Transcript: The Last Case of Benedict Fox does not have nearly anything to do directly with archaeology, but more lurks under the surface than the player might expect. Firstly, the titular character Benedict is a detective, tied to a demon which gives him helpful supernatural powers to investigate the mysteries they come into contact with. To tie it into Under the Pyramids, Benedict’s mentor is Harry Houdini, a much older version of him that apparently did survive.

There are the very typical Lovecraftian monsters, settings, forbidden rituals, and a secretive cult group that is chasing Benedict and Houdini down. But it is the setting and how Benedict interacts with it that I want to talk about.

Benedict can enter “limbo” which allows him to investigate the past. It is what you traverse for the main part of gameplay, and Benedict explores it to uncover the secrets behind his father’s death. Benedict consistently moves between the real world and limbo, finding memories and seeing what has happened in the past.

This ties in almost too well with what I discussed concerning Jedi: Fallen Order. There is a power that the main character Cal has, known as psychometry. It allows him to use the Force to see past memories through the objects people touched. The game is much more directly about archaeology, in a very intentional way, but the concept can transfer. Benedict’s powers do something quite similar, allowing him to piece together the mystery and uncover the past himself.

He’s not going into too many ancient mysteries, but in some ways he is. He uncovers a fair number of runes and ancient languages, which the demon he is tied to helps him figure out. The two mechanics both serve to advance the plot, but it’s the emphasis on the past that is so archaeological. This is far from the only game to have an emphasis on uncovering the past, but in this case, the association with Lovecraft gives it a bigger interaction with archaeology as well.

The past is shown to affect the future in ways that have immediate consequences for Benedict. The past and future are so intertwined, due to his ability to enter limbo, and he is actively solving a murder mystery as he goes. The cult group chasing him down is involved, and the interesting ancient rituals are important to the plot. It is not only that, but it is one of the first things you find a clue to, and the plot points all revolve around it, particularly as Benedict comes across the ritual book and is able to have one of his companions begin to translate it.

Ancient text translation is a big part of archaeology in some parts of the world, whereas others all we have is context clues and hopefully some oral tradition. It’s an interesting twist that Benedict does find a translator, but not the information he was searching for. Instead, he uses his leverage to save someone else.

It struggled to get good reviews in the beginning, but The Last Case of Benedict Fox still has a fair amount to say about the relationship between the past and the present.