Blacksad: Under the Skin

 Switch
User Score
3.3

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 24
  3. Negative: 16 out of 24
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  1. fubenalvo
    Dec 19, 2019
    2
    Worst quality Switch game I ever played, or probably I ever played in any platform. The switch version seems like a closed beta version. As its textures popping, sometimes there is no sound, graphical lags like huge FPS drops, but this is not the worst!
    There are several blocking issues. Now this is the third time I said this is it, it's over. I cannot go through at opened doors! I    Worst quality Switch game I ever played, or probably I ever played in any platform. The switch version seems like a closed beta version. As its textures popping, sometimes there is no sound, graphical lags like huge FPS drops, but this is not the worst!
    There are several blocking issues. Now this is the third time I said this is it, it's over. I cannot go through at opened doors! I checked the walkthroughs, there are nothing I done worng. I restarted the game several time (which is loooong long time) but no luck.
    Before this, there was a time when I had to restart the game 8 times (which was around 10 minutes/round couse of unskippable cinematics, etc so Summ almost 1,5 hours) to make it load the next scene and not freeze out.

    Sooo its really sad, but I wish to never bought this game to switch. probably the other platform's version are much better. But this is just garbage, unusable garbage which didnt have real QA. I can belive, how nobody played this troughbefore release, which is unbelievable! And yeah... there is no refund on nintendo eShop. Great.

    So I finish the game on youtube. I only miss about 1 hour to complete, but I won't wait for the next patch which MAYBE will fix my problems. ...this is a joke. from the bad ones. If you want to play with it, buy it on another platform, couse the music, the story and the characters are quite ok.    … Expand
  2. jimmymc
    May 8, 2020
    6
    So, in the first 2 hours using the current patch (1.02) the game has crashed three times and glitched badly enough that I needed to close and reopen the game once. That’s really bad - worse than any game I’ve seen on the Switch by far.

    Aside from that, it’s often slow to transition between animations, loading times are fairly poor, and textures occasionally fail to load in. I’m giving it    So, in the first 2 hours using the current patch (1.02) the game has crashed three times and glitched badly enough that I needed to close and reopen the game once. That’s really bad - worse than any game I’ve seen on the Switch by far.

    Aside from that, it’s often slow to transition between animations, loading times are fairly poor, and textures occasionally fail to load in.

    I’m giving it a 6 because despite all of those failures, there really is a gem of a game underneath all the bugs, and it’s one that I keep coming back despite all the aggravation those bugs cause.

    It’s quite beautiful when the graphics are working properly, the soundtrack is exceptional, the writing is excellent and the acting is decent. There’s a story and a world here that I absolutely adore. The gameplay mechanics are well thought through too. If it were less glitchy and better optimised, this could be a classic - and slow as the patches are, they’ve already announced the third one to be released so it is being worked on. If they can fix the game, this could be a 9/10 for me. As it stands, it’s impossible to recommend to someone unless they know exactly what kind if frustration awaits them. I hope they are able to fix it, because it really is worth fixing.    … Expand
  3. GreatGateway547
    Jan 16, 2020
    2
    When even the title screen has glitches and causes game crashes, you know you're in trouble.

    I went into this game with somewhat decent expectations after catching a glimpse of its PC version. Unfortunately I failed to look up the Switch version ahead of seeing it on offer, which was a huge mistake in purchasing. Frequent crashes, textures that completely fail to load, faceless    When even the title screen has glitches and causes game crashes, you know you're in trouble.

    I went into this game with somewhat decent expectations after catching a glimpse of its PC version. Unfortunately I failed to look up the Switch version ahead of seeing it on offer, which was a huge mistake in purchasing. Frequent crashes, textures that completely fail to load, faceless characters, random blurring, crossing voicelines, lines and music that refuses to play--the list goes on. Most annoying of all is a glitch where upon starting the game, Blacksad cannot be moved at all. You must restart the game entirely to fix this, and even then it's a gamble. Combined with the huge loading times, this is a total recipe for disaster.

