Publisher: Wadjet Eye
Developer: Wadjet Eye
Year: 2009
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS

Rating: 4

After playing Blackwell Unbound I commented how doing a prequel was a strange choice, especially since the case involved just seemed like a regular day at the office. I wrote, “As alluded to earlier, the ending is a bit of a letdown, and it just feels like part of a larger episode with no great stakes, at least as it pertains to Rosangela.” Well, The Blackwell Convergence appropriately connects the stakes as it pertains to Rosangela. But while the story has improved cohesion, nearly every other aspect of this third installment in the Blackwell series felt like a step back.

The game opens with Rosangela and spirit guide Joey Mallone investigating a high rise office building due to spooky reports and assist a former CEO ghost recognize he jumped from the building and escort him to the afterlife. Shortly thereafter, the real story begins.

To slightly spoiler Blackwell Unbound, the ghostly Countess from the previous game is back at it again, killing corporeal life forms following the death of writer Joseph Mitchell. I did not previously realize he was a real writer for the New Yorker who (as depicted in this series), spent his remaining years still showing up to the office without doing any work, though in real life it was due to apparent writer’s block and weirdly not because of ghosts. Anyway, Rosangela simultaneously investigates three murders (including one she witnesses) and must tie them all together and face the Countess once and for all.

In addition to Joseph Mitchell, the game also incorporates the ghost of Mitchell’s muse Jay Gould, an eccentric and often homeless bohemian who died in 1957 and is still here believing he wrote the longest book ever written. While the tie-in to real life events is cool, the rest of the plot drags a bit. The Countess herself is not a particularly interesting villain; she’s neither clever enough to admire nor given enough depth to be sympathetic. Combine that with how incredibly easy the game is (especially compared to the previous two), I took no satisfaction in completing it.

One of the reasons the difficulty (and my entertainment value) bottomed out was the elimination of the puzzle conceit of combining notebook clues to arrive at new information. In its place is Rosangela’s computer where she can use a search engine to learn information and hack into a couple e-mail accounts. This could have been fine, but nearly every answer to the game’s various puzzles are handed to you on a silver platter, and that’s even prior to talking to Joey who offers fairly direct hints when asked.

Equally contributing to my ennui while playing was the lack of humor, at least in comparison to the rest of the series. For the first time I didn’t laugh, pretty much a necessity with the wisecrackin’ Joey talking non-stop. Speaking of Joey, he’s back to being a sarcastic dick again like he was in The Blackwell Legacy. He’s a bit nicer to Rosangela this time, but there’s more bitterness in his voice than levity and it frequently kills the mood. I should mention there was one moment in the game that uses an unexpected graphical transition that legit freaked me out for a second, a lone bright spot in the general tedium.

The game has on a technical level improved once again as Dave Gilbert honed his craft. The graphics are sharper, with some finely detailed character portraits that appear during conversation. The background music and sound effects are crisper. The end credits continue to be well worth the watch, and as always there are funny bloopers to listen to at the end.

If you have enjoyed the series so far there’s no reason not play The Blackwell Convergence. It will only take you a few hours to play and the final two games in the series were quite well-received.