BLACKSAD: Under the Skin Review for PlayStation 4

Fans of the visual novel genre disappointed by the closure of industry stalwart Telltale Games just over one year ago have something new to look forward to in Blacksad: Under the Skin. Blacksad: Under the Skin finds its source material in the eponymous comic book series written and illustrated by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, and does well in bringing the characters and themes of the comics to vibrant life on-screen. Releasing a game with an immersive setting, interesting story, and quality graphics, developers Pendulo Studios and Microids stand up to and in some aspects even outdo former monolith Telltale Games with Blacksad: Under the Skin.

The Telltale game that most people will rightly compare Blacksad: Under the Skin with is The Wolf Among Us. Both of these games prominently feature anthropomorphized animals, a New York City setting, and QTEs as well as a murder-mystery at the crux of their plots. However, despite sharing these major elements with The Wolf Among Us, Blacksad: Under the Skin manages to bring a fresh perspective to the visual novel genre and doesn’t feel encumbered by the 2013 game that surely served as its inspiration. Drawing less on the numerous fantasy themes that abound in The Wolf Among Us, Blacksad: Under the Skin instead attempts to closely model its 1950’s New York upon reality and hones in on key social issues of that time period.

Blacksad: Under the Skin follows feline private detective, John Blacksad, as he investigates the purported suicide of reputed boxing club owner Joe Dunn. The case quickly becomes much more complicated than the initial prognosis would have led one to believe, as Blacksad recognizes early on that Dunn was truly murdered and that everyone even remotely involved with the manager is a suspect in the crime. The plotline winds through several impressively detailed locations across New York City and touches on social issues ubiquitous to the era the game is set in.

Since Blacksad: Under the Skin boasts six disparate endings, players’ actions when conversing with the game’s NPCs truly shape the result they receive. Players get to mold Blacksad into the character they want him to be; several of the choices that players make over the course of the game can make Blacksad more romantic, a loner, or more. The developers at Pendulo Studios and Microids also hide sports cards in the various environments that Blacksad traverses through, creating a fun mini-game that encourages players to interact with every item possible in the game.

Despite the intriguing plotline and well-crafted setting, Blacksad: Under the Skin fails to hit the mark on some fronts. Blacksad walks way too slowly across the various locales found in the game, the controls can be finicky, and screens can take an extremely long time to load, which all at times can induce a sense of frustration in players. Exacerbating this feeling is the fact that the voice acting does not always sync up with the characters’ lip movements, which also detracts from the immersion one could feel. Some of the timed responses that players need to make during conversations also run out too quickly, forcing players into some dialogue choices they might not have wanted to make.

Overall, Blacksad: Under the Skin makes for a very good successor to Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us. Although Blacksad: Under the Skin sports some flaws, fans of the visual novel genre will not regret investing about 10 hours into the game to reach its ending.

Rating: 8.8/10

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/

Jori Grossman

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I'm a recent graduate of Columbia University. Gaming has been a passion of mine my entire life; I enjoy everything from RPGs and FPSs to stealth and narrative-driven games. I love the deeply immersive quality that good video games inherently possess, and am looking forward to highlighting games worthy of acclaim. When I'm not studying or reading, you can catch me playing games like Uncharted, Dishonored, The Witcher 3, and Far Cry.

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