Blackwell Bundle

Yeah, that's right, the games are short. But it's still a great series. Another reviewer mentioned how puzzles are simplistic, but sometimes they also go by adventure game logic. You can kind of see a few plot points coming, but you can't really comment on them until you've talked to the right people. I saw this particularly strongly in a case in the second game, but yeah that's not a strong enough critique. Because in the end it's the characters that matter. Joey can be hilarious at times, especially so in the beginning of the third game, and Laura is rather attractive in spite of her, ahem, excessive carbon. Rosangela seems to develop somewhat as a character, but I guess we don't see enough of her to decide. Yes, it's the length of this series that's my primary critique. The price they currently offer for this game seems not as cheap when you consider how short each individual episode is. Many indies ask you to 'pay what you want,' and maybe that would be a better means to determine the average pricing for this game. $3-$4 for an experience that one breezes through in about an hour doesn't seem as worth it when you have $6 experiences on this site alone that go on for days. But if you love adventures, then this game is a really good addition. For those who complain about graphics, well, they probably aren't part of this game's main demographic since many of the Sierra and other old-school classics used these retro graphics in their heyday. And who needs graphics when the music is out of this world?! No, seriously, the soundtrack is epic and is probably the main reason why $15 can be considered a reasonable price. The jazz pieces have that indie feel, sure, and might not be what you'd hear at a formal Jazz bar in say Chicago, but they certainly are the main attraction here. So this is definitely a game for adventure game and music fans, and has an interesting enough cast to appeal to others, but the length of each game might leave you somewhat disappointed.

This is the first game I purchased off GOG. I'd been hearing about Blackwell games for a while and so when it went on sale, I picked it up. I didn't play them all together, but spread out over about a year. Regardless, I can say the story progressed nicely and it wasn't hard to pickup where it had left off even if months passed between gaming sessions. Generally, the plot is well written and well-acted, which is a major pull for the game, considering the retro graphics may not be everyone's cup of tea. Personally, having cut my teeth on all the old classics (Monkey Islands, Fate of Atlantis, Gabriel Knight etc) all these years ago, pixel art games do not put me off. After all, the plot, gameplay and puzzles are far more important. These are not hard games, but can of course get you stuck once in a while. However, puzzles are rarely, if ever, illogical or too elaborate, so the game can be enjoyed by both novices and seasoned adventure-gamers. If I have to find a negative point, it would be that the portrait artwork changed significantly from game to game, which was a little off-putting but not impossible to ignore after a while. Another would be that all 4 games are a little formulaic up to a degree, They all follow the same pattern: investigate two seemingly unrelated ghost stories, only to discover that it's all connected and leads to a greater mystery. The plot of all four games ties up nicely and apparently the fifth and final brings everything together in an exciting conclusion (remains to be seen, as i've not played it yet). Finally, the games of the bundle are quite short, Maybe 5-6 hours gameplay each tops if you know your adventures. Supposedly the last one, not inlcuded here, is much longer. Overall, these games are a nice experience that will stay with you for a while after completing them and will care to revisit the Blackwell universe by either replaying them or getting the last game as well, which I intend to do at some point. If you're a fan of pixel art games, I'd also suggest Gemini Rue and Resonance.

I bought this bundle on a whim because I am a huge fan of old point-and-click adventures. I read other reviews saying the story was good and saw the bundle on sale so I figured I'd buy it. I've gotten through the first two games so far and I can't say I'm compelled to play anymore. I thought the notebook mechanic was neat and quirky even though you have to figure the game mechanics out yourself. Combining the clues either changes them into something else more useful or it tells you there's no correlation. Sometimes these make no sense and sometimes you have to go to several different locations before you find the required clue. It's only because I played wacky point-and-clicks with zany moon logic (a la Freddy Pharkas) that I managed to figure some things out. At one point I was stuck for ten minutes until I finally relented and looked up a walkthrough. It turns out the thing I needed to do was the thing I was *trying* to do (I had inferred the answer, just didn't know what the game wanted me to do. Turns out I had to click two completely unrelated pieces of information in my notebook to get a clue I could use to progress in the game. In the first game you need to exhaust *all* of the conversation options so you don't miss anything. I ran into a technical problem with the Linux port. If you alt-tab-switch out of the game you're unlikely to be able to switch back into the game. Sometimes if you click an item in the inventory you cannot right-click or if you try to left-click you just get the spinning clock. It was during a pretty intense part at the end of the second game so it was very frustrating. I figured it could be a technical issue so I reloaded my save game. Sure enough, I could use my inventory item just fine. I've noticed similar issues with other Wadjet Eye Games on Linux (like Primordia). I wanted to give this game a better review. Maybe it would've worked better on Windows.

I only got stumbled across the Blackwell series recently. After playing the first one I was hooked and had to get them all. They follow the females of the Blackwell family, who all gain Joey as their spirit guide and work together to free spirits trapped here. In order to free a spirit, you must help it realise that it is dead, and come to terms with it. However, things get especially interesting when the overarching story across the series kicks in, and it will keep you enthralled. The cliffhangers/revelations at the end of each game will have you desperate for the next one. There are no obtuse puzzles in the series either, and no real pixel hunting. You always feel like you can progress with each new bit of info that you get. Joey also becomes a playable character as the series goes on and allows you to go through locked doors to look around etc... The games are easily among the best point and clicks out there, on par or surpassing the likes of monkey island. Definitely recommend them!

A slow start, a glorious rise, a superb ending (I include Epiphany here as well because if you play the bundle you HAVE to play Epiphany as well). The first one is a touch slow and clumsy technically, despite already having a superb text writing and a very catchy set of ideas, both in terms of flavor and mechanics. Then they set onto an improving trend, and they get better and better. Technicalities get solved, art and music quality improves, the texts and plot writing improves even further. Very nice take on point and click investigation in a slightly different way than the classic Lucas ones. The use of note, research on the web/phone books, the open search fields (forget about random clicking your way through it) is also pretty interesting. A few puzzles along the whole series can be debatable in terms of logics, but all in all, a Must have for every PNC fan worth of its name.