I don’t just want to learn more about characters I’m interested in, because they don’t exist in a vacuum. I’m interested in the world they live in, the struggles they go through, their motivations, and the grain they’re up against. Tails: The Backbone Preludes is a narrative adventure game developed by Eggnut, developers of Backbone. Backbone left us with some questions, who are these characters, where did they come from, and I demand to know more about the world around me. While I don’t believe these questions are answered directly, I believe they’re answered satisfyingly.
Tails: The Backbone Preludes
Developer: Eggnut
Price: $14.99
Platform: PC – Steam/Epic Games Store
Tails has you playing through the origins of the three most prominent characters in Backbone, as well as a new character that explains the beginnings of a big plot point in the previous game. Clarissa Bloodworth, Howard Lotor, Renee Wilson, and Eli Abbas will navigate the mean streets of dystopian Vancouver seeking your assistance in making some important life decisions. In turn, you will learn more about their characters, what makes them tick, and why they became the anthropomorphic people that they are.
A hybrid of point-and-click adventure games and visual novels, Tails takes these characters all over Vancouver to tell their story. Each story is contained in a singular or few small areas, each in beautiful pixel art with breathtaking detail. In some scenes, you’ll be organizing the character’s bookshelves or living spaces by clicking and dragging items into set areas. I found this a little confusing as if it was added solely because Eggnut figured out how to do it. The intent, perhaps, was to show you who these characters are through what they own but I feel this fell flat.
What you should be expecting from Eggnut at this point is all there in Tails. Astounding pixel art that you could observe for hours will fill your screen. You’ll experience a narrative that will be difficult to navigate at times and might emotionally hurt you. But if you’ve played Backbone, and I recommend playing Backbone first even if the store page says it’s cool to play in any order, this addition to the overarching narrative is well worth a few playthroughs.
Primarily, there were some heartbreaking moments that I experienced while playing Tails. I refuse to speak in specifics because I don’t want to spoil anything. There are some points in Tails that cut to the core of the human experience. By the end of Tails, my anxiety had me on edge and I was trying to come to grips with what I had done. Not just what had happened to the characters but how I had brought them all there. While the story sets the scene it has specific points that allow you to change the adventure.
While learning about the origins of these three characters was rewarding, having experienced the first game, the most engaging story was the new character, Eli Abbas. Eli is stuck in the wasteland with his colleague, Jorge, who finds something mysterious on their dig. This mysterious object not only begins to have them question their process, but the reason they’re out there, and the reason nobody is allowed out of the city. This is something I lamented not knowing more about after playing Backbone. I’m very pleased Eggnut was able to illuminate that mystery and give us something a little meatier than they did with Backbone.
More importantly, Tails is just a standout narrative adventure. Where choices exist, they matter. Questions from the previous game, while not answered directly, are given enough time to become gratifying explanations. Characters I would have already considered to be fleshed out are rounded out even more. I think whatever Backbone did well, and that’s quite a bit, Tails managed to do even better.
The Final Word
Interconnected stories between games are always going to be fun to me. Anyone who enjoyed Backbone will most assuredly love the world being explored in Tails. I hope they continue this trend because Eggnut has created a very interesting world to explore.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
