Blackwell Unbound

I couldn't help it, a couple of days break and then straight into the sequel.  What's this, it's the 70s?  And we're playing as Aunt Lauren?  Now you're talking.

The structure of this follow up game is markedly better than the original.  Running two cases in parallel, with minor overlaps, means a lot more options for what to do next, and a lot less getting stuck. The writing remains very good, although the voice acting is a bit more hit and miss. Still, for an indie game like this to have full voice acting is enough of a surprise, so picking at the quality seems a little churlish. The story behind the two ghosts is just as interesting as in the original, and once again I ended up genuinely invested in putting them to rest.

One thing I'm less keen on is having to ask people multiple times about the same clue in my notebook in order to get the next bit of information I need.  When I play voiced adventure games, I like to try and avoid making characters repeat themselves, but in this game, reaching that point in the dialogue is the only way to know you've got as much as you can.  The identical delivery lessens immersion, and with a game as heavy with noir atmosphere as this, that's a crime.  It's also high praise, of course.  If the atmosphere wasn't worth soaking in, I wouldn't care about the occasions where the cracks appear.