Firstly, I'll say I thoroughly enjoyed the story and characters, especially Blacksad; I'll definitely check out the comics. There are plenty of twists and turns, and uncovering them is quite satisfying and accomplishes the detective fantasy everyone is hoping for when purchasing these kind of games. As a matter of fact, it's a blend of TellTale's formula and Frogware's latest Sherlock Holmes games, even borrowing the deduction system of the latter to an extent. So it's not the most original of gameplay systems, but I surely enjoyed it as a fan of the aforementioned experiences. My main gripes are with the jankiness that could be expected from AA games from a couple of years ago: stiff animations, off-sync dialogues, and plenty of bugs; the most egregious one being QTEs, that require button mashing, becoming impossible when playing on a monitor with a higher refresh rate than 60, with the only fix being an external solution such as RTSS in order to lock fps. If I'm giving 4 stars instead of the 3 or lower that it deserves due to those issues, it is because the forgivable ones can be expected considering the budget, and mainly due to the overall detective experience being genuinely recommendable in my book. The story won't change your life, but if you are a fan of the vibe and narrative games, it will give you an immersive and compelling time.
(+) Whereas Fate of Atlantis excels in story and Emperor's Tomb in gameplay, this one has, to this day, the best exploration in an IJ game; featuring expansive and varied locations from all over the globe to traverse on slow and methodic platforming. Forcing you to think your way around the levels and how to use the items you find in order to advance, therefore making you feel like Indy. (+) The controls are an acquired taste. Once I got used to them, they grew a lot on me, as you are really going to use one of three keys for actions most of the time, while moving with the arrow ones. It might seem obtuse at first, but I thought it really fitted the slow and methodic pace the gameplay loop has. (+) Although I don't think the story in this game tops that of Fate of Atlantis, I appreciate how it does its own thing instead of emulating/homaging the movies' tropes once again; moving the franchise forward to the gray areas of the Cold War and the terrain of science fiction years before KotCS would do it. Resulting in a unique plot within the IJ repertoire. The dialogue is also great, proving once again that Hal Barwood really gets the series. (-) The one thing that definitely didn't age well is the gunplay. You basically have to rely on the game's auto-aim and mash the shoot button before the enemy takes you down, with no lock-on to fix the camera (like in the N64 version) or a way to strafe in order to give foes a harder time at hitting you. You can roll, but you are so vulnerable during the animation that it makes its use impractical. Fortunately, at least in the default difficulty, later game weapons are pretty lethal and healing items will be plentiful if you take the time to explore and stock treasure to buy them. (-) Guides will be necessary in order to make the game run at modern resolutions and on w10/11. (-) The lack of UI can make some puzzles, which are already obtuse at times, even more difficult. As you can't really tell when an object can be picked/used.
