Blues and Bullets

Last updated

Blues and Bullets
Blue and Bullets cover art.jpeg
Developer(s) A Crowd of Monsters
Publisher(s) A Crowd of Monsters
Producer(s) Marta Serrano
Ruben Marquez
Designer(s) Daniel Castellanos
Programmer(s) Rafael Gonzalez
Xavier Jorba Cano
Artist(s) Daniel Candil
Composer(s) Damian Sanchez
Engine Unity
Platform(s)
Release
Episode 1
  • Windows
    • WW: July 23, 2015
    Xbox One
    • WW: August 28, 2015
    PlayStation 4
    • WW: April 20, 2016
Episode 2
  • Windows
    • WW: March 8, 2016
    Xbox One
    • WW: April 8, 2016
    PlayStation 4
    • WW: April 20, 2016
Genre(s) Action-adventure
Mode(s)

Blues and Bullets is an episodic alt-history noir video game developed and published by A Crowd of Monsters on Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The first two episodes of the five-episode game were released in July 2015 and March 2016, and the remaining three episodes will likely never be released, as developer A Crowd of Monsters ceased operations in 2016.

Contents

Gameplay

The player searches for clues to find leads in the investigation. Clues include mutilated body parts. Clues can be matched to witnesses. There are also shooting sections. [1] The game's narrative is told in monochrome with occasional tints of color. Interacting with other characters also plays a large part in the game. [2]

Plot

Eliot Ness (voiced by Doug Cockle) is the agent who jailed gangster Al Capone (voiced by John Guerrasio). In this new episodic game, Eliot Ness is a retired cop who runs a diner called Blues and Bullets. [3] One day, someone tells him that Al Capone needs his help to find his kidnapped granddaughter. His former nemesis is the only man he trusts to get her back. There are other characters in the game, which include: Milton (voiced by Tom Clarke Hill), Delphine Dockers (voiced by Jules De Jong), Osmond Burke (voiced by Joseph May), Alice (voiced by Laila Pyne), Little Girl (voiced by Laila Pyne), Little Boy (voiced by Jules De Jong (episode 1) and Alexa Kahn (episode 2)), Dickinson (voiced by Kerry Shale), Jim Dockers (voiced by Colin Stinton) and Nikolai Ivankov (voiced by Bill Roberts).

Development

The game was first announced on August 13, 2014. [4] Several more screenshots were released on November 22, 2014, [5] and the game was featured at the 2015 Game Developer's Conference. [1] The game was awarded at Game Connection Development Awards in the category of Excellence in Story & StoryTelling. [6] A trailer was released on March 4, 2015. [7] The first developer diary video of the game was published on May 16, 2015. [8]

Episodes

The game was expected to be separated into five episodes, released in several month intervals. Episode 1 was released on July 23, 2015 and Episode 2 was released on March 8, 2016. However, developer A Crowd of Monsters ceased operations in late 2016. No further episodes have been released.

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal release
1"The End of Peace"Daniel Candil and Daniel CastellanosJosue Monchan
Story by Daniel Candil, Daniel Castellanos and Josue Monchan		July 23, 2015 (2015-07-23)
Eliot Ness is a retired cop running a diner called Blues and Bullets. When his old nemesis, Al Capone asks for his help in finding his granddaughter who has been kidnapped.
2"Shaking the Hive"Daniel Candil and Daniel CastellanosJosue Monchan
Story by Daniel Candil, Daniel Castellanos and Josue Monchan		March 8, 2016 (2016-03-08)
Eliot Ness embarks on a journey into the mysterious submarine that emerged out of the water. While wearing a disguise made up of bandages, attempts to make a deal with Ivankov, the ruthless Russian mobster.
3"Mourning the Dead"Daniel Candil and Daniel CastellanosJosue Monchan
Story by Daniel Candil, Daniel Castellanos and Josue Monchan		TBA
4"Behind the Mask"Daniel Candil and Daniel CastellanosJosue Monchan
Story by Daniel Candil, Daniel Castellanos and Josue Monchan		TBA
5"The New Untouchables"Daniel Candil and Daniel CastellanosJosue Monchan
Story by Daniel Candil, Daniel Castellanos and Josue Monchan		TBA

