The American writer H.P. died prematurely in 1937 in conditions of poverty. Lovecraft could never have imagined the clear fame that awaited him in any medium: adaptations of his literary works have reached the cinema and in splendid comics, and his influence has also extended to the world of video games. The case of Bloodborne is famous, while Call of Cthulhu is more faithful to the source materials; We were recently able to appreciate the excellent fishing simulator Dredge, in which the exploration of the seas combines well with the feeling of mystery that can be felt in the stories of the providential writer.
Of course, at this point it is legitimate to wonder if the name H.P. Lovecraft, widely used in the marketing of many video game products, has now become an empty advertising slogan with a meaning that is now vague, confusing, indecipherable like the mysterious beings that populate his writings, entities that the human eye cannot intuit, nor not even describe completely. After finishing the detective adventures of plot twist, we can say that The Last Case of Benedict Fox - whose marketing has made repeated references to the famous writer - has very little of the atmospheres and themes that characterized the production of the illustrious author to which it refers: the tentacles of the monstrous being. that accompanies Benedict deserve a hook that, in this case, seems completely remote, both on the narrative and playable fronts.
We tell you about our experience in the occult Boston of 1925 in Review of The Last Case of Benedict Fox.
In the name of the Father
Boston, Massacchussets, 1925. It's a dark and stormy night, and Detective Benedict Fox enters a mansion to discover more about his past. His investigation revolves around the figure of his father, an individual associated with the occult who, apparently, hides much more than a secret. Without too much ado (to the point that the introduction is quite rushed, if not confusing for the player), we discover that Benedict is joined by amonstrous entity, dark and extensive, magnificently characterized with exciting dubbing: this companion, as we will see, also has great importance from a playable point of view, proving to be essential support in the combat and exploration phases.
The plot of The Last Case of Benedict Fox It continues, with some interesting twists, as Benedict delves into the exploration of Limbo, an otherworldly space dominated by demons and magic, to discover the detective's past and that of his enigmatic father.
We appreciate thewarning about sensitive content of the work, which may or may not be displayed at the touch of a button, with all due respect to those who believe that such warnings constitute intolerable spoilers for the player: this is a solution that we hope to see more often in the future. .
By revealing the mysteries related to the fate of the inhabitants of the mansion - which acts as a central axis for the protagonist and his secondary characters - we delve deeper and deeper into a plot that, despite some certainly interesting premises, fails to maintain a good rhythm and, above all, it ends in an ending that is not exciting at all. In the general labor economy, it is particularly problematic progression management, often hampered by an excess of flashbacks and a lack of clues as to how to move forward in the events affecting Benedict and company.
Descent into limbo for The Last Case of Benedict Fox
Our demonic companion has the ability to lead us to the past of Benedict's father and other characters that we will meet during the adventure, projecting us to a Limbo that, as in the most classic Metroidvania, is complex and labyrinthine to explore. The present scenarios are multiple and demonstrate meticulous care from the point of view of caring for the seabed; It's a shame for the platform phases, sometimes linked to the need for absolute precision that collides with the poor finish dedicated to the inputs, which do not always respond to the commands given by the player.
The map is very clear, beautiful to look at and easy to read, with the indication of the passages that Benedict can open with the use of the skills that he will gradually acquire during the game; Pity the lack of markers (a classic circular marker would have been ideal) to keep track of the places he wants to return to later. Unfortunately, The Last Case of Benedict Fox is overwhelming by immediately offering the player dozens and dozens of doors that cannot be opened, unsolvable puzzles, unusable objects accumulated in the inventory, for the sole and exclusive purpose of providing the player with details (a often interesting) about the plot: however, we find ourselves within an interactive work and video games like Dark Souls teach that it is very possible to combine information and functionality, adding depth to the gameplay through the objects found within the scenarios.
This overabundance of nondescript objects in the gameplay, combined with the unfortunate structure of the exploration - on more than one occasion we find ourselves wandering lost in the environments, without any clue as to how to continue - makes us think that The Last Case of Benedict Fox could not benefit from adequate testing before launch and, in our opinion, also given the technical problems which we'll talk about shortly, certainly could have enjoyed an extension to its development period. And it's a shame, because the areas crossed by Benedicto are often splendid to see, full of details and small gems that will undoubtedly delight lovers of horror atmospheres.
