“Spiritual services, huh? Why do I always end up with the nuts?”

The Blackwell Deception is the fourth of five parts in the Blackwell series. In comparison to the predecessors the atmosphere and story are presented in a more serious and sinister way. Another strong point is the development of the sophisticated and charming characters.

The ability of combining clues has been reinstated and well implemented in a few conversation puzzles. Another improvement is the introduction of the mobile phone, which allows you to search for clues and information on the run, instead of travelling to the PC in your apartment.

The commentary mode has also been improved by providing icons on the screen you can click upon, resulting in a less intrusive way of telling background information.
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My rating system consists of six categories in descending order of importance:

- Atmosphere
- Characters
- Details
- Puzzles
- Story
- Controls

Based on the performance each category will receive one of the following grading:

- S-Rank: excellent
- A-Rank: very good
- B-Rank: solid
- C-Rank: satisfactory
- D-Rank: inferior

If the S-Rank is awarded, a quote from the game or personal comment will be added as a token of my respect (in brackets).
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Atmosphere: A-Rank

Characters: A-Rank

Details: A-Rank

Puzzles: A-Rank

Story: A-Rank (S-Rank for the underlying storyline)

Controls: A-Rank
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To conquer all achievements of The Blackwell Deception, you will most likely spend around 5 hours. A detailed achievement guide can be found on the link below (thanks to Link).

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=152575801

Achievement difficulty: 1 of 10

Common:
- Singleplayer [+1]
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Blackwell Epiphany (PC) – Adventure game + Point & Click
(Fantasy) – 2014
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197968514473/recommended/236930/
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Blackwell Deception (PC) – Adventure game + Point & Click
(Fantasy) – 2013
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Blackwell Convergence (PC) – Adventure game + Point & Click
(Fantasy) – 2009
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197968514473/recommended/80350/
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Blackwell Unbound (PC) – Adventure game + Point & Click
(Fantasy) – 2007
http://steamcommunity.com//profiles/76561197968514473/recommended/80340/
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The Blackwell Legacy (PC) – Adventure game + Point & Click
(Fantasy) – 2006
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197968514473/recommended/80330/

Overview: Blackwell Deception is the forth installment in my favorite point-and-click adventure series in this century. The Blackwell series definitely has a special place in my heart. Deception tells the story of Rosangela Blackwell, a not-so-novice medium, and Joey, a spirit stuck with the Blackwell family, and they both go about solving mysteries in NYC and investigating cases related to ghosts who couldn't move on to the afterlife.

Pros:

• Despite having ghosts and all, characters are very realistic, well-developed, deep, interesting, funny, and loveable
  
• The story is interesting and solving the mysteries is really fun
  
• The puzzles are kept to a sober level of difficulty, but there's no handholding, either
  
• The dialogues and the voice acting are really outstanding, I can't stress it enough. And this game has no problems with different volumes like its prequel.
  
• Has a very interesting mechanic in which you combine clues instead of just items to solve puzzles, and that works really well with the investigation theme. This feature is even improved in this game.
  
• Once again, you get to control both Rosa and Joey (whose roll is even bigger now), adding a lot to the puzzles
  
• Having the smartphone to do research and call makes the game flow even better than the previous games
  
• Beautiful, beautiful retro graphics
  
• BGM is awesome, probably the best so far in the series, or at least as good as Unbound

Cons:

• No in-game way to change the resolution
  
• Alt+tabbing and alt+escing kinda screw the game (keyboard stops being recognized, some dialogues get cut down in a split second and you can't listen to/read them anymore), so you'll probably have to quit it and load it again to solve it

Bought on: I got it on a trade for another game key/link I had. Its full price is US$ 9,99 (R$ 16,99), and it's been as cheap as 90% off on Steam.

Verdict: This game is the last game in the series I've played so far (will start Epiphany right after I finish this review). Deception is considerably better, longer, and more clever than its prequels. It's really fun and brings you back to old-school adventure games, while still bringing fresh elements to the table. If you're into classic point-and-click games, you most definitely have to try it! I had played it a few years ago and it was still fun to replay it now. Don't forget to play the other titles first! While you could play Deception as a standalone game, you'll miss a lot if you haven't played them.

Congrats, Wadjet Eye-- while the previous Blackwell games play like shoddily made rush-jobs, 'Deception' is a damn fine experience. Bravo! I'm glad to finally be able to recommend something from this series-- just wish it didn't take 3 previous flops to get to this point.

