INTRO:
The first Blackwell title would have been easy to overlook, especially during its era when the indie renaissance had yet to spark off. The second game is the one that would mark Wadjet Eye and creator Dave Gilbert as being worthy of attention, thanks to lessons well-learned from the first game, especially in the matter of story-telling.
PREMISE:
Where the first game was set in the mid-2000’s, the second game is a prequel, being set in the mid-1970s. One of the protagonists is Lauren Blackwell, who is the aunt of the protagonist of the first game. The other protagonist is Joey Mallone, the detective-like ghost who has been bonded to Lauren, whether they like it or not.
The game’s story begins well after the two of them have figured out what they can do. This was not an easy process on either, due to lack of knowledge about what the pact is and the otherworldly waystation in Lauren’s head; not even Joey knew much about it. However, in the story of this game, the two have figured out the basics of their quest to send off lost souls: find the ghosts, convince them to move on, and bring them into Lauren’s head for a send-off.
Lauren has to keep doing this or she suffers the fate of her mother, Patricia Blackwell. Patricia, as established in the first game, wilfully and resolutely ignored Joey, until the waystation in her head encroached on the rest of her mind and doomed her to insanity.
However, they do not know anything more than that – including whether the medium’s spirit guide would indefinitely stay with the medium or not, and what would happen if they are separated. They would eventually encounter an individual that provides revelation on this matter, albeit in very unpleasant ways.
JOEY AS A PLAYER CHARACTER:
In the first game, the player only controls Joey in a few scripted scenes. He is actually controllable in this entry of the series. However, the player should not expect to do wild things with Joey.
He is a ghost that is bound to Lauren. He will always be in the same scene as Lauren, or at least somewhere close by. He may be a floating leg-less ghost, but he cannot fly up to anywhere he wants, mainly due the binding that requires him to be close. He also does not like floating through solid things, unless he has to.
Gameplay-wise, this means that he can only move about in places that Lauren can. He only uses his ghostly traits in specific sequences, such as “physically” interacting with other ghosts, which Lauren cannot do. He does not have an inventory, and the player cannot use the notebook feature when he is being controlled. These limitations can seem contrived at first, though they are part of Joey’s character.
NO CLEAR INDICATION OF SWAPPING:
Unfortunately, there is a noticeable lack of significant visual indicators when a character is swapped to. If the current scene has considerable horizontal length, like Lauren’s apartment, the camera would shift. Most scenes do not have such length, and the lack of indicators is noticeable.
ONLY THIS PROTAGONIST:
Fortunately, this lack of visual indicators is not an issue in scenes where only one protagonist could be visually present or active. Incidentally, these scenes involve Joey, him being not affected by mortal frailties or limitation.
That said, these scenes were included to both show Joey’s advantages and limitations as a ghost, namely being able to traverse through solid obstacles but not physically interact with anything.
NOTEBOOK:
The gameplay gimmick of matching pairs of related clues returns in this entry. It is used to the same effect, and there has not been much change either. Furthermore, the game-crashing bug of mis-clicking on things outside of the notebook space is still there.
MORE USE OF ITEMS:
The first game was notable for not having much of any gameplay about using one item on another thing; this is a usual gameplay trope of point-and-click adventure games, so Legacy stood out.
In this prequel, there is more of this trope, for better or worse. For example, having had some experience in her ghost-seeking endeavours, Lauren has a camera and a recording phone to assist her in her work or otherwise learning about her special powers.
INADEQUATE CANCELLING OF THE USE OF ITEMS:
Unfortunately, Dave Gilbert has not exactly studied up on the coding that is used for games that have established the use of items on other things.
At first, Unbound seems to use the tried and true method of clicking on items in the inventory and then having the mouse cursor change to the item’s sprite. The player is then supposed to bring the item over to whatever that it is to be used on.
The problem is with cancelling its use. To do so, the player needs to bring the cursor onto an empty space in the current scene, and then right-click. This is the only way to cancel the use of the item and restore the cursor to its default arrow. This is doable in places where there are not a lot of things with contextual hitboxes, but not in busier places.
Games with more competent coding for item handling have implemented conveniences like the use of the “Esc” button to cancel item use, or simply right-clicking anywhere.
