Greetings Stopgame.Ru! With you, as always, I, armchair detective Animanser. Today in the gaming industry there are not many detective games that can draw the player into the world of intrigue, betrayal, romance and dirty games. However, Spanish game developers from Pendulo Studios decided to contribute to the spread of this genre.
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Blacksad: Under the Skin is an adventure video game developed byPendulo Studios and released by the company Microids. It is an adaptation of the Eisner Award-winning Spanish graphic novel Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido.
The gameplay is similar to games in the Telltale games series, L.A. Noire and Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter. As many might have guessed, the game looks more like an interactive movie, which is why the gameplay itself is quite poor, but we’ll look at everything that’s in it.
The story of one cat.
And let’s start with the plot, of course. As in any interactive movie, the plot plays a central role and everything is fine here. This is the most clichéd noir detective story telling us about the next case of a private detective named John Blacksad. The game takes place in New York in the 50s. A special feature of the story is that all its characters are presented in the form of animals. Animals themselves are prototypes of certain human professions. For example, the main character is a cat – agile, with a perfect sense of smell, attentive to detail (everything a good detective needs). Local boxers are bulls, gorillas or rottweilers. Various breeds of dogs have become police officers, but our cat John’s main friend is the German shepherd John Smirnov. But is he a friend??
You shouldn’t expect any particularly dizzying intrigues, because the game follows certain clichés characteristic of this genre. Here you have the mafia, gambling, politics, etc.d. The main character leads pathetic monologues about his life and about universal injustice.
I have only one complaint about the plot itself. The game perfectly conveys the mood of the 50s in the states, touching on such topics as feminism, the struggle of communism with capitalism, and racism. And if there are no questions with the first two points, then the last one is a bit confusing. How can you tell an animal’s race by its fur?? I’m not even talking about the fact that the developers made the gorilla African-American, which is the height of tolerance, but what about those races and species of animals whose fur is a priori black?? Damn it, the main character is black, but he has a white voice.
Despite the animals, I wouldn’t call the game family friendly. And judging by the comic, there is 18+ content there too.
You definitely need training?
Parsing an interactive movie into gameplay mechanics https://richyreelscasino.uk/ is a very dubious task, and the game itself at the beginning says “Bro, everything is exactly the same with us as with others, you really need training?». After all, in fact, every now and then we have to move the character from point A to point B, finding various clues, and by communicating with other characters, move forward through the plot. But I’ll still try to highlight a couple of positive and negative aspects in this process.
The first thing that pleased me was the presence of small additional. mechanics that can diversify your monotonous gameplay. So, for example, sports cards are scattered throughout the levels, which can serve as a motivator to explore every corner, for those people who love the mechanics of collecting. At first, the cards are easy to find, but the further you go through the story, the more difficult it will be to find them. In dialogues, the player will use Blacksad’s sense of smell to discover new lines or search for any clues in the case. After finding certain clues or communicating with other characters, the player will be able to use the deduction window to collect all the information into a single picture, which will help move forward in the case. There is also a moment in the game when the player will have to find the necessary objects within a certain time in order to correctly answer the questions posed. But these are already spoilers.
I think those who are a little familiar with the era of the 50s in the states will appreciate the collection of baseball, boxing and football cards.
Another feature of the game is that all the decisions you make will affect the character of the main character. In the “Your Blacksed” tab you can see how John’s character traits change in one direction or another. I can’t say with complete certainty whether this affects the presence of replicas, but at the end of the game in one of the situations the game notified me that “thanks to my sharp mind” I was able to get out of the situation.
Well, the last positive point is replayability. I can’t say that there are many different options for solving this or that problem in the game. At some points the game will give you the opportunity to replay the moment (in case of death*), some replicas will lead to the same outcome, but still most decisions can be replayed. I can only assume that in order to see all possible outcomes, you will need to go through the game 2-3 times.
For me the perfect detective. Romantic, dexterous and moderately cautious.
There are also negative aspects in the game and they are connected, as is customary with low-budget studios, with technical aspects.
The first thing that immediately catches your eye is the terrible responsiveness when moving the character. Driving Blacksad is still a pleasure. In addition to the fact that the character crashes into every texture and stops abruptly, when the stick is deflected, he also does not move willingly. I had to increase the dead zone to make the character a little more responsive.
Second, this is the camera. Outside of dialogue, the camera sometimes takes disgusting angles. Not only is it difficult for the player to inspect the area and he cannot always know what awaits him ahead, but also due to the poor angle, the search for the above-mentioned cards becomes difficult, because the player will have to press against all the objects every now and then, waiting to see the treasured “action” button
The game also has few dynamic moments and the entire gameplay, as a rule, takes place in the form of wandering around locations and dialogues, and if you are not a Death Stranding veteran, this kind of gameplay may get boring for you. During cheerful moments, the game offers you to plunge into QTE…and here, too, not everything is so smooth. In most cases, QTE does not cause problems, but in a couple of moments the player needs to have a lightning-fast reaction in order to have time to press the button, otherwise the plot will not have the most favorable outcome.
A few harmless bugs can also be avoided
New York and jazz.
I admit that the graphics in the game are far from up to par, and in certain places this is very noticeable, but in most cases the picture is quite pleasant. Yes, there are few polygons in the game, but the graphics engine copes with its task, namely to convey New York in the 50s. The locations themselves, of which there are not many by the way, are quite authentic. But what the game really has problems with is the animation. The characters move rather clumsily, and their faces…in general, try to understand the emotion of the interlocutor, as you did in L.A. Noire is not worth it.
But what really commands respect is the camera work. Everything here is done at the highest level. During dialogues and action, the game takes just ideal angles, combining moderately close-up, medium and long shots.
Sound design is still good. The music fits perfectly into the picture of that time; jazz will constantly play in the background, picking up rhythms in active episodes and slowing down in peaceful ones. The voice acting and cinematography are also top notch. I played in English, which perhaps allowed me to get into the atmosphere more, but don’t be upset, the game also has Russian language. I assessed the Russian voice acting fluently, so I can’t talk about the presence of mistakes, but you shouldn’t expect voice acting in the style of the 2000s either.
When gameplay is not important.
I’m a fan of detective stories and I completed Blacksad: Under the Skin in two squats. The game is only 10 hours long, and in some places it can get boring, because, as I said, it lacks dynamics. But the atmosphere in the game is simply amazing. The game is quite far from its relatives in Telltale games and even more so Quantic Dream, but I hope that the game will pay off and Pendulo Studios will continue to improve its product and delight us with the adventures of John Blacksad. Who knows, maybe a new Sherlock Holmes awaits us in the world of Zootopia. In any case, if the game interests you in any way, I highly recommend giving it a chance. But at the same time, I ask you not to set a high bar of requirements for it if you decide to try this product.
Thank you for your attention, do not walk along the night alleys and see you soon.
