And now the initial set is complete. A long ways ago, I bought this as part of a 4-game pack with the 3 preceding titles and as of now, I have finished the pack off. So how was this last entry? Honestly pretty good, if not the best it had to offer. Still come on in and lets talk.
Story: If you haven't played the previous games in the series, then you may just want to stop right here. Simply put The Blackwell Deception is the 4th game in a series that has built on itself over the years, and it simply doesn't waste any time explaining anything to the player about what happened before. You are simply thrown into the mix with very little in the way of explanation. That said, if you insist on starting here, let me introduce Rosangela Blackwell (Rosa for short): a young lady who lives in New York. She would be considered a pretty normal person if not for the fact that she is haunted by a ghost from the 1920s named Joey Mallone. However, this haunting is not without cause, for her family is a bloodline where Joey is forever attached to one chosen member who's granted the gift of seeing and talking to ghosts in general and the new life's work of helping them move on past this world and into the next (wanted or not). Her aunt had been the last one to have him along in her life... now it's her turn.
When we join our dynamic duo, they have been asked to look into a yacht that no matter how securely the owner hooks it in place, every night it is found floating in the bay and he has pay to have it towed to the shore. He is also a skeptic to put it mildly, but at this point he'll try anything. It doesn't take long for them to find out this is a haunted ship where the ghost is still trying to make a getaway after a bank heist... one quick adventure and completely destroyed yacht later, the two are back home trying to relax for the night when Rosa's old co-worker Jeremy calls her up. He may not know anything about Rosa's current career in ghost exorcism, but they used to write together at a small local newspaper, and he needs help with an article he's writing: basically he's too sick to go finish meeting with people and the window to do it will close before he feels better.
So they go to meet Jeremy only for Rosa to have one of the biggest shocks yet in her life: he's dead, and still convinced he's working on the case that likely killed him. It's now up to Rosa and Joey to finish his work, help him realize his part is over of both the story and life, and see that whatever in the case lead to his death won't lead to anyone else's. This base point will lead you on a short but packed adventure where you will guide Rosa down a whirlwind of events complete with several victims and hints of things much bigger then perhaps life as we know it would accept being involved. It is a very solid chapter in Rosa's life, but clearly not the final one (and in fact there is one last game after this one as I write this). Still it ties most of the strings well and feels complete. Even it's stinger really doesn't suggest much in where the last chapter will go, so it does a great job of not feeling like a "to be continued" ending even as there is clearly more to do before the series is over. Very nice job!
8/10
Graphics: Honestly I found the look of this game to be a bit of a mixed bag. The world you will play in looks about as good as it ever has. Keeping to it's roots, Deception is a game that will display itself with sprites and background at a low resolution like you might expect from older MS-DOS based games... well... kinda. You see in this case, the game does not seem so dedicated to the illusion, dropping it completely for text fonts and some of the screens (like for example the cellphone screen where you pick what place you want to go to). For the most part though where the illusion is used, it's used solidly, so don't expect to get pulled out of the illusion too much.
What it does in this resolution is also mixed, but sadly not as well. The backgrounds are exceptional with every location in the game looking great. In fact there are areas in this game that look like they could have not just been a photograph, but done over fully recorded footage of the world. It is simply stunning. But on the other hand, the sprite work just doesn't look as good as the older games. It could just be a style choice, but it feels too simple compared to the world those sprites populate and more so then previous games.
Still, the sprites work well enough that you can get used to them. What stands, But the profile pictures used in every conversation are absolutely brilliant, much like the world. They are not photorealistic by any means, choosing instead to appear like a set of painted illustrations, each one designed to show off the expressions of the characters perfectly and complimenting the voice work we will talk about in the next section better then they have a right to.
Overall, I can't say the game looks as good as previous titles in the series, but it still looks good enough, and even great in some of it's details. But the mix is a bit less even then I would expect.
7/10
Sound: To get the weaker point out of the way first, don't expect a lot out of the sound effects that make up your world. Frankly there just isn't a lot... basically you can expect clicks when working with Rosa's phone, and some of the objects you interact with jostling around or making noises when you turn them on... and they sound right, don't get me wrong. but a lot of the time, these sounds just don't exist.
