Blacksad: Under the Skin

Blacksad: Under the Skin is an adventure game that takes place in a three-dimensional game world. Its gameplay has been compared to the work of Telltale Games, Blacksad does not feature an inventory, Gameplay is choice-based and the player's actions alter the player character's alignment with other characters in the world. The direction of the story changes based on the player's decisions. Blacksad features quick-time events, timed conversation sequences and scenes where the player must search for clues in the environment. During investigations, John Blacksad's heightened feline senses allow the player to slow down time and perceive visual clues in their surroundings, which are then added to the player's clue index. From here, the player may combine clues to form conclusions, both to progress the main story and to solve optional side-quests. ==Plot==

Blacksad: Under the Skin is set in New York City during the 1950s, Its story begins when protagonist John Blacksad is approached by Sonia Dunn, daughter of boxing club owner Joe Dunn who has died suspiciously. She asks Blacksad to investigate the situation and locate the club's star fighter Bobby Yale, who has been missing since Dunn's death. According to Pendulo Studios, the game contains 30 unique characters and five previously from the Blacksad comic series: John Blacksad, Commissioner Smirnov, Jake Ostiombe, Paulie and Weekly. ==Development/Release==

Blacksad: Under the Skin was developed by the Spanish company Pendulo Studios, the country's longest-running game developer by 2019. YS Interactive initially assisted the team on Blacksad. According to Pendulo, the idea of adapting the Blacksad comic series into a game was first proposed by Pendulo's publisher Microïds, directly after the two companies had completed Yesterday Origins in November 2016. Microïds was owned by the same media conglomerate as Blacksad publisher Dargaud. the developer's Josué Monchán noted that the team had "been Blacksad fans for a long time" and agreed to the idea immediately. The project was unexpectedly announced in June 2017 and was initially scheduled for a late 2018 release. Giada Zavarise of Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote of the announcement, "In the world of games, the news was received with a shrug. But in the comics scene, people were screaming incoherently." Gameblog's Vincent Elmer-Haerrig called the plan a "gamble" for Pendulo, as Under the Skin is aimed at "a fringe of players who are both comic-philes and video game lovers." Pendulo collaborated with Blacksad creators Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido on Under the Skin. The developer described the pair as consultants, Blacksads authors also offered input on the game's voice direction. Canales requested a deep voice for John Blacksad because of the character's heavy smoking; the team hired Barry Johnson of Detroit: Become Human for the English version, and Gabriel Jiménez—voice of Hugh Jackman in Spanish film dubs—for the Spanish version. Guarnido said that "the narrative is strong and we took care that it does not interfere with the stories of the comic series". Under the Skins first teaser trailer was revealed in August 2018, around the time of its showing at Gamescom. The game proceeded to appear at the 3D Wire festival in Spain that October. By February 2019, it had been in production for over two years. Mundo Deportivo reported at the time that Blacksad was "in the final phase of development". Microïds attributed the delay to a desire for increased polish in the final product. Although the game received a subsequent delay to 14 November, its European Xbox Marketplace and PlayStation Store versions nevertheless appeared due to a technical error on 5 November. Microïds advised buyers not to play the game before the release of its planned "day-one patch", set to coincide with Under the Skins wider release on 14 November. According to Microïds, the patch will add more sound effects to the game, fix "major bugs" and heavily increase the frame rate, among other improvements. Discussing the situation at the time, Destructoids Chris Moyse wrote, "You have to feel for the developers in what must be a very stressful and unfortunate situation." While the game met its planned 14 November release date, Jorge Cano of Vandal characterized Under the Skins overall rollout as "simply disastrous" and as "an example of how to do things wrong when it comes to putting a game on sale". Patches soon followed to fix some of the game's bugs and instabilities at launch. ==Reception==

Pre-release coverage During 2018, MeriStation placed Blacksad: Under the Skin among the year's "10 most promising" adventure games, while La Vanguardia and VidaExtra listed the game's debut trailer as one of the best to appear at Gamescom 2018. The following year, HobbyConsolas declared Under the Skin one of 2019's "most anticipated Spanish video games", and IGN España highlighted the game as one of the top graphic adventures scheduled for 2019. The editors of 3DJuegos similarly named it their 44th-most-anticipated title of 2019 across all genres and platforms, and one of their 20 most anticipated indie games of the year. According to Laura Cress of Adventure Gamers, Blacksads display at Gamescom 2019 was "a popular draw at the annual Adventure-Treff party". The game netted a "Best Action Adventure Game" prize in the annual Gamescom Awards; The Hollywood Reporter cited it as one of the few non-sequels to win an award that year, alongside Sony's Concrete Genie and Dreams. Critical reception and awards Blacksad received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. In a more positive review, Maja Verfondem of 4Players wrote, "Blacksad is—after the installation of the Day One patch—my adventure highlight of 2019, which makes you want to read the comics again." Her primary criticisms related to the quick-time events, and to "minor graphics bugs and performance issues that even the Day One patch was unable to completely eliminate". The game was also nominated for "Best Adaptation from Comic Book/Graphic Novel" at the 2020 Harvey Awards. Sales In November 2020, Pendulo reported that "the impact [Blacksad] has had on the market has been much greater" than Pendulo's other recent titles. The company attributed its success to the project's "more narrative, modern adventure" style, which brought it to a larger audience than Pendulo's traditional adventure game format. ==References==