Our protagonist Chris awakens in a strange black and white room, handcuffed to a downpipe, with no idea how he got there. A quick glance around reveals an unknown sleeping woman cuffed by the ankle to a sofa on the other side of the room, and a safe within reach which is accompanied by a bemusing number puzzle.
And so begins [i]BlankSpace[/i], a hybrid visual novel/point & click escape-room puzzle game.
The only way to progress through the game is to interact with the unknown woman and work together to solve the puzzles. Doing so will reveal her identity as Beryl, and dependent upon the type of responses given to her, a relationship will form between the two of them, ranging from cool to affectionate... or more.
Beryl is not what she first appears to be, and Chris stands to make some startling discoveries not only about his new companion, but also about the time preceding his arrival in this strange place, as the missing period in his memory is slowly revealed to him.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
In the early stages of the game, the puzzling aspect is to the fore. You're going nowhere without some prompt puzzle solving and a bit of co-operation. The point and click aspect to find various items to help you on your way soon kicks in, and as is typical of point and click games, you really do need to pay close attention to everything in the backdrops if you don't want to miss an item which will prove to be essential later. Mostly, items are straightforward to spot, but the black and white location art with dark red embellishments can make some items easy to miss, so any frustration is most easily avoided simply by the avoidance of being casual or trying to rush.
Once several items are acquired, another familiar P&C aspect becomes apparent, that of the combining things to make new things. Happily, in this game, such combinations are straightforward and don't bend the laws of physics beyond reasonable imagination - you won't be expected to conjure up a torch from a beaker, magnifying glass and firefly here!
There are three rooms to be solved, both with and without Beryl's help, along with some optional extras for certain endings and additional scenes. The further into the game you go, the more the visual novel aspect of the game reveals the history of the two and the burgeoning relationship between them.
[h1]Positives[/h1]
• The mostly colourless art decision for the backdrops makes perfect sense once you learn where the characters are, and gives it a feeling of believability.
• This also has the added effect of making the colour character sprites, which have different poses and expressions, really stand out.
• On the whole, the puzzles do not comprise the sort of wildly twisted anti-logic that can typically be found in some of the more, erm, [i]imaginative[/i] point and click games.
• The interactions between the irritable, snappy Chris and the flighty Beryl are so well done that you find yourself rooting for both of them.
• Although the story does go to a dark place towards the end, there is plenty of clear warning about triggers, and any graphic detail is kept to a minimum.
• Inevitably some puzzles involve having to return to a room you'd already “cleared” to pick up something that you either missed or couldn't get earlier, but as there are only three rooms to the main game, you never have to go trawling back for ages for no reason other than to extend game time.
• There is a bonus “spot the difference” objective hidden in each of the three rooms. You do not have to attempt these in order to unlock any other aspect of the game, but finding them does underline the importance of remembering to thoroughly check [b]everywhere[/b].
[h1]Negatives[/h1]
• Whilst the majority of puzzles are logical and require varying degrees of thought or patience (or both), my very logical mind didn't like the opening “the eyes of a child” problem which is the first one you will face. It's abstract, to say the least. Even now I still don't get it. Having that as first up doesn't engender immediate enthusiasm to go on.
• Navigation through the rooms is in first-person view and moving around them is done by clicking on directional triangles on the floor. Yes, triangles. You can see the problem there straight away, can't you! It's confusing to know where you're going to be looking at next until you've done it so many times that you have learned the layout.
• What I didn't expect to find within the game was also a “hidden object” challenge. There are 9 “noBread” logos hidden within the rooms, they are tiny, and to make it worse, they are also part of the “black, grey and white” colour scheme … so they're often placed on a backdrop of virtually the same colour, making them nigh impossible to spot. And for good measure, if you want to see the “secret end” after finding all of the others, you must locate every single one of these during the run where you are trying for this bonus ending.
• The six “regular” endings to be found are all tucked away after completion of the main story, behind the credits. While you can click-several-times through the credits, this is a burden which could have been avoided, and after doing so, the ending scenes are brief and some of them are very similar. This design choice doesn't ruin the overall experience, but it is an annoyance.
[h1]The DLC[/h1]
There is a free-of-charge DLC available to install with the main game, which is a text only description of an intimate scene between our protagonists. Prompting Chris to engage with the puzzles successfully whilst being persistently thoughtful and kind towards Beryl will result in an offer being made which leads into this triggering. As the DLC is optional, this is totally avoidable for those who would rather skip it, and therefore should not be seen as a reason to bypass the game if it would otherwise interest you.
For those who do want to experience the scene, be prepared, for there are no holds barred. The narration (seen primarily from Beryl's side) is very steamy and skilfully written, demonstrating admirably that text description of such scenes, when combined with one's own imagination, simply does not need to be accompanied by lewd graphics. This scene works better for what is NOT included.
[h1]Verdict[/h1]
I [b]mostly[/b] really enjoyed my time with BlankSpace. I would suggest that, for anyone thinking of trying this game, you really do need to be a fan of [u]both[/u] the visual novel and point and click formats, and have at least an interest in both the escape room and hidden object genres, too. I don't enjoy the latter so my overall enjoyment was tempered a little by the necessity of it in order to achieve full completion.
That said, the puzzles are fair (on the whole), the story is good (though rather dark near the end), the characters are interesting, the spicy DLC doesn't disappoint and the game rewards persistence.
For these reasons, BlankSpace is a safe recommendation, allowing for paying attention to the clearly marked trigger warnings and multiple cross genre approach of the product.
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