That just doesn’t give it the time it needs to develop and truly breathe life into this intriguing world the developers have built. It doesn’t help that the game is only about three and a half hours long. The last couple of acts rush towards a conclusion and, while the quality is still good, it doesn’t match the level set by the first two chapters. The central mystery pushing the narrative forward dissolves, and the story pivots into something reminiscent of a classic Cronenberg movie. Unfortunately, Backbone‘s plot can’t keep it going for the duration. There’s no voice acting, but the words jump off the screen all the same, doing much to bring these animal people to life, with their unique manners of speaking and a fair amount of swearing. The first two chapters or so of Backbone are engrossing, and I found myself drawn to the game’s mystery and rising action. Howard makes his way into the place, only to find himself unraveling a thread of depravity and corruption that leads directly to the people who hold the power in the future, animal-occupied Vancouver. Within a few minutes of questioning the locals, he learns that the husband likes to spend his time in a questionable establishment known as The Bite. Howard gets the details he needs, takes the case, and then sets out into the city to get what he’s after. A pregnant wife, endlessly aggravated by her husband’s behavior, has turned to Howard to procure pictures to air out said husband’s dirty laundry. It’s still a thought-provoking, unique piece of entertainment, but the game feels like it should have been more.īackbone begins with our protagonist, a raccoon private investigator named Howard Lotor, reading a book in his bathtub. But it peters out after a while and ends up rushing to an unsatisfying conclusion. The game starts out with a bang, which hyped me up for the subsequent chapters. The game’s pixel artwork is gorgeous, bristling with colorful, moody explorations of decadent urban sprawl preyed upon by the haves. Doing so requires nailing the tone and dialogue to a degree that many people aren’t quite up to. It’s slick and intuitively designed, and not experienced any bugs so far.Successfully pulling off a noir story is hard. Party chat works really well - almost surprisingly so - no issues with any of the games my mates and I have tried so far. The app is very smart and further serves to reinforce the illusion you’re using a dedicated console. It did initially feel like a bit of an indulgent purchase and I wasn’t sure how much I’d use it, but now I don’t travel anywhere without it! Great for my bus commutes into work. It’s obviously a night and day improvement over touch controls, but the analogue sticks and buttons feel legitimately great in their own right. I like the slim profile of the device - it looks and feels so well integrated to the phone which I much preferred to the more ostentatious or bulky alternatives.
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To learn more, download the app or visit Īny feedback? Use the in-app feedback tool, ping us at or tweet us of Use: Īfter 15 minutes in CoD: Mobile or Genshin Impact with the Backbone controller it’s honestly easy to forget you’re gaming on your phone and not a dedicated, premium handheld console. Once you see a friend online, you can link up for voice chat inside the app and move from game to game, seamlessly. With Backbone’s Rich Presence feature, you can get push notifications when your friends start playing games on Backbone, making it easy to join the action in real-time. Forgot to bookmark? Once a video is captured, Backbone’s app helps you identify your most action-packed moments automatically, allowing you to show off your best moments and highlights with ease. Hold the Capture Button to bookmark a moment when recording. ■ Record, edit, and share epic gaming clipsīackbone One has a built-in Capture button that allows you to easily screen record or screenshot gameplay and share directly to social platforms like Instagram Stories and iMessage, all directly from your mobile device.
Press the Backbone Button to bring up the app and launch into your favorite games that support controllers from one place. It also works with games like Call of Duty: Mobile, Minecraft and Genshin Impact.
The Backbone One controller works with services like PS Remote Play, Xbox Game Pass (xCloud), Apple Arcade, Xbox Remote Play, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna. ■ Play any game or service that supports game controllers. Backbone makes your iPhone into a serious gaming device.