Blackwell Unbound

The second game in the Blackwell series, Blackwell Unbound, like its predecessor, is a 2D indie adventure game. It is a prequel to the first game, The Blackwell Legacy, and was originally supposed to be a flashback sequence in The Blackwell Convergence (now the third game in the series), but grew into a game in its own right.

This time around you control Lauren Blackwell, Rosangela's aunt and an embittered medium. It is the year 1973 in New York City and she is already well into her career of spirit hunting with her ever present guide Joey Mallone. But now he is also a controllable character; Allowing the player at any time to switch between Lauren and Joey. Together they must help confused ghosts find peace and stop a mysterious killer.


Blackwell Unbound was nominated for two AGS awards. One was for Best Story, and I have to agree, it has an interesting story that should keep you engaged until the very end. The other award was won and was for Best Music. Additionally, like the first game, has good pixelated retro style graphics.

The gameplay is very similar to the first game. As before dialogue puzzles are by far the most numerous puzzles in the game; and it is clear the story takes a centre stage again. But unlike the first game, Blackwell Unbound does contain inventory puzzles. But the main difference is, like mentioned before, that you have two controllable characters, Lauren and Joey. Lauren, as a human, is the only character able to use and carry items and the only one able to to talk to normal humans. Joey as a spirit is able to walk through doors and walls and is better able to talk to other ghosts. Another difference, with Blackwell Unbound, is the new research method. Gone is the computer researched keywords; Lauren uses a phone book, in which the user types in a remembered keyword to find the searched for location or phone number.


Positives:
An interesting and engaging story.

Negatives:
The complete lack of any logic puzzles.

Summery:
A solid dialogue based story driven adventure game.