I finished the Blackwell series. The fifth and final game was decent enough in story, up and down in gameplay. I think it had more “traditional” adventure moon logic type puzzles. I liked the fourth game best as a game, possibly also as a story. Ben Chandler’s pixel art is always amazing to look at. The guy also created the graphics for the fourth Blackwell game, Technobabylon, Shardlight, and Unavowed.
This is a case where you’ll definitely want to experience the first two or three games to get the whole story (plus they only take a few hours, whereas the last game is definitely a lot larger), but you could potentially also just play the (third,) fourth and fifth game. As I said, I thought the second game was a bit of a drag, and the fifth game basically tries to tie all previous games together, partially reintroducing the same drag. The principle is the same, but it’s less bothersome due to slightly improved character control. Double click to speed up room navigation and instant map access would’ve been nice to have as well.
Overall I’d recommend checking out the series, but with some reservations.
My order of Wadjet Eye recommendations:
- Primordia (must play)
- Technobabylon (more than decent, story a bit cliché)
- Unavowed (bit Telltale-like, enjoyable)
- Shardlight (it’s nice, sort of Primordia light)
- Blackwell (bit rough, but good graphics/music/atmosphere smooth things out during lesser parts)
I haven’t yet played The Shivah or A Golden Wake.
(One might note that my top two “Wadjet Eye” games were only published by them, and perhaps I should tie Unavowed and Shardlight for third place…)