Blackstar - Agent of Justice

Year 1995, a stack full of floppy disks, and on the monitor a hero who is neither a cop nor a full-fledged villain. That was as rare as a working CD drive after a year of use in adventures of that era.

Blackstar: Agent of Justice is a point-and-click adventure from the small studio Worwyk Software, set in a dark, gritty urban environment somewhere between neo-noir and crime thriller. You play as Blackstar, an American moving through the underworld's edges — part detective, part shady fixer, a man who knows the price of every piece of information and knows all too well where not to ask questions. Yet beneath it all runs some kind of moral compass, though it's quite blurry.

Gameplay is built on the classic verb-coin model or similar interface typical of adventures from the first half of the nineties — you click, collect, combine, talk. The game's strong suit is precisely the character writing and dialogue. Blackstar isn't a likeable textbook hero, and you feel it. Conversations have a grittier tone, dialogue choices give you the sense that you're sitting in a smoky room and every word might have consequences. The weaker side is the occasionally illogical jumps in puzzles — a typical flaw of that era, when the author knew the solution so well they forgot the player was still looking for it.

Worwyk Software wasn't a big name, and Blackstar flew under the radar next to the then-dominant LucasArts and Sierra titles. That's a shame, because thematically the game went in a different direction than the competition. No pirate islands or afterlife here — it's grime, corruption, and people who tell themselves they're doing what they have to do. Graphics are average for 1995, music acceptable, but story and atmosphere hold together better than many a title with a bigger budget. Today it's visibly aged — the interface requires patience and DOSBox is a necessity, not a choice.

These days, Blackstar will probably appeal to those who enjoy digging through genre history and aren't looking for polished production, but original intent. If you don't mind a somewhat awkward interface and are willing to forgive the game for not being released by a publisher with a marketing department, you'll get an adventure with character. There weren't many of those even back then.