Inside seconds of beginning Bahnsen Knights, the third in LCB Sport Studio’s ‘Pixel Pulps’ collection of video games, we discovered ourselves impressed. We turned the lights down low, placed on some headphones and, with the clear goal of savouring each second, held the Change’s OLED display so near our face that we grew to become totally immersed on this visible novel’s wealthy four-colour pixel graphics and oscillating, unnerving chiptune soundscape.
Our barely obsessive behaviour was no shock contemplating how a lot this author loved the earlier two Pixel Pulps, Mothmen 1966 and Varney Lake, visible novels of genre-defining high quality in probably the most essential of the way—that they have been loads of enjoyable to play (particularly Mothmen). These predecessors have been hyper-imaginative horror tales informed to a powerful storytelling customary, seemingly impressed by the retro likes of Bizarre Tales journal. To our tastes, this collection already deserves to be the customary bearer for visible novels as a complete. They’re the sort of idiosyncratic, high quality manufacturing that may elevate a style out of what’s a reasonably small area of interest.
Bahnsen Knights hits the identical excessive requirements from its opening scene. Story-wise, its broad-strokes horror narrative might sound acquainted. The Wicker Man and different tales and movies come to thoughts. All function the identical setup: somebody has gone lacking in a creepy, rural location with the accountability seemingly falling squarely on the ft—or ought to that be automobiles—of an odd cult.
This model tells the story of Boulder, an undercover police officer looking for his associate, who went lacking whereas investigating a gang—the Bahnsen Knights, a bunch of car-driving, brooding psychopaths, whose primary pastimes embrace: portray pink crosses on their automobiles; ‘exorcising the highway’; a deep psychological entwinement with tornadoes; being underneath the spell of their enigmatic chief, Toni; and customarily posing an enormous risk to Boulder’s sanity and life. In the event that they uncover you’re a mole, then your life is over. There’ll be no going again to your deeply-missed spouse and child.
A lot in regards to the Pixel Pulps makes them really feel genuinely particular. In Bahnsen Knights, the very first thing that jumped out at us was the tightness of the storytelling. The sport is informed in skilfully dramatised scenes. The writing sucked us in with robust moment-by-moment characterisation, elevating that semi-familiar story arrange simply the way in which robust writing at all times ought to. Very quickly, you’ll overlook any similarities to different tales. Bahnsen Knights has greater than sufficient character of its personal.
Subsequent are the visuals—the fantastically atmospheric illustrations are rendered within the color palette of a Spectrum ZX, and so they make the sport really feel in some methods like a low-bit graphic novel. But, the animations, pacing, and interactivity inherent within the visible novel medium make sure that Bahnsen Knights is its personal beast totally. It is nonetheless very a lot a recreation.
Like Mothmen 1966 earlier than it, this incorporates a near-constant, mesmeric cicada sound that’s so hypnotic that we began questioning if the video games have been designed with some bi-aural enjoyable beta-wave trickery, pushing us right into a dream state the place our imaginations grew to become a bit extra susceptible to the impressed dreamy nightmarishness of the story.
We’ve heard loads of complaints that visible novels don’t have fairly sufficient precise gameplay—that they’re extra studying experiences—however we discovered Bahnsen Knights had a pleasant steadiness between story and interactivity. As with the opposite Pixel Pulps, the principle bulk of this interactivity seems as minor dialogue selections alongside the way in which, however this time there’s additionally a light-weight roleplaying factor. At occasions Bahnsen Knights feels virtually like a point-and-click journey—the investigation into your associate’s disappearance is well-realised as you seek for and interpret clues.
Probably the most notable interactivity comes in the course of the motion sequences, which, whether or not depicting a brawl or a high-speed chase, really feel like easy however tonally acceptable diversions that you just may need performed as their very own video games on an alternate-dimension Grindhouse-edition of a Sport & Watch. Their retro really feel matches completely with the artwork type, and so they weave straight into the story—or, within the case of darts and solitaire minigames, flesh out the world and make it ever extra plausible. These sequences are well-timed. They add a bit burst of adrenaline-inducing motion and sometimes threat supplying you with one of many demise endings in the event you fail—then they’re completed, and the story strikes on as swift as ever. Notably, there’s touchscreen management all through the sport, and in these moments it usually feels extra responsive than utilizing the joystick and buttons.
Argentine developer duo Nico Saraintaris (writing and recreation design) and Fernando Martínez Ruppel (artwork and music) each come out of those video games leaving optimistic impressions that they’re high-achieving artists of fantastic and universally gratifying style. We would like extra from them, and we’re not bothered how they go about it. They’ve a smattering of other games out there on-line too, and as at all times they nail the actually vital stuff. LCB makes high-quality and interesting work.
A fast take a look at the screenshots will inform you that Bahnsen Knights, unsurprisingly, runs extremely nicely on the Change. Throughout its two-and-a-half hour runtime, you may really feel assured that nothing will get in your manner of delighting on this most gratifying of visible novels. The creativity on present is such that you just’ll doubtless be tempted to reload and tick off all the additional achievements when you’re completed.
It’s not important that you just play the Pixel Pulp video games so as, though one character who does seem in every instalment will get his most thorough introduction in Mothmen 1966, which is then adopted up in Varney Lake. And there’s no less than one different backward reference, too. For probably the most half, nonetheless, Bahnsen Knights is a standalone story,
Conclusion
Should you’re intrigued by visible novels and their potential to please, then the Pixel Pulps collection is arguably the absolute best place to start out. Bahnsen Knights is the third entry and it’s fairly rattling fantastic. With its tighter emphasis on gameplay, it is arguably the perfect of the three, although that will be like selecting your favorite baby. It’s okay to like all of them. Bahnsen Knights is a simple suggestion, and one which turns into even stronger in the event you’re interested by horror and peculiar tales.