Zen Review: The Blackwell Trilogy

A few weeks ago we received the Blackwell series to add to the pile of games we plan to review after the launch of AGG and it quickly rose to the top as one of our favorites among the AGS scene. The Blackwell series is developed by Dave Gilbert and published by Wadjet Eye Games, as one of the first few commercially sold AGS games. Dave Gilbert became a celebrity in the indie adventure scene after his controversial and award-winning Shivah with its unique Jewish undertone, and for us, we thought his name memorable as a combination of Dave Grossman and Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame (Dave Gilbert bears no relation to Ron Gilbert).  The truth is that we didn’t fall in love with the Blackwell series right away, not until we got to Blackwell Convergence, which is where Dave Gilbert’s writing and design finally shined and distinguished itself from other top award-winning  indie efforts like Ben Jordan and the Apprentice series.

The Blackwell Legacy is the first game which stars Rosangela Blackwell, a writer turns Gabriel Knight-ish detective investigating ghostly mysteries after inheriting from her diseased aunt the family legacy — Joey Mallone, a Dick-Tracy-lookalike apparition who is guardian and connection to the ghastly spiritual side for the Blackwell mediums. Initially, we had a hard time liking Rosa because of her social ineptitude and her whiny personalty but her character grew and became intellectually curious and stylishly confident in her own way throughout the third game, also the change in her voice actor helped. In Legacy the voice acting is well done on average but it can’t shake its low-budget indie origins, especially when you check an object and Rosa would sometimes comment bluntly as if the voice actor was reading from the script in a hurry, not putting her shoes into the situation. Further more we couldn’t help noticing the fact that the Indian lady who lives across the hall garbed in traditional garment, claiming that she is an immigrant, with a flawless American accent (this also changed by the 3rd game, which we definitely appreciated). What was memorable right from the first game was the engaging voice of Joey Mallone, which remains  the star throughout the series with consistently excellent voice work,  which slowly grew on us, offering sly comments, sit-com-ish sexual jokes, and sometimes intellectual and deeply insightful advice, which shows off the strong mentor / sidekick relationship between the protagonists.

The pilot episode of the series started off slow but provided enough background story for the trilogy. The puzzles are a little on the easy side though there was one aspect we enjoyed, that was the innovative and interesting combination of clues in the notebook which is mostly used in conversation topics like in Gabriel Knight. Though this aspect of the puzzle solving is hardly used on the second game (we counted twice of it), and is completely missing by the third game. The story is quite short and by the time it ended, we felt that it was incomplete and were thirsting for more, which is a good thing that we could play the series back-to-back.

Blackwell Unbound tells the story of Lauren Blackwell, Rosa’s aunt, and the narrative takes on a much snappier and enjoyable pace than its predecessor. Lauren’s personality is much darker compared to the green Rosa, and she seems damaged, as if she has seen the worst in the world, but distinct and likable nevertheless, and we couldn’t help but picture Rosa being like that at the end of her journey. The way Lauren takes a cigarette to relax on the balcony and adamant about refusing to go anywhere before she finishes  is stylish and helps to break up the pace of the game. Lauren’s voice acting is excellent — sounding sultry, burnt, and appropriate, much more likable than Rosa from the first episode. In Blackwell Unbound, the notebook puzzles are downplayed, but letting the player switch between the two characters is a nice touch. While the story takes place in the 70s, it doesn’t really immerse you in that period of time without any connection to past events, except the absence of computers and Lauren having to rely on the phone book for detective work. Speaking about the phone book it is actually a two-edged sword, in a way that it isn’t implemented well enough that the notebook never really keeps track of what keyword you are supposed to be searching for, since you have to type in the keywords, if you were horrible at spelling bee, the game could be pretty unforgiving. The upside is that actually provided some challenges to the game which is appreciated, instead of spelling out everything for you, the game lets you relive the good old Sierra days of typing.  The elimination of character portraits during conversation and the simple color palette shows low-budget production value, even more so than the first game, but the writing and excellent voice acting made up for it. The story has some nice twists and turns here, with heart-warming connections to the first and third game. Even with its obvious faults, it was still hard to dislike Blackwell Unbound.

Blackwell Convergence is the game that brings the trilogy into a fine conclusion, though we suspect and gladly look forward to more games down the road. The first impression of Convergence is a strong one — that it is much better produced, with crispier artwork, and truly professional voice-work. Rosa has grown up here, becoming less annoying than her old self, even likable and adorable with her new voice actor and portrait. Puzzles aren’t necessarily harder here but in general better designed, and the game feels longer and the plot more epic, finishing something that Unbound has started — Rosa faces the sins of the fathers (or more like her aunt, pardon the Gabriel Knight reference here)  and defeats the antithesis of her family once and for all.

The Blackwell series shouldn’t be missed at all by point and click adventure fans, especially those who has dabbled in the AGS scenes and prefer the nostalgia and  simplicity of hand-drawn graphics over the recent 3D polygons powerhouse commercial adventures like Ceville and A Vampyre Story (and who is to argue, we do think that Sam and Max Hit the Road looks better than the Telltale version). While Blackwell isn’t free and not necessarily the top pick among our AGS favorites, its entry price is low enough (the bundle of the whole trilogy costs $27.5 at the WadjetEye Store) and we feel that it is worth it just for Blackwell Convergence, which is much better produced and written than a lot of other original AGS titles (since I should refrain from unfairly comparing it to classic Sierra remakes).

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