Black Mirror 1

This game falls into a category I call "Spooky" rather than "Horror" -- it's just dripping with that suspenseful, vague sense of foreboding and woe -- but largely avoids "jump scares". What I love most about this game (and its 2 fantastic follow-ups) is the sheer depth of the history and backstory of the family and estate. There's always a weighty sense of layers that go much deeper than the path your single character treads. There are some bugs, and with this first game in particular you're likely to encounter some of the typical pain points of playing an older game. But its worth the effort, especially if you love story & atmosphere.

The atmosphere is nice and the story is interesting. But sadly the game suffers from many very classical point and clic flaws. For exemple, there are many objects you will need later and you know it so you will want to grab them and the game will say "NO! you have to wait for the story to allow you to do that 5 hours later". An other example is the confusiong right click / left click controls : the best way to play the game is to at least left click twice on every object/door then right click one. If you don't do that you'll waste a lot of time. Illogical puzzle: YES! have a walkthrough with you. Game breaking bugs : YES! Sometime an npc won't give you an item and you'll have to restart the chapter. So don't start the the game without a full set of saves (in case of broken game so you won't have to redo everything). the following set of savegame will save you : https://www.pcsavegames.fr/en/index.php?id=theblackmirror

Very enjoyable story telling, nice visuals for the time and even today, with mediocre gameplay. I like the game, however it can be very frustating, because some bits are very cryptic and it's got more than a plenty of game over moments, so save your progress as you go. *Back in 2003, I had to start over after being halfway through the game, because I made an unfortunate save right after I made a mistake and couldn't carry on. The game doesn't even give you any hints, not even in the moments that decisive moments that can mean game over. To be honest, these days I would just download save files of someone else and carry on from the point of my mistake. ALSO, do not forget the right click mouse button.

The story is great and the puzzles are nice for the most part, but there are some glaringly bad design choices, that spoil the otherwise good impression (I know that this is an old game... but these were bad back then as well) - for example - there are several points in the game where you need to mindlessly jump around locations until some arbitrary "period of time" passes (note you get no notification) in order to get the story progressed. You end up exiting/entering zones, constantly asking "are you done yet" the character you need to progress. Another thing that is quite annoying is that some clues need to be found in very, very, very and I mean VERY particular order. And the last problem that I had with the game is that towards the end some puzzles and solutions lack any semblance of logic.

this text is not KI generated, it comes from my own brain I saw the Black Black Mirror Special Edition in the window of a social welfare shop, always worth a look for forgotten items, and purchased it together with Black Mirror 2. Back at home I revived an old Sempron Book with a fresh XP installation, hooked it up to my beamer and set it to 800x600 with a 2:1 soundbar. The Special Edition DVD contains all kind of artwork, an interview with the developers and even a walkthrough, doesnt have any DRM and runs without the disk mounted. Though I played it before I was blown away from the beginning, I just mention the word addiction. It took a week to finish the game despite of starting work at 8 in the morning. No mentionable flares, no complaints about usage, gameplay, plot or puzzles. I have to give 5 stars because the game did what it has to do, drive me on, I have to finish this game and it was worth the time. Black Mirror 2 is another issue, its already running under the same conditions.