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Blanc review: heartwarming co-op, but its weak second half leaves you out in the coldA tale of a fawn and a wolf pup
A tale of a fawn and a wolf pup
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if there’s a cute animal game that looks like it’s going to make me cry, then sign me up, I’m ready to go. In fairness, though, co-op adventureBlanclooks like it’s going to be a lot lighter than games likeEndling: Extinction is Foreverand the notoriously upsettingShelterseries at first glance, but I’ve learned toneverlet my guard down around these kinds of games. Those cute art styles are almost always a front for a brutal sneak attack on your emotions.
Blanc | Wholesome Snack: The Game Awards Edition 2022 TrailerWatch on YouTube
Blanc | Wholesome Snack: The Game Awards Edition 2022 Trailer
You play as two animal companions, a long-legged, fluffy-tailed fawn and a floppy-eared yappy wolf pup, who get separated from their families after a blizzard. At first, they have a frosty relationship, but after quickly realising they’re heading in the same direction to find their parents, they decide to buddy up andpoof! One of the cutest animal duos in gaming history is born.
There’s not a lot going on beneath the surface of Blanc. There’s no text or dialogue here, just a twinkly soundtrack and the occasional cutscene to guide the story, but in many ways, I’m fine with that. At its heart, this is a short, pretty game about having some fun animal antics with a pal that you can play in just a couple of hours.
You can play in online co-op, couch co-op, or, surprisingly, on your own using one controller, the left joystick to control the pup and the right to control the fawn in the style ofBrothers: A Tale Of Two Sons. I highly recommend playing the game as intended inco-opmode, becausewowdoes it get finicky using just the one controller. I appreciate that single-player is an option, but this tale is best played with two.
There are different settings for traversal hints. One lets you turn them all on to act as a rough guide, and there’s another that completely switches them off letting you figure out the best way forward between the two of you.
Cuddle buddiesIt’s kinda weird - and this might just be me - but throughout Blanc, the pup and the fawn never have a cuddle, like, even once. You’d think there would be a cute moment where they would have to hunker down together for warmth as they shelter from a snowstorm or something, but nope. A missed opportunity, in my books. My heart (and rule #1 of the animal game handbook) is broken.
The hand-drawn pencil and paper art style is a highlight of the game. You’d think having a black and white world covered in snow would be a risk with all the big white spaces, but there’s always lots of detail that helps keep areas visually interesting.
There’s plenty of joy to be found outside of its main puzzles, too. The prospect of a massive open field with an untouched blanket of snow is just begging to be messed up with each animal’s expressive frolicking, and later on there’s a section that’s one long Journey-esque slide with the two of you zooming through snowy landscapes like two bobsleds in a race. It’s an invitation for players to have some playful shenanigans free from the rules of platforming and puzzle solving, which is a must for a co-op game.
The resolution to Blanc’s story also felt underwhelming. Admittedly, it’s fairly obvious from the get-go where the plot’s going to end up, but when it arrived it still ended up falling flat, and I can’t help but feel like the reason it all feels so rushed is because there are, in fact, giant gaping holes in it. I could be wrong on this, but there’s a point toward the end where it feels like an entire level’s been straight up cut from the game. As our two friends get caught in another snowstorm, the game fades to black as they try to push through the tundra, but then the opening of the next chapter is them climbing out of an underground vent and getting back to the surface. Was there a level that took place underground as the two sheltered from the storm? We’ll probably never know, but the jump felt jarring, to say the least.
I don’t feel good giving Blanc a hard time like this. It feels like the equivalent of accidentally stepping on your dog’s tail and then your heart breaking as they whimper because they don’t know what they’ve done wrong. The first half is genuinely brilliant. It completely understands where the fun’s to be found in a co-op game, and I will never get tired of gawking at its gorgeous hand-crafted art style. It’s just a shame that it becomes such a slog in the second half, ending as a hard snowball to the face instead of a warm, melted heart.
