There's a lot of this sort of thing - Renee really needs to learn how to brew her own bloody cuppa, you know - as well as cult stuff, and a strange, dark pivot to the questionable choices of the local meat suppliers. Sometimes the back and forth seems little more than pointless busywork, too - sure, it's cute that we've paired up this elderly Gastown couple in the hope they'll give each other companionship in their twilight years, but was it strictly necessary? Did it propel the story forward? And did they really need a detective to pair them up given they were standing about 12 feet apart? Sure, he can adopt different tactics to question various NPCs, but I've played through twice now, and it seems that regardless of your dialogue selections, all roads end roughly in the same location. There's only the illusion of choice when it comes to Howie's interviews, though. It's great that so many of the creatures you encounter on your journey are beautifully realised and keen to talk, every one given a name, but the lack of voiceovers can leave these encounters feeling a little flat, even if the dialogue is usually pretty well written. Beyond a handful of perfunctory if criminally underused puzzles and stealth sequences, Howie spends most of his time stomping from one chatty NPC to the next, asking questions and gathering intel. Gameplay-wise, however, there's decidedly little variation. Good lessons to live your life by, I guess. Howie himself is endearing in that grizzled, tough-shell-warm-heart kind of way most fictional detectives are, too, and there's a delightful tinkle of self-awareness that runs throughout the story, from the acknowledgement of his predicament - "Look at me I am a raccoon in a trenchcoat," he tells one passerby - to his curt To Do list: "Call mom. It's endlessly fascinating for a voyeur like me and - accompanied by a broody score and fantastic sound effects - it's testament to masterful world-building that successfully delivers a universe that feels authentic and relatable despite the anthropomorphic creatures lining the streets. Jogging up the street in Glanville, rain speckling the screen as neon reflections dance in pavement puddles, you can peer into the windows of the apartments stacked above the shops and offices along the main strip, watching as the creatures within eat or smoke, silhouetted against the flickering light of their TV sets. Backbone trailer showing off some gameplay and stunning sceneryĭespite its moodiness, though, Backbone's journey through dystopian Vancouver takes you to some truly stunning backdrops, painstakingly fashioned in stylish pixel art. His work - an endless parade of cheating husbands, apparently - is neither exciting nor inspiring, and Howie's keen for you to know exactly how unrewarding it is to him. He lives in a small, run-down apartment, unable to let a single thought pass through his mind without lacing it with a healthy dose of cynicism. Your life as PI Howard Lotor - a raccoon detective with the obligatory trenchcoat and a penchant for the dramatic - kicks off pretty much as you'd expect. Availability: Out now on PC and Game Pass, coming 2021 to Xbox, PS4, Switch.Because what Backbone purports to be is very different to what it really is in the end. It's not out of place, exactly, because at first it fits this pixel-perfect, "post-noir" detective tale, but later, when that tale takes an astonishing and inexplicable turn, it feels disingenuous. Like a stale perfume, it permeates everything - the environments, the weather, the dialogue, the music, the story, even the characters' names. Backbone's sumptuous pixel art and promising narrative threads are undermined by flat gameplay and a non sequitur of a final act.
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