PHONEBOOK:
The phonebook that Lauren uses to find people and contacts would eventually become a gameplay element in later games. A rudimentary search program is used for this purpose, which is something that is quite rare in adventure games. This can seem like a call-back to Sierra games that made use of typed-in keywords for conversations, though Wadjet Eye has the advantage of having access to search engine templates in the modern era.
VOICE-OVERS:
The voice-overs are perhaps the most appealing aspect of the game. It is also the one that reveals how cheap the production of the game is.
Through the connections that he has made over the years, Dave Gilbert has managed to retain the (generally paid) services and interest of skilled voice-actors – most notably that of Abe Goldfarb, voice of Joey Mallone. Through them, he has gained more contacts, quite a lot of whom remember the LucasArts and Sierra games. The most notable score that he has obtained is Dani Marco, whose one-time performance as Lauren Blackwell would be quite memorable.
Perhaps the best element of the voice-overs are Dave Gilbert’s direction and casting choices. Each character is voiced by a person that can deliver the expressions that he wants for his characters. The result is that most of the conversations sound quite natural and convincing – at least in spirit.
The audio quality of the voice-overs is their most noticeable flaw. Few, if any, of the voice-overs appear to match the acoustic conditions of the places that the characters are in. It would be a while before Wadjet Eye gains the service of skilled sound designers that can edit audio assets so that they sound convincing; it is unfortunate that this game came before that happened.
MUSIC:
The music in Unbound is very much an improvement over that in Legacy; the music in the previous game is forgettable. Unbound’s music is composed by Thomas Regin, whom Gilbert describes as being dedicated and skilled enough to source the correct instrument for the era of music that is appropriate for them. The quality of his effort can be clearly heard in the jazz music in the game, most of which are appropriate to the scenes in Unbound.
This is a fortunate turn for the series, because Thomas Regin would continue to contribute music to many of Wadjet Eye’s titles.
LACK OF SOUND EFFECTS & AMBIANCE:
Unfortunately, Unbound retains a noticeable gap in sound designs that Legacy has: lack of sound effects and ambient noise. Considering that the game takes place in New York in the 1970s, when it is already a bustling city, it can be odd that there are not a lot of city noises that can be heard.
VISUAL DESIGNS:
There are no character portraits in this entry of the series. This is a notable omission, because many other Wadjet Eye titles would have character portraits for their dialogues. Instead, all the player would get are the typically clumsy frames in the animations of the sprites of characters.
The player should not expect a lot of animated sprites either. The bulk of the variety of animations occur at the finale, when Lauren and Joey confront an unhinged character with considerable strength despite her appearance.
As for the environmental artwork, they are much sharper than those in the first game, which suffered from an absentee artist, according to Dave Gilbert. Still, it was the work of a budding amateur who would be pursuing neurological studies anyway. Wadjet Eye would only benefit from the service of full-time artists later.
BEHIND THE SCENES STUFF:
Like the other games in the Blackwell Bundle, there is additional content showing the behind-the-scenes work. Firstly, there is the commentary by Dave Gilbert and Erin Robinson, who is the artist for most of the game’s scenes. Most of the commentary is from Dave Gilbert, who has established himself as quite a capable voice actor.
There are also blooper reels, which is to be expected when Dave Gilbert is an exacting voice-over director who works with energetic voice talents like Abe Goldfarb.
Peculiarly, the player has to put in some effort to unlock this content. Lauren needs to photograph specific persons, such as Joey, and the player needs to complete the game at least once to get the passcode to complete the unlocking.
SUMMARY:
Unbound does not answer all questions that remain from Legacy. However, its value as a prequel is considerable, because it rationalizes how Joey knows all he is shown to know in the first game. The inclusion of Lauren Blackwell as the still-living partner of the duo is also appealing, if only because she has a considerable personality contrast with Rosa of the previous game and already has experience in sending off ghosts. Most importantly, Joey is a playable character, which goes a long way to build on the gameplay of the first game.
However, Unbound retains many of the technical problems that the first game has, such as the unstable notebook user interface. Indeed, the second entry of the series appears to have the least touch-up in the Blackwell Bundle.