Blacksad: Under the Skin

You play as John Blacksad (sometimes uses the name Blackmore) is a private detective. It is set in the 1950's in an anthropomorphic animal world with typical film-noir topics (the game is in colour rather than using black-and-white associated with actual film-noir). Boxing Gym owner Joe Dunn is found hanged above the ring, and Blacksad is hired by Joe's daughter Sonia who will inherit the gym. One of the boxers of the upcoming fight, Bobby Yale, has disappeared and is essential to keep the gym running.

You will meet the boss of an organised crime group, mainly earning money from illegal gambling. Topics of racism and sexism are touched on as part of the world building, but not essential to the plot. Racism here involves light and dark fur.

I thought the story was really well-written and had the typical story design where you think many of the characters could be behind the main plot - either as the main villain or part of their schemes; but there's plenty of twists and turns, and more than meets the eye.

The lip-syncing is not lined up. This didn't bother me but could bother some people. I did wonder if it was synced to another language, but then the English translation doesn't sync? The voice acting is good, and there's a nice jazz soundtrack playing throughout the game.

The gameplay is similar to the Telltale games and even includes the slow, clunky movement, but here it is even worse. Sometimes there's 2 hotspots close by and it selects the one you aren't facing. Then sometimes you step 1 step too far so the hotspot disappears, then you have to turn, take a few steps, turn, then highlight and select the hotspot. Blacksad walks really slow and often gets caught on objects. Some areas can be quite narrow or the camera is zoomed in a little too much which makes it more cumbersome than it needs to be.

The initial part of the game is really slow as you transition from the Gym to the Café. This should be a cutscene rather than having to walk slowly for 30 seconds down a street. If it turns out there's no new dialogue options, then you have the slow walk back to the gym. I could imagine that these early hours could see people quit the game, but they would be missing out on the great story.

There's these collectable cards scattered around which are optional to collect. A few of them I could see but couldn't find the hotspot to allow me to collect it. Some I found the hotspot but if you interacted with other objects then the hotspot is removed. Some are found in areas with a strict time limit so it didn't seem like there was enough time to pick them up. Therefore, if you like 100% completing games, this is an aspect that could be a deal breaker.

Sometimes even inspecting objects can be annoying. The camera sometimes lingers on objects such as photos for far too long.

When you uncover information, this is often added into the Deduction screen. On that screen, you can join 2-4 clues together to deduce a new lead. I found this to be a mixed-bag. Some were clever, some a bit unclear, and most were part guesswork. You are told if there is a new deduction available, but since you will have just discovered a new clue, you know it involves that one.

Blacksad has his "cat sense" which allows you to see/smell finer details. This transitions into a slow-motion, zoomed in view, and usually involves finding a hidden hotspot although there's hints where it is. It usually involves moving the camera to point to their eyes, or some salient point of their clothing. This unlocks new dialogue options or adds info to the Deduction screen.

There's quite a few Quick Time Events; pressing a single button, hammering a button etc. Often, failing leads to death, as does choosing the wrong dialogue option in some situations. Some of these failures were annoying when you have to watch the same unskippable scene to try again. Some people may find it a challenge to try and experience all these death states, but I could see others being annoyed at this.

With games like this, I mainly rate based on the story, so it scores very high for that. However, it's hard to overlook that the general control is bad and the implementation of ideas is clunky/flawed. I loved the world and characters, and the way the story wrapped up; maybe I will check out the comic at some point.