Black Mirror 1

I accidentaly saw the "new" Black Mirror trailer from 2017 and I fell in love with the music in that trailer. Therefore I got curious about Black Mirror and saw that there was a deal on those games at the moment so I bought all of them because they looked allright. I got very surprised and got hooked to the story immediately. I never get hooked to stories that fast and I use to miss the whole plot because I always never understand anything in the beginning because it's just random gibberish, but this time, it was interesting after 2 minutes and I totally loved the atmosphere. I just completed this game and I will now try the sequel. The only thing I can complain about is some parts of the gameplay, so remember to SAVE THE GAME every 10:th minute just to be safe. And do not use only one single save slot. Use at least one save slot per chapter.

I remember that I liked this game a LOT in the beginning - but it didn't last. It starts hitting all the right points where atmosphere is concerned, introducing the important characters etc. The setup - elder relative invites you to slightly spooky gothic villa out in middle of nowhere, gets murdered the night you arrive - is classic and well-done. The visuals and sound are pretty, too. However, the puzzles often either don't deserve the name, require lots of pixel-hunting, or follow a hateful formula: you can only pick up objects when you need them; you only meet certain persons once the correct flags are set; likewise for story development. This means you're often stuck until you wander aimlessly through all the currently accessible screens until you happen on a puzzle's solution. Your slow walking speed doesn't help a ton here and adds what feels like hours to the overall playing time. The story is pretty decent, though. You're in a murder mystery, and everytime you think you're close to a solution, something dramatic happens (usually another murder), and you're left without your latest bit of evidence/next clue/personal sanity. After a while, you only hope you'll get out of it all in one piece. It's an OK plot, and the pacing's not bad, either. It's also nothing you haven't seen before, though. Unfortunately, the 'big twist' at the finale is far too easy to figure out way beforehand. Not spoiling it, but you'll be seeing this one coming a mile away.

I'm really glad that I listened to positive reviews and decided to give this game a try. I finished it yesterday and I find it one of the best point'n'click games that I've ever played. It's difficult but with an exception of one or two puzzles (looking at you, the zodiac puzzle) there aren't any extremely difficult or nonsensical puzzles. Well, there's one early on, where you need to know some stuff from real life, you don't find the solution in the game. Also, there's some pixel hunting every now and then. I recommend this game to everyone, that's looking for a great adventure with occasional horror elements, but you must be patient, because there's a lot of talking, walking (can be skipped by double clicking on the wanted destination) and in general the game has a slow pace but IMO it fits just perfectly. And now Black Mirror II awaits me.

I was put off at the time by the game demo due to the lack of humor or its will to put photogenic graphics. Big mistake! This game is well written, pretty for the time with a very good gothic atmosphere and offers (perhaps for the first time in point n' click) puzzles that are neither too hard nor too easy. A little less for the (slow) animations but this game is quite underestimated for me. More writing work will take place on the sequels, highly commendable as well, but that's another story.

This game is not perfect, but I give it 5 stars, because of the story and dark atmosphere. It is proper point & click adventure game, it cannot be finished it three-fours hours, like many nowadays games, which is in plus. Graphic is not great anymore, but game is quite old, so cannot expect revelations. First impression wasn't too good, but when I get in to the story it dragged me in. I purchased this game all together with other two parts for £1.39 each, which is a great price for such a game.