Publisher: Wadjet Eye
Developer: Wadjet Eye
Year: 2011
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS

Rating: 6

The fourth installment in the Blackwell series represents a return to the quality of Blackwell Unbound while expertly setting up the final game in the series.

Rosangela and Joey are back it again as we once again join them in the middle of a case unrelated to the main story (a la Indiana Jones). Once they solve the mystery of a ghost ship, Rosangela gets a call from one of her coworkers when she was a journalist in The Blackwell Legacy. He’s investigating a huge story and asks her help to get to the bottom of things. Naturally, the leads lead to ghosts and peril, but more importantly some answers (and new questions) about why Rosangela’s family have been spirit guides and why Joey is stuck to the family.

Right away, the leap forward in the game’s technical aspects is apparent. The character portraits (post-patch) are incredible, our friends looking more human than ever before. The art style remains the same, only with better perspective and use of shadow.

And the voice acting is better than ever. Rebecca Whittaker as Rosangela is great as always, and Abe Goldfarb gives his best performance to date as Joey. Joey’s jokes are funny again and I laughed out loud a few times. He has finally dropped the sexist schtick and his character develops for the first time; underneath his sarcasm it is now obvious he cares about his partner he affectionately calls Red. On the flip side he also shows anger, ultimately making him more relatable. The supporting actors are better as well. While old character are still voiced by young people, they no longer sound like caricatures. It appears Gilbert’s direction improved along with everything ese.

I was also pleased that the notebook was utilized again to combine clues in order to solve puzzles, even if not as extensively I would have liked. Very few puzzles are solved using the inventory. Rather, Rosangela needs to utilize internet searching, picking out clues from conversations, inferring passwords, and sending Joey on multiple occasions into a room without her to spy on conversations or peek into locked rooms or drawers. Joey’s ability to blow on things is also used in a few unique ways. Overall, the puzzles are easily the most impressive of the series. While I never needed a hint, either from Joey or from the internet, I was stuck on several puzzles for some time and once I learned the answer I felt an earned sense of accomplishment.

I do have a few quibbles. For the first time, Rosangela’s apartment is completely pointless. You can go there at any time, but there is literally nothing to ever do there. As she has a smart phone for the first time, she no longer needs to use her house phone or house desktop. Which is fine, but it would have been nice for there to be at least one thing to do at home, especially since there’s about twenty hotspots that I spent an inordinate amount of time interacting with. Also, her kind next door neighbor Nashanti–half the reason to return home previously–is on vacation this game.

My other criticism–and perhaps this is unfair–is that while the story has become grander and with more emotional weight, it fails to feel organic. While you are allowed to work on multiple puzzles at the same time, it still very much feels like you’re in an Adventure Game. The entire story takes place in the course of one night, despite events that realistically would take at least three days if not more. As there’s little sense of urgency until the end, the game had ample opportunity for breaks for Rosangela to sleep or do something unrelated to the case. For example, she refuses to eat or drink anything despite the player being allowed to prompt her to do so. Instead, she just keeps going to the next thing and then the next thing and then the next thing. There are virtually no red herrings and some clues feel a bit contrived, especially ones that hint at passwords. I think this is a good time to get on a soapbox and say that guessing a password should almost never be an adventure game puzzle, especially in the age of longer, more complex passwords and two-factor authentication. They made some sense in 90s. Let’s leave them there.

Thankfully, for the first time in this series, the ending leaves me wanting to play the series finale. Something epic is happening and a few hints are teased before the credits roll. The credit sequence is its usual delight, though it’s disappointing that you have to play the game again on the director’s commentary mode to access the outtakes. I’ll be skipping that to play The Blackwell Epiphany.