Blackwell Epiphany - Achievement Hotfix Patch
-Achievements now sync properly between local and remote, ensuring you don't lose any progress.
-Achievements now sync properly between local and remote, ensuring you don't lose any progress.
Blackwell Epiphany
- Released
- Apr 24, 2014
- Platforms
- WindowsmacOSLinux
- Last updated
Updates & announcements
- Developer postOriginal post
- Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany - Screenshot Hotfix Patch
-Provided 32bit settings exe on Windows. -Now you can screenshot without interrupting speech. -Fixed a whole several typos and voice mismatches. -Footsteps visually restored in a certain room. Thanks to the Thunderforge for reporting most of these issues
Original post-Provided 32bit settings exe on Windows.
-Now you can screenshot without interrupting speech.
-Fixed a whole several typos and voice mismatches.
-Footsteps visually restored in a certain room.Thanks to the Thunderforge for reporting most of these issues
- Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany - Hotfix Patch
-Fixed several typos and speech mismatches. -Fixed some interactions.
Original post-Fixed several typos and speech mismatches.
-Fixed some interactions. - Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany - Hotfix Patch
-Fixed an issue with background speech in Easter Egg room. -Fixed several typos.
Original post-Fixed an issue with background speech in Easter Egg room.
-Fixed several typos. - Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany Patch - Config Tool
-Added config tool for all OSes.
Original post-Added config tool for all OSes.
- Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany - Smallest Patch
Basically we've added the ability to change from skipping speech automatically and with keypresses to only when you keypress if u press "CTRL+P", that state is global, and persists between your savegames.
Original postBasically we've added the ability to change from skipping speech automatically and with keypresses to only when you keypress if u press "CTRL+P", that state is global, and persists between your savegames.
- Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany - Engine Patch
Hi, We're upgrading the game to 3.6 version of AGS, which basically means better rendering, better support for resolutions and better support for keyboard and mice! The savegames have been tested and should work, and shouldn't break. If for any reason there's an issue, feel free
Original postHi,
We're upgrading the game to 3.6 version of AGS, which basically means better rendering, better support for resolutions and better support for keyboard and mice!
The savegames have been tested and should work, and shouldn't break.
If for any reason there's an issue, feel free to report and opt in to beta oldversion, by using the password "oldversionold" - Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany is now available ON STEAMDECK!
We've done work for the entire series, it's being reviewed backwards in its order, but we'll have all of them hopefully verified! Again primary focus is that all these ports work as best as possible allowing you to have working cloudsaves between Windows/Linux/MacOS to Steamdeck
Original post
We've done work for the entire series, it's being reviewed backwards in its order, but we'll have all of them hopefully verified! Again primary focus is that all these ports work as best as possible allowing you to have working cloudsaves between Windows/Linux/MacOS to Steamdeck and viceversa.
- Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany Update - MAC AND LINUX PORTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE!
- Added proper LINUX and MAC ports with WORKING ACHIEVEMENTS! - Fixed a crash bug regarding the creation of files for achievements. - Upgraded all builds to newest stable AGS.
Original post- Added proper LINUX and MAC ports with WORKING ACHIEVEMENTS!
- Fixed a crash bug regarding the creation of files for achievements.
- Upgraded all builds to newest stable AGS. - Developer post
Blackwell Epiphany update!
Hello all! You might have noticed that Blackwell Epiphany has been updated (along with all the other Blackwell games) . We have re-compiled the entire game in the newest version of the Adventure Game Studio engine. This means that the game NOW WORKS ON ALL YOUR FANCY NEW MODERN M
Original postHello all! You might have noticed that Blackwell Epiphany has been updated (along with all the other Blackwell games) . We have re-compiled the entire game in the newest version of the Adventure Game Studio engine. This means that the game NOW WORKS ON ALL YOUR FANCY NEW MODERN MONITORS. As the game got older, many glitches started appearing. Those should - theoretically - be gone now. We know this update was a long time in coming. Thank you for your patience.
This does have the negative effect of breaking all your original save files. If you would like to revert back to the original version of the game, you need to to the following:
1- Right-click on the game in your Steam library
2- Select "Properties" and go to the "Beta" tab
3- Enter the password "oldblackwellepiphany"
4- select the beta version "original" from the drop down list.The game should revert itself back to the old version. If it doesn't, uninstall and reinstall.
Thank you all, and enjoy the game!
-Dave & Janet
- Developer post
Patch v1.1
Fixed bug where you could download the Trollgate app before you knew about it, breaking the sequence of events in Emil's office. "Softly, softly" achievement can now be activated. Fixed bug in conversation with Jim Peebles where you could be stuck talking to him with no way to pr
Original postFixed bug where you could download the Trollgate app before you knew about it, breaking the sequence of events in Emil's office.
"Softly, softly" achievement can now be activated.
Fixed bug in conversation with Jim Peebles where you could be stuck talking to him with no way to progress or exit the conversation.
Removed duplicate Joey when he reports back to Rosa after finding the ghost in the gym.
Removed duplicate images of Kendra and Mary when tie is used.
Fixed bug where Rosa could end up in her outdoor clothes in Vantini, potentially causing a crash.
Fixed crash when Rosa left the snowy balcony on her own while Tanya is following Joey.
Improved response for asking Heather about Tanya.
Solved tweening glitch which caused "Call" button to occasionally be added invisibly in the bottom right of the screen in the first flashback, causing a crash.
Maggie's parole number is now only added once.
