The Blackwell Epiphany

 

The Blackwell Epiphany

Type	Point and click adventure
Single or multiplayer	Singleplayer
Developer	Wadjet Eye Games
Publisher	Wadjet Eye Games
Fun	3/5
Difficulty	4/5

 

The Blackwell Epiphany is a game that I really wanted to hate when I started playing it, but I must admit that it got me hooked and invested by the time I was done. It is the fifth and final installment in the Blackwell series of games, and even though I hadn’t played any of those before starting the Epiphany, it didn’t make much impact. 

 

The reason why I wanted to hate it so much was the very primitive, 2D, pixelated graphics. I realize that some people find it charming and, in some cases, more expressive than 3D. I don’t. I feel like their time has passed, and with good reason. Pixel hunting is an idea that I hate with a burning passion. 

 

The sound, on the other hand, is really well done. From the background noise, and the wind, to the crunching of snow under the main character’s feet, it was incorporated so that it seemed more like watching a film, despite the lacking graphics. The voice actors did their job decently. No award-winning performances, but not cringy either.

In typical adventure fashion, you point and click to progress in the game. There is nothing too revolutionary about this concept, but there is a unique feature. One of the main characters is a ghost (this is not a spoiler; you learn it in the very first scene), and as such, can go through locked doors. However, he cannot touch or move anything, as he is, in fact, an astral being and has no grip, quite literally, on the physical world. This allows for some nice puzzle solving mechanisms.

The story is where this game shines. The writer Dave Gilbert created an interesting story out of something I would not usually include in my viewing list, were it a TV show – a premise where a female medium and her ghost friend solve crimes. If it doesn’t sound like your cup of tea either, don’t give up immediately. The conversations with the side characters are worth it, at least – they are surprisingly intriguing, well fleshed out, and memorable.

Throughout the entire game you are solving puzzles in an effort to shed light on the main plot, which kicks off as soon as you start. I must admit I didn’t really understand all the answers to all the questions that came up during the game, but that is probably due to me not playing the first four installments in the Blackwell series.

Without revealing too many spoilers, I will say that there really isn’t a villain until late in the game. For the most part, the characters you meet and interact with, whether alive or dead, share the same demons that haunt them. They are either plagued by their past, caught in tragic circumstance, or just trying to soldier on through the wintery night that seems to be perennial in the game.

As with all point and click adventures, you might get to a point where you, the player, are clear as to what needs to be done to advance the plot, but the character won’t do what you tell them, because you haven’t picked up an item or talked to a certain person. Luckily, these moments are few and are not a cause for concern.

Overall, this game can be fun in the sense that reading a good crime novel is fun, not laughing out loud. Do not let the difficulty scare you. Play it, even if you have to use a walkthrough at some point, just so you could have the experience of solving mysterious crimes with the help of an actual ghost.