Joe Dunn, a boxing coach and an owner of a gym, is found hanged in his gym. Jake, a boxer and a friend of private eye Blacksad, asks the feline detective to see if there's anything fishy in the case, as Dunn's best boxer has gone missing too. If nothing else, Blacksad could find the boxer, so he wouldn't miss his big break match, which could save the gym from the debtors.
It all seems so straightforward at first. Obviously, the young boxer did it, he had a row with Dunn before going missing. There's other evidence pointing his way too, but there seems to be more in the case, maybe illegal gambling. Or maybe Dunn was sticking his nose in places he should have, he was known to be a straight shooter, after all.
After some wild goose chase, Blacksad finally gets to the bottom of the case. In the end, it's up to him to figure out how he will deal with the situation. Sure, he'll inform his cop pal Smirnoff, that the guilty need to get captured, after all, too many bodies, and too much corruption. But how, that's the question. After all is said and done, the only thing left is to reflect on if you'd choose differently if you'd have the chance.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is based on the comic series of the same name, telling the stories of a war veteran John Blacksad, a massive-sized black cat, working as a private investigator in 1940-1950s New York. Just like the comics, the game is styled as film noir. The world is seedy, filled with dangerous and desperate people, who might be only one turn away from wrecking their lives in their attempts to search for something better, whatever that might be.
Like in most modern adventure games, the main emphasis on the gameplay is the narrative, which is something Blacksad does very well. Despite its many technical shortcomings, the story is what keeps the game afloat. Without the story, I doubt I would have bothered to complete the game with its clumsy controls and bad hotspot detection, which at times demands you to carefully manoeuvre in the right place so that you can interact with something important.
Just as you'd expect from a detective game, Blacksad is mostly about examining the environments for clues and piecing together evidence to get to the bottom of the case. You also need to discourse with several people, suspects, and witnesses alike. In a proper noir fashion, innocence is relative as it is a dirty word. A good noir detective knows not to trust anyone, not even those he knows.
The biggest faults of Blacksad are mostly technical. While some story beats at a tad clumsy, it's really the controls, that are the most surprising flaw, as you'd think in this day and age it would be simple to make a game with smooth 3rd person controls, especially with a gamepad. But that's not the case. There's also a lot of reliance on the most common modern gameplay padding, quicktime events, which cause some headaches on some scenes, as you are most likely forced to repeat some sections a couple of times before you nail them.
Another gripe I have is Blacksad's walking speed. He doesn't run, ever. While that's fine in the larger areas, his slow pace does get a bit annoying in more open areas. This is especially a problem if you need to go back and forth places, so all you can really do is watch how Blacksad slowly walks where he needs to go.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is the 1st Pendulo game I've found myself actually liking. It's not a great game, far from it, but it is interesting, mostly because of the story and the characters. The way it does the detective stuff isn't terrible either and I do reckon the game would have been better had they dropped all of the quicktime stuff in favour of the detective work. They might have had a bit less game, but the result would have been much better.
This is one of those cases, where there's a much better game hiding under some bad design choices and some technical issues. It already has the framework to be a better game, but it doesn't quite get there. I can't say if it's because of budget issues or if the game with its multi-branching story was a bit too much for the developers. Even with that, for my money, this is the best game Pendulo has ever done. Even if that might just be because of how good of a character Blacksad is.
If you like noir-themed detective stories, Blacksad: Under the Skin is something I can cautiously recommend, especially if you get it from sale. You can get the game from GOG and Steam. It's also available for consoles.
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