Black Mirror 1

The story in this game is quite intriguing. Old manor, dark family mystery, hints of eldritch horror, the works; but ultimately the game itself is neither challenging nor well-designed. It is really easy to solflock yourself in various parts of the game such as in the mines. Necessary Spoiler: There is a 'puzzle' with a padlock that needs to be shot off to progress. You must inspect the padlock before firing the shot or else you will miss the shot and waste a bullet, a bullet that you need to kill a random wolf that is on the other side of the gate. If you shoot off the padlock after using your only two bullets and save the game and only have one save file as I did, you are now softlocked and cannot beat the game without starting all over. I don't care how old this game is, that is really just poor design, and the puzzle is not really a puzzle, because you learn nothing from it and cannot rectify your mistake if you choose to save the game which is a fairly standard thing to do, especially when cheap deaths are common in earlier sections of the game. In addition to this particularly egregious example, the game is just devoid of any real challenge. Items that you can use together or on other objects are highlighted when you move the object over them, making thinking an uneccessary task for any of the 'puzzles'. There are no puzzles in this game, just random obstacles that you will solve by just placing objects over other objects. The only barrier in this game is time and how much of it you are willing to spend clicking on random things until something happens. It is a shame that the actual game part of this game is so bad, as I found the story to be very interesting and was excited to delve into the mysteries of Black Mirror manor. If only as much attention was given to the puzzles as is given to the story. You are better off playing other adventure games.

This is a non-nostalgic review. The atmosphere is beautiful with intricate backgrounds, massive crumbling castles / locations, and one of the best rain / thunderstorm noise loops I've heard in a long time. Unfortunately, the experience starts off strong but any sense of intrigue and mystery rapidly dwindles thanks not just to a very poorly explained story, but also to pixel-hunting, misleading hints, hot spots you have to keep revisiting, and unforgivable puzzles including several(?) sections of the game where you are required to waste a real-world amount of time before the story decides it is willing to progress. Not sure if the English translation is to blame for the poor explanation of the story (maybe?) but I found the main character's motivation and actions during the game completely incomprehensible, and only semi-explained in retrospect after reading up about the game online.

creepy point & click adventure with less than great voiceovers. there are places you can die and unlike prisoner of ice, for instance, you don't immediately respawn as if nothing happened, so save often.

La historia es espantosamente LENTA y aburrida. Un consejo, guarda con frecuencia. Puedes morir de formas ridículas.

All the things you would expect from a good point and click. Good dialogue and voice acting as well.