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A jam submission

Blackout: ZeroView game page

It all begins here.
Submitted by ErebusWulfe — 1 hour, 17 minutes before the deadline
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Blackout: Zero's itch.io page

Team members
Neiffarious, Card, Frameture

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Comments

Submitted

Erebus gave hide whole erebussy for this one.

Jam Host(+1)

I've been spoiled by Erebus at this point. We can expect his projects to push the limits in terms of slick presentations, and Blackout: Zero doesn't disappoint. Unlike his previous works, this one doesn't wait to reveal his cards and wow from the very title screen. The visuals do a lot to sell the tone of the game.

My only complaint here is the car scene in the opening: while an impressive feat, I quickly found myself feeling motion sickness trying to read on a moving background. I can see Erebus is already aware of another minor issue (regarding the way the journal works) I had while playing, so I'm confident that will be fixed in the final version.

While the story isn't finished, what is there is very exciting, I was intrigued to be able to read a new chapter dealing with the same character from One More Light. The writing is sharp and the opening lines immediately pull you into the story.

The only issue I noticed was sometimes a tendency to repeat the same things in narration and in dialogue. As an example, you will have the narration stating "I've crossed paths with my share of would-be prophets, self-proclaimed saints shouting nonsense at street corners. But to hear one preaching in a bar? Odd doesn't even begin to describe it." and the very next line is another character saying "Never good when people start talking about gods n' religion in a pub, mate." (What makes this example especially striking is that not only the idea is repeated twice, but it comes from two different characters.)

While I want to see where the story leads to before forming a complete opinion, I liked the supernatural premise of the story and, more importantly, the way it is presented. We are not given a complete picture, and some of snippets of information we need to go dig from the character's journal: the mystery keeps us engaged. The character interactions are also very engaging, the protagonist's relationship with his colleague is definitely the glue holding this story together.

I must admit I personally found my attention wane a bit during the most mundane investigation sections. Because of the supernatural premise of the story and its short length, the investigation is mainly about being given new information rather than discovering it, so when the investigation isn't accompanied by a bit of character drama I found myself not as engaged. I think this is a result of having a lot of most interesting bits of the story for me frontloaded in the beginning of the VN. But this might be down to personal preference and didn't hinder my overall enjoyment of the VN thanks to the story's brisk pacing.

I can't wait for a new chapter of Mycroft's story, detective extraordinaire!

The previous game jam entries by some of the team members set expectations high, and I wasn't disappointed. Most obviously, the presentation oozes production value in a way one would think approaches the limits of what can be achieved with Ren'py in one month; the opening transition is insanely smooth, I like how the different UI styles emphasize the fluid structure of the narrative, and the animations and the interactive segments are pure fun. The collapsible sidebar for the buttons maybe comes off as a gimmick taken too far – it doesn't cover much of the screen in any case – and having tooltips would probably be more elegant than the tutorial, but I appreciate the commitment to experimenting with this kind of stuff. Worth shouting out is the sound design, too; it's a treat for all the senses.

But let all that not distract from how the story itself stuns with its enjoyably pulpy subject matter (the first conversation the two police office characters had involving donuts and racial profiling made me howl with excitement) and sharp prose. It's exciting, it's moody, it's brisk. As with One More Light, what really pulled me in were the slower, quieter sections; I tangibly felt myself getting absorbed into the plot in the bar scene that involved nothing more than a couple of characters talking with each other. For something with setpieces this flashy, I'm thankful that what lies between them feels just as well thought out and just as carefully crafted.

The "to be continued" title card stings, especially when the game looked to be a relatively satisfying self-contained read, but that is no cause for holding the five stars. Looking forward to the rest, and wherever the story leads after that.