Reception

Episode 1: The End of Peace

GameSpot awarded the first episode a score of 7.0 out of 10, saying "Although Blues and Bullets isn’t without its flaws, this first episode sets a distinctive comic-book, crime-noir attitude compelling enough to keep you playing and looking forward to what the series will offer in future installments." [9] ComboCaster awarded the first episode 8.3 out of 10, praising the story and pacing. [10] The Sixth Axis awarded the first episode a score of seven out of ten, saying "The End Of Peace feels like A Crowd Of Monsters has crammed too much within the two and a half hour introductory episode, with lots of characters and events occurring without much time to digest what came before." [11]

Episode 2: Shaking the Hive

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliot Ness</span> American Prohibition agent (1903–1957)

Eliot Ness was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility. The release of his memoir The Untouchables, months after his death, launched several screen portrayals establishing a posthumous fame for Ness as an incorruptible crime fighter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Schafer</span> American video game designer

Timothy John Schafer is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend and Broken Age, co-designer of Day of the Tentacle, and assistant designer on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. He is well known in the video game industry for his storytelling and comedic writing style, and has been given both a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Game Developers Choice Awards, and a BAFTA Fellowship for his contributions to the industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game Developers Choice Awards</span> Annual award for games and developers

The Game Developers Choice Awards are awards annually presented at the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games. Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were presented from 1997 to 1999. Since then, the ceremony for the Independent Games Festival is held just prior to the Choice Awards ceremony.

<i>The Untouchables</i> (1959 TV series) 1959 American TV series

The Untouchables is an American crime drama produced by Desilu Productions that ran from 1959 to 1963 on the ABC television network. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalizes the experiences of Ness as a Prohibition agent fighting crime in Chicago in the 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their courage, moral character and incorruptibility, nicknamed the Untouchables. The book was later made into a celebrated film in 1987 and a second, less-successful TV series in 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game Developers Conference</span> Annual video game developer conference

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutorials, lectures, and roundtables by industry professionals on game-related topics covering programming, design, audio, production, business and management, and visual arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surreal Software</span> American video game developer

Surreal Software was an American video game developer based in Kirkland, Washington, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, known for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Suffering and Drakan series. Surreal Software employed over 130 designers, artists, and programmers. Surreal was acquired by Warner Bros. Games during the bankruptcy of Midway Games in July 2009. After a significant layoff in January 2011, the remaining employees were integrated into WBG's Kirkland offices, along with developers Monolith and Snowblind.

Telltale Incorporated was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following LucasArts' decision to leave the adventure game genre. Telltale established itself to focus on adventure games using a novel episodic release schedule over digital distribution, creating its own game engine, the Telltale Tool, to support this. It closed in October 2018 after filing for bankruptcy protection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Higgins</span> American voice actress, singer and jazz pianist

Katherine Davis Higgins is an American voice actress, singer and jazz pianist.

<i>The Untouchables</i> (film) 1987 American crime film directed by Brian De Palma

The Untouchables is a 1987 American crime film directed by Brian De Palma, produced by Art Linson, and written by David Mamet. It stars Kevin Costner, Charles Martin Smith, Andy García, Robert De Niro and Sean Connery, in the third collaboration between De Palma and De Niro, following 1968's Greetings and 1970's Hi, Mom!. Set in Chicago in 1930, the film follows Eliot Ness (Costner) as he forms the Untouchables team to bring Al Capone to justice during Prohibition.

Joe Ochman is an American actor who is most active in voice over roles in various animation shows, films, and video games. He is the fourth and current voice of Jiminy Cricket since 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Tatasciore</span> American voice actor

Fred Tatasciore is an American voice actor, who has provided voices in animated and live-action films, television shows, and video games. He is known for voicing the Hulk, Volstagg, and Beast in various Marvel media and Solomon Grundy in various DC media. Other characters he has voiced include Yosemite Sam, Taz, Soldier: 76, Shao Kahn, and Kakuzu.

Dan Woren is an American voice actor who is known for providing voice work for anime, television, and video games. His role was voicing Roy Fokker in the Robotech series in the 1980s. Other major voice roles include Jagi in Fist of the North Star, Byakuya Kuchiki in Bleach, Yang Newman in Macross Plus, and Caster in Fate/Zero. He has narrated over 60 audiobooks and won various awards from AudioFile magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin Fitzgerald</span> Canadian voice actress

Erin Fitzgerald is a Canadian voice actress who provides voice-overs for a number of cartoons, video games and English language dubs of Japanese anime. In animation, she voices Raven Queen in Ever After High and C.A. Cupid in both Monster High and Ever After High. In recent roles she voices Bo and other characters in the American children's educational show Ask the StoryBots on Netflix.

