2021: My Year of Wadjet Eye
Intro
At the outset of 2021, I made the decision to finally play through all of the Blackwell games. Something I had started almost a decade ago but never finished.
As it turned out, this was a fairly modest goal that did not take long. So, with the release of Strangeland just around the corner at that time, I made the decision that by the end of 2021 I would finish all of the Wadjet Eye published games that I hadn't yet finished, or finished so long ago that I had forgotten much about them (I first finished The Shivah in it's "Monthly AGS Jam" form 15 years ago.)
To me, the "death" of adventure games has always been somewhat of a fallacy. While supposedly dead in the early 2000s, they were also the most common genre of game sold. Wadjet Eye have a reputation for making "throwback" games as a result of this. In my opinion though their catalogue is one of the best in games, and their games should be discussed in the same way one would discuss the works of Sierra or Lucasarts.
I present here the games of Wadjet Eye. Ranked, from last to first, with some brief commentary. I would generally recommend any of these games, none are really terrible. However some stand out as better than others, while other games are a tad disappointing and could be better than they are.
Included Games
I aimed to include every game developed or published by Wadjet Eye. I did not include any of Dave Gilbert's pre-Wadjet Eye AGS games, nor games where he worked only on the audio side.
However there are some exceptions:
- Emerald City Confidential is no longer available in Australia on Steam due to Valve "adding support for Australian Dollars" a few years back (this is to be read as "Removed hundreds of games from sale in Australia because there is nobody around to set a price in Australian Dollars.") And apparently I had not already purchased the game prior to this. So it is not included on this list.
- The publishing rights for A Golden Wake have since returned to the developer (Grundislav games). However it was still listed as published by Wadjet Eye at the time I started this project.
- I know Wadjet Eye was involved in the initial release of Downfall by Harvester Games (2009) in some way. But I'm not sure of the specifics, and the revamped version in 2014 did not involve Wadjet Eye at all. It is not included.
How To Play These Games
All these games are made with Adventure Game Studio (AGS). A design tool/engine for the creation of point and click adventure games.
This software was originally created for DOS in the late 90s and has gone through many different versions and upgrades. All of which have their own weird bugs and idiosyncracies. Wadjet Eye appear to be actively upgrading and replacing older versions with the current latest when time permits, however many (most) of their older games are old AGS versions that have issues with modern windows/the steam overlay. However they are all playable (in Windows at least,) and accessing the winsetup.exe file in the games root directory will allow you to, at worst, set a windowed display mode for the game if you run into issues.
At the time of writing AGS support in SCUMMVM is very good, but still has some game-breaking issues that would prevent a new player from properly enjoying these titles. So at this point I do not recommend it.
Additionally, I recommend playing the Blackwell games in order, from the start, if you are going to play them.
RANKING OF WADJET EYE
16 - THE SHIVAH (2006, remastered in 2013)
The first official Wadjet Eye game and by far the shortest. It was originally created by Dave Gilbert for an AGS forums game jam, and then updated to include much better art and add features like voice actors, etc.
The Shivah is a murder mystery where the player character (Russell Stone, A conservative Rabbi in New York) unknowingly receives a large donation from a recently deceased ex-member of his congregation who left on bad terms. Naturally this makes him a suspect.
This game is pretty rough around the edges compared to more recent Wadjet Eye games (particularly in vocal audio quality.) However it is clearly a step up from the amateur AGS scene from which Wadjet Eye was born.
The game is pretty novel for focussing more on dialogue than traditional "use item on item" adventure game puzzles. You have an inventory of 'clues' as well as 'items', this is something further developed in the notepad system in the Blackwell games. In general this works fairly well. However the gameplay (including the single traditional puzzle) is enough to prevent a visual novel'esque "the game plays itself" flow from developing, but not substantial enough to be satisfying itself.
Later in the game it switches to a more "Your choices matter" procession as you watch the game flow towards one of multiple endings based on dialogue choices.
