Black Mirror An Ominous Turn of Events…You see a dark foreboding castle, cloaked in darkness and the pouring rain. As lightening flashes and thunder rolls, we move towards a tower with candlelight shining through its windows. Entering the dim lit room, we see an old man come in, clutching a massive candlestick. He places his candlestick down upon an old roll top desk and takes up his pen. He is writing to his Grandson, Samuel Gordon. Is it a warning, a plea or perhaps a dark legacy for the intended recipient? He seems nervous and on edge – glancing frequently at the window. Something is coming, something sinister, perhaps even evil. It rolls up the outside of the tower wall making it’s way towards that tower room. The man writes with deliberate haste, driven to finish his message. He startles as he senses some force drawing ever closer. The candles flicker and then abruptly go out. Our view shifts and we are now looking up at the blackness of those tower windows. The darkness deepens to an oppressive level and then the window bursts open as the old man screaming falls to his death on the iron fence below.
The Path of Evil Samuel Gordon arrives to attend the funeral of his beloved Grandfather, William Gordon. He has been away 12 long years and yet has no desire to remain. Black Mirror, ancestral seat of the Gordon family, signifies dark memories and loss for him. He suffers from disjointed nightmares, filled with dark images and headaches that level him to the floor. However, he is distressed when he receives no ready answers for Williams violent end. Samuel decides to stay at Black Mirror, at least for a short time, so he can learn more about his Grandfather’s mysterious death. Disturbing details about the last months of his Grandfather’s life, quickly surface. He had become reclusive and obsessive, locking himself away for days. About what specifically, no one seems to know. Samuel also finds increasing evidence of a darker mystery, rooted not in the present, but in ancient times and mystical evils. For Black Mirror’s foundations are laid in the blood of others, brother against brother, good against evil. As Samuel is pulled deeper into this mystery, his resolve to leave is muted by his determination to find the truth at all costs. The costs may be far more than Samuel imagined, perhaps his life – perhaps his soul.
The story of Black Mirror is finely tuned. There is plenty of back-story to be picked up along the way and details to be gleamed from any number of interactions. If you just want to get through the main story and take the shortest path through the game, you will enjoy yourself. However there are a large number of items that you can take note of. Some upon closer inspection serve merely to enhance the creepiness of the game. Others provide interesting historical filler about the family and events of the past and today. There are a number of side stories that serve to enhance characters stature as suspects in a series of ongoing murders. Again I suppose it’s not necessary to push the limits of the plot as far as the developers allow. But here is my advice. If you bypass much of these points of interest, you will experience a watered down version of the game. The fact that some probably passed up the wealth of delightful hints, details and sub stories may explain the variation in reactions to Black Mirror.
I would like to say that all the threads are obvious to a careful eye or even fully explained. Again, this game has so many details, characters, dialogues, puzzles and side stories. I expect that I missed out on more than a few plot points while playing Black Mirror. Some seemingly unexplained story lines might have been red herrings. Perhaps they never even existed. One of the aspects of the story in Black Mirror is that it is a tale seen through a glass darkly. It is designed to play with our perceptions and take advantage or our pre-conceptions. This leaves us open to surprise, by sudden twists in the game. I have a good idea that this game will generate more than its share of interesting debates over these plot twists. This is the mark of a good tale. Perhaps some things are just best left to the thoughts, imagination and debates of the players.
Welcome To The FamilyAfter the riveting cinematic that opens the game, we are treated to a voice over against a black screen. The game next opens in a traditional English drawing room, with all the main characters in attendance. This is a cast such as those seen in English or Hollywood horror films made in the 40’s and 50’s. The figures in Black Mirror would seem very familiar to fans of such films as: The House of Wax, The Black Cat, The Mummy, Ten Little Indians and other classics. To be complete, we need only have Boris Karloff (a footman) walk in and say “Good evening and please allow me to introduce the Gordon family and friends.”
We have Samuel, our leading man. He is reluctant to be back at Black Mirror. Returning only to attend the funeral of his beloved Grandfather William, Samuel is unsettled and not set on lingering for very long at Black Mirror, the name given to this ancient family seat. There is his Grandmother Victoria. She seems distant and quite proper. Much the same can be said for Samuel’s Uncle Robert, and Bates, their butler. These characters are revealed through the developing story, documents and dialogues. There is a formality to these people and their interactions. Rather than a reflection of slightly sluggish graphics, I think it is a deliberate style choice made for the game. It really suits the tone and atmosphere well. I also saw this as a deliberate, measured flow to gameplay and the plot. There are other people who round out our game cast. We have the village residents; a charming young boy, his step-dad the pub owner and those that frequent the tavern. We have the fatherly priest and the requisite gravedigger, as somber and still as his clientele. There are a large number of characters you interact with in this game and it is a pleasure to travel through the many environments in Black Mirror and interact with such a diverse group. Voice talent is very well done for the most part. Though some, especially Samuel have an oddly stilted manner of speaking. However, he constantly refers to his medication and suffers from horrifying nightmares, which increase in intensity during the game. I came to view Samuel as a person with an unnatural response to events, one who seemed artificially sedated and maybe a tad too tightly wrapped. It is interesting that the one close up in the game occurs with Samuel, when he learns a final twist in this tale. In that one scene, Samuel reacted vividly and with great emotion. So I think Samuels odd delivery through out the game, was another deliberate style choice. It suits the plot extremely well and adds to the growing tension in the game. I did find the dialogues themselves to be a bit clunky and too formal at times. Much of this I attribute to the fact that the game was originally written in another language other than English. Translation is often an area not quite as good as it could be in many games created in Europe. But again, it felt quaint after a short time and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of Black Mirror.
