It's weird, the Blackwell series as a whole is kind of talked about as a classic in the adventure game space, but Epiphany is the only individual game that seems to get any specific praise. The only time anyone ever tells you to play the first four games is when they're telling you how it's worth it as a build to the last one. So how do I even review a game that's retroactively become a glorified prologue to another, presumably better game?

The Blackwell Legacy is competent but nothing amazing. The story doesn't stand on its own. It's short. A couple puzzles are obtuse. The voice acting is rough. The music is annoying. I'm inclined to be kind to it because it hits an incredibly specific nostalgia button for me as someone who grew up playing random freeware adventures from hobbyist developers, but I don't know if I could recommend it on its own merits?

The mechanic of combining dialogue topics in the notebook the way you combine items in the inventory is genuinely clever. A couple puzzles genuinely felt good to solve. The character writing shows a lot of potential. It ends before any of the problems have a chance to become irritating. I do see why adventure game fans gave this series a chance in 2006 when pickings were slim, and I am interested enough that I'll probably get to the other games eventually but again, I don't know. There's a reason nobody really talks about this one by itself.

More than anything, it makes me want to play 5 Days a Stranger again.

Guess I had one more game to squeeze in before the peculiar year of 2020 reached its end. Blackwell Legacy is the first of the point-and-click adventure series, influenced by the 90's works under Lucasarts and such, so I feel familiar here. You play as Rosa Blackwell, a writer who reluctantly partners with her family ghost Joey after getting in touch with her medium abilities.

Since I played it with commentaries on, it was nice to not only get along with the journey of solving puzzles and investigating the fates of people. I also get to know more of the work process of the game, as well as the mistakes that ended up as take-away lessons.

The notes system, where you combine clues to form new discoveries, feels quite innovative and opens for new possibilities to progress the story. It's hard to find such a similar thing applied in other games.

As much as I'd like to handle by myself through the game, there are some obstacles in the puzzle that were nearly impossible to figure out since there were little to no clues figure out the next move (Joey's random presence that distorts the radio signal, for instance). A guide was necessary for me to get the game done in time.

Otherwise, Blackwell Legacy has some intrigue to entice fans of classic adventure games; a decent, relatively short introduction to the Blackwell series.

For such a small bite of a game, The Blackwell Legacy has some surprising heft to it, setting up a series with a compelling plot, sympathetic characters, and streamlined gameplay that helps define one of Wadjet Eye Games' earliest efforts.

Taking the role of a young freelance writer with social anxiety, you find yourself wrapped up in plots of death and the supernatural, partnering with a ghost to help spirits move onto the afterlife and solving the mystery behind their deaths.

Gameplay is simple and streamlined - I found the iOS version a bit difficult to navigate at first, but the touch interface works well with pointing things out in the scene and helpfully tracking down objects in the case of a pixel hunt. Thankfully enough, the game wasn't too obtuse with its puzzle aspects either, even using character reactions to nudge the player in a certain direction they felt they were supposed to go.

The graphics are surprisingly decent for bringing a piece of New York to life and the voice acting is remarkable for an indie effort at the time. However, the game is rather short and doing some basic actions (combining items in the inventory without being able to scroll the inventory) can be a bit awkward.

Regardless, The Blackwell Legacy is something special, and definitely worth a couple bucks of your time.

I played through all the series in about a week or so, so my recollection of these early games isn't as robust.

GOG had the Blackwell series on sale & I figured it looked interesting enough for the low price they were charging. They are designed like those old point'n'click adventure games, even being designed with that retro pixel art style.
This entry isn't very heavy on the puzzles that defines those genre of games though, instead edging more towards an interactive mystery novel. The game is lots of dialogue and using clues from witnesses to piece together the mystery of the ghost haunting the dog park.

This is a series more dedicated to the story than the puzzles gameplay. And I really enjoyed the world created by the Blackwell games. This 1st games does suffer from being the one required to set up all the big exposition points. So, some characters, Joey, haven't really come into their personality yet, because they just have to be explainers. I enjoyed the characters of Rosa & Joey. They sort of brush over how Joey was killed, and I started guessing he was actually a mobster back in the day. Rosa's neighbor, Nishanti, I expected her to play a bigger role in the series. They set her up as the wise old woman type and I figured she'd become Rosa's confidant regarding her spiritual powers. About the ending, I figured the demon would've also been another antagonist that may've appeared later on.

There were some downsides to this game. You can tell the amateur level of this game, the recordings for Joey's voice were on a very shoddy microphone with lots of pops. The game was also very short. If this weren't on sale I would've been hard pressed to pay any money for this game, cause it's on the same level as other adventure games I played for free back in the day, like A Small Favor.

All in all, it was an intriguing, if short, game that made me excited for number 2.