Tails Noir

First, one very important point, the ONLY real puzzle in the game is in the (free) prologue. there are none in the maingame, thats so dissapointing... i cant see a reason why they did that. Since the day the Prologue came out I was looking forward so much to this awesome game. I love the art, the gameplay, the story in the prologue. But honestly, the Prologue is better then the maingame. The maingame is very short (5 hours if you play slow, includes the Prologue), but thats not the problem, there are some ways to play different some parts so you can play it a second time. The mainproblem is the story. While the prologue sets the tone for a epic masterpiece it really is the first 3 chapters of the game, of those 3, the prologe is the best chapter by far. its the only chapter with a puzzle AND with a different choice how to enter a building. After Act 2 it starts all of a sudden to turn into a mess, and even after the Epilogue chapter (where you for no reason all of a sudden control a different character) it makes no sense at all. Its so sad, because without that weird turnaround the story was really set to be great. In the end it didnt even matter at all what happened in the Prologue, they switched the story at one point to a different story and both storys did not finish, so you are just left with questions. A bad outcome for a short singleplayer game. It is really sad it turned out like this.

I've been looking forward to this game for a long time since the first demo, and for the majority of the game you have this beautifully written story, beautiful music, sympathetic characters and gorgeous visuals, but between chapters three and four there is a LEAP in tone and it suddenly goes from noir to soft sci-fi with absolutely no forewarning. The ending is so bitter and hateful, but if anything I think that's just testimony to how much I loved Howard as a character. I'm not angry, but saddened, but that sadness is making me angry. A big part of me wants to give this game three stars, but it's so deeply fascinating from beginning to end that I can't help but recommend you play it. Every other aspect of the game is beautiful and a feast for the sense, but be prepared for the transition into chapter 4 and try not to die inside at the ending. Maybe once my shock has worn off I'll be more warming to it, but as of right now I'm upset and bewildered by the ending sequence.

A hard one to rate, for sure. The music, pixel art, characters, atmosphere - all great and worthy of experiencing, there is, however, a but. Prologue and act I introduce you into the game and set a certain tone upon which you base further expectations. There is a decision to be made regarding an approach, which results in visiting two different locations depending on the choice, there is a light puzzle to solve - it plays out as a detective adventure game. After act I the whole game shifts and sadly becomes a walking simulator. No puzzles, no decisions to be made - other than in dialogue, but these options are purely for flavor and role-playing. That would maybe be fine on its own, but somewhere near the middle, you clearly get a sudden Disco Elysium vibe. I don't want to spoil either of these games, however, it feels as if the developers of Backbone got so enamoured by Disco Elysium in the process of making Backbone, that they wanted to emulate certain aspects of ZA/UM's masterpiece and squeeze them into their own game, which just didn't have the space for it. It makes Backbone look like a cheap Disco Elysium rip-off, on top of being disjointed. A shame, because if EggNut stuck to their noir detective vision and continued to build up on what made act I a joy to play, we would have a fantastic game on our hands. Right now, I actually considered giving it a 2-star rating, but in the end settled for 3, as it's not a bad game per se, but not really a good one either.

Backbone is not outright terrible. But it is extremely frustrating. There are solid noir trappings in place, particularly the story premise, visuals and music. Then the game just gradually shifts into a self-pleasing social commentary that thinks it cuts deep while in fact saying nothing meaningful about the human condition or the failures of our social constructs. From a gameplay standpoint, it is a 100% linear experience, with the illusion of choice sprinkled throughout (I'm sure the devs will pretend this is simply a meta-commentary on our lack of agency) and simplistic tasks presented as puzzles. It's essentially a visual novel kind of experience, with the exception of the misleading first Chapter. Like I said, however, it's not all bad. The visual and audio design are wonderful (no voice-overs, though), some of the characterization and dialogue is actually good, and the plot keeps you intrigued until THAT moment when it all falls apart. And then there's this thing with the "open letter" issued by the devs in order to address all the fans and KS backers' frustrations. Good lord does it read like a condescending load of pretentious swagger. Makes them look like they kind of "political activists" who would refuse to hold up an "End Sexual Abuse" sign unless they were first reassured it was made of driftwood. Doesn't make me very optimistic about a potential sequel or indeed any follow-up project.