Likewise I would be remiss not to mention the Jazz soundtrack which beautifully brings the film noir atmosphere to life it’s most reminiscent of something like L.A. Hopefully the screenshots I’ve provided here do it some justice, but it must be seen in motion to truly get the full effect the rain pattering on the wet pavement as Howard slinks along the side-walk, the jumbled assortment of overground apartments and tenements in West End, the high-tech glory of the Science City Museum. Vancouver is gorgeous in it’s post-noir, neon-tinged decay the 2D animated, pixelated characters merging seamlessly with the 3D animated background and foreground elements. It is staggeringly beautiful, occasionally leaving me to just stop and pause to soak in the heavy atmosphere. Although on the surface it’s reminiscent of pixel art games like Lamplight City, it is much more detailed. Visually, Backbone may be the single best looking adventure game I have ever seen. You also have an inventory but you don’t need to actively manage it, Howard using items only when he explicitly needs them. These could have been frustrating, but thankfully all of these sequences are short, easy and will not penalize you if you fail, allowing an instant re-try. The benefit of this system is that it allows for several more action-oriented stealth sequences where you have to hide from guards. You can also sprint around by holding Shift. You said it Renee.Īlthough this is essentially a traditional point-and-click adventure game in many regards, you navigate Howard around the environments by using the keyboard and interact with objects by pressing E. The secondary cast, such as principal villain Clarissa Bloodworth (a polar bear) or merchant bunny rabbit Po (or is it Mo?) are also very entertaining, and simply talking to characters always feels worthwhile, especially as the dialogue choices can lead to a variety of different routes through conversations. There’s no voice acting but since the writing is so strong, character’s personalities are clearly demarcated. He’s aided by friendly loudmouth beaver taxi driver Anatoly, plus inquisitive and determined fox investigative journalist Renee, both of whom you can learn more details about their lives and gleam more insight into their personality. You can influence Howard’s personality a fair bit through your dialogue choices, but it’s clear he’s a kind but somewhat troubled soul, with a morose air of defeat hanging over him. The journey to the end is fully worthwhile, but it’s a shame they didn’t stick the landing. The game becomes more unfocussed in the fourth and fifth acts and while they’re still highly enjoyable, the game ends fairly abruptly without proper resolution, seeming to set up the possibility of a sequel. A major plot twist happens at the end of the third act which significantly shifts the story into a different gear, and I’m personally not sure doing so was entirely wise. You may think having the main cast be animals would be distracting, but honestly after a while I almost forgot about it and just started viewing them as people. Backbone’s vision of Vancouver is a gloriously decaying dystopia. The plot forms the central driving force of the game, and when accompanied by the excellent writing and the memorable characters, it is consistently entertaining and involving.

But upon investigating the nightclub where the husband regularly hangs out, Howard finds far more disturbing things are afoot, including criminal conspiracies, capitalist greed, murder and much else. You play as Howard Lotor a bedraggled racoon private investigator with a chunk missing from one ear, who takes a case from a distraught wife who believes her husband is having an affair. In Backbone, the newly released adventure game from developer EggNut, the animals rule the streets, but in the words of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, “Some animals are more equal than others.” The ruling caste of apes have formed a highly classist society where people are divided by status and money, and only those with the money and the lust for power are able to rise to the top. I also remember that Vancouver was not populated by an assortment of anthropomorphic animals, although who’s to say that times haven’t changed. But I know we got met at the airport by an old guy named Alf, who drove us to the house we’d be staying at in an old-fashioned Rolls Royce (quite a treat for 11-year-old me). I was only a kid at the time, so the memories of it are starting to become hazy to me. I’ve been to Vancouver once, although it was a long time ago now.

Backbone game fox