Blackwell Convergence Review

Kicking off a few months after the events of the original game, Convergence features once again Rosangela Blackwell and Joey Mallone as the main protagonists. Thankfully this third entry in the series keeps the identity of the former games intact by continuing to maintain its focus on masterfully written dialogue, great characters and an unforgettable story, full of twists and turns.

Story

The game starts with Rosangela and Joey investigating the death of a former businessman who seems to have jumped off a building. During that process, which also serves as a small tutorial for the game, you will come to the realization that Rosa has changed quite a bit from the first game, she is now more confident on her capabilities as a medium. So much that she actually ditched the boring job in the newspaper and now dedicates herself almost totally to the trade of "ghost-busting". She has also changed socially, clearly being a lot closer of becoming a "social butterfly" than she ever was in the original title, the constant coexistence with Joey might be one of the causes for such a drastic change in her behavior.

The story revolves around an investment company who seems to be surrounded by death, with tragedy quickly following each and every one of those investments it's up to Rosa and Joey to connect the dots and figure out what's going on.

Playing the first two entries in the series before delving deep into Convergence is highly recommended, the game quickly throws at you references to events and characters from the two previous titles without really explaining anything, who's Rosa? How did she meet Joey? Why are they helping those lost souls? None of this is ever explained, so be sure to play Legacy and Unbound first so you can enjoy Convergence to its maximum potential.

Gameplay

The gameplay remains pretty much the same, it's nice to see that the developers from Wadjet Eye Games decided to keep the ability to switch between Joey and Rosa at will, even better, made that mechanic more relevant in the long run, adding more puzzles and events where alternating between both characters is key.
The easy nature of the game, along with the relatively short campaign might be a buzz killer for some hardcore point and click fans, but if you're just entering the world of adventure games the Blackwell series might be one of your best choices.

Graphics and Sound

It's good to see that every technical aspect has been improved upon, character models and their animations are a lot more detailed, the scenarios while still simplistic have a lot more personality crammed into them, the sound effects are more varied and actually add something to the experience this time around. In terms of musical score it keeps the jazz influences brought on by it's predecessor, adding more tracks and quality into the mix.

Definitely the most important enhancement though was made in the voice acting department, specially in the supporting cast. The recording quality has improved a lot, the background noises and problems with the microphones that seemed to plague Blackwell's first games almost completely vanished. The voice acting itself has also been subject to some changes and now keeps a much more steady quality, this advances the experience provided to the player into the next level.

Final Thoughts
Despite not being a perfect game, Blackwell Convergence takes this fantastic series we have come to love over the years (since the 70's remember?) and improves upon it with great success. The story is hands-on the best of the series, with more characters, more puzzles and a better ending. The technical aspects of the game also have been improved upon and provide us with an even better experience.
Blackwell's third entry is without any doubt the best game of the series so far, period.

Year of Release: 2009
Platforms: PC
Developer: Wadjet Eye Games

9 out of 10
(My thanks to Wadjet Eye Games for providing me with a review copy - http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/blackwell-convergence.html)