The Black Widow – an interactive horror game – review
The Black Widow is an interactive murder mystery game. It follows the true story of Australia’s first female serial killer, Louisa Collins, who was the last woman to hang in the state of New South Wales.
The player uses a Ouija board to unravel a whodunit? by communicating with the dead …literally. Faithfully reenacted from the original court records and letters, players investigate the true case of Australia’s first female serial killer. Users are free to ask their own questions to determine whether she was truly guilty, or unjustly executed.
The Black Widow first impressions
At first, I was intrigued by this game. It has an interesting and unique premise. That was enough to go the Steam store and download the files. The game itself isn’t that big, and the price ($5.99) was an easy pill to swallow.
The gameplay is easy to figure out. Basically, you type words (or enter using the Ouija board) which prompts Louisa Collins’ photo to begin telling bits of her story. Her photo is animated well, and the spooky background noises really add to the creepy atmosphere. I couldn’t describe it as ‘music’ but more of an ambient palette which blends well alongside the dialogue to create a supernatural sensation… like you’re genuinely communicating with the dead. As you listen to her tell more bits and pieces of her grisly story, you start to fill in the gaps surrounding the deaths of her lovers.
Discovering the goal
Every game needs a challenge, some kind of goal that the player(s) must strive towards. Although the goal is loosely described in The Black Widow’s homepage on Steam, it wasn’t clear what you were supposed to be doing. After successfully entering a few keywords onto the Ouija board, it became obvious that the goal of the game is to fill the outer frame of the photo with gold plating.
Once, the goal is discovered, The Black Widow becomes somewhat ‘grindy’. I found myself wishing I could somehow speed up Louisa’s dialogue, so I could progress the game faster. Certain keywords are emphasized enough to be blatant. Simply keeping a notepad next to me while I listen to Collin’s speech, was enough to pinpoint which phrases would likely trigger a response.
Gameplay leaves some features to be desired
As the player works his/her way through The Black Widow, it becomes apparent that there is little or no consequence to guessing which keywords may trigger Collins to speak. In full disclosure, I didn’t play the game past filling the bottom side of the picture frame with gold. However, I feel the gameplay would benefit from some type of risk/reward system added to it.
For example, if the player only got 10 wrong guesses, and the game ended then it would really have added to the excitement. Ramping up the difficulty of the game would be cool if the keywords became more sparse, or adding in some different cut scenes to break up the monotony of a single picture frame.
Gaming nostalgia
The interactive element of The Black Widow was nostalgic for me. For gamers who are old enough pre-viral video internet sensations, like Subservient Chicken (No longer working), or the more adult of ‘virtual reality’ games like One Of The Lads Carwash game, The Black Widow brought back some of that feeling. It was fun to type prompts into the game and see what I got back out.
However, the lack of emotional feedback from Collins grew stale quickly. Wouldn’t have been cool to see if she started to get upset, or frustrated with the player had he/she intentionally entered strange or unusual queries? For example, I took a shot in the dark and typed “REDRUM” (the famous line from The Shining) to test Collins’ response. This earned nothing but a blank stare. Of course, what would a ghost from 1880’s know about a Hollywood horror movie? Maybe there are some hidden easter eggs within the game, but I didn’t find any.
The Black Widow will be available on Steam, iOS and Android next Thursday, August 1.
Steam (Windows & Mac): $5.99
iOS: $1.99
Android: $1.99
Steam:
https://store.steampowered.