    Without a doubt one of the most horribly put together ports of a game I've ever seen in my life. And this was at a time where updates had already occurred with absolutely no fixes to the problem. It's a shame because the underlying mystery is a fascinating one, but my patience ran out due to the most shoddy coding the Switch has to offer in a game. Avoid unless you're actively looking for glitches to poke fun at.    … Expand
  4. Persephuck
    Sep 10, 2020
    2
    I cannot express through words how thoroughly disappointed and irritated I am with this game. It is LITERALLY unplayable. Textures won't ever fully load in or won't stay loaded in, the game lags constantly, there are glitches oozing from every pixel, it's very obviously unfinished, and this was AFTER the hour and 30 minute long update I had to sit through before starting. All of theI cannot express through words how thoroughly disappointed and irritated I am with this game. It is LITERALLY unplayable. Textures won't ever fully load in or won't stay loaded in, the game lags constantly, there are glitches oozing from every pixel, it's very obviously unfinished, and this was AFTER the hour and 30 minute long update I had to sit through before starting. All of the cosmetics I could and did mostly ignore but what I could NOT ignore was the fact that I only made it 25% of the way through the game before it decided to lock up and keep me stranded in the boxing gym office area with no way to exit and with the only NPC up there banished to the dark realm. I restart just to find that my progress of TWO HOURS has been completely reset, and yes it had saved numerous times. I don't give it a complete 0 because the story was really captivating and the characters were likable. A shame the game part was utterly broken.… Expand
  5. LE5LO
    Aug 26, 2020
    6
    Inintially playing on the release bulid, then quiting within 10 minutes due to framerate issues and waiting for the patch, continuing playing on the 1.02 patch build, after initially starting without it, game has a great story, but character is able to walk far off camera on the street, seems like sloppy game direction, and still needs patching and optimising for the switch. the 1.02 buildInintially playing on the release bulid, then quiting within 10 minutes due to framerate issues and waiting for the patch, continuing playing on the 1.02 patch build, after initially starting without it, game has a great story, but character is able to walk far off camera on the street, seems like sloppy game direction, and still needs patching and optimising for the switch. the 1.02 build suffers frequent lack of texture loading for characters in the gym area, often left with Sonia and Jake entirely missing textures, (just completely black models, sometimes invisible) and in various areas of the game early on the games deduction mode was funtional, but layering issues duplicated the images overlapping the text U.I, and duplicating the games text backwards...this was a mess. Somehow after perservering with many issues, over 8 hours in, you start to see there is a gem here, that said...this game still needs a lot of work to make it less frustrating to play...Will try and perservere for the intriguing story...ambitious game...just think it was handled by too small a team, overall...it's a mediocre experience on the switch due to frame rate / load times / terrible optimization for what it is, you will be frustrated / upset with it. Not sure how it fares on more superior platforms but I'll be cautious of the publishers/developers work on ports in the future.… Expand
  6. Isitrolc
    Feb 7, 2020
    4
    Qu'est-ce que je suis dégouté... J'ai adoré la direction artistique, l'ambiance sonore, le doublage français très soigné, mais bordel tout ça est gâché par une technique abominable. C'est une aberration de sortir un jeu dans cet état : framerate aux fraises, softlocks, textures qui font leurs vies au point que certaines decident même de rester en travers de l'écran indéfiniment.
    J'aurais    Qu'est-ce que je suis dégouté... J'ai adoré la direction artistique, l'ambiance sonore, le doublage français très soigné, mais bordel tout ça est gâché par une technique abominable. C'est une aberration de sortir un jeu dans cet état : framerate aux fraises, softlocks, textures qui font leurs vies au point que certaines decident même de rester en travers de l'écran indéfiniment.
    J'aurais mit 8 sans hésitation s'il avait été finit correctement mais là ce n'est pas possible, ça gâche le plaisir que l'on peut prendre sur le jeu.
    Donc je met 4 à contre cœur parce que j'ai aimé beaucoup de choses, mais mon expérience a été trop ternie, de façon trop constante et trop régulière par la technique pas au point, même pas en retard ou bancale, PAS AU POINT ! (malgré un patch de 9 Go lorsque j'y ait joué).    … Expand
  7. Dmorok
    Dec 20, 2021
    0
    Worst port ever. period.
    Literally unplayable.
    Framedrops, stutters.
    Worst quality Switch game I ever played
  8. Angusso
    Jan 6, 2020
    4
    Despite it's many major technical issues, making it almost unplayable, "Blacksad: Under The Skin" is an enticing sleuthing adventure game. If you are patient enough to live with its problems, this game will seduces you, leaving you with this incoherent desire to know more about the case.

    Long load times, poor performances and frame rate drops, crash to home screen, freeze to black/white    Despite it's many major technical issues, making it almost unplayable, "Blacksad: Under The Skin" is an enticing sleuthing adventure game. If you are patient enough to live with its problems, this game will seduces you, leaving you with this incoherent desire to know more about the case.

    Long load times, poor performances and frame rate drops, crash to home screen, freeze to black/white screen, textures not loading, etc. It's bugs-a-plenty! It is also important to mention the poor controls and game play in general: Your character often get stuck in weird ways on what seems like very weak obstacles, forcing you to step back and approach a point of interest from a different angle. Button prompt feels "laggy" and imprecise. There is many QTE (Quick Time Event) in this game, while this does not bother me at all in an adventure game, missing any will result in retrying. You will have to watch all of the previously watched cut-scenes without the possibility to skip. Some clues are hard to get to, you will need to stand in a very specific spot to interact with them. To end to this deadly cocktail of bugs: Some scenes are so dark you literally can't see anything ! With that being said, as soon as I started a new game the storytelling kept me interested enough to deal with its many issues.

