Black Mirror is a reboot of a classic adventure game for PC and consoles.
Story
In Black Mirror you play as David, a young man who recently found out that his father commited suicide and you have inherited the Gordon castle. When David arrives in the castle, he finds himself not wanted there. An ominous tone spreads throughout the castle as people don’t want to talk to you about your father. As you dig deep into the history of the castle and its inhabitants you find that everyone is keeping a secrets and its up to you to discover what truly happened to you father.
Black Mirror’s story is rather intriguing and kept me wondering what’s going to happen next throughout the game but I felt that the entire thing was derailed by the final act which I didn’t really like as the story wrapped up really fast. It felt as if there was no time to write a proper ending.
Graphics
The design of Black Mirror is spectacular. The castle you explore is designed in such a way that you are creeped out just by walking around its dimly lit corridors. However, the character models are really poorly designed. Most of the characters are downright ugly looking and have the dead eyes of a robot that just walks around the environment.
Audio
The Voice acting in the game is really good, everyone does a great job and give out convincing performances. The music and the overall audio design is top notch and works wonders for the game. The audio design does wonders to build a really unsettling atmosphere that haunts you until the end credits start rolling.
Gameplay
While at first I liked my time with Black Mirror, as it went on the game started to frustrate me. First of all, let’s talk about the thing that matters the most in an adventure game: the puzzles. The puzzles start of really difficult but as the game goes on the game becomes incredibly easy. The starting puzzles require quite a bit of thinking but when you reach the second half of the game you start breezing through the puzzles without even stopping to think what the actual solution is.
Secondly, the controls take a lot of time getting used to. Adventure games are known for their incredibly simplistic controls but somehow Black Mirror uses this against you. The camera is horrendous to say the least and you will constantly try to fight it as it moves to places you don’t want it to. The inventory system is also pretty bad. The controls become such a problem in certain segments of the game that you get yourself killed and it’s not even your fault.
Verdict
Black Mirror is a decent reboot for the series but it has a lot of flaws that make it a sort of bland experience. The controls are terrible, the puzzles are easy and the game is pretty short. If you are looking for a decent adventure game with a good storyline then without a doubt get Black Mirror but for others I suggest giving this game a skip.
Note: This game was reviewed with a code provided by the publisher/developer.
