Another game that's been a long time coming. Years ago, I picked up the pack of games on a sale since I have always enjoyed the point & click genre and the series has a reputation as a particularly good set of them. Right now, I'm not so sure they will live up to it.
Story: Rosangela (Rosa) Blackwell has not been having a good time as of late. Her aunt has recently gotten out of a psychiatric ward, but did so by leaving her mortal coil entirely. She had been the last of Rosa's family (and the one who had raised her as a young child) but that was when she was too little to remember since she spent most of the time Rosa can remember in a catatonic state in the hospital. Now she has to say goodbye and spread her ashes. But it's not going to get better anytime soon, for her aunt's doctor asked to meet with her to warn her that her future could go the same route and the mental illness that had taken her aunt seemed to be hereditary so she should be on the watch for signs. An early warning might help, after all.
Adding further to the weight on her shoulders, the doctor hands her envelope of letters her aunt had kept and reading them enlightens her of common traits her aunt and grandmother shared... including hallucinating about someone named "Joey." The stress of this and sudden concern that her fate could be the same would give anyone a headache. For Rosa, however, the cause is far more sever, as the doctor was at least half-right: the condition was hereditary. But it isn't insanity of any sort. Rather, its a latent talent as a medium: a person who can see and talk to ghosts. The Blackwell legacy has begun.
Sadly, since this game is not very long, this setup will be a larger portion of the story in total, but what follows is a short initial adventure as Rosa begins her new life as the only one on the planet who can help lost souls realize they no longer belong here and to move on. It is a fairly simple story, but a starting point with serious significance to forever be on the poor girl's shoulders. This real meat of the plot is unfortunately a small percentage of an already very short tale, though that is not surprising considering this is game suffers from "first-chapter-itis" as the first of a 5 game series and having been written clearly expecting to continue the tale. I have been more forgiving of this in the past, but that would be due to those sequels being sold together with the original. And yes, while that is also the case here, at least where I picked up the game (Gog only sell this as 4-game collection), it is also sold on it's own on steam, so I can't give it the benefit this time.
5/10
Graphics: While much more recent, Blackwell Legacy is made in the style of yesteryear, displaying itself in low-resolution pixel-art, and this will make itself appearent right away as the title screen loads in. Frankly, this game would have been at home back in the old days of VGA DOS titles. Still even this opening gives you a nice painted portrait of our two main heroes before you click to start the game.
From this point on, the game will remind you heavily of the old days when LucasArts and Sierra owned the PC gaming world with a handful of primitive but absolutely awesome looking scenes depicting the locations it will take place. The interface itself will not get in the way either, as it only appears when you move the mouse over the top of the screen, though I'm not really sure it was necessary. It's a rather nice looking piece of interface that doesn't even overlap the rest of the art, so it would have been fine to leave it in place.
What does overlap the scenes are the portraits during conversations. These are highly stylized to accommodate for the resolution and art-style but they look pretty good all things considered, like the rest of this game. It all has a motif of retro game that it leans heavily into, and does so pretty well.
7/10
Sound: This is a lot more standout then the looks of the game. Simply put the music is actually damn near perfect for the title. In addition it's got a great vibe to it that on it's own would probably be good background to whatever daily activity you need to get done.
But the real star here is the voice acting. Clear and crisply recorded, each of the handful of characters is absolutely brilliantly played out. Most only have small parts, but the real stars here are Rosa and Joey, and in the reverse order. Rosa oozes her character in every word she speaks, but I didn't find her all that likable to be honest. She wasn't the worst character I've ever seen, but I often found her unnecessarily condescending of everyone and everything around her... at least until she meets Joey.
Joey is a ghost that appearantly walked out of a 1950s noir detective story, and speaks the part. He isn't the kindest character, but he is out of place in just the right way to be charming or amusing in equal measures (and at completely different times). As such, his performance is definitely the standout of the game. Enjoy your ghostly encounter.
8/10
Gameplay: If you have played the style game before you already have an idea of what to expect. Blackwell Legacy is a point and click adventure entirely driven by the mouse. If you want Rosa to go somewhere, you click to have them walk there. Want to interact with something? Click your mouse over it when a subtitle displays what (or who) you are pointing to. However, the game does do things a little awkward compared to others of the type.
For starters, when you click somewhere be sure it's what you want to do, cause you can not cancel it. Unlike other games of this type, new clicks do not override your previous actions. So for example in other games where you might click multiple times (or even hold the mouse down) while moving through a scrolling screen, you will be forced to click and wait for Rosa to reach the destination and stop before clicking the next spot. And if you change your mind, too bad. Rosa is going to do what you told her to do and now all you can do is watch.
The inventory use can be odd too, as there really isn't any drag and drop or clicking to select an item and apply it to the world. There is a little of that in the inventory itself, but when it comes to use outside, you basically select the object when you are in position to do so. I do not understand why such standards established decades ago are ignored now, but it does make the game a little bit awkward from time to time, especially with some of the more enigmatic puzzles on the way. No joke, while I would recommend not relying on a walkthrough, having one on-hand for the occasional obscure moment HEAVILY is.
But not everything that stands out about this game is bad. In fact the game features one of the most unique ways to handle puzzles I have seen in the form of the notebook. As you play, Rosa will collect hints in it, which will be used when you question characters as a selectable list, the details of which will evolve as you poke and prod. Add to this the ability to access it on it's own and put pieces together and you have something really special in the puzzling mechanics you will likely not see anywhere else. I just wish the same level of polish had been given to the more basic mechanics.
6/10
Bugs: This isn't a game I found any bugs while playing. The only complaint I can give is that when I finished it, it did not return to the title, but shut itself down. A little weird, but that's about it.
Score: With a cool concept, descent story (if one that is more of an intro chapter to something bigger) and graphics, and a really good soundscape, I really wanted to like this game a lot more then I did. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it just fell short in ways most games of this type... well... don't. It makes up for some of it by being something genuinely unique and interesting, but it could have been so much better with just some polish on the controls and a few specific puzzles on the way. If you like this kind of game, you could do far worse, but you could also do far better.
6/10
System Requirements:
- 1.8 Ghz processor
- 512 MB RAM
- Any modern GPU that can run Direct X 9.0c
- 1 GB hard drive space
- Windows XP/Vista/7
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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