The Last Case of Benedict Fox Review

Every Metroidvania draws a line in the sand with what they think separates them from the rest of the genre as there are so many elements that come together to create the experience. While The Last Case of Benedict Fox is certainly very weak in the combat department, which is even further exacerbated by questionable performance at times on the Xbox Series X, what is does have is a very rich atmosphere and an interesting premise that does the heavy lifting to draw attention away from these issues.

You play as a Benedict Fox, a detective in the early 1920’s with a demonic presence attached to him that allows him to go into limbo of the recently deceased to find clues to help solve the case that would have been otherwise lost forever. All to get to the bottom of some secret order doing heinous things.

Most of the technical areas including controls and performance leave room for improvement. Controls can sometimes feel like they are fighting you, which creates an issue with the genre as you are never quite sure if you are currently gated or there are technical issues are holding you back. You need to save and exit the game often because multiple times the game crashed on me erasing hours of progress.

There is noticeable stuttering when shifting between certain screens, which at this point, nearly three years into current generation of consoles with SSD’s and plenty of memory, it feels like it should be a thing of the past. The idea of going between reality and limbo is a fantastic idea that sets Benedict Fox apart but unfortunately, there are loading screens that feel longer than necessary, especially after we have been spoiled by games like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart or even further back to something like Titanfall 2.

Combat can sometimes feel unfair when there are multiple enemies because you get hit when you are already down because the period of invincibility runs out just a little too soon. You only start the game with only 4 HP and in the areas with multiple enemies, your life can be ended before you can react at times. Luckily, Benedict Fox doesn’t hang its hat on that aspect of the game or boss fights, in which there are very few. Depending on what you consider, there are basically only two.

Then there are the puzzles, which are a major part of the game and they can range drastically in difficulty and overall the lack of information relayed to the player at times can be frustrating all the way up to the final boss. The game fails to indicate to the player that they are doing something right or are on the right track.

Easily the best feature is atmosphere as the game oozes it from its Lovecraftian tentacles. The 2.5D visuals are gorgeous, and all the little things make this game feel immersive in a crowded genre. Personal touches include the shop is owned by Houdini, which is nestled inside his travelling briefcase or the skill tree being a tattoo artist who inks your arms from with the new upgrades.

The story is somewhat compelling and the voice acting, for the most part, does a good job of making it feel real. The map is extremely well detailed and they did a good job of giving most areas a distinct feel, unfortunately the map did feel a little too big with too many dead ends and time wasted going down pointless paths for no reason.

Benedict Fox ended up coming up a little short. The game started out very promising, but ended up losing a lot of steam by the time the credits rolled at around the 8 hour mark. Overall, the game needed more time in development as there were too many bugs between hard crashing, character getting stuck, and stuttering issues. With more polish and refinement, Benedict Fox could have been one of the greats of the genre.

7