Overall though the story is satisfying, and includes some challenging themes about the nature of identity and community. And the majority of the characters are well-fleshed out 3 dimensional people (except for a certain weird character that only exists as a plot device.)
15 - The Blackwell Legacy (2006)
The first of Wadjet Eye's flagship Blackwell series (set in the same universe as The Shivah,) and partial retelling of Dave Gilbert's 2003 Bestowers of Eternity.
The game, and series, concerns Rosangela Blackwell, a reporter for a local newspaper mourning the recent loss of her aunt Lauren. And Joey Mallone, who is a ghost.
The game is roughly split into two parts: The first (mostly the story from Bestowers of Eternity) involves Rosa meeting Joey and learning that she is a bestower, someone who can see and talk to ghosts. And is responsible for getting them to accept they are dead and move on.
And the second involves the first of their many adventures solving ghosts' problems and moving them on to the next realm.
Much less rough than The Shivah, it still has issues that were not present in the later games. I had the game crash 3 times due to AGS scripting errors, even in 2021.
The biggest issue though is that the first puzzle in the game (Rosa has to convince a volunteer doorman that she does live in her own apartment building) is the worst kind of Point and Click bullshit.
The story and puzzle-writing are quite good though and the art is quite good for the style (particularly in game 'photos' and similar) and using interviews an Rosa's notebook to solve mysteries is very satisfying. However I will note a weird paradox of extremely realistic and sympathetic portrayals of depressed and suicidal persons, that are undermined by the suicidality literally being caused by ghosts.
14 - A Golden Wake (2014, Grundislav Games)
Note: No longer published by Wadjet Eye. Now self-published by Grundislav Games.
A historical fiction adventure game! The tale of 1920's New York realtor Alfie Banks who, after losing his job, packs up shop and heads to IRL Miami and chases his fortune in the IRL land boom at the time. Then joins the IRL mob for some reason.
This is the first commercial project developed by Francisco Gonzales under the brand Grundislav Games (makers of the Ben Jordan games.) And it is extremely bold in scope. Set against the backdrop of historical early 20th centure Miami, it covers four distinct periods in the life of Alfie Banks.
This is an incredibly frustrating game. Parts of this game are excellent; an incredible backdrop here, a compelling interaction between two characters there, or a random 30 minute side quest for the mob that is completely out of character for the rest of the game. And most notably, the setting in historic Miami.
Unfortunately, the majority of the game is just a loosely connected scenes where Alfie does random jobs for his boss and not much happens. Then one day he gets mad and joins the Mafia.
The developer would go on to make and self-publish the excellent Lamplight City in 2018, which solves most of the issues with this game. However if you finish A Golden Wake it is likely that like I was, you will be able to recall a dozen excellent isolated events in the game but still leave disappointed.
13 - Blackwell Unbound (2007)
The second Blackwell game in the series, however one that is set in the past and has you playing as Rosa's aunt Lauren in 1973. This is also the first that lets you alternate between controlling the ghost Joey or the main character Lauren (or Rosa.) A feature that is used to good effect for some satisfying puzzles throughout the series.
This game is a lot more solidly put together than Blackwell Legacy was, no scripting errors is a huge bonus.
The game also benefits from having a main duo that are more into a routine. The new setting is good too, replacing early 21st century with dictaphones, phonebooks and cigarettes.
The biggest flaw of this game is the number of puzzles that require exhausting all conversation tree options multiple times until you get an explicit "No I have no more information" answer.
12 - Shardlight (2016)
Credited as "A Game By Ben Chandler and Francisco Gonzalez," Shardlight is a game set in post-nuclear apocalypse Australia, (where they apparently drive on the right side of the road now,) lit by the glow of shards of uranium glass. In the ruins of society a mock-roman aristocracy has ascended to power. Leaving the poor in poverty and ravaged by plague, for which there is a "vaccine" that is limited in supply...
...
