Sights & Sounds
- After a pair of games with some pretty mediocre pixel art, Blackwell Unbound finally manages to be easier on the eyes. The environment and character art see some notable improvements here
- The soundtrack is as good as ever. The walking basslines and wailing saxes bring those noir undertones to the foreground. Seriously, the saxophonist was on point the entire time
- The VA work is of the same amateurish quality as the previous two titles in this series. It sounds like a bunch of community theater people with those snowball mics from 2004
Story & Vibes
- The narrative makes a big step forward this time. The cases in the previous games sometimes felt a little disjointed or wandering despite their short runtimes. Here, though, the initial mysteries all blend together in a satisfying (if slightly telegraphed) climax
- The vibes become a little more tense this time around as some cracks begin to widen in Joey and Rosangela's partnership. They tend to be more curt and frustrated with each other in their dialogue, and by the end of the game, it becomes apparent that Joey isn't being totally upfront about his history
- As a result, there's a certain sense of unease that permeates this act of Blackwell
Playability & Replayability
- It's a point-and-click adventure game. You know the drill
- As such, there's not too many comments I can make on this front. I will say that the puzzle design is fairly bad in this game. The answer to several puzzles involves using the search engine on your computer. "Just Google it" is never a satisfying solution
- Probably not circling back to this one; I'd rather see where the story is headed in the next two games
Overall Impressions & Performance
- I'm invested because I'm interested to see where the story goes, but even after closing the book on the Blackwell series' third game, I'm beginning to wonder whether all the good elements are ever going to come together at once. A game with the personality of Legacy, the puzzles of Unbound, and the cohesiveness of Convergence would be really good, but as it stands, these have all been 6-7/10 games so far
- I played it on the Steam Deck; the trackpads make point and clicks really easy to play on the couch
Final Verdict
- 6/10. I'm continuing to keep my hopes up that I'll eventually really like a game in this series. I like the premise and the overarching story, but Convergence fails to impress as it moves the franchise forward
- After a pair of games with some pretty mediocre pixel art, Blackwell Unbound finally manages to be easier on the eyes. The environment and character art see some notable improvements here
- The soundtrack is as good as ever. The walking basslines and wailing saxes bring those noir undertones to the foreground. Seriously, the saxophonist was on point the entire time
- The VA work is of the same amateurish quality as the previous two titles in this series. It sounds like a bunch of community theater people with those snowball mics from 2004
Story & Vibes
- The narrative makes a big step forward this time. The cases in the previous games sometimes felt a little disjointed or wandering despite their short runtimes. Here, though, the initial mysteries all blend together in a satisfying (if slightly telegraphed) climax
- The vibes become a little more tense this time around as some cracks begin to widen in Joey and Rosangela's partnership. They tend to be more curt and frustrated with each other in their dialogue, and by the end of the game, it becomes apparent that Joey isn't being totally upfront about his history
- As a result, there's a certain sense of unease that permeates this act of Blackwell
Playability & Replayability
- It's a point-and-click adventure game. You know the drill
- As such, there's not too many comments I can make on this front. I will say that the puzzle design is fairly bad in this game. The answer to several puzzles involves using the search engine on your computer. "Just Google it" is never a satisfying solution
- Probably not circling back to this one; I'd rather see where the story is headed in the next two games
Overall Impressions & Performance
- I'm invested because I'm interested to see where the story goes, but even after closing the book on the Blackwell series' third game, I'm beginning to wonder whether all the good elements are ever going to come together at once. A game with the personality of Legacy, the puzzles of Unbound, and the cohesiveness of Convergence would be really good, but as it stands, these have all been 6-7/10 games so far
- I played it on the Steam Deck; the trackpads make point and clicks really easy to play on the couch
Final Verdict
- 6/10. I'm continuing to keep my hopes up that I'll eventually really like a game in this series. I like the premise and the overarching story, but Convergence fails to impress as it moves the franchise forward