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 The Black Mirror (Game release date: 2003) Slow-paced but darkly menacing horror adventure game with gorgeous visuals and a well-crafted mystery plot. Walkthrough page
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 | Highlights: Excellent mystery plot, terrifying moments, gorgeous graphics |
 | Lowlights: Slow gameplay, characters are hard to relate to, low interactivity, unsatisfying ending |
First things first: this Czech murder-mystery game scared the crap out of me on more than one occasion, which is probably the best compliment a reviewer could pay to any piece of horror fiction. The music is well done, the graphics are beautiful, and the game designers have a disturbing knack for making the scary parts happen when you're really not expecting them (inspecting something entirely innocuous-looking, for example). Any murder mystery that gets you to secretly suspect one character only to turn him into a victim himself is a good murder mystery, and The Black Mirror did this to me.
The game gets off to a slow start, though, and the sense of suspense--though riveting in the best places--is frequently hampered by the slow pace of characters' movement and dialogue. I'm a great fan of interrogation as a tool to solve mystery adventures, but most of the time talking to the NPCs in this game doesn't even reveal any useful information, and conversations become a tedious chore that disrupts the flow of the game. It doesn't help that the characters in this game are all so distant and affectless, which makes you even less interested in spending time talking to them (and robs the inevitable deaths of impact.) The main character, Samuel, is also hard to identify with, and the player has frustratingly little input into any of his reactions or decisions--he's just like another NPC, in other words, except that he needs you to pick things up and put them into his pockets for him.
Style: The Black Mirror is a third-person puzzle-adventure game with a 3D point-and-click interface. You control a single
character. The plot is a murder mystery and there are supernatural and horror themes. The game is untimed except for a couple of realtime puzzles, and
no manual dexterity is required. Combat and leveling are not elements.
Series: The Black Mirror is not part of a series. It is a completely stand-alone game produced by the prolific Adventure Company.
Finding The Black Mirror: This game is still in print so you should have no problem finding it in your favorite software
store. You can also buy it online
if you like.
Getting The Black Mirror to Work: The Black Mirror is a recent game and I encountered no
gameplay bugs while playing it. Some people have reported problems getting the game to start, however,
or repeated crashes at the beginning of Chapter 2. Make sure that your DirectX is up to date, but if you're still having the problem, ask
Linda at Adventure Games Forum for her unofficial patch.
Hints For The Black Mirror: You can check out my low-spoiler page of Black Mirror hints
if you like. There is also a good hints page at UHS which
reveals only one hint at a time, so you won't accidentally learn the answers to future puzzles while scanning for the one you're stuck on.
Pitfalls In The Black Mirror: There are two occasions in this game where you have to perform an action before a realtime clock runs out,
and also several instant-death scenarios. Save often. Keep old savegames, too; there's one point at which you can use up an item you need to escape from death
later.
Game Length: 25 hours, about standard for a graphic adventure game.
Age-Appropriateness: The Black Mirror is rated M (for 17 years old and up) due to suspense/horror themes, violence, and
gore, including suicide and the murder of a child.
(Very Good)
Plot and Quests: The plot is generally excellent, even giving you enough clues that you can
figure out the true murderer yourself before it is revealed to you. However, like most graphical adventures, The Black Mirror does suffer from its inflexibility.
There is only one way to complete each quest (with one lone exception); no alternate endings, no choices to be made. This game has a gripping and
suspenseful plot, but you have no input into it. The conclusion of the game is particularly frustrating on this count.
Puzzles and Mental Challenges: Primarily inventory puzzles (of the "what could I use to get this rusted
gate open?" sort), also some visual and memory puzzles. Not especially challenging, but still fun.
Characters: You only get one PC in Black Mirror, and you cannot customize or develop him at all. You don't even
have the choice of conversational options to help you feel ownership of his personality (though you do get to choose whether to lie or not on several occasions), and
his final decision of the game is beyond your control and not one most players would choose. Some of the NPCs are interesting, but their flat reactions to each other
impair your developing any emotions towards them.
Gameworld: The Black Mirror is set in a creepy manor in a remote area of England. The gameworld is
consistent and realistic; the modern setting and the supernatural elements combine to create an appropriately eerie feeling.
Gameplay: Like most modern graphical adventures, Black Mirror is really just your standard Infocom game
with graphics and sound appended. That isn't inherently a bad thing--I loved those old Infocom games--but this genre really has not advanced much since the '80's
where gameplay is concerned, and it only takes ten or twelve times walking your character across the same eight location screens on his way to talk his latest finding
over with the inconveniently located Robert before you start to realize: Hey, this was much less of a pain when you could just type "E,E,N,E,NW,U,W,talk Robert."
:-o There are a few places where it is possible for your main character to choose an action that will get him killed, necessitating a reload; other than this, though,
there is no way to lose this game. Puzzles can only be done in the same, linear order, and it's impossible to paint yourself into any corners.
Interface: Black Mirror's game interface is graceful and unobtrusive, adding to the
immersive feel of the game. However, movement is much too slow, and there is a ponderous pause before each character begins to speak. I'm sure this was intended to create
atmosphere, but in practice, it creates boredom. There's a lot of conversation in The Black Mirror, and the five-second delays before each response really start to add up and
get on a player's nerves by the end.
Ambience (Graphics, Sound, etc.): The graphics are gorgeous, the music is spooky and well-integrated into the
game, and the overall mood is excellent. My only complaint is the voice acting, which is soporific--but then plotwise, it's not that unreasonable for Samuel's family to
speak in such sepulchral tones all the time.
Lora's Recommendations: I recommend Black Mirror with a few reservations: it's definitely not for kids, and it doesn't make a
good introduction to the 3rd-person adventure-game genre for a person who's never played them before (it's possible for your character to die, for example, and the lack
of input into the plot might bore people who aren't used to that as a general flaw of the genre). If there had been a little more attention paid to the characters of Samuel
and his family, this would have been an outstandingly terrifying game. Even as it is, The Black Mirror paints a mood like only the best of games can, and for that, it is
worth overlooking its flaws to play it.
If You Loved The Black Mirror: Computer adventure games have been going through a real resurgence in the
past few years, and there are several good ones to choose from. The Longest Journey (Dreamfall)
is my personal favorite, a fantasy epic set in a dystopian future which allows for much more interactivity than most graphic adventures do.
Other recent games you may enjoy include the spooky paranormal adventures
Seven Games of the Soul and
Dark Fall, and the techno-fable
Syberia. If you loved being scared by a computer game, I also
recommend the surreal psychological thriller Sanitarium. Finally,
Planescape: Torment is a more action-oriented game that does involve some tactical
combat, but if you liked The Black Mirror, you may really enjoy the mesmerizing Gothic ambience and excellent suspenseful plot in Torment.
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