When people will ask me of the definition of "wasted potential" I'm gonna show them this game.

A build up that was thrown in the trash for a dumb and unnecessary plot point, leading to an abrupt and unclear ending. The beginning had me so hooked that I decided to call off most of my day's chores so I can see this to the end. I'd rather a hundred times now that I had cleaned around the house than to just waste my precious time for something that had all rights to become a really interesting detective, fury-based videogame with a nice storyline.

I wouldn't recommend playing it. Just watch it on YouTube or something. It's visually appealing but forcing myself to see the end of this story just saddens me.

A fine story with some awkward scenes with music that unfortunately didn't illicit emotion nor felt as though it earned the duration of time to be played for as long as they are. I respect the direction it goes ultimately but it sort of plays out with the deuteragonist having a weirdly stunted feeling moment depending on how you played which for me just felt a little wrong and forced. Great pixel artwork but honestly I love the blue sort of illustrated moving images in certain transitional scenes a lot more I wouldn't mind playing an entire game that looked like that! The pixel artwork does have some strong key scenes though such as the parade which is hammed up a little much narratively but looks great besides the water/goop (?) you trudge through. The gameplay itself feels half baked and underdeveloped it could've gone further but what's here feels like it would be better served housed in something that doesn't involve occasionally awkwardly stealthing through small corridors and a some minor puzzles.

I played the free prologue-demo years ago and I was hyped ever since, the premise was great, as was the art, dialogue and music. It had all the makings of an incredible indie game. I love point and click - detective puzzle games, and at the prologue this seemed like it would be that, but a bit more narrative focused.

Unfortunately, there was ONE single puzzle the whole game, at the prologue. So it's definitely not a point and click. That would be okay, if the story compensated the lack of gameplay, which is not the case.

The premise built a great start for an interesting, intriguing and suspenseful detective noir story, but it never reaches it's full potential. The plot points are quickly moved on, nothing is ever elaborated on and there isn't enough suspense or intrigue to make me care about what's going to happen to the characters. Which are not bad by their own means.

The world building also had potential but never really creates a clear image of this universe, everything is lacking detail. I actually only figured this was a post apocalyptic world half way through the game, because it certainly doesn't feel like one.

It tries to be kind of like Disco Elysium, but it never reaches the same level. That game had incredible writing, managing to be intriguing, mysterious, not giving everything away while also being satisfying. I don't mind not having answers, hell I love David Lynch, but there's gotta be something more when there's no conclusions. Especially when the runtime is so short.

Backbone never reaches satisfying conclusions, and it doesn't have something else to back it up, be it suspense, thought-provoking ideas and dialogue or a great plot.

With all that said, I still think this is a beautiful looking game, with great atmosphere and incredible music and I appreciate the efforts of the developers. I'm sure next time they're going to nail it! As they would with Backbone, had it a bit more runtime.