A Wadget Eye Adventure

Wadget Eye specialises in adventure games that remind us of the old LucasArts point-and-click software. You know, the ones with pixelated (somewhat ugly) graphics that became instant classics upon their release. The low resolution approach is accompanied by good voice acting and great music to provide an excellent atmosphere.

Blackwell Pentalogy

From 2006 till 2014 five Blackwell games were released. In general, the story revolves around a main character (Rosangela) who suddenly becomes a medium and with her sidekick (Joey a ghost) they set out to solve mysteries and help other ghosts transition to the afterlife. Legacy is the first in the series and not only does it focus on how Rosa and Joey work on a case of NYU student deaths but also on how the two met.

Inventory With Clues

In such games in order to make progress your best bet is to look at / interact with every object and talk to everybody (by exhausting all dialogue options). Blackwell introduces "clues"; these words can be combined in Rosa's notebook to get further clues and, eventually, more dialogue options (actually, Rosa uses the notebook to interview a subject). This is an interesting concept but sometimes we already know what to do while - for Rosa - we still have to put the 2 separate words together. The only part where I got stuck was related to this combination of available facts.

Commentaries - 5 Years Apart

In general, Wadget Eye games are available with a commentary mode on. What makes Legacy interesting is the availability of 2 commentaries (they can both be turned on for one single walkthrough). Dave Gilbert - creator of the game and founder of Wadget - comments on the various aspects of the game (music, voice acting, art design etc.) but to make things more interesting he added a second commentary five years later. It's interesting to listen to his thoughts again i.e. how he sees things later when more Wadget games (including Blackwell episodes) were released. This commentary mode is very informative and fun to hear out but only during a 2nd walkthrough as it is spoiler heavy.

White As A Ghost

Actually, Joey is light blue (probably due to the coat he's wearing) but it is fun watching him and Rosa meet. Legacy is a short game (can be completed in 2-3 hours) and it's a bit rough around the edges with its clue system but this probably got worked on in later games. After Gemini Rue, Shivah and Shardlight this is my 4th Wadget game and I can recommend it as usual.

It really says something about a franchise when the weakest game in the series is still so enjoyable.

Let me be blunt: The Blackwell Legacy is rife with Early Installment Weirdness syndrome. It's short, full of long info dumps and has frustrating puzzles. To top it off it sometimes fails to give the player any sort of direction or goal, leading to the "try everything" method of gameplay progression so common in old adventure games. Ahh, the nostalgia.

Infuriating progression aside, the story is solid and entertaining. Nothing groundbreaking, but it does a good job of introducing characters and plot threads that get expanded upon over the next four games. There's a healthy amount of snark too, which helps balance out the otherwise grim nature of the story.

If you can forgive a lot for the sake of a good story, then Legacy is for you. If you can't, then you might want to consider picking this one up when it's on sale or in a bundle. Alternatively, you can try watching a playthrough and skipping to Convergence, which is where the series really picks up.

(Also worth noting are the two commentary tracks that come with the game; the original track from 2006, and one from five years later after the release of Convergence. Both are interesting to listen to if you're interested in game design... or if you really just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate dog leashes.)

Many of my friends recommended this game to me and I feel bad for not playing it when I got the chance. Blackwell Legacy is a classic Point&Click game and the first installment of the series Blackwell. Created by Dave Gilbert we made many well-known P&C titles. The story is about Rosangela Blackwell, a freelance writer who has lost her Aunt recently, the only family member she has. She lives alone ins New York City as she prefers to be alone and away from people, even her neighbors. One day, she started to experience a terrible headache until she saw him.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2179679732

The gameplay is like any classic Point&Click game, you have the inventory, the items to use and combine. I liked the note function where you can click on two clues to discover a new one. The fast traveling map is simple, you click on the new area you want to go to, however, you can't bring the map anytime, you need to exit the area you are currently in to go to the next one.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2179680945

I enjoyed the voice acting as well as the soundtracks. Although the game is old, and some tracks sound louder than the character's voice, but this didn't ruin my gaming experience. I even enjoyed the developer's commentary, it makes you understand the game even more. I also loved the character's design and pixel artwork despite being an old game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2179680309

Pros:
+Interesting story.
+Good soundtracks.
+Very well-done voice-over.
+Good animation and character design.
+Fast travel map.
+Manual + Automatic save files.
+Steam achievements.

Cons:
-No hinting system.

Nothing is complicated in this game, it is pretty straightforward unless you are haunting the achievements, there is no hinting system or hotspots in cause you got stuck in an area and don't know what to do next. I highly recommend it and will definitely play the rest of the games.