As for the puzzles, not always very simple and sometimes based on the association between symbols and numbers, we found the approach taken by Plot Twist to be ideal: the difficulty is fully customizable and you can choose if you want (even during the game). adventure, perhaps on a specific occasion that the player finds particularly difficult) make use of an auto-resolve option, by pressing a dedicated button. However, the difficulty of combat and exploration can also be adjusted. a widely modular and accessible experience even for beginners, as long as we take into account the lack of clarity in the progression mentioned above.
Gun, knife and tentacles.
Benedict Fox and his partner face both the "basic" demonic beings that populate Limbo and real bosses. Regarding the latter, we highlight the presence of some confrontations compromised by the need to introduce inputs with absolute precision: as for the exploration phases, even in these cases the technical limitations of The Last Case of Benedict Fox, for the moment - we hope for improvements introduced with later patches - render some battles just infuriating, also because Benedict's death forces us to start over from the last checkpoint, which is not always very close to the boss. Some bugs, fairly frequent stutters (despite the fact that our gaming machine was above the minimum requirements indicated on the game's Steam page) and occasional crashes that forced us to go through sometimes quite extensive phases of the adventure, the duration of which round ten hours.
Benedict fights with a dagger, a pistol (whose shots are recharged by performing attacks on the blade, a bit like recently seen in the excellent Hunt the Night) and also makes use of the powers of his demonic companion, gradually augmented by Tattoos that give him made the detective a mysterious woman. He tattoo system It constitutes, for all intents and purposes, the game's skill tree, but its linearity prevents the insertion of elements that would have provided originality and greater possibilities of characterization to the character, with the result of tracing a one-way path, always the same. same same Power-ups are purchased from the tattoo artist by bringing his ink, obtained through exploration, and extracted from the bodies of defeated enemies; Benedict's death causes him to lose the ink collected and not "fixed" at the teleportation points, and it can be recovered by returning to the point of the protagonist's premature death.
The fights are interesting on paper, but they are hard and unhappy due, once again, to imprecise hitbox and particularly intrusive visual effects, such as preventing a clear reading of what is happening on the screen. Enemy animations are not always distinct and Benedict's posture (always hunched forward) does not allow for easy prediction of whether he will be hit or not. At times we found the use of parry complex, more due to the technical limitations mentioned above than due to a difficulty in understanding the system, which in itself is quite simple. The hope is that, over time, Plot Twist can improve the situation; At the moment, however, we cannot consider The Last Case of Benedict Fox as a satisfactory experience in terms of the combat system.
However, we appreciate theexcellent translation into spanish, with excellent texts both in the descriptions of the objects and in the subtitles of the dialogues; The English dubbing is, in general, of an excellent level, although with incomprehensible quality drops for some characters (the tattoo artist especially). The audio sector is interesting, with truly notable environmental effects if seen with headphones, combined with sounds that refer to the beginnings of jazz.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam Price 24,50 € Holygamerz.com 6.0 Readers (30) 7.8 your voteBenedict Fox's latest case is far from a standard-bearer for H.P. Lovecraft in the world of video games: the cosmic horror of the Providence writer is replaced by a sometimes attractive plot, but still anchored in much more classic themes, linked to magic, the occult, and the creation of constructs governable by man. And there's nothing wrong with that; However, it is sad to see how the name of the illustrious American author is increasingly used for marketing purposes, diluting the images of him and making them less and less meaningful. Beyond these considerations, the Plot Twist video game is presented on the market in a less than excellent technical state, and with considerable limitations in terms of the readability of the progression in the exploratory phases, in addition to a completely mediocre appearance. The Last Case of Benedict Fox is still a decent metroidvania, but it gets lost in the vast sea of productions - even with similar themes - that are much more polished and refined, proving to be an experience that is far from unforgettable.
PRO
- At times intense plot
- Beautifully designed environments
AGAINST
- Woody and fights difficult to read.
- Some boss battles are absolutely disastrous.
- There is little or nothing Lovecraftian about it
- Widely improveable from a technical point of view
