Playing Ghostbusters in the 70's

It seems the sequel to Blackwell Legacy is actually a prequel, who would have guessed!
If after finishing the first game you were still curious to know more about the Blackwell family this is your chance. Blackwell Unbound lets you meet aunt Laurie and Joey Mallone in more detail, this combination of protagonists is actually stronger than the one from Legacy, their love-hate relationship built through years of "ghostbusting" adds a lot to this prequel.
While Joey's personality remains pretty much the same as he still uses those funny expressions from the 30's like doll or mac, Laurie is very different from her niece, she is a lot more though and reckless, it's very interesting to see a more experienced medium, even if that experience means that she does not care as much in doing everything by the book.

Story
This time it all takes place in the 70's, Laurie and Joey work as partners, kinda like detectives of the paranormal, every day reading the tabloids and trying to figure out which news are deemed worthy to be investigated. You can see that the hardships of the job are starting to take a toll, specially on Laurie as she is feeling tired and midway through the game actually starts to doubt what sort of long term damage the constant stress might cause to her mind.
Unbound starts off with two of those newspaper stories still left to be checked, it all seems to be going well as the other news they decided to investigate that night turned out to be nothing. When the team arrives to the locations of those last two cases they quickly realize there are ghosts to be saved, more than that there seems to exist a murderous connection between both cases.

As the story develops and you progress through the game, some very interesting and sometimes quirky characters will appear. For the most part this new supporting cast feels weaker and less inspired when compared to the first game, but don't get me wrong, the first game had a very strong cast and living up to it would be very hard.

Gameplay

The biggest change in the gameplay department is without a doubt the "new" switching between characters mechanic. Yes, Legacy had something like this but it was very limited in its use, Unbound on the other hand lets you alternate between Joey and Laurie at your own will, making some puzzles more interesting as now you have to work with both characters as a team to achieve your goals.

Aside from that the changes are very few, most puzzles are still very notebook and conversation based, even if this time around the conversations feel less fluid as you sometimes have to keep clicking the same option over and over until you get all the information, most of those times one click should have been enough, it just seems pointless and sometimes annoying as it leads to a lot of repetition.

More interactivity with the scenarios would also have been great to see, but at least this way the pace of the story does not get disturbed with pointless clicking and pixel hunting.

Graphics and Sound

The trip to the past that this prequel allows us to experience is accompanied by a completely different soundtrack, some very smooth jazz is now the main focus of the musical score, this was actually a good decision on the developers part as it fits the era much better than any electronic music ever could.
A shame that the improvements in the music were not felt in the voices department as well, this time around the general quality of the supporting cast fluctuates a hell of a lot more, with some really bad ones like the old lady (Harriet Sherman). At least the two main characters still maintain top notch quality, Joey like in the original game still remains the strongest and most talented of the two.

Visually Blackwell Unbound remains simple but charming like its predecessor, with only a few changes being made to reflect the different decade. The only big no-no is the disappearance of the portraits during the conversations, why did the developers decide to remove them is beyond me and just feels like a very poor decision all around.

Final Thoughts

There are no doubts that Blackwell Unbound is weaker than the original game, that does not make it a bad sequel as it actually shows improvement over its predecessor in some areas.
It's just a shame that those changes don't feel as important or decisive as they could have been simply because the rest of the game undermines those positive changes. A story that is far from being as interesting as the original, a nonsensical ending and a weaker supporting cast means that the player experience is a lot less fulfilling.

Year of Release: 2007
Platforms: PC

Developer: Wadjet Eye Games

6 out of 10

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