Rosa Blackwell and her spirit guide, Joey Mallone, pound the New York City pavement in pursuit of a strange serial killer. From Manhattan to the outer limits...

Blackwell Convergence

Thanks Becky! Fantastic review.

Ana

Thanks for the review Becky!

Very interesting review, Becky, but the "B" rating you gave the game came as a complete surprise (almost shock) since I thought you liked it well enough to give the game an "A" at least. I myself give it an "A++" but then I'm completely driven by Character and interaction in adventure games, everything else is just necessary background that I barely notice. Therefore the "style" of graphics, new or old, never matters. The info on the lighthouse was intriguing and told me almost more than I wanted to know.

Thanks for the review (and the Roosevelt Island info), Becky. Convergence was my introduction to the Blackwell series, and I was seriously surprised how interesting these games are. I hope that New York's history will keep being closely connected to the main story in the future games.

Great review, as always, Becky

That was enjoyable, thanks Becky!

Yes there are good games The black well series. But why do they make them so short? Do you know any adventure games that take a long time to play. I remember when i used to have a nintendo 64 some of the games took ages to complete The legend of zelda took me over 1 week to complete. Is there any pc adventure games like that please?

Thanks

I quite agree with Becky's review, conclusions and rating. Having played and reviewed the previous two Blackwell games, I was a tad disappointed. The graphics are "retro," and the game is more like an "episode" than a full-length game. The writing carries it, but I'm not sure that's enough on its own. I am much more impressed by Dave's stellar work on Emerald City Confidential. With the so dated AGS engine and the redundancy of the characters, I would suggest this very talented writer/developer move on to other tales.

Robertson

How is the AGS engine dated? It went through a major overhaul recently and is constantly updated, getting new modules and features. The ECC engine didn't make the impression of giving more possibilities to the designer at all.

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Betty9090a -- some games that are lengthy (a few suggestions): The Lost Crown, The Longest Journey, The Moment of Silence, Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis, Uru: Complete Chronicles, Keepsake, Culpa Innata, Myst III: Exile.

Viewing the games as a player, not an "engine" expert by any means, my "dated" comment refers particularly to comparisons with newer, bigger budget adventure titles. Perhaps, Becky's term of "retro" might be kinder. In terms of indies, The Last Half of Darkness series is more impressive graphically. Like you (having looked at your fine site), I love the creation and concept of the Joey and Rosa characters and care about them. That's the storytelling part I so enjoy with Dave's work. But, I've been there, done that with them and that, coupled with what I perceive as a clunkiness and woodenness to the engine (even though it's been touched up), leads me to be much more impressed with Dave's ECC game where I can put the engine idiosyncrasies to one side in favor of the fun and novelty of visiting the land of Oz.

Finally, and I suspect it might be an "apples and oranges" comparison, what's being done with casual game graphic engines makes work done with AGS and equivalent seem even more "retro" or dated. That's not to say there's not a place for Joey, East Side Story and Time Gentlemen Please, but it does suggest there's a lot more pressure on those developers to be novel, creative, tell a great tale, have good puzzles.

Hey, having said all that, I would still give Convergence a "B" or 4 of 5 rating, as you did. But, it's time to move on. I'm not inclined for another "episode," and hope Dave will give us more of the Emerald City Confidential kind of effort, even if he insists on using that engine

Robertson

Thanks for another great review Becky

Spyros

Thanks for the review, Becky!

Just to answer some of your concerns, I was able to make ECC much longer and prettier because I was given a nice large budget from PlayFirst to do it with. The Blackwell games are self-funded so the low-res graphics (and shorter length) are all I can afford. I'd love to make them prettier and longer if I had the resources to do it. Maybe one day!

Anyway, I'm happy you all like the game.

-Dave

Thank you, Dave! Didn't know that, about the ECC bigger budget, etc., and can see where that would make a huge difference. I, for one, along with many others, will still play everything you create, respecting and admiring your talent. Sorry if my post sounded more negative than I intended.

Robertson

I haven't played any in the series, but another well done review from Becky has put them on my radar. Sounds promising.

Thanks for the kind words. The review of Convergence on my site is actually by another writer, but my own impressions of it were very similar.



I hope I'm not taking the thread to much off the main topic, but take a look at what amazing stuff can be done with AGS. This is a demo of a superbly drawn, animated and designed puzzle game that unfortunately didn't get much exposure so far.

Thank you for sharing that. It is, indeed, quite impressive.

Robertson

I think all three Blackwell games are very good and I hope they sell as well as they deserve. The graphics, although maybe not technically on the same level as modern higher budget games, work perfectly for these games. What really make the Blackwell games shine is the story, writing, atmosphere, dialouge and voice acting imo. Hope for more. Independent games with lower budget from people like Dave or Jonathan Boakes beat any Mata Hari, Art of Murder etc. games any day. Those are technically very high standard games that are completely lacking in more or less any other department.

For some reason I didn't particularly care for ECC though.:)

Interesting. I didn't either, though I love the Blackwell games. Are you familiar with the Oz books Emerald City Chronicles was based on? I think I might have liked the game better if I hadn't been familiar with the Oz books.

No, I'm not familiar with the EC Chronichles, so that cannot have been the problem in my case. I really can't put my finger on why, but I got bored with the ECC game while the Blackwell games, well, they just clicked with me for the reasons stated above. And I really enjoyed Dave's The Shiva game as well. Very good writing and design.

A lack of "super" graphics has never bothered me.

The story, a good interface and how the puzzles are made to fit. Those are the key things I look for in Adventures

Heck !! I still replay and very much enjoy games from the early 1990s, because in spite of their very primitive appearance, they had such fantastic storylines !!

I think Dave does a magnificent job on a limited budget and I hope he manages to coninue for many years to come

Yes, but I must underline that I do indeed think that graphics is an important factor in adventure games. But I think that the graphics in the Blackwell games are indeed good. The graphics set the mood and atmosphere perfectly, although not technically on the highest level of what can be done with the latest and more expensive tools of today. The design is brilliant and serves as a great foundation for the writing etc. I could make a comparison with some other pretty recent independent efforts using the same or the same kind of engine where the graphics have ruined the whole experience for me, but some people would probably be offended so I won't.:)

"Yes, but I must underline that I do indeed think that graphics is an important factor in adventure games."

As always, a matter of personal taste

Yes!