The protagonist, Amy Wellard, does menial labour, (like servicing Nuclear power reactors... (of which there are none in Australia)) in order to qualify for said vaccine.
Wadjet Eye are well and truly on their game by this point. The art and presentation are top-knotch, and the audio production is superb. The characters of this ruined world really come to life and the web of the various political and religious factions feels like a genuine product of life within the world.
The gameplay and story itself is very compelling, but suffers badly from violent swings in tone between wacky hijinx (having a friendly crow harrass a guard to sneak by him,) to ultra-violence (ultimately escaping by causing an unmaintained HVAC unit to fall on said guard, pulverising his skull in a mass of blood.) More annoyingly, the game suddenly shifts at the very end to offering you the choice of "Do you want to be good/bad/some combination of good and bad?" endings.
The puzzles are ok and rarely obstructive, but also have the opposite issue from Blackwell Unbound, where you have to speak to a long forgotten character for no reason and suddenly notice a new "Do you know the combination to this door?" option.
11 - The Blackwell Epiphany (2014)
The final Blackwell game, in some ways (Production, Interface, attention to detail) the best one. In another, more telling way, The most disappointing.
The game starts strongly, you can almost feel the cold from the way midwinter New York is depicted. Rosa's arsenal of technology has been greatly updated by this point and is put to very good use. With the various fake apps being put to good use solving some quite elaborate puzzles. The early plot developments ratchet up the tension very well, both building on a late plot point from Blackwell Deception and beginning to reveal some past lore about Joey.
Somewhere around half way things start to turn. The game still looks and sounds great, (There is some incredible atmospheremoving between the indoors and outdoors of a penthouse apartment in the middle of a snowstor.) But the plot begins to unravel; a major subcharacter disappears for no reason and is replaced by a stand-in for mechanical purposes, and the entire overarching storyline of the last two games is resolved by a random guy in a backroom confessing to his actions, in what is a totally unrelated scene.
To me though, the biggest disappointment is the ending. It's an ending that is entirely suitable for the series as a whole, but is totally unconnected from Blackwell Epiphany the individual, standalone game and is much more like the ending from a hypothetical Blackwell 6. Almost as if they got sick of making Blackwell games half way through this one and just decided to end the series here.
A final note. Their later work Unavowed, in the same universe, does follow up on the implications of this game in a rather excellent and rewarding way.
10 - Resonance (2012, XII games)
Resonance is one of Wadjet Eye's most ambitious games. It was Developed by VinceXII, creator of the bizarre split-screen parallel world of What Linus Bruckman Sees When His Eyes Are Closed (Apparently set in the same universe.) It concerns the development of a futuristic power source/weapon called "Resonance", and the murder of its creator by means of the very technology he created.
The main gameplay gimmicks of Resonance are twofold: 1) There are 4 characters to control, 2) A unique Long Term and Short Term memory system that allows concepts/memories/conversations to be used in a similar manner to inventory items.
The game starts at an exciting pace with an incredible FMV intro, and then introducing each of the four characters and their motivations in (simultaneous in universe) set-pieces taking place just before the pivotal murder.
From there it settles into a bit of a grind as the four characters co-operate to solve the mystery. This part of the game should be the most interesting, but when actually playing it turns into a bit of a chore to manouver the right character into the right spot. The Short-Term Memory process, (involving clicking and dragging an in world object into the "STM" slot) is a particularly egregious offender here. For every puzzle it is used inventively, there are two where a character has to walk for a minute, click an item into memory, then return.
I am glad I pushed through this though, as the final act of the game kicks off with a truly shocking plot twist that I did not see coming. Once the game returns to a more "on rails" experience, the true highlights of the game, The gripping story and excellent art and character acting, are allowed to shine again.