Voices, on the other hand, dominate this adventure, and these fair infinitely better. In fact these are probably the highlight for your ears as every voice actor brings their A game... and there are a lot of them, especially for the length of time you will be playing! But if I had to pick a single actor who dominates the game, it would be Joey Mallone's. This guy has just oozed personality from the beginning of the franchise and no one is even slowing him down. Sarcasm, wit, and just plain style, it's all here and you will be eager to hear every word that comes out of his mouth. A top-line act to flow over the absolute prime voice-acting the entire cast offered.
As of for music, that is a bit more standard, taking to jazz and piano, matching the mood expertly, but rarely sticking out as anything you will remember for even a few minutes after the game session is over. But still, I guess that makes sense since even the best here would fall behind the infinitely more memorable voicework for this game.
8/10
Gameplay: If you have played either of the last two games in the series, you already have an damn near exact idea of what to expect here. If you've played even the first in the set, you have a good one. If not, Blackwell Deception is a point and click game with a bit of a twist: you will spend the time controlling the dynamic duo of the medium Rosa and the ghost Joey, focusing on each one for specific skills they have (or inventory Rosa has) to overcome obstacles in your investigations to save several souls and, in the process, uncover why they are dead, who did it, and how to stop them from killing again. Being a ghost, Joey can simply get into places a human can not or get close to things without being notices, giving him a unique ability to observe things for Rosa. Add to this some ghostly talents like messing up electronic signals, blowing lighter objects around, or even lowering temperatures the same way and he has some nice tricks up his sleave to help these investigations. However, Rosa has to carry her own weight in the process since outside these tricks, Joey is literally incapable of interacting with the physical world at all. (And for that record, he is also incapable of interacting with living people).
But moving between them has gotten easier this time around. Previously the only way to select between the two was highlight the character's initial in the drop-down hud, and you still can. But in addition, there is now a hot key to swap quickly and you can always tell who you are controlling by the color of your cursor (gold for Rosa and Purple for Joey).
You will use these skills to complete the usual object based puzzles which populate your adventure, and these are actually very solid. But as always, its the conversation puzzles that make this series stand out. They play out according to what you have reviewed in the world as well as a notes system. This lets you not only have a list of standard things you can ask everyone about but on your own you can compare them to each other can create links, new notes, or new conversation options, forcing the player to review things with Rosa to figure out what is going on. In addition, the game has a mini-internet feature which will require you to occasional look things up on Rosa's phone to further expand what you find.
The combined result is very satisfyingly gameplay, although not perfect. There are times where you may want a guide since some of the clues can be difficult to find or even know you have to find. I found this out in the intro on the boat with a puzzle that not only required you to find something hiddnen behind a puzzle, but to know you have to look at it a second time. Personally I had the misfortune of not only getting stuck here, but noticing something was missing when a clue disappeared on the notes list, suggesting the game broke to me. It did not and I was able to with a reload see the disappearance was unrelated AND expected, but things like that can make you wonder. I wouldn't recommend living by a guide while playing, but maybe have a source of hints nearby if you can. It will just smooth out the experience for a few very specific moments early in the game.
7/10
Bugs: I'm beginning to sound like a broken record with this game franchise, but they just keep hitting this same point function-wise. The game runs great from start to finish. However, just like everything before it, when the game is over, it's over. The credits roll and the game would rather just dump you into the desktop instead of return you to the main menu. But aside from that, everything worked flawlessly.
Score: Compared to previous games in the franchise, this is an example of "one step forward and two steps back." You have a storyline that just keeps getting better and better with each entry. You have voice acting that is absolutely amazing. And even now it's still smoothing out how you control the game for even smoother play. But the actual puzzles you will have to figure out can sometimes go back into pixel hunting a little, something I thought we had basically left behind after Convergence. I would argue it's a pretty good title, and worthy of the series. I just wish the upwards trajectory kept screaming at the same pace... I mean it's still going up overall, but it seems like it's not the same leaps and bounds the last chapter brought with it.
8/10
System Requirements:
- 1.8 Ghz processor
- 512 MB RAM
- Any GPU that supports Direct X 9.0c
- 1 GB hard drive space
- Windows 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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