There is a slight delay of perhaps 3 or more seconds when you transition through dialogues with other characters. It appears to be a slight lag that develops as the character responding finishes their animation loop. One thing that could have been improved is the animation speed in some areas.
The Darkness Rises The look of this game is outstanding. I spent a great deal of time, walking around and exploring all the nooks and crannies of each new setting. This game has so many places to travel and explore. It has an extraordinary variety of game settings. You arrive initially at Black Mirror, the family estate. The estate and family line dates back to the earliest days of England as a nation state. The original founders, two brothers, are the stuff of legend and pre-date ancient tomes from the 13th century found in the library. You will wander across the estate, within the house, through underground cisterns and ancient passages. You will visit the local village, a cemetery, an old mine, a church, an asylum and so many other locales. There are just too many unique environments to recall and list in the space of one review. There is further travel to visit another branch of the Gordon family and this estate is again rich with areas to search and investigate. This is definitely a game that I will soon replay just to really see what I am sure I must have missed the first go around. The graphics are crisp in some areas, darker and muted in others. If game graphics are important to you, Black Mirror will thrill you. Lighting, shadows and the little touches were not once neglected or misplaced. Instead of using shadows, lightning and such additional animations everywhere – special touches were used only where they would truly add to the scene and mood. Where they made sense from a game consistency viewpoint.
The sound effects, music and ambiance deserve their own separate review. I can’t rave about this aspect of the game enough – but I am sure going to give it a good try. It is not just the individual choices of effects or the music written for the game that excels. It is the way in which these things were so meticulously built into this game. The devil may well indeed be in the details and boy did they spend time on them in Black Mirror. If you don’t get the chance or take the time to play this game with headphones, you will miss out on a fabulous experience. One scene in particular illustrates what I am trying to describe. You are in the cavernous entry room of the sanitarium. It has a tiled floor, as contrasted with the carpeted interiors of the estate. When Samuel speaks with the night nurse in attendance, their voices echo through the room. If you turn your character the voices shift appropriately. I was so blown away. The entire game is like this both visually and acoustically. They have liberally made use of incidental anims in a variety of scenes. As you make your way through the side garden, a bird flits across the sky and a few dry leaves drop from the trees. This is often at your periphery, so it startles a bit and creates this lush feeling and a sort of suspended reality as you move through this game. In other areas the gloom darkens, the sound of the wind rustling through the trees gives you pause. There is also a murmuring sub recording that is very subtle and occurs during some scenes. It barely rises to a sound level that you consciously notice, but if I paused in the drawing room or in places to take a few notes – I would suddenly hear it there subtly scratching at the corners of my thoughts. These wonderfully constructed nuances merge together into a total ambiance that deftly enhances the mood and atmosphere of the game. These also serve to gently elevate the tension and suspense you feel as you progress. Just stunning.
The Challenges we face The puzzles were logically integrated within the plot and environments. We have locked doors, ancient mechanisms, mechanical devices to get running and items to pick up. I found the puzzles in Black Mirror to be fairly straight forward in design and none were exceptionally difficult. One element that causes a few unnecessary game delays, are some pixel hunting moments. The curser glows red when there is anything to interact with, so this is always a matter of too much haste in any location. But because the scenes are so richly detailed and large, it is easier than you think to miss items. Another reason to take your time when entering scenes in Black Mirror. The game also has its share of items that you cannot use yet or pick up, but they will become very important later on. So take note of things that look useful for later interaction. If you get stuck, always go back and re-check areas you have visited before or speak with characters again. They may have something new to add. The large scale of the game does make for some frequent traveling, but fortunately all movement between areas is done through a handy map feature.
There is one odd game feature that needs to be noted. The inventory is adaptive to where you are in the game. Not consistently, but it happens. Inventory items you have picked up may all of the sudden vanish from your inventory. This happened to one item that I picked up early in the game. It was fairly obvious it was a key item. It stayed in my inventory for much of the game, then poof it was gone. I half thought I had dropped it at an earlier point where I had been trying things from my inventory on some mechanism. But, I decided to keep on with the game and figured if I hit a dead end, I would re-load a saved game. When the time came for its use – poof there it was along with just the other items I needed. So be aware when this happens – it’s no glitch or worry. No, it’s just a quirky thing about this build.
One other caveat. The game has only 24 save slots. This may seem adequate, but I saved a great deal in this game. There are a few games over moments. It is a creepy game, so I doubt any will catch you truly off guards. But you will save a great deal more times than 24. So if there are any you want to save in particular, be careful not to over write these when you start doubling over prior saved games. Obviously, remember your standard adventurers rule number one. Save and save often, whenever things look risky.
Final thoughtsThere are a few things that could have been done better in Black Mirror. More save slots, keeping items that need to be found away from the periphery of game scenes, faster character animation loops and a more attentive translation of game dialogues and scripts. But these flaws are completely overwhelmed by the big picture. This game amazed me. I haven’t been this immersed in a game, since I played Syberia. I even loved the way the menu slammed shut with a resounding bang every time I quit the game. Bottom line for me; the lush graphics, astounding sound effects, rich story line and incredible eye for detail create a game that is truly destined to be an adventure classic.
Grade: AI played this game on the following system:
Pent 4 - 2.6 GHz
XP home edition
512 RAM
Nvidia Ge Force 5200
128 Mb video
SB Live sound card
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