Blacksad: Under the Skin on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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BLACKSAD: Under the Skin - A dark corruption scandal in the heart of the New York City's underworld for charismatic detective John Blacksad!
Blacksad: Under the Skin is a adventure, detective and choices matter game
developed by Pendulo Studios and YS Interactive
and published by Microids.
Released on November 14th 2019 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 8 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian, Dutch and Simplified Chinese.
It has received 5,960 reviews of which 5,031 were positive and 929 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.2 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified Blacksad: Under the Skin into these genres:
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: 64-bits Windows 7
- Processor: Intel Core i5 (3GHz) or equivalent
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD R7 260X / Nvidia GTX 750 Ti 2 GB
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 30 GB available space
MacOS
- OS: Mac OS X 10.8+
- Processor: Intel Core i5 (3GHz)
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD R7 260X / Nvidia GTX 550 Ti 2 GB
- Storage: 30 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
A game based on the critically acclaimed Spanish comic book series, Blacksad is a story of detective John Blacksad, in 1950's New York. Perpetually down to his luck, Blacksad is asked to solve a time-sensitive case. Owner of a boxing gym was found dead, seemingly from suicide, while its rising star boxer has disappeared little over two weeks before a title fight, winning of which is the only way to save the falling gym. Blacksad must track him down like a hunting dog. Well, cat. The missing boxer is a dog. Despite being populated by a cast of anthropomorphic animals, Blacksad is as much a gritty detective drama as the hardest of the genre, never shy from touching on heavy subjects. If you need proof, let me just point out that "Under the Skin" is canonically set between two volumes of the comic book series - Arctic Nation, where Blacksad faces white supremacists, and Red Soul, which has him struggle with the anti-communist paranoia of McCarthyism. Under the Skin itself is not only matching the darkest parts of the series, but even surpassing them, boasting possibly the highest bodycount out of all Blacksad's cases and player decisions can get it even higher. With exception of Blacksad himself and two characters that show up in later albums, and whose death is instant game-over, no one is safe. Video game format allows a lot of twists and turns, with multiple false leads that make it a fascinating noir mystery, hitting on all classic tropes and some slightly less realistic ones. While that is not first for Blacksad, considering some odd choices in a few of the comics, some of the plot reveals in the final two chapters are…eyebrow raising. The graphics are doing their best and while they cannot match gorgeous artwork of the comics, in combination with beautiful score, they manage to capture their atmosphere, making you really feel like being part of another Blacksad story, just more interactive. Mechanically Blacksad is a choice-based point-and-click adventure that takes heavy inspiration from Frogwares’ Sherlock Holmes video games and ESPECIALLY from Telltale Games' critical darling and fan-favorite title, Wolf Among Us, fittingly also based on a comic book. You will be interacting with objects, participating in quick time events and making decisions through timed dialogue options. A lot of which can get you killed, tho if that happens, the game boots you to the last autosave, and it is very generous with those, after a custom death scene, of course. It is also full of other, often used just a single time, mechanics like driving. Some complaints can be said about the dialogue options, however. For one, a lot of the bad ones makes Blacksad appear far dumber than he is. Moreover, your decisions are also helping you create "your" Blacksad, and the game rates your progress depending on if you want to play him more like a classic "hard-boiled and corrupt" type, or a hopeless romantic and idealist. But at no point will these decisions affect the game or lock you out of a choice. Even how much money will you make from the case or how much you will treat comic characters like dirt will not matter in the long run, as Blacksad starts Red Soul on good terms with them, but penniless. Even in the game itself the way to play often clashes with the canon portrayal. For example, no matter how cynical and hard-boiled you will play Blacksad, he still refuses to carry a gun on the grounds of trying to set a good example for his nephew. As such the “Your Blacksad” sliders are more of a cosmetic than anything else. Two important mechanics in the game are clues and cat senses. Clues are similar to a mechanic from abovementioned Sherlock Holmes game, but far less punishing, as they cannot lead you astray with wrongful deductions, and can reveal things too early in case you have two matching clues that require third (and sometimes even fourth) one to form a deduction - the matched clues will form a chain you cannot finish, often letting you guess plot twists before Blacksad, not alongside him. Moreover, I found it little weird that matching right clues into deductions gets you a short joyful jingle, accompanied by Blacksad’s cheeky, smug even, smile, even as the things he is deducing or circumstances in which he is are quite grim. Similarly the autosave always being communicated by icon with Blacksad growling at you in anger felt like an odd way to mark your progress. Cat senses slow down time to let you zoom in on things Blacksad picked with his heightened sight, hearing or smell. Sadly, this often feels clunky, with the zoom in randomly stopping in its tracks, often for no apparent reason, and once you are in the right spot, you can end pacing around until the game decides you hit the very exact pixels it wanted and lets you examine things. Which can be infuriating, if the game asks you to do it while on a timer, like when Blacksad is being beaten or actively shot at. Also, often after you leave cat senses, especially if activated during dialogue, game will just lead you to black screen and won’t load until you press a specific button it feels like should be pressed, never the one you use to exit the Cat Senses screen, for some reason. While there are many reports of bugs in this game, this was the closer I’ve got to one on my playthrough. The game has unique collectibles in the form of Hall of Fame cards that show various animal sport stars, some based on real sportsmen from the time, some from modern times, and others even characters from the comics. Personally, I’ve found hunting them down tedious and stopped trying, especially as the final reveals of the plot made me feel hard to ave at them, beyond pretty art. Steam lists two games it knows I have played as similar to Blacksad - Disco Elysium and Wolf Among Us. While Blacksad is sadly more restrictive than these two, it is still a well-told detective story with a great atmosphere. A must for fans of the comic and worth a fair try for everyone else.