9 - The Blackwell Convergence (2009)
The third Blackwell game and the first to have Rosa and Joey working as an established pairing. This is the game that really cemented the formula for a Blackwell game: "Intro mystery -> Late Title Card -> Key plot -> open-ended mysteries to solve -> mysteries solved and plot advances -> 2nd set of open-ended mysteries -> plot advances -> final confrontation"
By this point, all the rough edges have been sanded off and the game functions as intended. And the combo of Rosa and Joey are used in a very mechanically interesting manner. Graphics and audio are incrementally improving too, and the depictions of the various New York locales really ground the game in a realistic setting.
I think this game immerses the player in the Blackwell universe better than any. There is a lot of under the surface detail to everything, meaningful callbacks and side characters from the previous games greatly enrich the world.
I very much enjoy the fake internet in this game too. You have to use fake google, fake gmail and fake geocities.com website (complete with underconstruction.gif) to solve the mysteries within this game. Though this does lead to the games biggest flaws, sometimes you will read articles that connect Person1 to Person2 way earlier than you should, with no acknowledgement.
8 - The Blackwell Deception (2012)
The fourth Blackwell game, my personal favourite, and the game to introduce smartphones. Deception starts with the main duo breaking and entering, then investigating strange occurences on a wealthy persons boat. Without spoiling the details it ends, after my favourite sequences in the series, with Rosa exiting the Hudson River under the lights of nighttime New York as the late title card fills the screen.
Despite a bit of a problem with a single dodgy puzzle bottlenecking the middle of the game, to me this is the best you can get from the Blackwell series. The art (with a retouch added later,) audio and scriptwriting all continue to improve over previous games.
A big improvement in this game is the effectiveness with which they portray the character of the ghosts and the sadness and tragedy of their stories. Of particular note is the return to tackling serious themes such as depression/suicide and the exploitation of the vulnerable by malicious scam artists, without the clumsyness present in The Blackwell Legacy.
7 - Puzzle Bots (2010, Ivy Games)
Puzzle Bots is a game that I bought at launch, that I remember being "fine", but ultimately forgettable. I am glad that I decided to revisit it this year, because the game is actually a great game with fun puzzles and a very engaging story line, that doesn't outlive its welcome and can be easily finished in a couple of hours.
Developed chiefly by Ivy Games (Erin Robinson Swink, later responsible for Gravity Ghost and now working on Horizon: Forbidden West) Puzzle Bots is the story of a group of inventors working for some sort of random invention company, who each develop their own miniature robot capable of solving miniature robot dungeons and other household tasks.
Said inventors get involved in a story of romance, intrigue and mystery, as the origins of said company and it's aloof owner are revealed. Meanwhile the robots (controlled by you) end up going on miniature adventures of their own. Usually to solve problems for their humans.
The puzzles in this game really make use of the various disparate abilities of the bots and are satisfying to solve. While the main plot involving the humans is very well, if cheesily, acted and genuinely funny from start to finish.
One of the best and most underrated Wadjet Eye games.
6 - Da New Guys: Day of the Jackass (2012, ICEBOX studios)
Speaking of underrated. Da New Guys: Day of the Jackass is a game I almost skipped because I didn't know (or had forgotten) it existed. The game is not available on any major storefront, and can only be purchased through the Wadjet Eye website directly.
This game is the very definition of a hidden gem. It is a truly excellent game full of great characters and humour that actually made me laugh out loud several times. While also somehow having a compelling mystery-thriller plot driving the whole thing.
This game is a direct sequel to a 2003 AGS game Da New Guys. It concerns the titular "New Guys", a trio of wrestlers (Simon, Defender, and Brain) who compete in the "Wrestle Zone" pro-wrestling circuit.
The game begins with an intro/tutorial scene where Brain (controlled by you) wins the championship belt in a supremely unsatisfying manner. This kicks off a series of events akin to the typical out-of-ring wrestling faire that surrounds the lust for championship belts, culminating in Brain's kidnapping and the belt's disappearance. From their the main plot follows. The game does bog down a bit at the end with an overly long fetch quest. But generally speaking, every twist in the plot is interesting and compelling.
