She has been denied access to her dreams all her life, so when the mob boss offers her the chance to finally work with what she wants, she doesn’t look the gifted horse in the mouth. There’s a scientist that doesn’t hesitate to use people as guinea pigs for her research, but still treats them kindly. There’s an elderly couple you meet on the street that is lonely and you can help them be together – even if there’s no reward for it, as it would turn a selfless act into something not so selfless. There’s a focus on building side characters: there’s a rabbit vendor called Mo, or Po or something else, that pretends to be different people in different parts of the city – or so Howard believes. The first parts of the game follow this pattern: Howard goes to interrogate a person or infiltrate a place, discovers that things are even worse than before – and that the rich and powerful are even more wicked than he first imagined – he panics, tries to leave, but Renee puts him back on track. Her influence on him is what makes Howard never back down, as she’s the one that’s always pushing him to do the right thing. She stirs him in the right direction, forcing Howard to uncover all the dirty he can on the mob and the politicians so she can then make it public. He only knows that his life is at stake, but that only makes him more anxious.īut then comes Renee, a journalist that gives him meaning and purpose. He’s clueless about what to do next: if he should lie to his client or tell the truth, if he should delve deep into the case or pretend it never happened. The scene that opens act II is crucial in this regard, because it shows Howard panicking after finding that crime scene: he asks a lot of questions to himself, but doesn’t know any of the answers. When his search for the missing otter leads him to such discoveries, the character knows he’s out of his depth: he’s used to small cases, like taking pictures of unfaithful husbands, so going against the mafia is a bit above his paygrade.

Early on, he even contemplates – even if just for a short moment – going to the police to tell them about a hideous crime he saw a mob boss commit. The protagonist is talking about how his actions can finally have an impact on the world and change it for the better, but the homeless man says, “ We talking about change now? People like you and me don’t change things.” But Howard still believes he can.Īfter all, despite his act, Howard is still naïve and inexperienced. There’s an early scene when Howard talks to a homeless person – they are the wisest wise and most compassionate characters in the game – and the guy warns the detective that his optimistic mindset will bring only disappointment. The people in power always have law enforcers in their pocket: they do horrible things without a care in the world because they know they are blessed with impunity. There’s a feeling of powerlessness that permeates the entire story, imbuing it with a melancholic dose of fatalism: Howard constantly wonders whether his actions really matter, since even if he discovers the truth, he can’t exactly go to the authorities to get the people responsible punished.Ĭorruption is always a major theme in noir stories and it’s no different with Backbone. Howard believes society is rotting from the inside and his findings just corroborate this notion: the rich are exploiting the poor in ways that even the detective couldn’t have imagined. The investigation gets more and more complicated, incriminating more and more important people. The first parts of Backbone follow the noir staples to the letter. With the help of a journalist – that just happens to be an attractive fox –, Howard must then find what truly happened to some missing girls. My kind of battleground.” One day, when he’s investigating the whereabouts of a male otter – his wife believes he’s cheating on her – Howard gets mixed in a sinister plot that involves the most prominent figures of the city. Smells like wet concrete, overpriced fast food and puke. Howard Lotor is your typical noir detective: he’s reckless and cynical, talks tough and claims to be used to the dark, filthy places of his town: “ Granville.

The protagonist is a raccoon that wears a trenchcoat and works as a private investigator. However, it never commits to both approaches, abandoning important elements for the twist, but not giving it time to breathe. Its story moves from one extreme to the other too fast, going from complete cliché to “holy hell, what’s going on” after a single twist. Backbone is a strange point-and-click adventure.

Backbone game fox