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Excellent game. Pros: 1. Atmosphere. The 1950s New York setting is straight out of a classic detective film, perfectly capturing the mood. 2. Story and characters. (No spoilers) It's a classic detective tale about corruption and dark secrets. You play as a private investigator unraveling a complex, twist-filled plot. 3. World details. While the world is limited to specific locations, the game encourages exploration by having you search for collectible cards (though some might see this as a downside). Bought it on sale for a couple of dollars, so it feels like the best money ever spent on a game. If it were more expensive, I probably wouldn't have tried it. Cons: 1. The game is broken if you download the latest version. I had to download an older version via the Steam Console (see the Community Guide) because the new version has terrible loading times for both the world and textures, plus constant micro-stutters. I played in 4K, and even lowering the resolution to FullHD or moving the game to an NVMe drive didn't fix it, only downgrading the version worked. 2. The character stat system feels pointless on a first playthrough. Your dialogue choices affect stats, but they seem to be just for tracking. I suspect that even on a replay with different choices, the main story would remain largely the same, with only the stats changing slightly. 3. You can't run in the game. Sometimes you just want to move quickly from one point on the map to another. Guess Blacksad needs to quit smoking. Recommendation: I'd advise giving it a try, especially if you have a Steam Deck or a portable console. It's perfect for playing on the couch or killing time on a trip.
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First of all, I think it's a great game. But there are a few annoying things that are mostly convenience/design issues that could be addressed with simple quality of life fixes (idk, maybe it was lack of budget or whatever but still). For example, the game would've profited significantly if it had any hints on where to go next when you have multiple options of what to do and different possible locations to go, but instead you end up wandering everywhere pixel hunting. Or the fact that there's no ability to run can be annoying at times, because everything is so slow, or the part with the flashlight - the idea is good but the controls are nightmarish at times. Deduction is also a bit confusing, because some options get hidden by the new ones, then later you see some things you already know but the options are still there etc. Or having to wait after every launch of the game while it's loading a heavy scene to have a smooth transition into a new game? I get that it looks cool the first time you play it, but the game could've checked whether there are any saved games and have a different starting menu if so. And these are all really not bugs and could be fixed relatively simply - this is why it's so unfortunate to have them. That said, the rest of the game outshines the cons - style, music, deduction, plot, mechanics, characters - all that I really liked. Also there are really some not that obvious choices that'll have consequences and some different and sometimes unexpected outcomes. I really enjoyed the game and every day I couldn't wait to play to know what's next - I think it is a great metric.
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It’s a strong meh. On one hand, the world and atmosphere are absolutely dripping with personality. The game nails that pulpy, noir inspired vibe better than anything I’ve played since L.A. Noire. The characters are a real highlight too every one of them feels distinct, and I genuinely enjoyed each interaction. The writing has heart, with plenty of charm and clever dialogue that makes it easy to get invested in the story. Unfortunately, all of that potential is dragged down by serious technical issues. Performance is rough across the board, with constant stuttering and texture pop in. These problems are especially painful during QTEs, then there is the gameplay trial and error which is just old school design and frustrating at this point. The checkpointing system compounds this frustration, forcing you to replay the same sections multiple times if you miss a prompt or run into one of the game’s many bugs. The gameplay itself leans heavily on old-school Telltale style mechanics dialogue choices, exploration, and quick-time events but without much innovation. The narrative has ambition, but it sometimes leans too hard on clichés, with twists that feel predictable rather than impactful. Still, the overall story has heart, and if you enjoy branching dialogue, moody detective work, and narrative heavy experiences, there’s definitely something here to appreciate. For me, the frustration outweighed the fun. The atmosphere, characters, and story are good enough that I wanted to love it, but the technical problems, stuttering, and dated mechanics constantly pulled me out of the experience. If you’re a fan of noir storytelling and don’t mind putting up with performance issues, this could still be worth playing especially if you miss the old Telltale style of narrative driven games. But if you’re looking for polish and smooth gameplay, you’ll likely walk away disappointed.
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the story telling and gameplay was PERFECT but the lag frame rate drop is crazy, i would play this on 165 frame rate and when an animation start i will get spike and fall to 10-25 frame also the button mashing at the quick time event made me wanna drop this game a lot, really? 5 press a second is too slow??? note: why black sad is too ... human faced? TLDR: the game is great but unity engine ruined my fun
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Frequently Asked Questions
Blacksad: Under the Skin is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 19.99€ on Steam.
Blacksad: Under the Skin received 5,031 positive votes out of a total of 5,960 achieving a rating of 8.19.
😎
Blacksad: Under the Skin was developed by Pendulo Studios and YS Interactive and published by Microids.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is playable and fully supported on MacOS.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is not playable on Linux.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is a single-player game.
There is a DLC available for Blacksad: Under the Skin. Explore additional content available for Blacksad: Under the Skin on Steam.
Blacksad: Under the Skin does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Blacksad: Under the Skin does not support Steam Remote Play.
Blacksad: Under the Skin is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Blacksad: Under the Skin.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 27 January 2026 23:31 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 27 January 2026 03:42 |
| Steam price | 28 January 2026 20:28 |
| Steam reviews | 26 January 2026 19:45 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Blacksad: Under the Skin, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Blacksad: Under the Skin
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Blacksad: Under the Skin concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Blacksad: Under the Skin compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
18
Developer
Pendulo Studios,
YS Interactive
Publisher
Microids
Release
14 Nov 2019
Platforms
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