Other Reviews:
Blackwell Unbound Review
Blackwell Convergence Review
Blackwell Deception Review
Blackwell Epiphany Review

𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒

I'm very late to the party on the Blackwell series, but this is definitely one of the best short adventure games I've played, Wadjet Eye Games continues to be one of my favorite adventure game developers. I absolutely loved the notebook system - while most adventure games focus on combining and interacting with items, the focus here is on exploring facts and clues to advance the story. The plot itself is interesting as well and kept me driven in looking forward to solving each puzzle.

There were a few things I wasn't a huge fan of. At one point the game did crash with a very cryptic windows error message, though luckily the autosave happens frequently enough that I didn't lose much progress. And speaking of saves, the game doesn't allow overwriting existing games, it simply creates a new game with the same name (or at least I couldn't figure out how to prevent this), which made the load system a little messy at certain points.

Aside from those small technical issues, I loved the game overall, and am excited to continue on with the rest of the series!

Just one heck of a solid old school adventure game. Great start to the series and I'm glad I got around to actually playing it.

The Blackwell Legacy represents the first of five parts in the Blackwell series. It is a solid point & click adventure game with an interesting female protagonist and a promising storyline.

While most of the puzzles are easy to solve, some of them do not work out as intended, resulting in a break in immersion, e.g. the dog in the park.

Achievements:

Estimated time for 100% completion: +3 hours

Singleplayer achievements: 8
Multiplayer achievements: none

Beautiful. Even after playing it 3 times in a row (gameplay, classic commentary, then both commentary for final achievement) I'm still fascinated by this game.
Blackwell Legacy is the first game of the Blackwell series, first game (for a long time, if I remember well from the commentary) of Dave Gilbert. It's a supernatural mystery-detective story (Ghosts!) and gameplay-wise it's a mix of visual novel (Quite a lot of talking, big amounts of info, cutscenes) and point-and-click adventure games. These genres mix really well the solid story - there is always something to pay attention for, or something to do.

This will be a little unconventionally long part of a review compared to my other review - I want to "meet you" the developer, because I feel the game's most admirable part is the devoted work and attention to small details from Dave.
Maybe as you noticed that on Steam quite a few reviews mention that Legacy is a little weaker compared to other games of the series - it's the first one.
The greatest thing could happen to this game is Dave's commentary. While it could seem like he made mistakes in development, but "it's understandable, people tend to miss up things at first try, he'll do better for the next time".
But there are the commentaries.
Seriously, listen to both commentaries, but only AFTER playing the game. This guy gives incredible amounts of info, background stories about characters, voice actors, artists, dog leashes ( ;) ) and things like that. Dave knew that some parts of the game aren't perfect, he knew the problematic spots, and was worrying about making certain decisions. If you listen to the commentaries you'll know that he planned the concept, the voices, the pictures really throughfully, did his best to program certain parts (Leash), be accurate with locations (Washington Sq. Garden) and at the same time, he told us why Nishanti doesn't have an accent, why the lights were flickering at the hospital only at certain times, and so on, and so on. Not to mention the reflection in the 5-year-anniversary commentary, in which he proves he learned a lot from his past mistakes and from user backfeed.
About the game: Gorgeous pixelgraphics, if you love the style, you need this game. I'm not sure if I've seen a world as detailed and well-executed (in terms of graphics) amongst other pixelgraphic games.
The voice-acting and music is perfect. Great voice-actors make the deep and well-written characters come alive and help Rose's and Joey's inspection, and besides some ... problematic (?) points of the story the game is pretty straightforward, you can't really get lost for like, forever :)

As a conclusion: The game's base price is 5$/€. That's absolutely correct price for it, on sales the game is a must-have if you've been eyeing it. I would say the gameplay is 2-5 hours (Sorry, I'm bad at guesses) if you look at everything and listen to every conversation. Replay value consits of one extra gameplay with commentaries active - can be about 2 hours with tons of intresting info about the game. I enjoyed the commentary more than in other games the new game+ option :)
I most definitely recommend this game - it's a gorgeous-looking, well executed - thought little short - adventure game with deep story that paves the way for the following chapters of the Blackwell-saga.

I've been hearing a lot about the Blackwell series and their creator, Wadjet Eye Games for years now. As a genuine lover of adventure games, I've always been curious and expectant. This old school, Sierra style adventure game promised to give me a good time and snatch a spot in my list of memorables, I could tell even with one look. Now that I found some spare time to explore the world of Rosangela Blackwell, I am not disappointed.

