This game is NOT a detective game and has important storylines abandoned (spoilers)

[Angelus BR]

It has "clues", conclusions, choices. BUt guess what? You cannot form wrong conclusions by mixing wrong clues (you can only form deductions when the game tells you can and only the right ones). And the game has the nerve of taunting the player, after it makes you have all these "conclusions" and then say "haha, you jumped to conclusions without all the evidences", when the game only give syou said evidence AFTER it asks you if yo'ure sure.
For example, the horse, Gill. He said he had killed a friend for the sake of the mission, he hated working for Mitchell and the door of the bunker was locked and he "passed out" (I thought it was because of the leaking gass) next to it. Then Smirnov asks if you're sure that it was the guy who killed the anteater only for the game to reveal it was actually the lion AFTERWARDS, with brand new clues.

Also, this game has SO MANY loose ends it's not even a joke.

1)If you tell Colbert's wife he was cheating her and then tell her that he got killed (if you tell the truth to O'leary.), the phone goes mute and I kept expecting some kind of news about how she had a heart attack and died and Blacksad feel guilty about it, or she trying to revenge her husband. NOTHING comes from it. We don't even know what O'Leary said or did to his wife either, after he learned the truth.

2)The entire O'Leary's subplot of him still being in love with Helen and she still caring about him is introduced and discarded.

3) You can make a bet and give it to Sonia, if you choose so, about the result of the big fight the game teases you from the beginning and guess what? The game doesn't tell you how it ends! Why the hell did the game ask me if I should ask Stone to surrender the match or to Bobby to not use drugs, IF THEY HAVE NO CONSEQUENCE?

This game had such a GREAT beginning in the story and I just felt massivelly disappointed once I saw the credits roll without any post-credit scene.

[Dr. Caesar]

I think the worst part of the game is easily how many decisions are completely false ones. There are so many scenes where there is ONE option that is right, and all other options result in your death. It's infuriating and really shouldn't be in a game like this.

[Angelus BR]

Originally posted by Dr. Caesar:

I think the worst part of the game is easily how many decisions are completely false ones. There are so many scenes where there is ONE option that is right, and all other options result in your death. It's infuriating and really shouldn't be in a game like this.

This story should have been a comic, not a freaking game with "choices".

And I just remembered another plot point. Remember how John said that Joe might have hidden something under the same tree that was used to hide the music box? I kept expecting to visit his old house, only for it to be dropped too.

[Dr. Caesar]

Originally posted by Angelus BR:

This story should have been a comic, not a freaking game with "choices".

Ironic considering the series is a spinoff from a comic series. I still think it's a good and fun game, I just wish that it wasn't filled with 3 Choice Junctions where two of the 3 options are automatic failures.

[kmox]

I did actually get to see what was under the tree, so maybe you made a different choice?

[Angelus BR]

Originally posted by Mox:

I did actually get to see what was under the tree, so maybe you made a different choice?

What did you choose for it?

[jgrpf]

I dunno. I think consequence of choice is overrated. And let's face it: the possibilities are always limited. There might be more options but if you have explored them all but it is still a pre-defined narrative albeit with higher complexity. Maybe AI will someday acheive realistic freedom of choice and its consequences but until then I prefer a strong and immersive main story line to multiple but still limited options that are oftentimes weaker on their own because of that.
/rant

I think Blacksad manages to tell a great story.

[Angelus BR]

Originally posted by jgrpf:

I dunno. I think consequence of choice is overrated. And let's face it: the possibilities are always limited. There might be more options but if you have explored them all but it is still a pre-defined narrative albeit with higher complexity. Maybe AI will someday acheive realistic freedom of choice and its consequences but until then I prefer a strong and immersive main story line to multiple but still limited options that are oftentimes weaker on their own because of that.
/rant

I think Blacksad manages to tell a great story.

It would be better for the game to be linear and not give us a choice if said choice is pointless; I can think of two examples:

1)At O'leary's place, when you're escape, you meet his guard. There are 3 choice (attack, hide, pretend to ring the bell). Only one of them doesn't kill you. What's the point of such choice if only one option moves the plot?

2)When Blacksad is discussing racism with Bob's aunt there are four "choices" that say the same thing. Why not remove this and just have Blacksad say one of them?

[Yanpac]

Originally posted by Angelus BR:

3) You can make a bet and give it to Sonia, if you choose so, about the result of the big fight the game teases you from the beginning and guess what? The game doesn't tell you how it ends! Why the hell did the game ask me if I should ask Stone to surrender the match or to Bobby to not use drugs, IF THEY HAVE NO CONSEQUENCE?

I just finished the game and I was terribly frustrated with this point. Besides, I made sure that Sonia didn't end up in jail, I made the bets for her and in the end we don't know anything about what happens next, if Yale won the fight fair and square, if we have a romance with Sonia? It's a pity, this story ends up in the end.

And the auto-saves combined with the impossibility to skip the dialogues makes the re-playability by taking different choices etc a purge in term of time.

[Perberos]

I agree with wrong conclusions. That kind of mechanics makes the game very interesting, but as a developer that I am, I know that it is very difficult to implement.

I still wait for the day that writers take a risk and write this type of gameplay in which the whole story can develop wrongly. Even without knowing in the end if the player has made the right decisions or correctly guessed the clues.

[Angelus BR]

Originally posted by Perberos:

I agree with wrong conclusions. That kind of mechanics makes the game very interesting, but as a developer that I am, I know that it is very difficult to implement.

I still wait for the day that writers take a risk and write this type of gameplay in which the whole story can develop wrongly. Even without knowing in the end if the player has made the right decisions or correctly guessed the clues.

I can understand this may be very hard to develop, but what's the point of even adding a "detective mode" to put clues together, if it's worthless? It goes back to the whole "you have choices, but not really" flaw this game has.