Review for The Adventures of The Black Hawk
The team at Croqueta Asesina Studios poured every ounce of their passion for the LucasArts classics into The Adventures of The Black Hawk. This dedication is revealed in the expertly written hero’s tale, replete with challenges requiring reflexes and intelligence and infused with a comedic slant. The team’s admiration for masterworks like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is given form through the elegantly drawn pixel-art graphics and the jaunty soundtrack. The simple, mouse-driven interface makes controlling the narrative easy for the player. The lack of a hotspot indicator is the only loose thread in this lovingly made, amusingly interactive tapestry that pays homage to its predecessors.
Players guide Jean Pierre de Saint-Cove as he adopts the persona of The Black Hawk to thwart the tyrannical designs of Baron LeComeau, who is trying to subjugate the people of France. Jean-Pierre is aided in his heroic efforts by his friend Mathieu and, later, his girlfriend Violette, who is the source of many intelligent, acerbic comments. She is a woman of controlled yearnings; rather than let them consume her, she draws on them as a wellspring of strength. (Dialogs are text-only with no voice-overs.)
This enjoyable story takes place in many different locations, but the forest is the most captivating. I appreciated its lush greenery and vibrant wildflowers. The forest also features a lively, playful music track that sets up a particularly heroic moment. It is the perfect jumping-off point to a new adventure.
-2.jpeg "Screenshot for Adventures of the Black Hawk, The 1")
Additionally, the forest is the setting for one of the most rewarding of the game’s often challenging puzzles. Players use an item to get the drop on an adversary in a humorous way, and I couldn't help but laugh out loud once I accomplished it. The mouse-driven interface is an excellent emulation of the LucasArts classics. To move the character to a specific location, you simply click on that area. The lower-left side of the screen contains verbs, with which you can construct commands. The lower-right corner of the screen holds all the objects you collect, and you can wield them by clicking on the "use" button, followed by clicking on the item and the area of the screen where you wish to employ it.
The chief downside I encountered while playing was the lack of a hotspot indicator. I became frustrated many times when missing an essential item.
Throughout the adventure, there may come scenarios where no solution seems to work, no object can be of assistance, and even dialogue fails to resolve issues. So, it's time to engage your fighting skills! Combat is both challenging and fair. A simple interface displays the graphics on a split screen. The bottom-left corner contains health meters for both The Black Hawk and the enemy. To protect the protagonist, the player can use the arrow keys to launch three different attacks: upper, middle, and lower. The W and S keys are used for defense, while the A and D keys control the distance to the adversary. These keys can be useful when the red stamina bar in the bottom-right corner becomes low. Fighting with a high stamina meter is easier, and increasing the distance between combatants allows The Black Hawk to recover lost energy. The fighting speed was slow enough that I, with slow reflexes, could succeed without outside assistance.
-2.jpeg "Screenshot for Adventures of the Black Hawk, The 2")
When your health meter is depleted, you die and the game displays a "game over" screen, plus a guillotine and a skull with the player's score before returning to the main menu. Here you can load a saved game and try again. Do save often! There is no handy autosave feature, but this didn't significantly diminish my enjoyment.
The Adventures of The Black Hawk is a wonderful game. Passion and love are evident in all its components—the intricate story, colorful pixel-art graphics, and clever puzzles. Luckily, the combat system is designed in such a way that even adventurers with slower reflexes have a good shot at succeeding. I highly recommend the game to all adventurers.
__medium.jpeg)