Adding more artists to the repertoire definitely paid off. The change in visual style for the 4th installment in this series is refreshing; all my previous gripes with the art (rough animation, bad perspective/pixelation, flat atmosphere) have all been fixed-- and beautifully. The art/animation in 'Deception' is tight, stylish, and consistent.

The upgrades on sound (FINALLY; a pop filter! ...and proper mixing!) are fantastic. Gameplay is more refined & intuitive; a nicely updated GUI with more preference controls has been added-- even the writing & dialogue/timing are more solid and entertaining.

Newcomers, grab this one! If you're curious about the earlier games, I can only suggest buying the 4-pack Blackwell bundle if Steam offers it on sale again-- otherwise, you're better off watching a "let's play" of the the first three chapters.

There are multiple references to previous storylines that may otherwise be lost on the unfamiliar in 'Deception'-- but all in all, it stands alone as a fun & original supernatural mystery that any adventure gamer can enjoy.

Made a baby face plant into a door 10/10

Another great addition to the Blackwell series, Deception is nice and familair (in terms of narrative style and what you can expect the game to look and feel like). It's good to see some more back story in this one to reignite your intial interest in Joey's character and help round out the characters and make them seem more real. The script in this one is great for interactions between Joey and Rosa (banter, as Dave Gilbert describes in the commentary) and the introduction of a new type of threat (besides a rogue ghost) makes it tantilising to think of what the next game will contain. Great soundtrack and visuals on this one, and I do like that they brought back the 'notebook' clue management system with Rosa's phone. As a side note, it's good that they limited the amount of content in the commentary mode for this one, there was just way too much in the last game when you found the unlock for them. Also nice to see what the voice actors look like but they never do look how you'd imagine compared to how they suit their characters. *****

Alot of ghost kissing and fighting.

I would recommend this game to the lazy ones, looking to pass the time. The game is quite simple, so it isn't really a challenge, but the story is interesting, especially if you like scifi stuff.

if your into point and clicks adventure games you can't go wrong with the Blackwell series.
they are ghost / detective stories where you'll need to swap between the 2 to hunt for clues.
kinda of serous stories with humor based on dialog between a shy shut in girl and her disgruntled ghost.

Zzz...

Surprisingly enough, this game is really great. It has a creative story and gameplay, amazing voice acting, and is a pretty good challenge for fans of point and click games.

I purchased Blackwell Deception as part of the Indie Royale Bundle and to be honest, I didn't know the game beforehand. It's an old school Point and Click graphic adventure, a genre that's lacking nowadays. No need to say it far exceeded my expectations. I hadn't played a P n' C Adventure this good since the Chzo Mythos collection by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. Surely there are other great recent games like the Secret of Monkey Island HD remakes, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse or Hector: Badge of Carnage but they're nothing new. On the other hand, Blackwell Deception is a breeze of fresh air. If I had to describe it I'd say it is a mixture between The Secret of Monkey Island (the boat segment is clearly inspired by the Pirate LeChuck), Maniac Mansion (the supernatural part of the game), Broken Sword (the ambience) and Beneath a Steel Sky (the gadgets Rosa uses, the disco scenario).
The characters are well built and the side dialogues make you know them better if you give the effort. By the end of the game you will really care about what happens to the protagonists (hint on a sequel) .
The puzzles are inventive and well thought-out even though I would have liked to see more item combinations. The "switch character" system can become a little confusing in the not so obvious bits because you'll need to analyze the effect Rosangela and her "spiritual guide" have in each single object to figure out a solution. There's one particular puzzle where you'll need to click the same object for an indetermined amount of times until you succeed, it's kind of random so you might get stuck in that part for some minutes, but it's really nothing serious.
The soundtrack is excellent, the trumpet songs reminded me of Dire Straits final studio album On Every Street.
The game has some replay value, you will probably miss 2 achievements during the first playthrough and then you still have the commentary mode to finish.
I got BD for about 4€ with 3 other games (AVSEQ, Oil Rush and To The Moon) so I consider it was a hell of a deal. Unfortunately I started playing the Blackwell saga from the fourth chapter so I didn't know much about characters' backgrounds/side stories but that's not the game's fault.
I've bought The Blackwell Bundle from Steam since then. I'd recommend this saga to any Graphic Adventure enthusiast

First of all, I must say I feel a bit cheated. The game runs natively in 640x480 resolution, but other than the title screen and one unused background mentioned in the commentary mode, all art is point resampled from 320x240. It shows and is such a pity, especially given that the background art used ingame is pre-rendered, so it should be a cinch to up-res it natively.

