Taking on the oddity that is cosmic horror, Rogue Games and Plot Twist have released their Metroidvania-style game The Last Case of Benedict Fox. This title was surely designed in a somewhat unusual way but played out more as a dangerous exploratory investigation rather than the action-platformer ways that the average Metroidvania is designed after. The question is, did the mixture of cosmic horror and action platforming pay off to be entertaining?

Story

While on an investigation into secret organizations, Benedict finds himself being chased and hunted by mysterious people. With the aid of an unearthly power, he not only manages to get away but stumbles upon a mansion that could hold the very secrets he has been looking for. However, while here he finds the bodies of a couple.

Upon finding the first victim, he found himself directed by the unearthly power to interact with the body. This led to him being thrown into limbo within the man, giving Benedict that chance to really get into the secrets hiding within the lingering memories and moments that made up their life. It was from here that he began uncovering and facing dangers and puzzles that blocked his path to the truth, along with many secrets found along the way. After finding the second victim, his experience was a bit smoother but also found himself diving into her limbo to continue the investigation.

When it comes down to the details, the story is a little hard to follow and it can sometimes feel like you are just going from task to task as you’re directed to do so. They do include a few NPCs as you progress, which help build up some of the lore, but like more investigative narratives, it doesn’t really start making sense until you are closer to the end. The take on the Lovecraftian lore didn’t seem to take a front seat as it does in most cosmic horror-designed games, but I wasn’t upset about this as it gives it a chance to be part of the story and not the encompassing aspect of the story.

Gameplay

The game starts off with a pretty exciting scenario as you are escaping from a building after finding some essential files for the case you are working on. This leads to you being chased away from the scene with gunfire hitting behind you. They use this moment to go through your tutorial, slowing down each new moment for you to get the note on what the controls are and giving you a direct opportunity to use that control. I find that using actions is the best way to lock in the controls, so I really liked this tutorial introduction.

Directly after this scene, you’ll find yourself in the mansion where a lot of the core game will be at. This mansion will act as a sort of hub area for you to return to as you work through the rest of the game. First things first, you need to explore the house and see what interesting aspects there are to find here. This will lead you to find the first victim and dive into his limbo world. This is where the game gets more to the heart of what you’ll be playing through as you will get your first sense of quests, combat, enemies, and puzzles. With blocked pathways, locked doors, and multi-pathway options available pretty early on, you can get a sense of how exploration will feel throughout the game as well.

Combat in this game is pretty standard with the unique elements coming solely from whatever entity powers you’ve unlocked. You have a knife to do melee damage with and a gun that has to be reloaded after each shot, or until you upgrade it to have more. You can either block an attack, which requires timing or dodge away from incoming attacks pretty easily, so don’t be afraid to get up close to enemies. The same can be said for any boss fights as even there you will find the knife to be your best friend. Also, don’t forget to manage your health bar. You will be able to carry a number of mineral waters (health potions) according to what you have unlocked and these are pretty useful. You can take a quick drink to heal just one bar or hold the drinking button to heal until you are up to full health, either way, it will cost you one mineral water per heal.

As you defeat enemies, you will find that you are earning ink. This ink will be used to put tattoo’s on your character and with each tattoo you will get a new ability with your unearthly-powered friend. Some of these powers are mandatory for exploration and to keep opening more pathways, so make sure you always save ink when you get to an anchor and retrieve the ink you drop when you die - the ink can feel pretty sparse in this game pretty quickly.

You’ll also collect other currency that will be useful for the NPC that sells items like an in-game store and when you unlock the NPC blacksmith that will upgrade your gear. This will happen around the same time that you get a tool that allows you to match numbers to the puzzle areas in both limbos. These are where the real puzzle elements lie and you will need to find the inner wheels in order to fully use it, but this tool is a must for the game and so once you get it, be sure to work on understanding it as well.

I do have to compliment the team on their fast travel system because those anchors are well-placed to make exploration and movement swift. Anchors are essentially mystical pathways that can take you back to the hub base (Mansion) or even any other anchor point. All you have to do is reach that section of the map and most of the time take out the enemy blocking the anchor point from being able to be active and then you can start utilizing the anchor point. The best part is, you don’t even have to be at an anchor point to fast-travel to one, but you can’t fast-travel with ink on you. Luckily, every time you come across an anchor point you can secure the ink you are carrying and refill your supplies.

Audio and Video

The pure aesthetics of the game were actually quite nice with a fleshed-out background to give a perception of depth to the world while keeping the player on a side-scrolling control system. Each area had its own design to it and nothing seemed completely outlandish, which for a game spending the majority of its time in limbo is sometimes hard to find. They definitely chose a great art design to fit the atmosphere this game was going for.

As for the music and sound effects in this game, they were pretty decent but nothing astounding. I like that in the mansion you got to pick a track to listen to or just leave it in silence, but in most of the game, the music is more of a background filler. It is well-designed and nice to listen to, but while trying to solve puzzles or fight off enemies, it can easily become unnoticeable and just a filler to keep you from sitting in silence. I like that it gets more excited tones when in combat though, so there is a good give-and-take with the overall sound design.

Replayability

This game takes a fair amount of time to beat and the journey itself will have you pretty much fill out both maps. However, I am not naive and I am sure there are plenty of hidden areas with trinkets, goodies, collectibles, and whatever else to find. For the more investigative and explorative players, there may be some replayability to the game.

What It Could Have Done Better

Some of the key moments in the game come down to a precise item or note being found, but there is never a clue as to where to get it. This struggle also reaches to aspects like the tattoo artist where you need a specific skill, but to get enough ink for that tattoo you need to find where you haven’t killed creatures at. There were a few times this style of barely the right amount of resources being provided to the player had me stuck and just running around the maps looking for whatever small instance I must have missed. These were very frustrating moments and they would be better off making maps that are more abundant in supplies or adding some kind of hint system on where to find what is needed to proceed.

I thought it was a strange system to need to find a specific trinket out in the limbo maps in order to unlock the ability to get a specific upgrade to my gear. I don’t see why I need to find some random object for the NPC to improve my gun or knife when the object doesn’t seem to have any actual correlation with the upgrade. If this was just to add a bit more of a challenge to upgrading gear, it would have been better to find tools or pieces that are needed to make the upgrade happen.

Verdict

The Last Case of Benedict Fox is an interesting action-platforming title that is worth playing through if you are a fan of cosmic horror and Metroidvania games. There is a lot to like about the game, but you will have to manage through a few annoying frustrations as well. Just remember that it is worth exploring every area more than once because you never know what you may have missed and don’t be shy to use your map to help find whatever or wherever you may have missed. Other than that core gameplay issue, the rest of the problems are pretty minute and even nit-picking. And so, I do recommend this game, even if you want to wait for it to go on sale before picking it up.

The Last Case of Benedict Fox is available now for Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.