DISCLOSURE: This game was reviewed on the following platform: PC – Check out our Review Policy page for more information.
Drawn In By The Artstyle
When I saw the trailer for Blanc I was immediately excited – it looked absolutely beautiful. It has a really unique illustrative artstyle and is completely without color. The character design is very simple and cute, and I thought it would be a really fun game to play with my roommate. And I wish that I could say it was really fun, because the bones are there, and I think it could have been great, but unfortunately it was more frustrating than fun.
You play as a wolf cub and baby deer who have been separate from your pack and herd. You work together to travel across the snowy landscape in order to find your families, solving puzzles along the way, but also having a bit of fun sliding through the snow. Player one plays as the wolf club while player two is the deer, and the deer absolutely feels like player two. On my first playthrough I wanted to be the deer, and I often felt like I was just helping player one, instead of it feeling like we were working together. There were parts of the game where it didn’t feel that way, and there is the option to swap characters, so you can get a more balanced playing experience. But it does end up feeling a bit like the wolf is the main character.
One of Blanc’s strengths is the sound design and music. The music often feels playful and optimistic, which is nice when you’re figuring out a puzzle or sliding through the snow. It also makes the story of the game feel less sad, less like two lost animals and more like two adventuring friends. There are sections without music, but luckily the atmospherics keep the world alive. Whether it be the sound of the roaring winds or the soft crunch of snow beneath our feet, the game doesn’t ever feel still or quiet. The character’s “voices” were also done incredibly well, the wolf’s barks sound just like a dog I had growing up, but the deer isn’t quite as chatty. The barking did get to be a bit tiresome towards late game, when the game would make you stop moving so you could bark and know you were going the right way. I already knew I was going the right way, but now it’s just going to take longer.
We’ve Gotta Talk About The Camera
The camera is the absolute worst part of this game. The game is very much an on-rails experience, and you would think the camera would reflect that. The only way I can describe it would be drunk and disorienting. A lot of the puzzles were needlessly confusing because of where the game chose to put the camera. In other on-rails games I have played the camera has served as a guide, but this was such a starkly different experience
Speaking of stark, while the stark black and white aesthetic was wonderful to look at, it also made it difficult to figure out puzzles. There were a few sections that required the wolf to pull a rope, and during two of them it took ages to figure out because we didn’t notice the rope. It blended in a little too seamlessly with the environment. The worst part about this is that I’d be too frustrated to fully enjoy the emotional moments of the game. Some of the puzzles luckily don’t fall into this trap though. There is a section where you help a mother duck guide her babies through some strong wind, and those puzzles were fun to figure out.
Blanc Review
Summary
I really wanted to like this game. I think it had so much potential, the good parts were really enjoyable, but that makes the bad parts all the more disappointing. If the game had remote play I would have scored the co-op higher, because I do think it would be more fun to play with someone who isn’t sitting beside you, but the only way to do that is if you and your friend both buy the game, which doubles the price, and it’s just not worth it.
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