Also, the whole medium/psychic bashing was extremely heavy handed. I'm all for social commentary, but there's a fine line between this and irrational bashing and I feel this game crosses it at times. Yes, mediums are con artists. This does not mean they feast on child flesh, drink human blood for breakfast, etc, etc.

Speaking of crossing the line - Joey has been getting meaner and meaner with each game and some of his lines here are downright abusive. Not sure how to feel about that.

Other than that, another improvement from previous game. Really loved the implementation of commentary mode, and it actually had some good insights into development this time instead of n-th musing about how Dave Gilbert met this or that voice artist. Being able to use phone to look up clues was amazing, since you had to travel to PC apartment to do that in previous games, killing pacing in the process.

Some nice, simple puzzles - nothing akin to Donkey Cart puzzle in Discworld or Cat's Mustache from Gabriel Knight 3, everything was really logical. A few conversation puzzles as well, and few instances of needing to combine clues. Good hint system if you ever get stuck, although I still had to look some things online once or twice - though take it with a grain of salt, since I never was good with actual adventure game 'gameplay' - I play them mostly for story/conversations.

Personal 'not feeling ripped off' price point: $5

This recommendation is for the whole series. The Blackwell series are a bunch of charming adventure games about a woman that discovers she's actually a spirit medium and with the help of her ghostly assistant is destined to help souls cross to the afterlife. What really makes the games stand out is the writing and characters. The characters are likable and develop over the course of the series, biggest example being the protagonist, Rosa, who starts off as goony social r*tard but as she eventually accepts her family's calling she becomes far more confident and outgoing. The plots for the games make for some real solid supernatural mystery stories and they even take pages from New York City's history books and actually add some lesser known real people from the city's past into the plot. If you like adventure games definitely check these out, especially because the fifth and final game isn't too far away

I also really recommend Primordia and Resonance, which the developer, Wadjet Eye, help publish. I'd make separate recommendations for them, but I own them on GOG so I can't.

Best in the series. Well done Wadjet Eye.

The fouth installment builds up on all the positive from the previous games. I find the story to be the best yet, with some parts being especially touching. There is improvement on the puzzles, most were well-designed and a couple just way cool! Voice acting, characters and music score/sound effects are all excellent. Also, what an ending!

Excellent. I liked Unbound and Convergence more, but this one is still very well written. Can't wait for Epiphany!

If you're a fan of point'n'click adventures: This is your game series.

+ Amazing writing/dialouges
+ Lovely animated and sophisticated characters/background stories
+ Adult humor
+ Great Story development/excitement curve
+ Awesome voice acting
+ Additional "Behind the Scenes" material and commentary
+ Convincing all-over-atmosphere
+ Fitting music

The story can get quite emotional without relying on heavy romances.
The games are still more of a detective story involving ghosts, personal
tragedies, intrigues, murder and envy.

The series is easily one of the best modern point'n'click productions and
you can really feel the commitment and engagement that was used to produce these games.

If you liked this series, you will probably also like other games from Wadjet Eye:
- Gemini Rue
- Resonance
- Primordia
- The Shivah

Before anything I just wanna say that the only other game I've played from the series is Blackwell Unbound. I probably should have played the other 2 first before Deception but that's not too big of an issue.

As someone who has finished Unbound recently, I can see the differences (for the better) that the Developer applied into Blackwell Deception. A few small quirks were improved upon such as being able to move to the next map without having to switch to the Spirit Medium.

I especially liked the format in which the cases were presented in this game. You get thrown right into a case as a 'tutorial' and then given a few more cases that all eventually converge to one larger idea. I am glad that the Developer finally decided to reveal a bit of information on our ghostly companion and did so in a way that would keep players interested.

The one thing I didn't really like was how the commentary mode had large bubbles showing up all over the screen. I realize that you can turn it off but if you are trying to go for 100% during the first time, it's a little bit unpleasant. I like listening to the commentary but I'm not fond of the bubbles (the bloopers were funny though).

It also would have been nice if some of the phone features were used more. I didn't need to read a whole lot of mail so that feature felt a bit underused.

Overall the game was an even better experience than Blackwell Unbound. Finishing this title has me excited for the 2 other Blackwell games on my list. The combination of Joey and Rosangela seemed a lot smoother than with Lauren.

I have never been into Adventure games really, however I gave this game a try and I am glad I did. It has a very interesting premise and is a lot of fun to play. I recommend checking it out if you are into this genre, or would just like to try something a little different. It has an interesting story and it really makes you think.

I liked it very much, loved the puzzles, the art style, the dialogue and the overall gameplay.