<i>Dreamfall Chapters</i> 2017 episodic 3D adventure video game

Dreamfall Chapters is an episodic 3D adventure game with emphasis on character interaction, exploration of the game world, and puzzle solving. It is a sequel to the adventure games The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The game was released for PC in five episodes between 21 October 2014 and 17 June 2016. The updated "Final Cut" version was released on physical media for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on 5 May 2017, and the Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux versions on 21 July 2017.

Larry Frank Cedar is an American voice, film and television actor, best known as one of the players of the Children's Television Workshop mathematics show Square One TV on PBS from 1987 to 1994. He played Max, Alex the Butcher's assistant, in a series of commercials for Kroger in 1989. He is also known for playing Leon, the opium-addicted thief and faro dealer, in the internationally acclaimed HBO series Deadwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Silverstein</span> American voice actor

Keith Silverstein is an American voice actor, known for lending his voice to English versions of Japanese anime and video games. He is best known for his roles as Johan Liebert in Monster, Vector the Crocodile in the Sonic the Hedgehog video games, Robert E.O. Speedwagon in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Hisoka in the 2011 version of Hunter × Hunter, Ōgai Mori in Bungo Stray Dogs, Ulric, Brute, and Rascal in Glitter Force, Gabriel Agreste a.k.a. Hawk Moth and Betterfly in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, Torbjörn Lindholm in Overwatch, and Zhongli in Genshin Impact.

<i>Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land</i> 2012 video game

Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is a Lovecraftian horror tactical role-playing game developed by British studio Red Wasp Design in conjunction with Chaosium. The game was released in 2012, for iOS in January, for PC in May, and for Android in June.

<i>Nihilumbra</i> 2012 video game

Nihilumbra is a puzzle-platform game developed by Spanish video game developer BeautiFun Games. The game was first released for iOS in June 2012, and it has been translated to seven languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starr Long</span> American game developer

Starr McAuley Long is an American game developer, a long time collaborator with Richard Garriott at the companies Origin Systems (1992–2000), Destination Games (2000–2008), and Portalarium (2013–present). In 1997, Long was the original director of the early graphical multiplayer game Ultima Online, and from 2008–2013 he was executive producer at The Walt Disney Company, where he created and managed several educational games and apps for Club Penguin and the Disney Connected Learning platform. In early 2008, he was listed as one of the Top 20 Most Influential People in the MMO industry. In 2013, he again partnered with Garriott at Portalarium, where they began working on a new game Shroud of the Avatar.

<i>Bad Milk</i> 2000 video game

Bad Milk is a puzzle video game developed by New York City-based developer Dreaming Media, the working name of brothers Ted and Mick Skolnick. It was originally released in November 2000 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Created entirely in Macromedia Director 7 and intended to be an art game, the game features a number of puzzles involving full motion video and audio clues. It won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2002 Independent Games Festival, as well as the award for Innovation in Audio.

References

  1. 1 2 Turi, Tim (March 6, 2015). "The Very Best Indie Games Of GDC 2015". Game Informer . Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Blues and Bullets at Gamescom 2014 - Our Noir Action-adventure Game". A Crowd of Monsters. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Home - Blues And Bullets". Blues And Bullets. Archived from the original on August 10, 2015. Retrieved July 28, 2015. Eliot Ness, former leader of the legendary Untouchables, only wished to spend the rest of his life working in his diner and not thinking much of the cesspit of corruption his city, Santa Esperanza, had degenerated into. Of course things rarely go as planned.
  4. ↑ Caccamise, Marc (August 13, 2015). "Blues & Bullets Announced". TrueAchievements. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Blues and Bullets, Screenshot Saturday 22-11-2014". A Crowd of Monsters. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  6. ↑ Lennox, Cindy. "GDC 2015: Winners Announced For Game Connection Development Awards". Biogamegirl. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  7. ↑ Tamburro, Paul (March 4, 2015). "Xbox One Noir Detective Game Blues and Bullets Gets a New Trailer". CraveOnline . Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Blues and Bullets team releases developer diary and tribute to Eliot Ness". Gamasutra . Retrieved May 18, 2015.
  9. ↑ Brett Todd. "Blues and Bullets Review - GameSpot". GameSpot.
  10. ↑ Tiago Roque. "Blues and Bullets Review - ComboCaster". ComboCaster.
  11. ↑ "Blues & Bullets Episode One: The End of Peace Review – TheSixthAxis". August 6, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.