    About the story: It is very well written, while short, this is definitely the better part of the game, along with the music. Don't be fooled by the many character's inoffensive looking animal traits, some are out to kill and some deaths showed in-game are violent. This is definitely a game for adults, young and old. The action starts right away and you'll soon be investigating a missing person (really a dog). Collecting clues is fun, but easy. The game however manage to stay relevant thanks to the originality with which you discover some of the evidences. Advancing the case reward you by slowly letting you know more about the events unfolding, from plot twist to plot twist, the game regularly provides a feeling of achievement. The player will have to make some hard and interesting decisions all along the way but sadly, only a few of them really feel meaningful, not enough to vouch for another play-through. Mix to that an extremely well put together jazzy sound track and great voice acting and you have a recipe for what would normally be a great adventure game.

    Sadly, fixable bugs ruin this game I really hope the developers get some more time and money from the publishers to fix this game on the Nintendo Switch.

    P.S.:
    I think it's important to mention this information:

    Version played: 1.0.2 (Nintendo Switch Retail cartridge) latest as of Jan. 6th 2020.
    I am not a Blacksad fan and never read any Blacksad comic books.
    Played the french localization    … Expand
  9. Dr_Uid
    Feb 23, 2020
    4
    Раскидаю по пунктам
    Техническое исполнение:
    Минусы: – много вылетов, – долгие загрузки и выгрузки меню, – долгие загрузки между уровнями, при этом текстуры не успевают прогружаться, – чувствуется тормознутость управления даже в режиме хендхелда, – стабильные вылеты после финальных титров, в итоге, я не знаю, прошёл я игру или не прошёл, и есть ли что-нибудь после титров. Плюсы: –    Раскидаю по пунктам
    Техническое исполнение:
    Минусы:
    – много вылетов,
    – долгие загрузки и выгрузки меню,
    – долгие загрузки между уровнями, при этом текстуры не успевают прогружаться,
    – чувствуется тормознутость управления даже в режиме хендхелда,
    – стабильные вылеты после финальных титров, в итоге, я не знаю, прошёл я игру или не прошёл, и есть ли что-нибудь после титров.
    Плюсы:
    – всё вышеперечисленное не мешает прохождению игры.

    Графика:
    – низкие разрешения текстур, алиайзинг, но на телеке с препроцессингом картинки смотрится отлично;
    – есть баги в движке;
    – местами так темно, что невозможно ничего увидеть;
    – если убрать проблемы, то графика производит нужное впечатление: персонажи прорисованы красиво, и местами выглядят отлично, но чаще смотрятся, как фигурки с натянутыми текстурами. На Switch есть примеры с гораздо лучшей графикой.

    Звук:
    – в наушниках лучше не слушать: есть резкие моменты, которые не удаётся сгладить настройкой громкости, а есть диалоги очень тихие, что местами влияет на прохождение игры;
    – при построении звуковой сцены есть рассинхрон между сменами картинки и позиционированием звука.

    Музыка
    – атмосферно, хороший джаз, но треклист небольшой.

    Сюжет/сеттинг:
    – проработаны детали, по крайней мере на том уровне, который требуется для игры,
    – персонажи прописаны,
    – придраться не к чему, есть желание перепройти.

    Геймплей:
    – в каком-нибудь месте можно втупить и ходить кругами;
    – не понравилось, что между местами, где ты уже был, нужно ходить ногами. При этом игровой мир не наполнен и не меняется, чтобы был смысл по нему ходить. Почему было не сделать быстрое перемещение?
    – остальные элементы геймплея идеальны: есть всё, что я ожидал увидеть в детективной игре.

    Перевод:
    – русская озвучка отличная, но есть целый монолог, который остался без оной – пришлось включать субтитры, чтобы понять смысл.

