1979 Revolution: Black Friday

This game is interesting on quite a few different levels: 1. I teach History for a living, and as a history teacher, this game drew my attention from the moment I first read about it. After all, what do we in the West really know about Iran and the revolution? I'm no big fan of edutainment games and this game promised to be educational and still be an actual game. 2. I love Telltale, and this game seemed to fit their template. 3. With all the Western propaganda present in videogame culture (form RTS to FPS), a game that explicitly set out to tell an Iranian story from an Iranian point of view got me hooked right away. So, does 1979 deliver on what I was hoping for? It does, and that's why I consider a game worth buying despite its clunkiness. It tells an immensely important story that still has a very direct influence on the world we live in today - and it does so without pointing fingers, without being too didacticised and without being preachy about it. It's definitely based on the adventures Telltale is making a fortune with, yet here and there it deviates and incorporates point-and-click sessions, making for a somewhat more interactive experience than most Telltale games. Its biggest achievement, however, lies in the story in its narrative. You, as Reza, experience those revolutionary days in Teheran as an outsider who has just returned from studying abroad and does not quite know what is happening around him - and where he stands in all this. It is up to you to figure out who fights for which goal and who you want to support in this chaotic upheaval. It is this narrative that makes the game worth playing despite its technical shortcomings - its a story that needs to be heard here in the West to change our somewhat twodimensional image of Iran and its population. Graphics are okay but nothing to write home about, controls are okayish - controller support would do wonders but it's no big deal, either.

After completing the game it is very hard to rate this game in an objective manner. The setting is really unusual, new and interesting. The whole story unfolds in an extremely fast manner and you are thrown directly into the iranian revolution without long introduction or getting any background information. But this really serves the purpose since the main character also did not know exactly what is going on after returning from germany. While advancing in the game you have to make a lot of decisions without sufficient knowledge about the involved persons or situations. This might become stressfull in some situations but never felt to be out of place. In the end there was no clear good or evil and some of your decisions influenced the destiny of the people around you. The gameplay on the other hand is very basic. You have a few quicktime events and many conversations with up to four options to choose. Also in this conversations you often have a time limit so you must decide quickly. Finally, you have to take pictures at most locations but this feature is highly restricted to certain point of views. This unlocks also some background information about iranian culture and the revolution. You can compare the gameplay to Telltale's "The Walking Dead". If you like these games, then you will probaly be fine with 1979 Revolution:Black Friday. However, if you want a high interactive and open world you should look elsewhere. The major critic point is the length of the game. I have finished the game in about 2.5h and proceeded very slow. Everybody has to decide for themselve whether this is worth the price or not. To conclude, if you are interested in the setting and want to play an interactive movie with some tough decisions you could give it a try. If you look for a classical point and click adventure with puzzles then this is definitely not you game. From my perspective the setting and the story is interesting enough and I did not regret the purchase.

Quite short, interesting subject but mediocre graphic / acting / gameplay (I own a few Telltale games and they are far better) so it feels a little boring, especially because different choices don't seem to have any particular effect (if you fail at QTEs and die, you can retry immediately so the outcome doesn't matter). Buy it only for the educational story and wait for a big sale to do it.

As an Israeli, I am used to think of Iran as "an enemy". Through this game, I learned to see Iran in an entirely different light. I came to appreciate the heroic struggle of the Iranian people to free themselves from the despot Shah. I appreciated their connection to God and prayer. I felt sad for all the people who were killed during the battle for freedom, whether by the Shah's men or by internal struggle. I felt sorry for all the families who were torn due to political conflicts. More than all, I felt sorry that the revolution changed its path and lead to replacing one dictator with another. One thing that is missing from the game is the story of what happened between Black Friday and the events of chapter 1: how did the friends, who cooperated against the Shah, become enemies? What has the group of Abbas and Bibi done, and what happened in Iran during this time? This is probably the most crucial period in Iranian history, and it is a pity that the game skips this period.