Blanc
Blanc is a beautiful, black-and-white adventure that’s as much about the incredible atmosphere as it is about co-op puzzles. Controlling the fawn and wolf cub feels like playing through a hand-drawn interactive storybook. Also like a storybook, Blanc is a brief journey. But it’s a cozy hug of a game that will stick with you after it ends.
Blanc is a charming and extremely short adventure game that features challenging puzzles and a beautiful, minimalist art style that should occupy you and a friend for an hour or two.
It can be argued that games are too long these days, with big-budget studios releasing live titles you’re expected to play forever. However, these endless streams of content don’t offer the meaningful, finite experience that comes with a game like Blanc. Developed by indie French studio.
Casus Ludi and published by Gearbox, Blanc is a black-and-white co-op adventure game about a wolf cub and fawn who must work together to navigate a snowstorm and find their families.
Noir et Blanc
In Blanc, you play as either a wolf cub or fawn and each animal has its own unique abilities. For example, the wolf can pull objects and cut ropes, while the deer can push items, jump higher, and lift the wolf to hard-to-reach places. You use these abilities to navigate the puzzle-filled game world. Along your journey, you encounter a goose and a pair of baby goats, which add extra puzzle-solving elements.
The simple, black-and-white art style makes the world look like a charming pencil-and-ink drawing. Without written on-screen instructions, you must pay special attention to the game’s prompts that reveal if you can interact with an object. If you want even less guidance, you can turn down the number of prompts from within the Options menu.
The lack of clear direction means you must think about where you need to go and how you might get there using your characters’ abilities. It’s frustrating at times; the minimalist game world and sometimes awkward camera angles obfuscate your goal. In addition, the occasional bugs pop up. For example, the companion goats that copy your actions as part of a puzzle-platforming sequence don’t always behave as instructed.