Monkey Island-clone humour and zanyness is by far the most common form of amateur/indie adventure game development out there. Despite this, it's not a style Wadjet Eye usually traffic in. They and Icebox STUDIOS nail it absolutely. There is a scene involving a kitchen fire that is genuinely some of the best comic timing I've seen in any video game.
The art deserves a particular highlight too. Despite the simplistic style, a lot of the shots are very well composed, and there is even some pretty decent (CG) FMV as well.
5 - Primordia (2014, Wormwood Studios)
The first of two Wormwood Studios adventure games. Primordia concerns the robot Horatio Nullbuilt and his sidekick Crispin Horatiobuilt (a floating wisecrack generator/hint provider) as they attempt to survive in a (literally) lifeless post-apocalypse and discover the history of "Man", a progenitor race from Horatio's religion of "Humanism".
The game kicks off mid-action with a giant robot damaging Horatio's home and stealing an important piece of technology. From there it is roughly split into two parts. The first half is an investigation in the wastes of the ruined world and encountering the various robots and ruined technology that inhabit it. The artwork here is superb and really manages to imbue an incredible character to a scorched landscape devoid of any organic matter.
The second half of the story, occurs when Horatio realises he must visit the remaining robot inhabited city of Metropol, which he is programmed to avoid. This part is where the game really shines. Metropol is stunningly depicted society filled with many intelligent robots of many disparate designs and character. The developers also manage to create a rich history and politics for this city of machines.
The biggest flaw with Primordia is the puzzles. Which aren't overly terrible, but can be very pixel-huntish and non-intuitive. More annoyingly, they tend to be a bit of a bottleneck for the plot. And Crispin's "hints" tend to appear when you are looking for a random quip during a simple puzzle, but offer little help for the difficult puzzles.
The counterpoint to the puzzles obstructing plot, is that when they are solved they almost always involve an interesting plot movement or scene or long monologue from a philosophical robot.
Genuinely an excellent game and I recommend anyone play through to the end.
4 - Strangeland (2021, Wormwood Studios)
Wormwood Studios' second adventure game, after a brief dalliance with the platformer genre with Until I Have You. Strangeland is an extremely weird and surreal psychological horror that draws inspiration from numerous sources, including Sanitarium and Dark Seed.
Presented in stunning 640x360 resolution (just like Dark Seed!) Strangeland is the story of "The Stranger" who suddenly materialises in a floating carnival in a cloudy sky, while seeing a beautiful woman kill herself over and over. From there he encounters a circus tent that insults him as he walks in on it's tongue, a vindictive mermaid, various insulting crows, a cicada mount and many other bizarre entities. Also he repeatedly dies, a lot.
Most important of all is a payphone, which he can use to call himself for hints to the game. Unlike Primordia, if you seek help enough times it will straight up tell you the solution.
As a result, this is a relatively short ~3 to 4 hour game. But it is densely packed with various grotesque characters and horrifying imagery. All brilliantly written and acted, and even the characters who are only on screen for 5 minutes seem as if they have hours of backstory.
While on the surface this game would seem to be just a collection of random spooky scenes and random puzzles cobbled together into a game. The thematic links between the events in the game are extremely strong and underpin what eventually turns into an extremely strong narrative. One that touches on the nature of depression, anxiety and forgiveness and how they affect our relationships with those we love.
Absolutely one of my favourite games of 2021. A must play for anyone who can even tolerate point and click adventures.
3 - Gemini Rue (2011, Joshua Nuernberger)
The first masterpiece in Gemini Rue's catalogue. Gemini Rue is a sci-fi adventure from Joshua Nuernberger (maker of the excellent La Croix Pan) whose main innovation is the addition of a "kick" verb to the usual point and click palette...
Also it's an exceptionally well made thriller that weaves two parallel stories together exquisitely.
One story concerns "Delta Six", an amnesiac test subject captive within some unknown facility and its cold, sterile halls.
