but it is nice that you have some options here and there.

Are the puzzles logical?

Well, sometimes the puzzles do involve thinking outside the box but I think they are all logical. The game is still staged in the real world, after all.

Are the puzzles overly difficult?

Not really. I was able to play most of the game unaided, but there were certainly sections in each of the 5 games where I needed a nudge from a walkthrough to help me finish it. Usually though, the solution given by the walkthrough simply triggers a “ah why didn’t I think of that” moment, so I don’t think the game qualifies as overly difficult. You certainly need to apply your brain a fair amount to finish the game,  but nothing is frustrating.

Are the puzzles repetitive?

Sometimes the puzzles do follow same patterns (inter-game rather than intra-game), but I don’t think that ever detracted from the gameplay.

Are the puzzles fun?

Yes without a doubt the game was fun and enjoyable to play through, mainly because of how engaging the game world is. Some of the puzzles are well done enough to be fun in and of themselves, and most do induce some form of satisfaction.

Is there tedium?

There is actually a considerable amount of tedium although luckily it never negatively impacted the gameplay. You cannot double click to quickly leave a scene. In the earlier games, you can only exit a scene while playing the human character. In some scenes, the ghost and character do not follow each other so you have to move them separately. I would certainly recommend a “FOLLOW” button that will instruct the other player to either stay put or follow, and of course I would recommend double clicking to avoid the animation of moving to the exit.

I suppose there is also a fair amount of backtracking and unnecessary walking you may have to do, but that also depends on how much you mess up.

Overall, I think its safe to say that the gameplay was of high quality despite the few grievances I had here and there. I think what made it really stick was its investigative nature. You always have those questions in the back of your min you want to answer and that pushes you on to do what you need to do.

Aesthetics

I have no complaints regarding the graphics of the game. Perhaps Legacy may not look as nice as some of the later games, but I think overall the environments and characters are well drawn and  are aesthetically pleasing.

The atmosphere of the game also does a good job of mirroring the real world, with either soft or nondescript music and the environments all being part of a normal city (not including the spirit world places)

Best Points

Fantastic story that is well written and gripping throughout.

Good puzzle design

Satisfying ending

Innovative story concept

Aesthetically pleasing

Relatable characters with well developed backstories

Improvements

Some quality of life improvements is all I really need to complain about.

Conclusion

Blackwell is undoubtedly one of the best point and click games I have played, and thus deserving of the highest possible grade. It even has its own developer commentary which only serves as further evidence of how much effort and TLC was put into the game during development.

I had the first four games from a bundle and had zero hesitations buying Epiphany after finishing them, which goes to show how much I enjoyed myself playing through this series.

Even though the game does have its repetition and tedium, I still did look forward to dealing with the next spirit after finishing each and every one, and that can be owed to the quality of the game’s story and character design.

If you are looking for a new point and click adventure to sink your teeth into, then I think you’ve  found a real gem here with this game.

Overall Grade

S*