As you may have guessed so far, Rosangela Blackwell is our heroine. She is a shy, misanthropic yet smart young woman who lives in New York City, all by her lonesome. She writes book reviews for a local newspaper and tries her best to avoid any social contact. She is a silent one, who prefers a quiet and uneventful life, in her quiet and uneventful apartment. Passing of her aunt - and her only living relative that she knew of - marks the beginning of a drastic change in her 'not so silent anymore' little world. Following strange headaches and flickering lights, Joey Mallone makes an appearance and pulls a "Ghost Whisperer" on Rosa. Yes, Joey is a ghost - or rather a ghost guardian, self-titled as "The Blackwell Legacy" - who's been appearing to Blackwell women for generations now and drives them to help lost souls find peace. So, Rosa's actual story begins.

This first game in the series serves as an introduction rather than a full throttle game. We learn about Rosa, Joey, get clues about their backstory and solve a simple, exemplary case real quick. It's more like Ghost Whispering 101. It's a cute game, with some deadpan humor and interesting story waiting to be built more elaborately in the future. Puzzles are ordinary, and with some attention to detail nothing would excuse you on being stuck. You collect clues, combine them and make appropriate suggestions to appropriate characters to progress.

The game also contains a commentary option that appealed to my taste, in sense of presenting behind the curtain information about the development process, straight from the mouth of the horse, namely Dave Gilbert. I found his statements, apologies on recognized mistakes in either the development or story purposes, personally given thanks to visual and recording artists particularly charming. Any error or annoyance that I may point out, is already recognized and explained by Dave Gilbert himself, so... nothing for me to be distasted about anyhow.

I'll be looking forward to the next game in the series, Blackwell Unbound to discover more about both Joey and Rosa. If you are into adventure games also, I recommend for you to give some attention to The Blackwell Legacy whence you wonder what to play next time. It invoked pleasant memories of classic Sierra adventures like Space Quest or Police Quest, and rewarded me with further expectation.

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This is the first of the "Blackwell" series.

The series order is:
Legacy
Unbound
Convergence
Deception
Epiphany


I'm new to it - but a middle aged gamer who played Sierra back in the day. I'd rate this as "LucasArts" difficult, not Sierra.

For those that are new to point and click adventures, they involve elaborate puzzles, usually tied to inventory or dialogue. The downside of them is some puzzles only made sense in the developers mind. Back then, you needed to call a premium rate phone number and pay for answers to puzzles! No looking it up.

Sierra made most of their money from obtuse puzzles , and phone calls from a small minority of owners (sound familiar, free to play?)

To get around this, without having to pay - no puzzle is too "obtuse" , I'll put the game down and then come back a day later and click on every object in every room, combine every inventory item etc.

Anyway, you didn't ask for a history lesson! Is it a good game - YES
How difficult are the puzzles? 7/10 (with 1 being telltale games and 10 being Sierra)
Multiple endings - YES
Playtime - 5 hours ish for first playthrough.

Game as a whole, 7/10 - I've heard it's the worst in the series, so that's promising!

Would annoy Kelly again.

(For reference, the correct play order is Legacy - Unbound - Convergence - Deception - Epiphany. The series pretty much plays like 5 chapters of a single game, so this review is the same for each.)

You play Rosa Blackwell, who much to her annoyance has inherited the family spirit guide- Joey Mallone, a 1930's gangster type who absolutely insists she spends her evenings resolving supernatural oddities by calming the ghosts causing them and helping them move on to the next world. Of course, only Rosa can see and talk to these ghosts, so traipsing around New York apparently talking to herself is the order of the day.

Right off the bat, Blackwell is sure to evoke nostalgia in those of us who played adventure games back in the day. Remove the voice acting and you could convince me these were hidden Amiga gems that were recently unearthed. The pixel art changes in style between each game but is always crisp, clear, and remarkably detailed- some animations are a little choppy but that's kinda nostalgic too.

The games are easily comparable to the Phoenix Wright titles, and I'd say anyone who enjoyed those will have a good time here. The focus is much more on the story than the puzzles, which usually involve gathering information from the right places and using it to help the ghosts realise their time in the mortal world is over. It rarely falls into the adventure game traps of obtuse puzzles that make no real sense, and the times it does are almost entirely in the first game- in-game commentary from the developer notes that he's well aware of these early stumbles and actively avoided them later.

Probably the point that will discourage those who watched the trailer is the voice acting, which early on is admittedly amateur and clearly done on home hardware rather than in a studio. Please, PLEASE do not let that turn you off the series. If it's a dealbreaker you can turn voice acting off completely in each game, and after the first two games it gets markedly better. I was unsure on Abe Goldfarb's performance as Joey to begin with, but by the end of the series I couldn't imagine anyone else in the role. Just.... Just weather the storm and it'll pay off later, trust me.

All told you're looking at 15-20 hours for the five games (though that depends a lot on how good you are with solving the mysteries) and achievement hunters will play through each one twice, though the second time through is a lot quicker. I became very attached to Rosa and Joey in my time with them and I'll miss them now their adventure is over.