The Blackwell Convergence (2009)

Let's get the negative out of the way first. The puzzles in this one are tedious. The clever notebook mechanic from the previous games is absent. The character sprites are worse than in the second installment (though the dialogue portraits from the first game are back, so maybe it's a wash there). And worst of all, the mystery is fairly thin and repeats a lot from the prequel.

I was fully ready to give Convergence two stars and move on, but the ending was genuinely really interesting. It gives a real shape to the overarching plot and sets up some recurring characters for the next couple games. If I play the next two games and they suck, I'll come back and knock a star off this one, but it really does seem to be pointing the way toward better, more ambitious things for this series

Wow, the series just keeps getting better. I liked the stronger noir vibes in Unbound, but everything else about Convergence was another step forward.

Most importantly, there were no puzzles that made me feel like I needed to mind meld with Dave Gilbert to solve. That's a big sticking point for me in the point and click genre, so it was nice to avoid for once. They also finally let you ask your spirit partner for a tip on what to do next if your stuck, which is really nice for the times when you suspect you missed something but aren't sure where you're best off spending your time looking. I had to pay attention, but I was never frustrated, so the gameplay was spot on for my preferences.

The story delves a bit deeper into the universe's lore and is even more introspective with the characters motivations and emotional states. The character writing and voice acting remain strong points for the game. As with the previous Blackwell games, it does a lot with a very short 3 hour run time.

The art moves to a higher resolution while maintaining the same overall style, which I enjoyed. The music brought in quite a bit of jazz influences from the second game, while largely returning to the more modern sound track of the first game. Very well done.

I really don't like the 5 point rating systems since I like to save the highest score for the top ~2% of games I play, and that's tough to do with so few bins. I'm not sure if The Blackwell Convergence quite reaches those heights, but its darn close. Since the series to this point has managed to make me reconsider my decades long dislike of point and click adventure games, I'll go ahead and bump it up to 5/5.

For a series so consistent thus far, it's so satisfying for the plot to come to fruition and bring together what feels like just the answer players needed to the Blackwell series so far.

Rejoining Rosa and Joey, the murders from the previous game start to make familiar appearances, bringing back an old foe. Stringing together three cases into a cohesive whole is the plot's strong point, where different and mysterious investigations bring back old characters and fatal consequences.

The gameplay is pretty much identical with some slight improvements. No longer limited to a phone book, the search engine on Rosa's computer is much more robust and the email function rewards some solid snooping. The player can still switch between characters, but investigation is much more streamlined, with no longer having to throw two clues together in the notepad - they're strictly conversation topics on NPCs.

The voice acting is top notch and the visuals look better than ever, with a thematic visual around plenty of rain. It's great atmosphere, and is backed up with some humorous and compelling dialogue between two partners who have really become used to their own quirks.

The Blackwell Convergence (so far) is arguably the best of the series, and wraps up a fantastic trilogy of adventure games. It will definitely be tough to top this installment.

The middle game of the Blackwell series, and as such, the one I remember the least about. We're back with Rosa and the graphics & animations are slowly progress, still in that pixel art style though. And I think this is when they make Joey's wind power an object to use, instead of just the left click, which makes no sense, cause Joey can't talk to people anyways.

This story is related to Lauren's in Unbound as the big bad ghost in this game is the crazy lady from Unbound. We also meet the ghost of Joseph Mitchell, who appeared in Unbound. So, we start where we weave all the games into one overarching story. We're introduced to Madeline in dreams, being cryptic and mysterious. The history of Joey isn't brought up in this game or what it is that drove the Blackwell women crazy, as there was some mystery that it may've been Joey or the act of not helping ghosts. This game has a bit more length to it and feels less just like a level in a bigger game.