When Telltale had announced its initial demise, we were utterly disappointed. Fans of the company were eagerly waiting for a sequel to The Wolf Among Us, only to realise that it would not come to fruition. Around that time, we started reading a bunch of comic books, including the Fables series, which served as the source material for The Wolf Among Us. While rummaging around for more comics revolving around the detective genre, we came across one which was a weird mixture of the furry and crime-noir genre. Anthropomorphized animals in a 1950s New York setting? Fascinated by the concept, we started reading it from cover to cover and enjoyed every single page. From its art to its gripping storyline, it was actually a great read. The book was called Blacksad. Still confused as to how we had never come across this beautiful piece of art before, we started looking for more information on the same. That is when we stumbled upon an upcoming game from Pendulo Studios. It was called Blacksad: Under the Skin, set to release in 2019 fall. Based on the footage and information that was out there, it was evident that it followed the same gameplay pattern as the Telltale games – a story-driven point and click detective adventure game. We were ecstatic. Its initial launch was met with gospels of bad user reviews on Steam, all stemming from bugs and crashes. A normal person would wait until all the bugs were fixed. But our Wolf Among Us itch still needed scratching. So, we chose to push through it and play a game based on one of our favourite graphic novels of all time.
Before getting into the plot, let us get some of the base details out of the way. Every character in the game looks like an animal. These animals are based on the characteristics a person exhibits. So, for instance, someone who is clever and sly would be represented by a fox. People with a cunning persona will be represented by reptiles. A lizard for example. This game is similar to the Telltale and the Sherlock Holmes games. It is highly story-driven and has about 6 possible unique endings. So, every choice and action leads to an eventual consequence. Now, on to the plot.
In this game, you assume the role of John Blacksad. A feline moody private investigator. So, you are a curious cat basically. After having dealt with an adultery case, he is approached by Sonia Dunn. Daughter of Joe Dunn, who is the owner of a nearby boxing gym. Joe Dunn was found dead above the boxing ring that morning. At the same time, Bobby Yale, the star boxer of the gym, who has yet to participate in the most important fight of his career has mysteriously disappeared. With her father’s demise, Sonia Dunn is forced to take over the gym and keep it running. However, running the gym requires money. That means holding the biggest fight of the year. But, the contender is missing. So, Sonia decides to hire Blacksad to investigate Yale’s disappearance. What seems on the surface as a standard missing person case and a murder covered up as suicide (because that is what detective stories tend to do), soon turns out to be something darker and vile. Blacksad is forced to deal with deaths, secret societies, racial issues and corruption to uncover the concealed truth behind the case.
You cannot imagine a 1950s New York without sex, gruesome violence, gambling and racial discrimination. The game (and the comic) stays true to the setting and does not hold back. It keeps the tone real, raw and grotesque. There is an instance when you are forced to walk into the changing room of the gym to progress in the game. Here you stumble upon an insensitive racial slur scrawled out in red paint.
Since the story is the driving point of this game, it demands your complete attention. Every dialogue and scene plays an important role in this game. Blacksad himself is the narrator of this game, pulling the player into his psyche and giving a first-hand look on his thought process as the day goes by. This contributes to his character development without having to rely on backstory too much.
As mentioned earlier, the gameplay is similar to Telltale mechanics. So, you end up spending most of your time just walking around and interacting with objects. In this case, looking for clues. Each clue assists in the story’s progress. The movement controls were a bit on the clunky side. Most of the time it would feel like you were taking control of a fat and lazy house cat. Running into invisible walls was also another downside. Lack of running mechanics made this task a bit tedious. The camera controls were also a bit clunky and difficult to take control of. Sometimes, Blacksad would be unable to interact with an item, because apparently, he was standing too close to it or because the camera was angled 1 degree away from the object.
The game also features a choice play system. The player gets to choose their dialogue or action in order to find clues and progress in the story, which eventually leads to consequences. These consequences shape the player’s personality as Blacksad. For instance, talking to other characters a lot would shape his personality as a talkative one.
Other than that, the game features Quick-Time-Event or QTE sequences. Our opinion on this is a bit dicey. On the one hand, it is immersive and fun to partake in. On the other hand, failing to complete one sequence or accidentally pressing one wrong button would lead to instant death. There is no second chance. Luckily the checkpoint is always set right before the QTE begins, thereby saving the player some time.
Blacksad is a cat. Other than having nine lives, cats also possess heightened senses. Instead of having to talk to a certain character, at certain points of the game, the player gets a prompt to activate cat sense. Here, the screen turns grey and the player has the ability to read body language and make preliminary deductions based on the subject’s appearance. This is similar to the mechanics from the Sherlock Holmes games from Frogwares.
There is also a deduction button, which upon pressing opens up something I prefer calling – The Neural Network. Here, the player has to match clues amongst each other in order to come up with a suitable deduction.
The game features a standard auto-save feature. The load feature, however, is something different. It is represented as a comic strip with pages that could be flipped to reveal other checkpoints. It is the same art style as the original comic. Each page acts as a preview of what is to come when you load into that save.
Another thing we found impressive about this game was the fact that it does not hand-hold the player. The game does not give any objectives or highlight any of the interactive items. It is up to the player to come up with a solution to any problems. Finally! A detective game that forces the player to use their common sense.
Stability-wise, the game ran smoothly on ultra settings at constant 60 fps on a GTX 1660 Super AMP! The only bug we faced was the occasional inability to move or perform any action while hunting collectables, which forced us to restart the game. But that is all.
On ultra settings, the game looked beautiful and fit the fifties theme perfectly. The game did justice to the creators of the graphic novel, by maintaining the genuineness and the original colour palette. From the characters’ fur to the environment to floating particles and light shafts, the game hit every notch. It felt like it had been picked up straight from the graphic novel.
On the audio end, the game soundtrack was an absolute masterpiece. All the way from the ominous opening music to the Pink Panther-like mischievous background music while searching for clues was orchestrated perfectly. Dialogue wise, there were some issues. Sometimes the audio just would not play while the characters were speaking. Luckily subtitles were turned on. Other times, the lip sync was all wrong. Overall, a solid job.
Overall, Blacksad: Under the Skin is a solid detective game. Its portrayal of the timeline seems pretty accurate. The story has got decent pacing and it stays true to the original source. The graphics look beautiful and comic accurate. Other than the few technical hiccups with regards to the gameplay, stability and dialogue audio, it is a pretty decent game. We would gladly recommend this game to anyone who still needs their Wolf Among Us itch scratched.
MOAR
Developer: Pendulo Studios
Publisher: Microids
Platforms: Windows, Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Played on: Windows
Price: INR 899 (Steam)