Is Blackwell: Unbound In Wadjet Eye's Five Part Blackwell Series?

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Blackwell: Unbound in the second installment in Wadjet Eye's five-part Blackwell series (I encourage you to play them in order, Blackwell: Legacy is reviewed here). The sequel serves as a prequel, starring Rosangela Blackwell's aunt, Lauren Blackwell. While Blackwell: Unbound, for the most part, stays true to the original design ethos, Wadjet Eye strives to focus some of the mechanics from the first game. Is Blackwell: Unbound's mystery of The Countess a step in the right direction for the point-n-click series? Grounded Prologue Blackwell: Unbound is set in New York City in 1973; it opens on Lauren Blackwell slamming the door behind her, visibly annoyed. Joey Mallone, the Blackwell family's spirit guide, passes through the door behind her moments later. Lauren retreats to the …show more content…

Unlike Rosangela, Lauren has worked as a medium for quite some time and isn't easily fazed by the undead roaming New York. A direct result of her experience is that Lauren always feels in control of the situation, which works well with the investigative theme. Lauren and Joey work two cases concurrently in Unbound, and how they ought to proceed is left at the player's discretion. The cases themselves aren't as rooted in the supernatural as the one in Legacy. Instead, they focus on some truly tragic human fates - a move which gives meaning to the work Lauren and Joey do. Blackwell: Unbound is so well written that these stories feel poignant rather than trite and exploitative - in particular, I found the case revolving around the dead woman at the construction site to be powerful. This is not to say that Wadjet Eye abandons the paranormal in Blackwell: Unbound, though. The central conceit--which I think is brilliant by the way--is still uncovering irrefutable evidence convincing a ghost that it is, in fact, dead, and then helping them transition over to the other

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