By Rainer Sigl
The world of humans is in the distant past, in a dystopian future animals have taken their roles. In the adventure game “Backbone” we accompanied three animal anti-heroes through a gloomy Vancouver in 2021. The game was a mixture of noir crime thriller and surreal horror in a world that seemed as if Walt Disney had slipped into a particularly dark depression.
“Backbone” divided its audience: For many, the final, rather linear act and the plot twists were a disappointment. For others, myself included, the Canadian studio also deserves credit for having the courage to challenge their audience. Now is with „Tails: The Backbone Preludes“ a kind of prequel appeared, in which we travel back into the past of the main characters.
four lives
The four stories that “Tails: The Backbone Preludes” alternately tell are melancholic, captivating and sometimes surreally spooky. We know three of the characters from the predecessor; here we experience, so to speak, their prehistory. We accompany the raccoon Howard before he became a detective, work on a tricky article with the fox journalist Renee or dive into the mafia world of the bear Clarissa. Character number four is new and yet has a lot to do with the mystery of “Backbone”: As canine scientist Eli, we make a terrible discovery.
The tasks we face here are pleasantly varied. Sometimes we are offered classic jigsaw puzzles, then once more we have to find answers to moral questions, draw logical conclusions from sources or just clean up. Again and once more we make decisions that will have dramatic effects later in the game – and, this much is implicitly clear, inevitably also in the future world of “Backbone”. Anyone who has reached the end of the game has only seen one of several possible endings.
Eggnut
Pixel, jazz and existentialism
Like its predecessor, Tails is a breathtakingly beautiful piece of pixel art, and the jazzy soundtrack is once once more excellent. The relatively compact length of the game – a single run takes regarding three to four hours – is compensated for by the combination with the predecessor, which is also recommended for returning players, and which only takes place following this prequel.
With “Tails: The Backbone Preludes” one of the most fascinating game worlds of recent years expands. The series offers grown-up themes and characters, a surreal dystopia and the courage to keep surprising and alienating its audience. It pays to visit this sinister wildlife; no matter what order you play the two parts in.