Blackwell Epiphany Review

A point-and-click 2D game must bring something bizarre to grab the attention of adventure game fans. In that case, Wadjet Eye has kept its heritage of making remarkable adventure titles with Blackwell Epiphany. In this expressively affecting tale, the game takes you on an astonishing journey where detective mysteries are cracked and people are rescued, but their souls are saved.

Following the previous releases, Blackwell Legacy, Blackwell Unbound, Blackwell Convergence, and Blackwell Deception, spirit medium Rosangela Blackwell and her spirit partner, Joey Mallone, are about to discover society's filth, typically covered with false promises of love, riches, and happiness.

If you are unfamiliar with this series, the first chapter of the game will get you used to it with ease. Rosa can interact with any material objects or people and use the phone on the Internet. Joey, on the other hand, is intangible, which means he can see and move through objects and also occasionally interacts by blowing on things.

The story starts with an incident when Rosa went to cover a story about a missing person, but the favor leads from completing a report to discovering many unsolved deaths. One objective leads to another, and each branch requires its own approach to solve it.

In some cases, you might have to assemble diverse parts of an item that fell apart in different places, while in some cases, you’ll have to use the newly introduced MyPhone for research and call to resolve gathered notes and clues.

Tips noted on the MyPhone are a key feature for solving puzzles and finding new clues through the Note Collector App. Some of the puzzles can take hours to figure out and require dedication.

Blackwell Epiphany makes you think harder than many other puzzle games, as pieces of the problems are cleverly blended with its story. Even when you aren’t playing the game, you are still thinking about the clues you’ve gathered from different places.

Since all the clues are scattered in various locations, it can really rack your brain if you can’t find a connection between items. Even if you’re a Blackwell veteran, you might find the story a little bit off the edge at the beginning, as there are no clues whatsoever happening.

The game, however, has all its elements exceptionally well thought out and starts to develop interesting plot points after each chapter. It might be a point of frustration when you can’t seem to find your way out of a puzzle or scenario; however, each location’s atmosphere and the people in it give a significant amount of clues.

You will have to gather items by interacting with proper dialogue, using notes, and using Joey’s expertise in seeing and examining objects. Joey can also speak to the lost spirits and gather more clues or punchlines to aid in difficult situations.

Wadjet Eye tends to use intellectual dialogue in its games, and it did the same with Blackwell Epiphany. Each character connects flawlessly with their dialogue and voice-over. Even with a 2D visual style, the character designs fit the parts of the story. The background music, which is mostly jazz tunes, complements the atmospheric tension present throughout the journey.

Talking about surroundings, some of the maps could’ve been improved with both design and elements in them, by extending the areas where players can explore for more items or personnel.

The game offers only one default difficulty mode, and having more difficulty modes with enhanced maps could’ve given this game the extra edge it needs. During the game, you can only interact with objects functional for cracking cases, but it couldn’t hurt to place more objects to make things even harder. Now that this series is over, perhaps Wadjet Eye can plan this for all its upcoming games.

Blackwell Epiphany may not be the best ending of the Blackwell series, but it’s worth playing. It takes you inside the story by introducing fantastic music and dialogue. With plenty of well-thought-out puzzles and cases to crack, the game is worth spending time and money on, especially for those who have been with this series for years.