I am very pleased with the co-op experience offered by Casus Ludi's hand-drawn Blanc. The short story of the fawn and a wolf cub is indeed an emotional one, and it will leave you feeling complete by the time the credits roll. Yes, this title is an incredibly short one, but it's worth playing on a snowy evening or on a date night. If you're looking for a co-op title that will offer you some simple yet emotionally effective gameplay, look no further than Blanc on the PC.
Nonverbal storytelling in videogames often connects with thoughtful, touching, intriguing, and something saddening tales. Titles like Journey, Limbo, and Inside tell emotional stories by utilizing mood, nature, and static pictures to build a world around you and establish its lore. Sometimes these tales pique your imagination, others they pull on your heartstrings. Either way, the implementation of nonverbal storytelling has great potential to leave a solid impression on players who are along for the ride. For the case of Blanc, I’m left feeling complete yet relieved.
Blanc advertises itself as a friendly co-op adventure set within a wondrous, poetic, and hand-drawn world, emphasizing a co-op experience between a fawn and a wolf who must make their way through a vast, snowy wilderness. As you play with a friend, you’re tasked with utilizing the fawn and wolf’s unique strengths to solve puzzles and navigate through hand-drawn sequences. During my playthrough, I played as the bowlegged fawn. Being taller than the wolf, I was able to easily jump across and up to harder-to-reach platforms. I could push crates with my head, and I could even bend down as a ramp to help the little wolf follow me upwards.
I enjoyed the co-operative gameplay that Blanc offers. That, combined with the nonverbal storytelling, let my partner and I experience a touching story between two young animals who are seeking a sense of home. Blanc successfully encourages approachable cooperation that many praised It Takes Two for having, albeit at a much more simplistic scale. Puzzles are simpler and rely on visual cues that are (mostly) highlighted and correspond to the white fawn and black wolf. Given that controls are simple, you shouldn’t expect a wide variety of puzzles beyond pushing, light interaction, and pulling. I will say, though, that the puzzles are not copy-pasted from each other, so I must comment Blanc for leaning away from repetitive puzzles and more toward nuanced puzzles.
Blanc‘s story is the epitome of short, but sweet. I’ve mentioned several times throughout this review that the storytelling is nonverbal, and I must emphasize how successful Blanc is in communicating feelings of loss, loneliness, and confusion. In the few moments of hope, my partner and I found ourselves relishing in the playfulness and warmth that emanated from the fawn and wolf’s frolics through the snow. While the story completes itself in a meaningful fashion, I do wish that the story went one layer deeper through the use of employing other plot devices to advance the story. No spoilers here, but there were two such instances of similar “shocking moments” (that’s all I’ll say) that elicited the same emotional reaction. Once was jarring, twice was repetitious. I will say that after being scarred from watching The Fox and the Hound, I was hesitant to follow the stories of two divergent fauna. But, without spoiling the story, I’ll emphasize that the story completes itself and avoids overly emotional moments like you would have expected from It Takes Two (you know the ones I’m talking about, y’all).
It is my understanding that all of Blanc is hand-drawn, and I must say that it’s gorgeous for a title that emphasizes a pencilled/charcoal on paper aesthetic. Casus Ludi’s levels and characters emanate life while being restricted to a sketched 2D plane. In one area where we were pushing upward against a clouded sky, I couldn’t help but appreciate the uneven strokes that comprised the darker and stormy clouds. The wolf and fawn’s animations are clean and connect with silliness. Watching the wolf struggle with his stubby legs wagging about gave us a good chuckle, too.
I must also commend Casus Ludi for creating and implementing such a simple but effective soundtrack in Blanc. If you’re familiar with Untitled Goose Game‘s simple piano accompaniment, Blanc‘s original soundtrack will feel like an old friend giving you a hug on a snowy December afternoon. The use of piano (and silence!!) bolstered the aesthetic of being lost in a blizzard, and it worked so well in enhancing the emotional journeys of the fawn and wolf. The sound effects of galloping through snow and ice were realistic, and was the icing on the proverbial cake offered by Blanc in the mood-setting department.
Yes, Blanc is a short game–enough to complete once-over in a single short sitting. My partner and I sat down at 8pm on a Sunday night to play, and we had finished the story in its entirety and sat through the entire credits sequence by 10pm. It’s surprising how much emotional depth was expressed through that short two hour playthrough, but I do wish that there was more to experience in-game. Don’t let this brevity put you off, however. It’s worth replaying as the other character just to experience what your partner experienced.
Blanc ran nearly perfect on our computers. My partner and I used DualSense controllers during this review period, so if you have a Steam/DualSense/another controller at your disposal, use them to play the game. We did encounter a few visual artifacts on screen that were a result of online play, but they did not impact the gameplay proper. There was no lag, but the wolf would occasionally jitter as my partner jumped off the fawn’s back and across obstacles. There was also some minor AI bugginess that occurred toward the end that forced us to restart the current chapter because the AI that controlled the characters we were assisting got stuck and wouldn’t mirror our movements. If/When you encounter said minor bugs, simply restart the chapter. It’s not gamebreaking, but I can understand players’ annoyance with being softlocked.
I am very pleased with the co-op experience offered by Casus Ludi’s hand-drawn Blanc. The short story of the fawn and a wolf cub is indeed an emotional one, and it will leave you feeling complete by the time the credits roll. Yes, this title is an incredibly short one, but it’s worth playing on a snowy evening or on a date night. If you’re looking for a co-op title that will offer you some simple yet emotionally effective gameplay, look no further than Blanc on the PC.
A copy of Blanc was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this Digital Chumps review.
