On a personal level, I have been looking forward to playing The Last Case of Benedict Fox for a while now, after seeing various trailers play out at events over the last twelve months or so. I think it was the overall style of the game that appealed to me, the whole Lovecraftian vibe that Benedict Fox attempts to pull off.
The Last Case of Benedict Fox comes from the team at Plot Twist and so it is now time to see if the actual game can live up to the promise that the trailers hinted at. Are you ready to dive into a twisted world where nothing is as it seems?
The obvious starting point for The Last Case of Benedict Fox is in the presentation, as is it most certainly that which first drew the eye all those months ago. And we are in for a treat here, as the whole vibe of the game, from graphics to sound, is very striking and extremely evocative. The blurb mentions that it has been inspired by “Lovecraft’s nightmares, noir fiction and early 20th century jazz” and to be fair, there’s not a whole lot more to add to it than that.
The design of the characters you meet, both friendly and not so much, owe more than a hat tip to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, especially in the design of the Companion, our friendly neighbourhood demon that comes along for the ride. The voice acting and music are also top notch; again the voice of the Companion is particularly excellent, gravelly and quite scary, to be honest.
The presentation of the actual levels is also great, with a very cool difference between the real world and Limbo, where we have to go to solve puzzles and find clues to help us make sense of what is happening. Each section of the game is portrayed from a side-on, platform-style view, with various places where Benedict can go up and down stairs, for example. All in all, the way the game looks and sounds is well up to the standard I was expecting.
However, the narrative is very important to me, and in this the developers haven’t skimped either. We are Benedict Fox, a self proclaimed detective, and as mentioned above, we have a pet demon that we are bound to, called the Companion. We can use that bond, the power of the Companion, to enter Limbo and explore the memories of people who have recently died, starting with Benedict’s own father.
We must track the memories through the course of the game, and through this we must also face many perils, ranging from fears and emotions brought to life through brain twisting puzzles and so on. I can’t say too much for fear of potential spoilers, but suffice it to say that the story will keep you guessing as you play through the game. It never disappoints.
What about the actual gameplay itself, how does that work? Well, this is a classic Metroidvania game, and in case you have been living under a rock, this word is made up of Metroid and Castlevania, two game series whose style of play has become synonymous with a certain style of game – one where we have to explore, get new abilities, and then return to earlier areas with these new powers in order to make progress. Nice and clear? Good! So, it follows then that The Last Case of Benedict Fox is very much a game of two halves – there is the exploring side, and there is the fighting side. You didn’t expect to go waltzing around in Limbo without a few dust-ups, did you?
Benedict isn’t shy about engaging in fisticuffs with the various enemies he comes across, and he has two main ways to attack. He has a gun, which is his most powerful attack but that has to charge, and he has a bayonet, that does fast combo type attacks with low damage, but hits from it charge the gun. So, in the fighting, it is very much a case of charge, smack the foes about, then dodge out and fire the gun. The dodge move does take some getting used to, as it is mapped to the right stick rather than a button press, and I did have to almost rewire my brain that B wasn’t dodge. He also has a handy parry attack, where the Companion will shield Benedict from harm; if this is timed right, it can stagger foes.
In addition, Benedict Fox can get new abilities (once he has reached a certain part of the narrative) by getting tattoos that power up the Companion. The ink for these tattoos is dropped by foes when defeated, so it is also worth having a fight. Using powers and doing damage lead up to the inevitable boss fights, which are extremely challenging and will test you to the limit.
The one issue I had with the fighting is that when Benedict does get hit, it appears that he is full of helium, getting knocked back a fair distance. This was particularly bad on the first boss, as any hit pretty much flattens Benedict, leaving not enough time to heal before the next attack comes in. With practice he is pretty easy, but you need to get the parry timing down.
Exploration is another area where it is possible to get massively lost, but in a good way. The map of the house we find ourselves in is big enough, but when you add in the Limbo section, the whole place is enormous. There isn’t a massive amount of help about where to go next in The Last Case of Benedict Fox either – it is very much a case “Here’s an objective, go and collect some notebook pages” – it’ll be up to you to figure out where they are. And I for one am loving this approach – look at the map, try and figure out where you haven’t been, and then try to get there.
But there’s more and by using the Companion’s new powers to help (double jump is unlocked early, but triple…?) and you’ll soon run up against the third leg of this game: the puzzles. Some are pretty simple, solving a combination locked drawer by looking at it in a memory, for instance, but they soon get much more complicated, requiring you to input numbers into a machine to get codes out and so on. These puzzles do get quite tricky quite fast, so you’ll want to put your best thinking cap on!
All in all, I have loved my time with this game. There are slight issues with combat in the early stages, but the exploration and puzzles on offer in The Last Case of Benedict Fox are very good indeed; they will keep you playing as you attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery. A challenging and involving game, the aesthetics of the whole world just add to the charm.
