10/11 – The Blackwell Legacy

Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day.

It’s no secret that as graphics become more and more realistic, systems become more and more advanced, many gamers have found comfort in retro-stylings and the indie game scene has certainly run with this. 8 and 16 bit style games are everywhere and many indie developers are even looking to revive retro genres. One such series sought to revive point and click adventure games, a nearly non-existent genre in the mid-2000’s. Today’s game is The Blackwell Legacy, developed and published by Wadjet Eye Games on Windows PCs in 2006.

The Blackwell Legacy follows Rosa Blackwell, a New York journalist who is tasked with investigating an unusual suicide at New York University. She discovers that being able to see and speak with ghosts is a trait passed down in her family and after the death of her aunt, she has now become a medium. Along with this new ability comes a spirit guide, Joey Mallone, a ghost of a 1920’s man who has become a spirit guide under mysterious circumstances. Together, the two must piece together what happened to the NYU student and Rosa must come to terms with her family history and newfound abilities.

The Blackwell Legacy is a traditional style point and click adventure, similar to the Monkey Island games or Grim Fandango. Gameplay consists of talking with characters and choosing dialogue options for Rosa. Players also must solve inventory style puzzles, using items found around the world in strange ways to progress through the story. The Blackwell Legacy will be immediately familiar to anyone who has played an Adventure Game before.

The Blackwell Legacy was well-received for what it was, a nostalgic take on the Adventure Game genre, a genre that had been mostly forgotten in 2006. With the budget price of only 5 US dollars, it was easy to forgive the game for only containing about 3-4 hours of gameplay, perhaps extended by the Developer’s Commentary mode unlocked after completing it. Wadjet Eye Games would go on to turn Blackwell into a five game series and now publishes many classic-style Adventure games such as Primordia, Resonance and Unavowed.

Thank you so much for listening! If you want more Video Game of the Day, our complete archives are available on videogameoftheday.com. Also reach out to me at KatosepeGames@gmail.com or on Twitter @vg_oftheday. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day.