Blackwell Legacy Review

As I continue to rack up games in my collection, I need to find ways to justify actually playing them. One reason to go through and beat a game is to get all of the trading cards for crafting badges during a Steam holiday sale. An hour or two of trying out something in my library is enough to get all of the card drops, and if the game is short, a chance to write about something I liked. Thus I started playing the Blackwell series, and I can tell you why I would recommend this adventure game to others. Additionally, since I did not need to spend much time reaching the ending, I can review it rather than give a first impression.

The Blackwell Legacy is a point and click pixel adventure with a lot of charm. You play as freelance writer Rosangela Blackwell who, after scattering the ashes of her deceased aunt, discovers that she has inherited a spirit guide named Joey Mallone. Unable to separate from her spectral companion with a mysterious past, Rosa must confront the restless ghosts in the New York City area and convince them to move on to another place. All of the backgrounds, sprites, and character portraits are outstanding pixel art, and the voice acting brings the characters to life to make you laugh and speculate on the adventures to come. Abe Goldfarb in particular portrays the ghostly Joey with charm and wit as he goes from teasing Rosa about her social inadequacies to grabbing an uncooperative spirit to force him to move on.

As far as the puzzles go, I did not have too much trouble with them. Rosa keeps track of important information in a notebook, and you can combine clues to lead to additional points you can use to advance the story. I was stuck at one point because I needed to right click on an item to view it more closely when clicking regularly just got a prompt that Rosa would not take the large object selected. She did however steal a diary of a recently deceased college coed, so she just might be picky about it. There is also a puzzle right near the end that I found a bit hard to move the player character to the correct location before advancing to the next scene, but at least the final puzzle combined everything I had learned in the game beforehand. There are not many people to save in this game, but it’s forgivable because it’s setting up more investigations in the franchise and involves some seriously twisted solutions to overcome social anxieties. This especially applies to Rosa’s neighbor’s dog, but you ought to see for yourself what the game expects you do to the poor pooch.

The Blackwell Legacy, the first of the Blackwell games, is a good starting point for a pixel art point and click adventure game series. Grab it for digital download from the publisher Wadjet Eye Games or from your digital distribution network of choice. Though you can complete the story under five hours, you can unlock bonus content like voice actor outtakes and developers commentary, so spend five bucks or so and see if you would like to learn more about New York City and the exciting life of the spirit guides living there.