2.5D Metroidvanias aren’t low-key, but Benedict Fox’s Last Case has a striking style and exciting puzzle-solving that stands out from the side-scrolling platformer pack. The basics aren’t covered, the controls are slow and weigh heavily on combat and platforming, and the lack of objective story telling makes navigating a growing horde of rabbit wonders far more baffling than it should be. As a result, it’s a disappointingly uneven adventure that’s as likely to be involved as it is maddening, and Benedict’s final case begins to feel anxious like a lost cause. There was a long stretch in the second half.
The case in question revolves around the recent death of Benedict’s father. In fact, his fresh corpse still warms the basement floor of the Fox family mansion at the beginning of the story. Taking fingerprints and gathering eyewitness testimony isn’t going to be the most glamorous part of the platforming adventure, so Benedict is partnering with a demonic companion.Mike Patton’s shot in The Darkness Unlike beings on cancer, you can move him in and out of ‘limbo’. This is a representation of his father’s memories and inner demons, which have appeared in the physical realm to search for clues to explain Fox-senpai’s death. Paralleling the various rooms of the family home, only the magnificence of the real-world setting is twisted, ripped apart into stunningly dangerous and nightmarish interpretations, revealing the inner anguish felt by his father in his last hours. It reflects. And they are really charming.
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Indeed, one of Benedict Fox’s greatest strengths is its consistently excellent art direction, contrasting stunning stained-glass shards with swamps filled with disgusting tendrils. The fate of the old fox that kept my interest in the mystery unfolding. However, there are unfortunate occasions when form overwhelms function, and regularly finds themselves ambushed by enemy fire because their vision is blocked by a beautiful but impractical piece of scenery that uncomfortably protrudes into the foreground. I noticed. .
dramatic flare
Even if you can clearly see the action, Benedict Fox’s combat is decidedly haphazard. A basic routine when facing a low-key kind of demonic foe is to unleash a 3-hit combo and a charge attack with Benedict’s blades, then flare gun to fill up his meter and then to a safe distance. Evade and finish off enemy enemies to blow up his rounds. fantastic face. The problem is that it’s hard to maintain the rhythm of battle. Most enemy attacks telegraph clearly, but my attempts to counter them frequently failed because the block button didn’t seem to register (playing on PC). of health.
Ink collected from fallen enemies on your journey can be traded with the mysterious tattoo artist who returns to the mansion to enhance your supernatural powers (in Artful Prosperity, each upgrade rewards Benedict (his sleeve), I was never completely at ease. I was able to drag enemies with and body slam the bad guys out of the air, but my lingering distrust of controls and the lack of settings to fine-tune them is what I usually enjoy about Benedict Fox. Instead, fight something to endure.
Benedict Fox features a surprisingly small number of boss fights, as it tacitly admits that its combat system is underperformed. I tackled the towering tentacle monster within the first half hour of him. This set the expectation of engaging in regular showdowns with plus-sized demons over the course of the adventure. The first boss gives little visual feedback that it’s actually doing damage, so it’s somewhat weak until it ends abruptly. It will be a confrontation of feeling. The final boss tends to get worse attacking you during the transition between phases. This is a short period of time that cannot be evaded or countered.
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Sure, there are a few other major beasts you’ll encounter along the way, but instead of fighting them, they’ll each have to be dodged in trial-and-error-based twitchy platform chases or evocative sudden-death stealth sequences. There’s a stark contrast to the kind of euphoria I’ve experienced overcoming oversized enemies in Metroid Dread and Hollow Knight. Instead of punching air, I kept my hair pulled.
Brainiac Mansion
In contrast to the combat, Benedict Fox’s puzzles are generally of a very high standard. Oftentimes, accessing locked areas in other Metroidvanias comes down to figuring out which special ammo types correspond to which colored doors to burst open, but Benedict’s Fox’s brain teaser is closer to the kind of riddles usually found in point-and-click adventure games.
There are chessboard puzzles, mathematical riddles, musical and rhythm-based conundrums, and a myriad of coded symbols to be examined and deciphered using a combination of Benedict’s journal notes and a mechanical deciphering device. I especially like that you have to explore the realm of Limbo to find solutions to some puzzles in the real-world mansion. To access a locked drawer in Benedict’s father’s study, you must infiltrate and analyze the old man’s memories. Brahms Stay away from living in a playable version of Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
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That said, there are some optional puzzles that are too complex to complete, such as some doors that require collectible tarot cards to be placed in specific locations to unlock them. There’s an option in the menu to lower the difficulty of the game, which you can switch to at any time if you get completely stuck during your adventure, but that just means it auto-solves. , I wish it included a hint system that gently steers you toward a solution when you need help, rather than taking homework out of your hands and doing it for you. Like an impatient parent.
Worse navigation
The puzzle system isn’t the only thing Benedict Fox doesn’t want to hint at. Both the main story and the side objectives are very confusing, and it’s rarely clear where to go next or what to look for. Sure, you can expect a healthy dose of mystery and setbacks in any Metroidvania, but in general I hope it at least gently points you in the direction you need to follow in order for the story to progress. Only receiving vague instructions such as “find a way to complete the ritual” or “learn more about your father’s past”, with no real way to find answers other than chance encounters. , spent so much time unnecessarily rereading the ground and trying to do the best that certain stretches of terrain became familiar, like the inside of my eyelids were inked by an in-game tattooist. .
It doesn’t help that even just moving is a minor chore in itself. There are fast travel points to unlock along the way, but no minimap at all means navigating the long spaces in between is a relentless stop-and-start as you enter and exit the pause menu to study. It means an event. A complete map with each of the many branching paths in the terrain. At least waypoints he would have liked the ability to pin markers. That way you don’t have to stop every few steps to ponder the map like some sort of tentacle-powered tourist (or worse, you’ll remain vulnerable to enemy fire). while in a state that is not actually paused).
Speaking of tentacle power, the fact that Benedict relies on the reach of his inky appendages to perform double jumps means that otherwise simple platform sections often become an exercise in frustration. increase. Having to time the jump button twice to see a purple reticle appear on the ceiling overhead or on the edge of the platform you’re trying to reach feels awkward at best, but at worst the reticle is either not displayed. Or if the input doesn’t register, Benedict trades in tentacles for a pair of clipped wings and falls like a stone. Double jumping has been a pretty solid feature in the platformer genre. So it’s somewhat shocking to play Metroidvania in 2023 and somehow make a hash of such stock-standard features.
