One of the clearest synonyms I can think of for indie games is that they like to find a niche regarding the visuals. So does Blanc. Here, hand-drawn drawings have come to life in black, gray and, of course, white. The title also means the latter in French, and mechanics and experience have been scaled down to something basic. It’s a simple story about unexpected friendship and cooperation, where one player takes the role of a fox and the other a deer. Two buttons are all that is needed, together with the joystick, to jump and perform the respective animal’s ability, which then of course helps both parties find the way forward. You cannot fail in any way, but dart between marked paths and follow the clear track in the snow of the rest of the herd whose questionable parentage left the little ones alone.
The control scheme takes us back to a time before shoulder buttons. When red A and B buttons were all that was needed to have fun. Before we could turn the camera and perform a bunch of different movements. Despite its simple control scheme, unfortunately a couple of control-related bugs appear. The simplicity of the controls of course makes it playable for the vast majority of people, which is basically always a good thing.
Blanc focuses on the importance of collaboration. Hence it is quite obvious that it is also an experience to be shared, simply a game for two. It can be played together with a friend online or locally. It is actually also possible to experience it on your own, where you control the animals at the same time with each joystick and I tried a chapter like this. It works, absolutely, but I think it loses pretty much all of the little charm that exists if you don’t share this experience with someone else. All the puzzles are simple, but it’s still much more entertaining when you get to figure it out together for a short while. When playing by yourself, it’s really just coordinating two joysticks that is the hardest part.
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In addition to moving forward and jumping, you then need to solve some puzzles. It is usually to push some box like a deer or like a fox bite off something. It’s simple, a little too simple. Here, however, there are two slightly larger scenarios regarding puzzles that I do not want to reveal. Just then and there the design shines a little extra and if there are any moments I take with me from this, it’s just them. The second is of course the graphics, which are really something very special. In motion, it looks even nicer with cozy movements on the animals that create a charm that is hard to resist. Blanc definitely deserves all the credit for how it looks visually.
I think most people can agree that there is something beautiful in the simple. When you peel away the excess, you find the core. And besides unique visual style, this is perhaps the second closest synonym for indie games. It is often simple, in a way that absolute budget and size of team can be a contributing factor. But at the same time it feels like you are searching for something. An emotional feeling, and unfortunately it is here that Blanc feels quite pale in the wrong respect. Certainly, they have tried to increase the quiet piano tones that the game initially offers, in order to evoke more of something emotional. As mentioned, you also manage to create a couple of really ingenious puzzles and yes, it is very, very beautiful in all its simplicity.
But something is missing here. It needed more clever puzzles as well as some kind of excitement. It feels like you miss some simple goals here, that you don’t really take advantage of what you have. While I don’t really think you should judge games for what they aren’t, rather than devote yourself to praising or criticizing what is, Blanc just isn’t a finished enough drawing.
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There is another factor that I don’t really think should affect the rating, but that I want to mention anyway. The adventure is short. It took about seventy minutes to see the credits and it was really only on two occasions that I and the person I was playing with got stuck on a puzzle for a longer time. The game-per-krona equation doesn’t really belong in a review, but I’d like to summarize it like this: If the content had been significantly better, the playing time would still have felt perfectly fine. Or to turn it around: Had the experience been a bit longer, this measure of entertainment would have felt more worthwhile. It may seem contradictory, but the after-texts come very abruptly and the missed potential is then especially clearly felt.
There are plenty of short, nice experiences. Entertaining indie games as well. Something we may not be so spoiled with is this type of co-op, and that is actually the adventure’s absolute biggest advantage, together with the very nice environments. So if there are two of you who feel starved for a game with a little cooperation and a short cozy experience, Blanc still fills a void. But only for a short while and not as satisfying as one would have liked.
