Part 14: Blackwell Unbound - Introduction
Blackwell Unbound Intro Theme Blackwell Unbound
The second game in the Blackwell series, Unbound is probably the most unique of the four games for a number of reasons. Principal among these is that we have a different protagonist this time around, namely Rosa's auntie Lauren. That's right, Blackwell Unbound is a prequel, set in 1970s, the decade where Lauren and Joey were busy doing their medium business before she went insane. Specifically it is set around three years into their time together, while Lauren was still estranged from her brother Jack.
The change of protagonist makes for some subtle but powerful changes in the interaction with Joey. Unlike in Legacy, where our protagonist had only just met Joey, in Unbound the two leads have known each other for several years and have developed a greater understanding of each other in that time. Lauren herself is a very different character than Rosa, less awkward and more aggressive, but also has her own emotional issues which I will leave for the game itself. Unlike Rosa, who to this stage had been acted by Sande Chen (who is famous in her own right, most notably as the lead writer for The Witcher, but is not a reknowned voice actress), Lauren is voiced by actress Dani Marco, who has credits ranging from Law & Order, to The Sopranos, to Saturday Night Live. I think she does an excellent job of playing Lauren, and provides sufficient strength and conviction to allow Lauren's character stand up alongside that of Joey's.
The story of how Unbound came to be produced is interesting by itself. After Legacy was modestly successful, Gilbert found himself doing interviews and speaking engagements for several months, and when that died down he noticed the sales were starting to die down as well. He had a grand plan for the sequel, to be called Blackwell Convergence, during which Rosa and Joey would have an encounter which would remind Joey of a case he had worked on with Lauren. It was planned for there was to be an extended flashback sequence where the player would take control of Lauren, and the sequence would serve to fill in the gaps for Rosa.
The only real problem was that the game was at least a year away from being completed, and Gilbert's fledgling company had no income sources other than The Shivah and The Blackwell Legacy. His solution was to take the flashback sequence, embellish it into a full game, and develop it on a shoestring budget. I'm not kidding when I say a shoestring budget either - Gilbert has claimed in interviews that Unbound was produced on a pre-release budget of less than a thousand dollars. In the end, the game he turned out ended up being very good, and in my opinion sits much better as a stand-alone than it would have as a flashback sequence.
There are a couple of other noteworthy changes in Unbound. The first, which you may have already noticed if you opened the intro theme link above, is a different composer. Professional musician Thomas Regin was brought on board for Unbound and has remained a mainstay in the Blackwell series since. With apologies to Peter Gresser, the composer for Legacy, Regin was a marked improvement. His technique of blending midi music with a live saxophone is extremely effective for keeping with a retro-style game, while making for a very attractive listening experience. The soft, low saxophone also sets a wonderfully melancholy atmosphere throughout the game. Although there are a few low points, for the most part the next three Blackwell games contain fantastic soundtracks, and in many cases the pieces that didn't end up being used for various reasons are even better than the ones that were. Whereever possible, I will show off the unused themes throughout this thread. It's also worth noting that the melody used in the intro theme for Unbound is rehashed for both subsequent games, making the song you're currently listening to a kind of main theme for the whole series, though in the later games it's more up-tempo.
The next change worth mentioning is that of the graphics. One thing Gilbert has done in the Blackwell series has been to use different primary artists for each game. Typically, Gilbert has used one artist for background art, and a second for spritework, with regular artist Eyal Jammer doing additional artwork whenever required. In the case of Unbound, which was being produced on a practically non-existent budget, Gilbert brought on one artist to do both the background art and spritework. That artist was Erin Robinson, who has since gone on to minor repute as the lead designer of Puzzle Bots, also released under the Wadjet Eye Games banner. Shortly after Puzzle Bots' release, she was named as one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company, which is presumably a moderately high honour. So how does Robinson's pixel art go? Pretty well, for the most part. It's noticably "low budget", and in some places looks inferior even to Legacy, but in other places is quite beautiful. Certainly it's more than effective for what it's made for, and doesn't feel out of place after having played Legacy.
The final stylistic change that was made, again for budget reasons, was the removal of portraits from Unbound. The strength of the voice acting meant that this choice worked, but this being an SSLP makes it difficult to convey the emotions and subtleties in the dialogue. I will still provide the majority of the dialogue outside of screenshots, but will have to simply give a name in text rather than a picture. The portraits will return for the next two games.
Anyway, that's enough text - let's get started! Today we will just look at the (very short) introduction, but tomorrow we'll get into Unbound proper.
We open Unbound with an image of Lauren standing in Nodespace, smoking a cigarette, presumably having just sent a ghost on its way. It was mentioned in Legacy that Lauren was a smoker, and as we'll see throughout Unbound, that was an understatement.
Lauren: Infinity. I've been told it's beautiful, but I don't think it's anything special. But when you live like me, most things become quite ordinary. Life. Death. Tormented souls. It's all the same to me. Sometimes I wonder if anything will ever surprise me again.
Despite Lauren's indifference, I think Nodespace is really quite beautiful here. The stylistic choice of having the path spiral off haphazardly was made deliberately. Since Nodespace is literally contained within a medium's head, Gilbert felt that it should somehow represent the medium. Rosa's Nodespace is quite ordered and understated (and in the future games will become quite square), while Lauren's is colourful and chaotic.
Finishing her cigarette and casting the ashes out towards infinity, Lauren leaves us with one final world-weary remark before heading back to reality.
The intro movie scrolls on past...
And finally we settle on scenic Manhattan, circa 40 years ago.
Join me again tomorrow as we get Unbound underway! The game is relatively short, probably a touch shorter than Legacy, but still one of my favourites. Hopefully you'll all enjoy it as well!