Blackwell Epiphany

<i>The Blackwell Epiphany</i> is the final installment of the <i>Blackwell</i> storyline and continues about a year after the happenings of The Blackwell Deception. In the meantime, Rosa Blackwell and her spirit guide Joey started to work for the police as consultants. Their main job is still to guide lost spooks, ghosts which are unaware that they died, to their salvation, but after the first investigation in an abandoned building they witness a murder. The spook of the shot man is just ripped apart and the main drive of the plot is finding out, and eventually stopping, the reasons behind it. <p></p><p>While there are some traditional inventory puzzles (collecting items in the scenes and using them with other items), the majority of the game is spent with detective work: talking to people, following leads and hunting for keys or passwords. The most important research tool is Rosa's phone which allows to search the internet for keywords and view notes (sometimes they have to be combined to form conclusions). In most situations, the player can freely switch between Rosa and Joey: While Rosa can interact with physical items and living people, Joey can access places which are closed to Rosa. Joey's only way for direct interaction with the world is using his breath to create a light wind. New to the interface is a button which allows to directly call the other protagonist to the current screen. </p><p>There is an optional in-game commentary by Dave Gilbert, Ben Chandler and bloopers from the voice recording.</p>

<p>This is the last game in the Blackwell series and takes the story to its conclusion. As with previous Blackwell games, this games builds upon the formula from the previous games and while it doesn’t add anything particularly new, it really use the features from the previous games in some new and interesting ways. From the story perspective, this game ties up pretty much all of the loose ends from the previous games (with a few exceptions) and brings to the story to a very satisfying conclusion. We understand why things happened, we learn more about Joey’s history, and we understand why certain characters have popped up in previous games. </p><p>The graphics of the game get a bit of an update, even though the game is still done in the Retro style. There really isn’t much to say about the graphic aspects except they are will done and clear as to what we need to do. There is one or two instances of pixel hunting which while slightly annoying, are somewhat explained in the game’s text. There are a few misleading statement as well in the game that lead us done the wrong path (at least did for me).</p><p>The music and sound are well done and play in with the game well. There was never an instance where the sound annoyed me. The voice acting is similar to the previous games and is clearly less experienced voice actors, but it is adequate for the game and didn’t really distract from the story.<br></p><p>Graphics 4/5</p><p>Story 4/5</p><p>Puzzles/Gameplay: 4/5</p><p>Music/Sound: 4/5</p><p>Personal Slant: 4.5/5</p><p><b>Overall Score: 4.1/5</b></p>