If you enjoy story driven games where your decisions have an impact, Blacksad: Under the Skin by Microids, Pendulo Studios, and YS Interactive is the game for you. The game centers around a detective named John Blacksad. Blacksad is an anthropomorphic cat in a world of humanlike animals. As Blacksad, you are hired to uncover the mystery of a missing boxer. The gym owner has apparently just committed suicide, and this boxer is the only way to save the gym from going out of business. As the story progresses, though, you start to feel like maybe things aren’t what they seem. Now it’s your job to prove it.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is story-based after all and functions similar to other games of the same genre, so you have the option of skipping the tutorial, which I think was a great idea. The actual controls of the game consist of selecting dialogue options, a handful of quicktime events, as well as a third skill I’ll just call your cat senses. Of course, as a cat, you have enhanced detective skills, so these allow you to uncover clues that would be otherwise imperceptible. Beyond this extra addition, the controls don’t do much to break out of the mold of the genre, but it doesn’t hurt the game. After all, that’s not the point of the game. It does what it needs to to tell the story.
In terms of art, Blacksad: Under the Skin is beautiful. For all the uncanny humanlike animals in media lately, this game does it perfectly. Each animal has its own personality based on its species, which makes them feel more real and relatable. The cat is the detective, the gorilla is a boxer, the weasel is a sneaky reporter, and so on. The world does a good job of immersing you by setting itself in the real place of New York City and even addressing real problems like racism. My only complaint is that occasionally the models will clip through each other without colliding, which broke the immersion somewhat. All in all, though, it’s impressive how good the game looks given that the characters all had to be designed from the ground up.
Overall, what Blacksad: Under the Skin lacks in experimentation in gameplay it makes up for in art style and story, and in this genre, that’s all you can hope for in a game. Despite being a detective game, I never felt like I was stuck without an answer. It felt like the decisions were unguided and ultimately up to me, which immersed me into the story. For these reasons, I would definitely recommend this game.
9/10
Check Out the Blacksad: Under the Skin Trailer:
For more information, please visit here: https://www.microids.com/us/game-blacksad-under-the-skin-us/
Nintendo Switch Review
I am an aspiring game designer looking to explore the philosophy behind game creation. Some of my favorite games include Overwatch, Super Smash Bros, Portal, and Beat Saber.
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