Perm Gothic. Black Book Review

The best thing about Black Book is the stories and voice acting. The structure of the campaign resembles some roguelikes like Slay the Spire or Void Bastards. The player receives or chooses the target of the next task and makes his way to it through several places, each of which must pass in turn. Depending on his decisions, new places may open on the map: some will be associated with additional tasks, while the player will open others with his decisions. You can play freon F95zone

Introduction:

Each new meeting on the map is just a three-dimensional backdrop and text describing what is happening. But what a! Written in a figurative language, professionally voiced introductions are more like an audiobook than a game. All the dialogues were also sounded: there are many actors, and each worked for all the money. It is difficult to remember any other work of this level among games.

Stories, meetings and tasks are somehow tied to popular beliefs. The game has both an encyclopedia, which gives a scientific understanding of Perm folklore, and a section with bylichki – tales that made up folklore. Here and the agreement with the devil at the crossroads, and the rescue of the bride carried away by the bunny, and wandering through the forest in the power of the devil, and diving to the bottom of the lake to the water – in the last chapter the heroine is waiting for Hell.

The plot tells about the girl Vasilisa, whose young man laid hands on himself. Wanting to save him from hellish torment and not believing that the guy himself committed suicide, the girl accepts the Black Book from her grandfather, demons into service and magical knowledge. Tradition says that the sorcerer who opens all the seals of the book can make any wish – and it will come true. Opening the seals and resurrecting the Basilis’s betrothed is the player’s task. However, the result also depends on the funds.

The moral system in the game is simple:

in the course of her adventure, Vasilisa accumulates sins. Some – for unrighteous deeds and sacrilege, like stealing offerings from the grave. Others bring demons. The fact is that the demons adopted from the grandfather-teacher need to be occupied with work, otherwise they will impose permanent negative effects on the heroine (for example, Lesser restoration 5e damage in battle). Over time, having pumped the necessary skills, it will be possible to send demons to meaningless work, such as carrying water with a sieve or counting needles on fir trees – but only two. The rest will have to take up real damage such as fires, diseases and other things – and for this they will bring sins to the heroine. 

If desired, the game can be completed practically without fighting: many situations do not require a fight. If you are careful, you can avoid most attacks where the initiative is on the side of evil spirits. At times, the “Black Book” tests the player for attentiveness. The character can ask the heroine a question based, again, on mythology, and then the game will offer several answers. If the player diligently researched all the available meetings and read the found articles and stories, the question will not cause any difficulties, but will also bring a bonus in the form of experience. Moreover, some of the answers can be guessed without even reading the encyclopedia. All the same, our folklore.

If the conflict cannot be resolved in words, the Black Book comes into play – that is, your military conspiracies. According to the plot of the game, the heroine opens seals in this book – there are seven of them in total, by print per chapter. Each of them opens up new cards from which the player can weave conspiracies. The size of the deck is naturally limited.

Cards are divided into white and black. The former are more often defensive or reinforcing, the latter are attacking and weakening. The style can be traced in the names of the cards: “Kila”, “EgoriyBatyushka”, “Evil Eye”, “Avoil”. In addition, cards are divided into “orders” and “keys” – this only affects the order in which they are read.

Also in battle, you can use herbs with many different useful effects and passive bonuses from wearable items. From the beginning of the first chapter, the heroine will have the opportunity to take an ally with her, who can also help with a special skill every few turns. Thus, in the last chapters, in several moves, I gained myself a gain of under a hundred, and the damage from one conspiracy could exceed two or three hundred units – despite the fact that the final boss had only 666 health units.

The only thing missing from the combat system is New Game +. Most of the cards are available to the player in the last chapter – but, firstly, it is very short. Secondly, the player has significantly less money. Thirdly, you don’t want to rebuild the deck too much when the ending is so close. The ability to start the game anew, but already with all the cards collected for the passage, would allow you to plunge deeper into the mechanics.

Diagnosis

The Black Book really looks like a good book. It is difficult to argue why this game is not worth playing. Even the mentioned cons are tolerable at worst. And given the native atmosphere, familiar folklore, fascinating combat system, charming heroes and a variety of interesting quests, the Black Book and HuniePop 2will become a long and exciting adventure for the player. 40 hours minimum – is it a joke?

Pro

• A unique setting, very poorly represented in popular culture in general – not only in games
• A long exciting plot, full of many different tasks and interesting characters
• An intuitive card system with a low threshold of entry
• Atmospheric, perfectly voiced dialogues and descriptions of places, meetings, heroes and events

Contra

• Curve like a demon horn, save system
• Confusing, like a goddamn beard, interface