    Рекомендую покупать только после выхода патча.    … Expand
  10. ruroc
    Feb 13, 2020
    0
    El juego tiene varios aspectos positivos: trama, ambientación...pero tiene demasiados fallos técnicos. En mi caso, hay un fallo que no me permite seguir jugando tras la partida de póquer. Un juego que no se puede jugar no es un juego.
  11. bergcamp101
    Oct 3, 2020
    7
    Crashes constantly. But glitches much more often... Shame. The only reason I give 7, is because I liked the plot, liked the characters and detective vibes. That's why - even more shame! I hope, QAs will burn in hell for letting releasing it like this.
  12. mozarty11
    Jul 28, 2020
    0
    runs terribly on the switch and crashes a lot, and load times are horrible
    I had to look up a workaround to get past many bugs
  13. junepei
    Oct 22, 2020
    0
    Oh, how I wish I'd read this page prior to purchasing. For starters, once the loading bar filled completely, another took its place. Then there's the terrible animation, horrid input delay and cutscene lag, and the times where the game turns completely unresponsive. Be mindful that if you choose to play it, the text size is incredibly tiny (especially in handheld mode) and cannot beOh, how I wish I'd read this page prior to purchasing. For starters, once the loading bar filled completely, another took its place. Then there's the terrible animation, horrid input delay and cutscene lag, and the times where the game turns completely unresponsive. Be mindful that if you choose to play it, the text size is incredibly tiny (especially in handheld mode) and cannot be adjusted. I lasted maybe 15 minutes before trading it in for an amount if money less than I paid for it, that's how desperate I was to get it off my hands. Do NOT pay full price if you are really sure you want it.… Expand
  14. andreasjhansson
    Dec 9, 2020
    7
    It restarts sometimes but the beautifully drawn graphics and the atmosphere makes it worth keep exploring. Creative and exciting. It has its flaws but I prefer a good story and some glitches over a like every other 2d run and jump game. If you like comics it’s worth trying, but you can wait til it’s on a sale.
  15. ext77
    Feb 8, 2021
    2
    Almost unplayable. Crashes constantly. Textures do not load and loading times are too long.
  16. McTrillionaire
    Sep 13, 2021
    1
    Blacksad: Under the Skin

    Grade: D- Synopsis: Grizzled detective works to solve a suicide that is much more than it seems. Graphics: To put it softly, this game looks bad. Blacksad's facial animations are the lone saving grace, but the rest is simply unacceptable. Some of the zoom-ins (which you are required to do to advance the story) are unintelligible pixels that would be    Blacksad: Under the Skin

    Grade: D-

    Synopsis: Grizzled detective works to solve a suicide that is much more than it seems.

    Graphics: To put it softly, this game looks bad. Blacksad's facial animations are the lone saving grace, but the rest is simply unacceptable. Some of the zoom-ins (which you are required to do to advance the story) are unintelligible pixels that would be at home in Goldeneye. The framerate dropped constantly, particularly if there was anything going on, like a QTE.

    Sound: Put the subtitles on because this game was apparently recorded with ten socks muffling the microphone. Blacksad is straight-up marble-mouthed for the first half of the game. I do not know why this was the choice.

    Music: Good. Noir beats that hit their marks.

    Gameplay: The "deductions" system is clever, albeit finicky. Walking around is cumbersome, slow, and wildly tedious, especially given the load times.

    Load Time: Astonishingly awful. Starting the game takes four minutes. Scene transitions take two minutes. Opening a menu takes fifteen seconds. And that's not counting the crashes.

    Crashing: I had five crashes while trying to play this game tonight. I realized that my Switch was spinning its little heart out trying to let me play this thing. That's when I knew it was time to call it.

    Story: The mystery is compelling. You can play as a nice-guy detective or a hard-boiled hardass, which is one of the best parts of this genre.

    Trinkets: Taking advantage of people that compulsively scour every corner of the game, this game has little cards to collect. These ventures are always a trap - avoid them, lest you spend far more time playing Blacksad than it deserves.

    Overall: I couldn't finish the game because I thought it was going to destroy my Switch. Pendulo Studios had me with the Runaway series and I hoped they could make something great out of the excellent Blacksad IP. That was unfortunately not the case. Do not play this game on Switch.    … Expand
  17. GP_Javi
    Dec 17, 2021
    0
    This game is a fraud. It is unplayable. Pendulo Studios should be ashamed of making a game in this condition.
    I can't comment much about the gameplay, (other than the controls feel too slow, and awkward)

    This is probably the worst game I own.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
60

Mixed or average reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 4
  3. Negative: 1 out of 4
  1. Gaming Age
    May 11, 2020
    75
    Despite its flaws — both performance and otherwise — Blacksad: Under The Skin still makes for an interesting game. It’s clunky (in more ways than one), but it’s also got a gripping story at its core, and it’s oozing style. I’ve certainly played better adventure games than this one, but there’s enough interesting stuff going on here that fans of the genre could do worse than checking it out.
    Read full review
  2. Nintenderos
    Jan 28, 2020
    49
    A story true to the essence of the franchise, intriguing and fun. However, it doesn't compensate for the bad graphic and playable section of this title.
    Read full review
  3. Nintendo Life
    Jan 7, 2020
    50
    Overall, Blacksad: Under the Skin is both a faithful adaptation and a frustrating example of modern adventure game pitfalls. Fans of the original comics will enjoy seeing Blacksad himself brought to life so accurately, but some inconsistent performances in the voiceover department and some frustratingly unresponsive controls make it a far less enjoyable experience. There’s a really intriguing mystery to unfold and solve, but with some technical problems and a little too much blurring for our liking, you’ll have to grit your teeth if you really want to crack this case on the go.
    Read full review
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