4 Attachment(s)
The Blackwell Deception - PC Adventure Game
Seeing as how I'm a huge fan of adventure games, I was pretty much blindsided by the existence of the Blackwell games. It's an ongoing series developed by Wadjet Eye Games, a small company that also published Gemini Rue. I liked that game but that was mostly due to the style and atmosphere than anything else. The Blackwell series, on the other hand, is absolutely the real deal.
The Blackwell Deception is the fourth game in the series and it was released a few weeks ago.
It's kind of a low-key Ghost Whisperer. You play as someone who can talk to ghosts. The idea is to help wandering spirits move on to whatever comes next by helping them come to terms with their death.
This might sound horrible! The writing saves it. As Rock Paper Shotgun puts it:
Quote:
Deception’s biggest successes though are in story and writing. On the script side specifically, Gilbert has two particular talents that have stood out since the start of the series – a very empathetic writing style, and a knack for minimalism. Even most of his secondary characters feel rounded and believable regardless of how few lines of dialogue they get, with the lost spirits especially getting their sad stories across without the need for long conversations full of infodumping. It’s a trick that works particularly well with this set due to an added psychological level to their deaths, and a cynical cruelty underpinning it. They’re usually minor characters in terms of raw screentime, but always very sympathetically, with a sense that they actually did have a life before landing on Rosa Blackwell’s To-Do list.
There's a great adventure game in there too. The puzzles make sense and the games are pretty easy to finish without a FAQ. Good music too! Even the voice acting is good for an independent developer (though I'd suggest leaving it off entirely for the first game).
Caveats:
NOT ON STEAM - Gemeni Rue was in the Steam registry tool a few weeks back so it stands to reason that this will eventually show up, I just don't know how long it'll take.
KIND OF EXPENSIVE - You can get a bundle of the first three (short) games for $20 on the official site while the fourth (longer) game is $15. After playing through all four in under two weeks, they're easily worth the money. They're right up there with my favorite stuff since Lucasarts committed suicide.
Demos for each game can be found on Wadjet Eye's site.
Even though the stories are mostly self-contained, I'd suggest playing them in order; there's an overall arc that would be missed by skipping straight to Deception. That and it's nice to see how much the games improve between installments.
I've attached screenshots of each game from the earliest to most recent.