The other takes place on Barracus, a permanently rain-soaked mining colony. Where the player controls noir'ish undercover cop "Azriel" from offworld, as he dodges authorities and organised criminals to search for information about his missing brother.
Azriel's detective work is a particular highlight for me. Every puzzle solve feels unwraps a layer to the story in a way constantly feels like the mystery is being solved, but also creates more questions than it answers. Leaving an enormous, but compelling void at the centre of the story. By the time Azriel and Delta-6's stories come together, it does so in a way that makes perfect sense but is still truly surprising.
I will say that that the puzzles can be a bit obtuse at time (one requires recognising a single row of pixels as a bar holding a sliding door closed,) and some of them are pseudo-quicktimes that gate progress. And the occasional forced combat scene can get annoying. However these can thankfully be skipped.
2 - Technobabylon (2015, Technocrat Games)
Technobabylon is a cyberpunk thriller set in the city of "Newton" in the far future of 2087. It started life as a series of free vignettes (also titled Technobabylon) in 2010/2011 linked by a single underlying grand story. After this development shifted to making a singular commercial game.
The game itself is set in a future of a ubiquitous VR internet called the "Trance", and advanced Genetic Engineering and cybernetic modification. In typical Cyberpunk there is a focus on the fringes of society in this system, with occasional ventures into how the better half live.
The game is split into many small acts (matching the earlier free vignettes,) where you typically play as one of three characters; Latha, a Trance-addicted shut in. Regis, a middle-aged scientist/cop. And Max Lao, Regis' cop partner. All three of them are drawn into a grand conspiracy involving Central (The AI that runs Newton) and a serial killer called "The Mindjacker".
This structure works incredibly well in this sort of game. (The "episodic" nature of the game means that you never have to go back to a random crimescene from 2 hours ago because you forgot to pick the business card out of the dead body's pocket that you will need to pick the lock on some random office door in the final act.) The self-contained puzzles are generally fun to solve and each individual scene gives a different perspective on the unfolding story of the game.
This is an excellent game that is still one of the most cutting edge and bold adventure games to this day.
1 - Unavowed (2018)
You wake up on a city roof in a thunderstorm and find yourself having an evil entity exorcised from your body. You tell the exorcisors your name and prior occupation (cop/bartender/actor,) and discover that your body has spent the last year of your life indiscriminantly murdering innocent people as part of some supernatural ritual. Thus ends your induction into an underground group of similarly afflicted people called "The Unavowed".
I praise Unavowed so frequently, that it's a running joke in my circle of internet friends to refer to it as "2018's game of the year - Unavowed" (even though I might consider Obra Dinn just as good.) It is another game in the Blackwell/Shivah universe around New York, though playing those is not required. This time the scope is much larger, the game is ~2x-3x the size of a normal Blackwell game and the HD (1280x720!) graphics really add an extra layer of shine.
The principal gameplay of Unavowed involves the players custom self-insert character investigating the supernatural mystery of the week with two of their other buddies from the Unavowed (an immortal genie, his immortal half-genie daughter, a seemingly ageless 1950s salaryman and fire mage, a Bestower (like from Blackwell), and spookiest of all... an ex-cop.) Not only are the mysteries fun to investigate and often truly bizarre. But there are many different ways to approach solving them, depending upon your characters background and who you have in your party at the time. In this regard it takes influence from other multi-character adventure games, but also more diverse influences such as the Mass Effect series.
The overall story of the game is no less interesting and remains a constant lingering presence behind your characters presence. The way the story develops towards the end really elevates it from a regular fun supernatural story, to one that offers very meaningful commentary on the nature of an individual's identity.
Overall Unavowed builds on and improves everything that was good about the Blackwell games and fixes almost everything that was wrong with them. In doing so it achieves more than almost any other adventure game. It is definitely one of my favourite games of all time and I would definitely recommend it to anyone.
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(Special Thanks to Fae Daunt for some writing advice and checking for egregious errors/omissions)
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