Maggie can no longer be identified before meeting her. - Developer post
Patch v1.1
Fixed bug where you could download the Trollgate app before you knew about it, breaking the sequence of events in Emil's office. "Softly, softly" achievement can now be activated. Fixed bug in conversation with Jim Peebles where you could be stuck talking to him with no way to pr
Original postFixed bug where you could download the Trollgate app before you knew about it, breaking the sequence of events in Emil's office.
"Softly, softly" achievement can now be activated.
Fixed bug in conversation with Jim Peebles where you could be stuck talking to him with no way to progress or exit the conversation.
Removed duplicate Joey when he reports back to Rosa after finding the ghost in the gym.
Removed duplicate images of Kendra and Mary when tie is used.
Fixed bug where Rosa could end up in her outdoor clothes in Vantini, potentially causing a crash.
Fixed crash when Rosa left the snowy balcony on her own while Tanya is following Joey.
Improved response for asking Heather about Tanya.
Solved tweening glitch which caused "Call" button to occasionally be added invisibly in the bottom right of the screen in the first flashback, causing a crash.
Maggie's parole number is now only added once.
Maggie can no longer be identified before meeting her. - PC Gamer
Blackwell Epiphany review
It's fitting that, in the year the old guard of adventure game creators return with Broken Age, Broken Sword and Jane Jensen's Moebius, the Blackwell series reaches its conclusion. Across four previous games (and The Shivah before them), Wadjet Eye's paranormal investigations hav
Original post
It's fitting that, in the year the old guard of adventure game creators return with Broken Age, Broken Sword and Jane Jensen's Moebius, the Blackwell series reaches its conclusion. Across four previous games (and The Shivah before them), Wadjet Eye's paranormal investigations have quietly provided a confident variation on the classic point-and-click.
The Blackwell games have never felt like an attempt to deviate from the genre's puzzle-based history. Instead, their focus has been on finding interesting twists on inventory management where information is as manipulable as items. It's a practice that's honed further in Blackwell Epiphany, the fifth and final game. Aside from a few of missteps across its multiple paths of enquiry and interrogation, it's a well-paced and accomplished finale.
As before, you play as both Rosa Blackwell, the coffee addicted psychic investigator, and her partner (and dead guy) Joey Mallone. During Epiphany's opener it seems like business as usual the pair tracking down ghosts in order to help them find peace and cross over to the other side. Soon, though, they witness something new: a soul being painfully torn apart before disappearing entirely. In solving this spectral destruction, the duo must navigate unhelpful suspects, a wary police department and a growing list of restraining orders.
For all the game's spiritual elements, its success is in how grounded its puzzles feel. When faced with one of the many locked doors Rosa will encounter, the solution is not in some convoluted leap of logic involving rubber chickens or cat hair moustaches, but instead to find a key. There is an inventory, but it remains sparse throughout. If you can pick up an item, it's almost always apparent why and where it will be useful.
The other way past a locked door is to send in your ghost pal. Joey has limited agency in the world able only to blow on small items but can easily enter otherwise unreachable places. It's a consistent interaction, and the clearly flagged rules and limitations of the pair's partnership keep you from chasing fruitless solutions. If an object is too large for Joey to manipulate, then his role is to observe; gathering clues that will later help Rosa gain entry into the room.
As the corporeal half of the team, Rosa's role isn't just heavy lifting. She's also required to question characters, based on information previously gathered. Moving a puzzle forward usually requires searching an area, gathering up any clues, talking to a character, and then following any leads the interrogation shakes loose.
A primary part of this process is Rosa's phone. It collects up the clues that the pair find into a list that can be directly used to question suspects. In addition, a search feature lets you trawl the game's internet for news articles and information. If a name comes up over the course of the investigation, searching for it can reveal a place of business, which can lead to a new clue that, when combined with a previous one, gives Rosa a new point of enquiry.
In this way, Epiphany doesn't feel like a collection of puzzles. Instead, it's a series of threads that you pick and pull at. It rarely requires you to work backwards; to fill out the steps between you and a solution you've already worked out. You're constantly asked to analyse new information, and the enjoyment comes from making the right connections and having your hunches confirmed. At its best, it's as close as a non-systemic game has come to making me feel like I'm doing detective work.
The process isn't always smooth, thanks to a hint system that isn't up to the task. At any point in the game Rosa and Joey can plot their next move, but the few times I did so, they lead me astray. At one point late in the game, I became stuck unsure of how to proceed in the case I was pursuing. When prompted, Rosa and Joey thought they should again question a particular character. After repeatedly doing so, I eventually realised that that the solution lay in a lead she'd already given me, and one of the game's less intuitive interactions. Maybe that's a lesson about trusting your instincts, but it's hard learned when delivered by a game's own protagonists.
That so much of the game is so well executed makes the weaker puzzles seem notably egregious, but for the majority of the story, Epiphany is a solid evolution over its predecessors. That's equally the case in its presentation, with the character sprites and painted backdrops feeling more expressive and readable than past games. And while the voice recording set-up still sounds endearingly unprofessional, the actors do a great job conveying the tragic weariness at the heart of the plot.
While the majority of the game works surprisingly well as a standalone entity, it would be a shame if this was your jumping on point. The full series is worth investigating, and only gets better with each successive entry. Thanks to crowdfunding, the health of the genre is no longer in doubt. If we're lucky, future point-and-click adventures will take note of the lessons the Blackwell games provide.
Details
Price: 11 / $15
Release: Out now
Publisher: Wadjet Eye Games
Developer: In-house
Website:www.bit.ly/1igLaPP
Multiplayer: None - Product Release
Now Available on Steam - Blackwell Epiphany
Blackwell Epiphany is Now Available on Steam! The last game in the Blackwell series.
Blackwell Epiphany is Now Available on Steam!
The last game in the Blackwell series.