Zzz...

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

Best in the series. Well done Wadjet Eye.

For a new game, Blackwell Deception feels like a classic graphic adventure game that I missed first time round rather than a NEW game. It perfectly captures the true feel and character of a traditional graphic adventure and I've been loving every minute. With puzzles that make you think hard to interesting and comedic characters, the only thing that hints at this being a game from the current time is the use of a mobile phone with internet access to help you solve some missions.

Amazing graphics, awesome music, the sudden realization that you're in over your head and yet... there's nothing you can do about it... it's all here in this, the fourth installment of the Blackwell series. If you haven't played the other three games before this, I would recommend doing that first as they all tie tobgether and things can get confusing if you don't. But you should definitely play them all if you're a fan of adventure, point-and-click games.