After an eight month wait, we have finally gotten the second episode in the five-part episodic series, Blues and Bullets. We dive right back into Elliot Ness’s complicated life by flashing back to a date with his mistress, Delphine. This opening sequence sets the theme for the episode and reintroduces us to Elliot Ness and his tragic life filled with moral dilemmas. We see Elliot before putting Capone behind bars; he has a lot on his mind besides this date and you can tell just by looking at him. He is sleeping with his best friend’s wife, he is struggling to keep Delphine with him, and of course he is thinking about building a case to take down Capone.
While Elliot is on this date, we learn he sent his best friend (who is the husband of Delphine) off on a police raid in order to go see Delphine. Elliot is clearly a morally flawed character. He is selfish and sometimes fails to do the right thing. Some of his flaws come from my personal choices though. When I started the game, I decided I wanted my choices to reflect a man with so much stress in his life that it reflects in his actions and work. His morals are all over the place, he’s a struggling alcoholic, and he is one bad day away from turning into an inevitable monster that not only destroys himself, but the people around him.
This episode has a great dream sequence where a haunting voice mocks Elliot and tells him how much of a terrible person he is. It dives deep into the choices you’ve made, both in the current and previous episodes. Throughout the sequence, you walk down corridors and familiar places and watch terrible things happen to your friends as the voice tells you it’s all your fault and that the choices you made did this to them. It’s absolutely horrifying and shows how all of his choices have bad consequences regardless if it was a “good” choice. He can’t make the world right, even if he tries his hardest. The character of Elliot Ness is so deep and complex and I am very excited to see how they develop him in the future.
Aside from the complicated life of Elliot Ness, the latest episode delves deeper into the investigation of finding the notorious Al Capone’s missing niece. After the flashback at the start of the episode, we pick up right where we left off and go explore that enticing submarine we last saw eight months ago to get some answers (which may or may not lead to more questions). Since these episodes are only three hours long, I won’t get too in-depth with details but this episode tackles some of the darkest and sensitive aspects I have seen in a game in a long time. It’s incredibly shocking, but it’s all done tastefully and not done for just pure shock value. It adds to the emotional weight of the story and adds a new layer to the twisted city that is Santa Esperanza.
Not only does the game go deep into some real world topics, but it gives us a small sampling of the supernatural. From the start I could see hints of a supernatural story. I was worried but also excited at the same time. I was mostly worried that the game would do some bizarre and absurd “Oooooo, spooky spirits are behind the whole mystery!” type twist (which could still happen), but it finds a sweet balance with a real-world cult that commits horrendous crimes. As the episode progresses, we slowly learn more about the cult through enticing exposition and other key moments that play into the main story. I can’t quite tell where they’re going with it yet, but I am excited to see how they do it and if they mess it up somehow along the way. I doubt A Crowd of Monsters will mess this up though, they have crafted so many great characters and such a brilliant world that they seem almost incapable of ruining something this creative and unique.
Summary
All I can say is I am incredibly pleased with Blues and Bullets: Shaking The Hive. It delivers on almost all fronts. It still suffers from some technical difficulties that can at times be jarring, but the storytelling and character development is so brilliant and well done that it almost outweighs the one con it has. I hope they can use the luxury of having episodic releases to patch up some of these technical issues, especially if they’re going to take months to release them. Regardless, I can’t wait to see how this epic story unfolds as time goes on. I have nothing but faith and hope in A Crowd of Monsters at this point as they have proven they can tell a masterfully crafted story with nearly flawless execution.
Cade is a games journalist, Gaming Writer at ComicBook.com. They contributed 108 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, and Xbox news: served as Editor-in-Chief at GameZone before joining ComicBook.com.