The Black Mirror

"It's not that bad, but it could have been better"

Let me start off by saying that I love 3rd person point and click adventure games; they are my favorite genre. So when I saw this game for only 10 dollars, I couldn't resist but buy. Was it worth it? Read on to find out...

Black Mirror is a pretty new adventure game produced by The Adventure Company. They have quite a few titles, including Post Mortem and Broken Sword 3. Like stated before, The Black Mirror is a 3rd person point and click adventure. It has some 3d graphics and some nice looking 2d backgrounds. I would say it is classified under the horror/mystery category.

Game play (8/10) - I liked the game play of The Black Mirror. It is a lot of clicking, but when investigating a certain room or scene, the items you can look at or interact with make the cursor turn red. If you've already examined it and it is of no importance, it will no longer make the cursor turn red, so there's not so much maniacal clicking. To examine items, a left click will make you interact with it or bring up a brief description, and right clicking will make you examine it more closely. This system is alright since it usually forces you to left and right click everything. Also, sometimes you have to backtrack and pick up or use items that you couldn't before. The same is true with conversations; you cannot discuss an item or event unless you have first examined it. I like this since it is more realistic and you won't just pick up random items and talk about random things. You can die in this game, but not so much like an old Sierra game, which makes it less annoying since you won't have to constantly reload. The puzzles in The Black Mirror are not overly difficult, but you will spend some time figuring them out. Some are very logical while others are a little bit abstract. I thought a few puzzles were clever since they require some common knowledge, like the order of planets in the solar system and zodiac signs.

Story (7/10) – Sort of original, but nothing really groundbreaking. It is set in 1981 and you return to your family's castle in the English countryside. Your grandfather has fallen from a tower and you attend his funeral. Everyone thinks it was suicide, but you don't believe he would do that. The furthest I will go is there is a dark family secret he was searching for and you will have to continue his quest. The story writers did throw many plot twists into the game though, which is a plus. I did see the ending coming about 85 percent through the game. The ending of the game, though I will not reveal it, was very lacking and did not provide good closure in my opinion.

Sound (5/10) – The music in this game was very appropriate. I enjoyed listening to it and it contributed well to the scene. What was not good, however, were the voice-overs. I did not think all of the accents were authentic, but the script was usually quite droll and boring. Nobody really had their own personality; they all seemed depressed and almost lifeless. There were little or no changes in emotion or intonation.

Graphics (8/10) – The graphics of The Black Mirror were better than I expected them to be. Although the character sprites are 3d (which tends to hurt the graphics in adventure games in my opinion), the backgrounds were great. They were not quite beautiful or stunning, but they were well done. From a castle garden to an underground mine to a morgue, each scene had good detail. You will have to do little pixel hunting when playing because everything is quite detailed. I thought the rain effect was great and really added to the dreary, dark mood that the game presents.

Replayability (2/10) – This game doesn't have multiple endings, but some interactions with NPC's can be handled in a “positive” or “negative” way, so you can go back and find out what they would have said if you acted differently. I'm not going to weight this much in the final score because this is an adventure game and replayability is not one of the characteristics I look for.

Overall: 7/10 . It is a decent length that will keep you entertained for a few hours. The story is not that bad and will probably make you ponder a bit. In my opinion, 3rd person point and click adventure games are a dying breed, so if you are a fan of the genre, you should go buy it. I think my 10 dollars were well spent. I wouldn't recommend spending over 20 dollars on it though since it is about a year old when I'm writing this review.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/04