Adventure Gamers - Forums

Finally, I’ve finished The Black Mirror. Was playing it some months ago until about the half, and now got back into it and managed to finish it. Incredibly, even though I’ve played The Black Mirror 2 previously (haven’t played TBM3 yet), the main twist caught me by surprise, as I somehow forgot all the details mentioned in the second part. I would still advise to newcomers to play them in order, especially if you’re planning on playing them in the short time span.

I couldn’t really compare TBM and TBM2 as they differ in style and authors, but TBM is slightly more “rounded” and better produced, despite all the “plot holes” or “ending” that had been discussed many times before.

There’re several things I especially liked about the game - the “medieval”, or gothic atmosphere in modern age, and all the little things about the history you’re revealing gradually. Then, the castle itself and its secrets which are quite reminiscent of the mystery in “Phantasmagoria”. Interestingly, opposite to many critics I’ve found voice overs enjoyable overall, and I definitely think Samuel’s voice is one of the best voices I’ve heard in an adventure. You could argue many things, but not the fact that the actor did the job with full commitment to it.

As for puzzles, they’re sort of a mixed bag - some, like riddles on altars, couple of mini-games and the usual inventory fare are very well done, but there’re also bunch of mundane tasks and fetch quests. Couple of them really test the common sense logic, and are obvious only after you’re done with them (boots anyone?).

But it’s definitely a very good game, one of those where you can name many slight annoyances, but can’t deny its atmosphere. But my biggest gripe is that after the beginning and first part which pulls you in quickly, it somehow loses the pace in the second part. The mystery is still there, but with too many backtracking, and side-characters are not fully developed (actually, I’ve learned more about William or Gordon ancestors than any of the locals). As for the twist and ending - I’m not the biggest fan, but it didn’t really spoil the entire game for me, as well. Also, I think there’re many ways to interpret things and killings. For one, I’m positive it wasn’t Sam who killed William. Robert?

I’ve been staying clear of the Black Mirror games for quite a while, as I’m not really into horror games (I don’t really know why, as I tend to love horror movies), but after hearing a lot of good things about the series here on the forum, I decided to give them a chance and I just finished the first Black Mirror. I found it overall to be a quite decent game, and it’s not really horror at all, is it?

Pros: Very detailed, good looking backgrounds. Good story, easy to become immersed. Very decent game length, lots and lots of locations to explore and characters to talk to and many puzzles (allthough of varying degree of quality). Dark and gritty atmosphere, believable small village feel. Good, creepy music. Some good voice actors. Interesting story twist (though I’d somewhat foreseen it).

Cons: There are no responses to most inventory to hotspot combinations. Incredibly robotic and choppy animation of the NPC’s and cutscenes. Once you’ve finished talking to an NPC, all conversation topics will be disabled, even if they just gave you vital information about what to do next, so if you weren’t paying attention, there’s no way to have the NPC repeat the important information, Samuel will just say something along the lines of “we have said everything to each other allready”. Possibly the most bland and uncharismatic protagonist I’ve experienced in a while. At rare occasion, right clicking a hotspot will trigger an important action, but for most of the game, right clicking hotspots gives no response at all. There are occasions where you will be stuck with nothing to do, f.ex, you can’t progress the story until a character provides you with certain information, but he needs to look it up first. So you must wait. Nothing you do will progress the story, until said character is ready. Alt-tabbing while waiting doesn’t work either, because it pauses the game. Simply waiting for the game to allow me to progress is not entertaining. There were several accounts of this type of scenario during the game, probably added to give a realistic touch, but for me this was perceived as an annoying design flaw. Silly ending.

How do my cons (and pro’s for that matter) compare to the second and third game? Are any of them improved/changed upon, or do they play the same?

Dag - 10 February 2014 01:57 AM

How do my cons (and pro’s for that matter) compare to the second and third game? Are any of them improved/changed upon, or do they play the same?

Black Mirror 1 on one side, and Black Mirror 2/3 on the other, are differently styled, as they were made by two different companies. Black Mirror 2 is, along with The Whispered World, the best adventure of 2010. even though it doesn’t rise to its full potential, both in the small coastal town and the castle (I don’t know about the third one).

The Black Mirror 1 is, I’d say, even more “horror” than BM2 - BM2 feels more like a David Lynch movie, though it does try some “survival horror” bits near the end, but unsuccessful IMO.

One of the very best series in adventure gaming. My fav is the second one. I recommend playing them in order as well.

Adventure Games Forever - 10 February 2014 05:48 AM

Black Mirror II and III are much better than the original, with vastly improved animations and a much more interesting and likeable protagonist.

Interesting perhaps, but I wouldn’t call him likeable, in fact he is a bit of a brat. I guess that this is one of the trademarks of the BM series, that the protagonists aren’t really likeable, that and some story twists that you will see coming long before the protagonists does.

I have never actually completed BM1 because of a technical error in the distribution, but I have played BM2&3 and greatly enjoyed them, and based on your pro/con list I would say that you would also like them much more than BM1. The things on your pro list is still true for the sequels, but your description on the con side doesn’t correspond with my recollection of BM2&3.

And I agree with

diego - 10 February 2014 06:02 AM

BM2 feels more like a David Lynch movie…

Which is a good thing imo.

I think BM2 weakest point is the 1st two chapters which are also why people like it more than the third the game gets much better after ,its strange I know ,but I think its about the setting of Biddeford country side that attracts the players more ,plus the variation as BM3 all happens at Willow Creek the same as BM1 but for me it explodes many good feelings to watch the same and expanded locations of the 1st part.

BM1 was nice.

BM2 started off slow and was simple but the second half was superb. The storyline and characters really improved as things went on.

BM3 was a disaster in my eye. It lost all of it’s charm and attention to the characters and went straight into pure demonism. One of the mini games is simply impossible to do without a very detailed walkthrough unless you want to die and start over hundreds of times and drop many hours into it.

Thanks for your answers guys. Hehe, the opinions on this matter is really divided. Which is the better BM seem differ from person to person, which can only mean there’s something good and bad about all of them. From what I’ve gathered from the comments, it seems some of the issues I had with the original is dealt with in the sequels, and I’ve decided to buy the second game aswell, and see where that takes me