The Blackwell Epiphany – Review

The Blackwell Epiphany is the last entry in Wadjet Eye’s Blackwell series of supernatural Point & Click adventure games starring Medium Rosangella Blackwell and her ghostly companion Joey Malone. In this last entry, the stakes are higher, the suspense is greater and things come full circle in one of the best saga endings in the history of adventure gaming. The Good

• Fantastic puzzle design combining Rosangella and Joey’s skills.
• Sending ghosts on their merry way is always fun and touching.
• Strong plot.
• Search engine.
• Has a proper ending and closure.
• Good music and terrific voice acting.

The Bad

• Plot takes a weird left turn near the end.

The Blackwell Epiphany opens with Rosangella working as a consultant for the police (something I knew would happen as every Urban Fantasy hero eventually does it). She’s tasked with investigating an abandoned crack-house for Detective Durkin, whom we met in a previous installment of the series and who in this case refuses to tell Rosangella what’s up.

Upon completing the job and sending a ghost to the merry afterlife, a man shows up and tries to talk to Rosangella before he’s shot and killed in front of her. Before she and Joey can send his spirit over, the soul is ripped apart and destroyed, much to their shock. From there, they go into an investigation into the victim and the strange group he and his friends belonged to and how it ties to her role as Bestower.

From the start, the puzzles are strong and combine all the elements that make the Blackwell games such a strong adventure series. You’ll need keen observation skills as not paying attention can make you miss key information. You’ll need to use the search engine, one of my favourite mechanics of the game; I love being able to type stuff at my leisure and try to find things unrelated to the plot and puzzles. Checking your notes and combining them is essential. Then of course is your inventory, your contacts in your phone and Joey’s limited but useful abilities. You’ll need to use them all and sometimes in succession to go through the plethora of puzzles needed to help bring ghosts to the other side and solve the main plot.

The plot itself is pretty good and progress is made through ‘bestowing’ ghosts, each new spirit giving you another piece of the big puzzle and eventually drawing you to the endgame, which is where things take a turn for the weird, with the main villain’s reveal and its ties to the plot coming almost out of nowhere. Each ghost has its own story and most are heartbreaking, but others are very touching and managed to move me, as did the fantastic ending, of which I can’t speak more of without risking spoilers.

Voice acting is uniformly strong, but I hold Joey’s Noir-style speech in a very special place in my heart and I loved listening to him every minute of the game, but Rosangella is equally fantastic. The music itself is very good and moody, and fits into the supernatural Noir feel Blackwell always goes for.

I’m sad to see the Blackwell series go away, especially with how much I enjoy it. But I’m glad it went out with such a fantastic ending. It provides closure and brings a satisfying end to Joey and Rosangella’s story. I do hope Wadjet Eye gives us more stories in this fantastic setting. I need my ghost-bestowing fix!

The Mental Attic Score: Worth Overpaying! If you already liked the Blackwell series, then this game has everything you enjoyed but turned up to 11 and over 9000! If you haven’t, then go get them all right now!