Backbone: Prologue - I Should've Known This Would Get Dark

 So getting around to wrapping up demos.  I'm rather pissed off that the one I just finished got hit copyright after I was approved to play it and the company sent me a free game code for it. But that's another story.  Let's talk a Dystopian Noir Adventure. Backbone: Prologue.  Cause the full game isn't out yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXVqb6g41uI

Backbone is about a raccoon private investigator named Howard Lotor and from the looks of things barely scrapes by on his job. Not cause he sucks at it but cause who really needs a Private Investigator.  This is a pixel adventure game.  This is the second one I've seen using this style of art. The first being Uncanny Valley.  Well for Backbone instead of a horror concept we have a dystopian mafia concept.  More on that in a bit.

Story or My Experience Really

So we start out and get a case from an otter asking us to look into her husband, Jeremy Green's whereabouts. While questioning her about his whereabouts she does get a bit defensive about some questions but she tells Howard what he needs to know. So it's out to the streets to dig up some info.

Where you sleep is in the same room as your kitchen and your bathroom. 

The environment is definitely a dystopia.  It's a rundown city that obviously has its dark corners.  Chatting up with everyone here I try my best to avoid bringing up that Howard is a PI.  I also try to keep things friendly so that any information wouldn't be so hard to get. Everyone here feels natural.  The America Social Class system is heavily in play here.  Most people you end up talking to are in the working class or worse.

There's a cop I avoid like the plague cause Howard hints that he's not on good terms with him.  There's an elephant that's possibly a bigot selling papers. He hates everyone else that sells on the street cause it's ruining his business and he's pretty sure they don't have a license.  Almost everyone I talk to on the street has problems with money and whatever's going on at home.

As I start digging up clues about the Jeremy. I get a clue saying that he's most likely at the club.   So now I need a way in. And the bouncer isn't willing the budge.  Time to find a way in.  Well I tried a ticket I found in the garbage...yeah that didn't work.  The bouncer realized it and wasn't gonna honor that.

Forgot the Fonzee look was thing.  

So after talking to Larry, one of Howard's old friends about getting in he says to talk to some drug dealer on the street.  So I chat him up. I avoid bringing the cops into the mess. Cops can mess things up quickly.  Not that I don't trust cops but given the narration of the story I think things would just get hairy. Anyway the drug dealer says he can get Howard in and in exchange I leave him alone. Okay.

So in the club the atmosphere feels rather positive but suspicious.  I get a lead that Jeremy did show up in here but not where exactly he left to. I then come across a girl who's too buzzed out of her mind to even hold a conversation with.  Then I encounter the owner of the club, Clarrisa who also happens to be the current leader of the mafia. Oh boy.  She doesn't like that I'm hiding who I am and that I'm searching for Jeremy. So she kicks me out.

Bad vibes going off immediately after meeting her.

Well gotta find another way in.  After pitching ideas with Larry. He says I shouldn't press this any further. But tells me about using the back door or the roof.  Well considering I just got kicked out, the back door isn't really an option. I mean if I had a gun maybe...but I would bet it's still not a viable option.  Also investigating the delivery van.  There's notes about the deliveries being late and having to deliver too much.  Next to the van is an angry mother. She tells me that her daughter left for this place after a fight and she hasn't been allowed to see her daughter at all.  She says the place is a whore house and all she wants to do is see her daughter.  I agree to look for her as well, cause I'm nice. Honestly the case might be connected.

So to get to the roof I need to climb the newspaper stand.  But it's managed by the elephant who's still angry. And the guy he's angry at just showed up.  I can't climb the newsstand unless I help him get rid of the other guy.  So I chat up the guy selling from his cart. After being friendly with him I owe him a favor for being nice. (I hope being nice isn't gonna slap me in the face later).  Anyway with that out the way I can finally climb the newsstand to get to the roof of the club.

So the puzzle here is I need to find the code to open the door to the lift. The code is somewhere among all this clutter. How do you find the code?

Now the game kicks in giving me somewhat of a stealth mission.  I have to sneak around a bit.  I end up in a girls room. Become somewhat of a klepto taking something important from there and leave.  Then I head further in.  I find Clarissa's room...nothing seems out of the ordinary except Jeremy's  tie is left hanging behind a painting. It's a secret passage.  Well I end up in what looks like a kitchen? It's actually a freezer.  And the door is stuck. After messing around a bit I manage to find a way out.  Now I have to get past the kitchen staff.  Not too hard but I end up stuck in a locker room.  After spending near 20 minutes on a puzzle I figure a way out.  So now I'm in some area really dark and its rank with the smell of drugs.  In the back room I found Jeremy...or what's left of him.  He's dead and being cut up.  Oh dear.

After hiding in a trash can from the guy doing the disposal duty. I make my escape.  The game goes into cutscene mode and Howard is outside barfing. Not sure if it's from what he saw or the smell of the drugs.  The demo ends there.

I feel like this is a case where we bit off more than we could chew. Besides the lighting here. That guy lying there is dead. 

I know it's not much of a summary but I was just going off what I remember and I didn't want to spend too much time talking about every little tidbit. I think other people should find it for themselves.

Gameplay 

I'm supposed to assume the role of a P.I. so I gotta act it.

Well I generally explained the gameplay.  It's pretty much just walking or running around chatting with people, finding clues, and solving puzzles.  I do like how dialogue has multiple options.  So you can easily ruin a relationship or start one which I guess would benefit you in the main game. Most games with multiple dialogue options are generally whether or not you want to die or just red herrings.

Stealth Section.  

I'm also glad that there's no point and click bits.  Point and click in adventure games are usually complicated in some way.  Like there's parts where you have to click a specific spot to make something happen. This game does not have that from what I could see.

Graphics

Don't Shame My Fleas! Feel like a statement's being made here.

Art is our only salvation from the horror of existence. Wow that is true in so many ways.

Well Pixel based art. You either like or you don't. Actually I would say it's the amount of detail that goes into it that matters to me. This game gives me the rundown city feel and nails it. There's no AND SUDDENLY ALIENS or something weird here.

The characters stand out as well. One look at them and you can tell what's going with there lives. There's also tidbits that reach out to me to let me know there's more to this world than what you see.

Overall

I'm curious to see where this game goes.  It left me on a cliffhanger and the characters were interesting enough that I didn't write them off as some throw away NPCs.