Review: Blackberry

The horror adventure and walking simulation genre is at its peak today. The biggest contribute to this is made by Unreal Engine flexible tools and its relative free of charge engine distribution model. Of course, you can also find analogues on Unity, but it is the development of Epic Games allowed to breathe life into such adventure games. Even the efforts of a small team can now create a photorealistic adventure with wide open spaces, interactive environments and fascinating scenery. That’s exactly what we get in the Blackberry game.

Story and Gameplay

In the opening cutscene, the Richard Hoffman detective arrives in a wooded wilderness that was supposed to be watched by a family of foresters. However, no one have seen or contacted the family for a long time, so the police send an inspector to investigate. From the first shots, you know that game is not without a mystical component. Rocks falling from somewhere off a cliff, traps and obstacles, shadows of mysterious creatures flashing in the distance – there is enough adventure to go around. And all this fits into a story of modest duration, which you can complete literally during one evening.

The first half hour it seems that we are faced with a classic walking simulator in the spirit of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, where almost nothing happens. The latter had fantastic scenery and beauty, but years after completing it, the only thing that pops into my head is a scary moment in a mining camp. The only screamer in the game was staged beautifully, contrasting with the general melancholy. The rest of the game time the hero simply wandered around, reading notes and studying the tracks on the ground. In Blackberry, things are much more varied.

Gradually, the ominous forest is replaced by an abandoned mansion. It brings to mind the Cabin in the Woods movie and similar teenage horror movies in full compliance with the genre canon. However, then the surprises begin. For example, to play not only on behalf of the detective, but also plunging into the memories of other characters. In one of the episodes, we stumble upon a rural toilet, behind the door of which sits a local drunkard and tells what happened to him the day before. The scattered bottles, slush and dirt at first are perceived comically, but then the terrible truth is revealed… The fate of the missing forest ranger family is revealed in full.

The horror of the Blackberry

The local screamers are competently dosed, they really can scare you at night. Here you can be killed by a monster and get poisoned in the forest thicket (and the picture has an appropriate filter applied to it), so you can’t call what is happening an easy walk. Tension and anxiety are constantly present, there is no getting away from these emotions. It is impossible to deviate from the main route in the woods, but the invisible walls cleverly disguised as poisonous places. The legend of the witch who kidnaps people in the local area, reminiscent of Baba Yaga. In the mansion, however, you periodically stray from the route, but cleverly placed clues will bring you back to the right direction. It’s like playing casino game online, at first you may lose yourself in the vast portfolio of gambling games, but sooner or later you will find the right game for yourself.

I also like one trend that has appeared in AAA-projects and is gradually moving even into smaller games. It’s about a monster that is constantly on the location, controlled by artificial intelligence and brings a bit of variety to the gameplay each time you play the game. When moving around the mansion you have to consider where the “Chupacabra” is headed. Up to a certain point, the player can not oppose it anything, it remains to get away, play hide and seek, predict the routes of the creature. And get scared every time you make a mistake. A similar technique was used in Resident Evil 2 Remake (with Mr. X) and Alien: Isolation (with Xenomorph), although they behaved much smarter there. The secret is in the algorithms of the AI, both knowing where the player is and constantly looking for them with the second hemisphere of the virtual brain. There are also problems with escaping from the monster, since it can be behind a wall, but somehow incomprehensibly detect you.

Puzzles and Riddles in Blackberry

Then comes a series of puzzles. In one, we switch tumblers that make piano sounds – we have to play the notes in a given sequence. In another scene, an evil dead woman takes the hero as a prisoner, offering to play poker on dice for survival. There’s even a table of records, allowing you to compare your achievements with the community. I liked the mini-game, but I well understand people who will not be pleased by such things in the horror game. For example, you came to play in a horror game, and not the poker or blackjack game at toponlinecasinoaustralia.com/games/blackjack.

After completing the main storyline bonus levels will become available to the player, where you have to survive, hide, use shelters. This helps to prolong the game a little more and adds some replayability. The musical themes feel like they were written by a schizophrenic patient, but fit in perfectly with what is going on. The psychological component is really there, which makes the game stand out from the typical horror games available on Steam. Plus add to that several endings that open up depending on your behavior and decisions you’ve made during the game.

Conclusion

Technically, the game isn’t bad. The landscapes and interiors are quite detailed, which is not the case with the monster models. They were either store-bought (you can feel some cliche in the design), or created in a hurry. Animation in general causes more of a smile than horror. But due to the play of light and shadows (as well as the sudden appearance of monsters) game becomes exciting and atmospheric. A good horror project for one-two evenings max.

The game is sold for pennies on Steam, it does not grab the stars from the sky, but is able to give a couple of hours of pleasant emotions. The main thing is to concentrate on the main ideas, paying less attention to the problems.