Backbone is a post-noir narrative adventure that follows Howard Lotor, a raccoon and Private Investigator who falls into a dark and complex conspiracy. From concept to execution, Backbone delivers a deeply emotional experience built on ambitious storytelling and subversive design, which earned it a 5/5 review score from Screen Rant in 2021. While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor, Tails: The Backbone Preludes is still a top-tier narrative adventure that goes for the heart.
Rather than telling a single story, Tails: The Backbone Preludes follows the journey of Howard, Renee, Clarissa, and Eli; with Eli being a new character. Each story not only builds on the characters themselves, but also represent the experiences and challenges people face throughout their lives. Renee, for example, has mundane moments like Unpacking, where players can organize her office space and feed her lizard, while simultaneously exploring how someone’s dedication to their work can impact their relationships. To better illustrate the nuances of people and how it impacts their decision-making, the opening chapter for each character allows the player to pick a unique personality trait to focus on, such as being logical, driven, or caring in Renee’s case.
These traits will open up new options for dialogue that can drastically change the trajectory of the character’s journey depending on how that personality trait connects with others. To visualize the relationship between choice and consequence, Tails: The Backbone Preludes has a path tree at the end of each chapter that highlights the major decision made and how it connects to the previous ones. Ultimately, this system is no different from things like Pentiment‘s background choices or the butterfly effect system in Life is Strange, but its clear visualization constantly reminds players about the paths not taken and encourages another playthrough to see what they hold.
Going down these paths can be surprisingly difficult, as some interactions require specific responses that don’t always seem clear. For example, Renee’s introduction centers around an article she’s writing about a mysterious fire that occurred after police killed a man during a domestic incident. When reviewing the evidence with her husband Lukas, who is also a cop, the player is tasked with trying to convince Lukas that something is fishy due to inconsistencies in the police reports. Unfortunately, players aren’t provided dialogue options that cover all the major details presented to them, which often results in an unconvinced Lukas. This opening moment can give the impression that the player’s choices don’t actually matter, but the reality is that some options are just more unclear than others or don’t play out the way the text suggests it would.
While this is an issue that rarely occurs, it sticks out like a sore thumb when it does. That said, it doesn’t sully the overall experience, as developer EggNut has done a phenomenal job at making every character’s path interesting, rich, and engaging. Despite being a newcomer, Eli stands out in this story as he gives context to the most mysterious part of Backbone, which is the Artifact. The Artifact appears in the final act of Backbone and infects Howard’s body and mind like a cancerous growth; akin to the new flesh from Videodrome. Getting to learn about and interact with the Artifact through Eli’s anxiety inducing tale is a major highlight of the game.
Like its predecessor, Tails: The Backbone Preludes tells an unconventional and surreal story with confidence, resulting in narratives that are sincere, vulnerable, complicated, and heart-breaking. The only downside to this branching narrative style of storytelling is that it’s easy to accidentally take the short route and leave the experience feeling like something is missing. Ultimately, Tails: The Backbone Preludes tells four phenomenal stories that either deepens the characters that players know and love, or introduces them to new players entering this stunning world for the first time.Next: The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow Review: Point-And-Click Cosmic Horror
Tails: The Backbone Preludes releases February 2 for Pc via Steam and the Epic Games Store. Screen Rant was provided with a Steam digital download for the purpose of this review.
