Blacksad: Under the Skin (XS)

Reviewer's Note: Given the praises and critiques I have for this narrative-focused title, there will be SPOILERS down below.  Although I'll try to remain as vague as possible, read on at your own risk.

1950s New York City.  A cat can disappear in a place like this, whether by vocation or not depending on who you know.  You look at these brick-n-mortar buildings and iron skyscrapers at two points: towards the top as a beacon of opportunity and towards the bottom to see who's lurking in their casted shadows.  While the golden age of Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler, and other noir writers is in the rearview mirror, that hasn't stopped other creatives from crafting their own pulpy tales.  When the first Blacksad bandes dessinée arrived in 2000, the hook was film noir with anthropomorphic animals.  Fast-forward nearly two decades and it finally sees a game adaptation.  After its reportedly rough launch during the previous generation (2019), Pendulo Studios & co.'s current-gen refresh provides this hard-boiled feline with a well-deserved second chance.

Step into the leather shoes of Private Eye John Blacksad, a black feline donning a sleek trench coat.  His next case: a young Sonia Dunn hires him to learn more about her father's presumed suicide at his boxing gym; at the same time, Joe Dunn's greatest pupil, Bobby Yale, has been missing since his death.  On top of the suspicious circumstances surrounding this corpse, Yale's disappearance before his headlining fight against the current world champ has upset some shady people with deep pockets.  If Blacksad doesn’t find answers soon, he runs the risk of solving two deaths.


From the opening minutes lifting from Chinatown to Inon Zur's jazzy score, Under the Skin captures the film noir vibe from the get, you dig?  It doesn't take long to start unspooling various threads either, like demurring the alleged "suicide" without needing to view the body.  Rather clumsy of New York's finest to initially presume that – a big upfront toll on your suspending disbelief, but perhaps their minds were occupied by the new Krispy Kreme opening a few blocks down.  The police's inadequacies serve to solidify Blacksad's better sleuthing and intuition.  With his handy lockpick and Mind Palace, he's able to scour for contextual clues and deduce which ones go together, leading to more and more connected dots.

Similar to TellTale or Sherlock Holmes titles, the meat of this gameplay loop is walking to and fro, examining various objects that may be of use, and dialoguing with NPCs; it's not all that different from the regular dick in a detective pulp – minus the quick-time events (QTEs) to get out of trouble.  If familiar with this song and dance then you'll mostly know what to expect.  There are a couple of fun surprises though.  Sometimes one of your binary choices is a hidden fail state, instead of both options leading down the same path with a different tone.  Sometimes that speed bump is poorly implemented, but it generally works in this context.  He has nine lives after all, right?

When oriented away from action-based decisions, Under the Skin's dialogue choices are there to suss out new information and/or tailor your Blacksad.  Since this world tries to replicate 1950s USA, there's no shortage of topics to navigate: performance-enhancing drugs, illegal gambling, blackmailing, and racism, to name a few.  The last one in particular caught me by surprise for its implementation: the impeccably-named Arctic Nation doesn't take too kindly to… "furs of color," shall we say.  Unsurprisingly, Blacksad's outlook on racism is set in stone, but there's a fair amount of latitude elsewhere that enables him to be either a moralizing paragon or a flexible rogue; after all, maybe it's better to put up an impure façade for the investigation.


Past investigating what's visibly seen or dialogue, Blacksad's "Cat Sense" is another means of gaining valuable insights.  Going into this monochromatic observational mode enables spot points of interest with either his eyes, ears, or nose.  A great concept that delineates itself from the standard detective adventures, but it's a shame how limited it feels – whether by design or Unity Engine limitations.  Instead of it being a dialogue option to select, it could've gone to the next level as a Detective Mode flipped on/off in real time.  Interrogating someone whilst spotting any tells (within a limited window) could be incredibly dynamic and flashy, hearing Blacksad's internal thoughts segue to the NPC’s dialogue or vice versa.

Similar to that, other minor gameplay elements feel too stiff and static.  Blacksad's laggard walking pace can't be altered and dialogue scenes can't be skipped through – an annoying quibble for anyone who reads much faster than the dialogue is spoken.  Interacting with the environment can be inconsistent too, especially when needing to stand in the correct spot for the contextual interaction to pop up again.  Similar to the odd glitch or framerate stutter during a cutscene (a la most recent TellTale games), Under the Skin feels like one good update away from cleaning up these nagging papercuts too.  Of course, that shouldn't be given a full pass since this does count as a second try already.

There are a few finicky elements and its best design nuances aren't utilized to their full potential, but that's easier to forgive when this yarn ensorcells you from beginning to end.  Rediscovering that interest in noir is like returning to your favorite greasy restaurant in town.   Sure, it passed the health inspection with a bribe, but it has the best hash browns and eggs; similarly, no other genre captures the flawed hero and debonair tone quite like it.


That praise comes with a few qualifiers though.  No offense to Writer/Director Ramón Hernáez and Writer Josué Monchan, but they're no James Ellroy or Dashiell Hammett; that said, I'm not gaming's Roger Ebert either.  This Blacksad doesn't have a near-infinite trove of witty rejoinders on hand, but Barry Johnson's smooth voiceover can make anything sound cool.  In a way, there's a certain uncle-esque charm in him having a drier, more analytical method of phrasing.  One strange absence is the missing femme fatale.  Given some of the leering shots for several female side characters – even leopard secretary side boobs – it's not like they're afraid of playing up its sensuality.  This isn't to say romance or romantic betrayal are absent, but rather the subject matter is tamed compared to what's signalled at the beginning.

Maybe it's not the most sexy or suave, but Under the Skin's foundation remains fundamentally sound.  For a 10-hour journey without the option of dialogue-skipping, it's impressive that the pacing never feels lumpy.  There's a steady trickle of new clues to gather that inch you closer and closer to the final mystery.  It's also helped by a well-managed deduction system where Blacksad's trip into his mind palace requires you pensively break down what clues connect.  Certain one-off gameplay segments, like reminding yourself about someone you're impostering through mechanics, also fuse with the story in creative ways.  It's a damn exciting ride filled with genuine intrigue and colorful characters through and through.


When considering what Blacksad: Under the Skin accomplishes – mechanically and narratively – it's a shame its initial 2019 release was so rough.  While still not polished to a purr-fect sheen, enough work has been done to lucidly evaluate the game proper: design, narrative, and so on.  Sure, TellTale's trappings will be immediately felt – a couple of which are inconsistently implemented, but certain tweaks naturally map onto this world and give it a special attitude.  Better yet, it's a sound foundation on which to support a well-acted & enthralling noir yarn that's worth unspooling.

Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee's obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, and TechRaptor! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.

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