Mentally close your eyes for a moment. Picture yourself as a WWII veteran. Imagine you are also a middle-aged detective in the United States during the 1950’s. In addition, attempt to put yourself in the shoes of someone that has been disillusioned with society due to having seen its deepest darkest parts. Now envision yourself as an anthropomorphic cat. Congratulations, you’ve become John Blacksad. This award-winning comic series has resulted in the creation of one game entitled Blacksad: Under the Skin which I have recently completed. I’d like to talk about the story, the gameplay, and what this game got right if only you’d allow me to recall.
Let me give you a brief overview of the game. You start off chilling in your office when a rhino barges in upset because his wife hired him to see if he was cheating. He was, and you have the photos to prove it. You can either give him the pics or snitch and I chose to tell. We have a quick scuffle but you flash the tool so he leaves. You then discover that former boxer and local gym owner Joe Dunn has been found hanging in what is believed to be a suicide. But this is a mystery video game so we know it’s not. His daughter Sonia is hiring you under recommendation to investigate. And with this, the game truly begins.
I played this game on a relatively high-end laptop, and the loading screens never took too long. So that’s great. I had the occasional clipping and weird bug but nothing game-breaking. However, when it came to controlling Blacksad in the world itself was where the problems arose. John Blacksad moves like a brick. If you want to move in a direction opposite to where you were just headed you have to turn him manually. And he does not turn fast. And don’t tell me “Ben most people can’t turn abruptly and move in a different direction so don’t be mad.” Because most people move faster than this. He moves like a toddler wearing ankle weights. The other main issue is canceling an action. If you look at something then press a button to stop looking at it the process will take about 3 seconds. I hope you don’t accidentally click on that in-the-way object for the fifth time(you will)! And they have 1000 of these sport cards scattered around the world that you can pick up that have no bearing on the plot as far as I know.
Gameplay has four key elements: picking stuff up, dialogue choices, quick-time events, and deductions. Picking things up is as easy as it sounds. Dialogue choices are where it gets hard, as you might not be trying to take a certain side or come across as an a-hole. QTE’s are difficult as well because messing up can cause big changes that you would have avoided if had a more direct choice. When you enter Blacksad’s mind palace and put together questions and evidence to come up with conclusions, that’s deduction. I have no problems with the system as a whole, it works very well.
I have this thing where before I play a game based on a book or comic I must read the material. I started reading The Pillars of the Earth because there was a game coming out years and since then I’ve finished the book, bought the game, and still have yet to play it, but that’s another can of beans. Blacksad had five comics at the time of this game’s release, and I read them all. They are depressing. All of em. Blacksad tends to pull back the curtain on certain aspects of society and show just how dirty they are. Noir stories usually have a plot that starts off entangled but when the bow comes undone at the end and the culprit is no more, there is never full sense of relief. All the stories are like this. Great stories for those who like mysteries and noir hardboiled detectives with bleak outlooks on society, but you should know that going in. This game takes place after the second comic and you can see a few Easter eggs scattered about that will hit if you’d done the required reading. After having beat the game I can say with full confidence that this game does not deter from the Blacksad formula as seen in the comics. If you read the material and don’t like it, the game will not change your mind and vice versa. And go in preparing to be sad. And please be on the lookout for QTE’s. I made a regrettable mistake at the end because I looked away for a split second.
All-in-all this was a good adventure/mystery game that I wish had a sequel. It hit hard and offered up tough decisions that make you question your way of thinking. If you’ve been looking for a game that’ll have you sitting in a room thinking about what you’ve done then this is for you. I went into this game being disgusted with the controls and certain points just playing it to get it over with, but near the end of the game I got more invested in what was going on. When the story is this good in a game like this it is very hard to ignore. I recommend you read at least the first two comics in the Blacksad series to see if you like it and if you do, dive right in.
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