Black Mirror

Black Mirror
N/A
Metacritic
45
Steam
45.523
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$7.49
Release date
28 November 2017
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
45 (385 votes)

Scotland, 1926. Following the death of his father, David Gordon visits his ancestral home for the first time in his life. A life that is soon threatened by the dark secrets that claimed the sanity of many Gordons before him. Black Mirror Castle demands an offering.

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Black Mirror system requirements

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Window 7, 8, 8.1, 10 (64bit)
  • Processor: Intel Q9650 / AMD Phenom II X4 940
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: GeForce GTX660 / Radeon 7870 - 2GB VRAM
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 11 GB available space
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Nehellena
Nehellena

Great game! You absolutely have to use a controller though, and if you do it feels good. (Keyboard and mouse is unplayable) It's not long, and you are limited to the mansion and surrounding immediate area this time around. However, the detail, graphics, mood and sound are excellent and make you feel immersed. The story is good, the characters and voice acting included. Absolutely recommended, I hope they do the full series!

fiftydwarves
fiftydwarves

1. This game feels VERY RAW. The controls are so not good even with a controller, that could be considered an attempt on your life (funnily enough, I remember playing Fahrenheit with a keyboard and a mouse, and it felt more natural), the graphics are good for the most part, but in some places are just poor or glitchy, the loading between screens will leave you enough time to grate your teeth properly, and not like in the rest of modern games, where you get interrupted right when you begin. If any of this is a problem, turn away now.

2. It's a complete reboot of the series with roughly the same mystical lore as the first game, but with completely different characters and their stories. To be really honest, the lore kinda sucks - it wasn't a strength of the original game, and it's not a strength here. The characters and their stories really shine, though.

3. The closer to the end, the more rushed the game feels. Wouldn't mind more dialogues, wouldn't mind more writing in general, but all in all, it's decent. If it wasn't a dual choice, I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but the memories that linger are rather pleasant.

4. The main characters' duo is really nice, and I wish there could be more games featuring them. I highly doubt this will ever happen, though.

5. If you're new to the series and an English-speaker, this is the best way to experience it. The first game made by Future Games is really awesome (for the most part), except the protagonist is voiced by someone who rather shouldn't have voiced the protagonist. The sequels were made by a different studio and were kinda mediocre, albeit had nice pacing and rather pleasant relaxed gameplay. Still, everything you could love the original for was stolen from them. This reboot, however, has enough worthy original elements to justify its existence.

So it's a lukewarm YES, go play it, it's a decent game with a dark atmosphere, there're not a lot of those.

mystemo
mystemo

Really terrific experience enhanced by great voice acting and a gripping story. These punctuated by the score and the general mood provided by the artwork makes this a great play. Reminded me a little of Murdered Soul Suspect in the sense of not an overly long game, and has that supernatural theme, but Black MIrror oozes atmosphere in creating that Agatha Christie-style character drama that is enthralling. The game has bugs, for example characters rising from the floorboards from entering a new scene and controls can be a little tricky to get used to (I highly recommended keyboard and mouse) but the fixed camera does make it feel uneasy which is really the whole point of a psychological horror experience. Just needed a slight polish on these but the game flowed well and again it's all about the story which it succeeds with and I hope a sequel is brought to life.

unreal_rik
unreal_rik

The best looking adventure game yet

Also the shortest. Black Mirror is a modern retelling on the original trilogy which came around the 2000s. This game was released under the radar with barely any promotion or publicity but it's a highly underrated gem. This is the kind of game I'd ask a millenial gamer to play who wants to foray into adventure games. The puzzles are very straightforward and are designed nothing like your original puzzles from the mid 90s early 00s.

Pros
- Good story (Some loopholes at the end, I'll put the spoiler filled review on my blog)
- Excellent graphics, the lighting was phenomenal. The moonlight, candlelight, even the clouds casting shadow was amazing.
- The characters movement animation was pretty nice.
- Excellent voice acting.
- Easy puzzles, you won't need a walkthrough for this, just a pen and a paper.

Cons
- Atrocious camera angles.
- Only fun when played with a gamepad.
- Pratonist looks funny in-game.
- Short for an adventure game. I beat the game in under 9 hours but was left wanting more

Recommended.

Srefanius
Srefanius

The new Black Mirror is a two edged sword for fans of the old games and lovers of traditional adventure games. In general the atmosphere here is closer to the very first Black Mirror than the second and third part. It inherits parts from the eerie feel the first game provided. Mechanicly there are only a handful of puzzles in the game, so it plays more fluently and quicker (like some of the other modern adventure games). Those that are there are fun and well designed, however in between there's much running through multiple rooms in the castle and many of these have short loading times, so this can be annoying especially if you should play without an SSD. The story and charactecters are not bad, but in the end something is lacking for me without being able to put the finger on it. In general this is a shorter journey and you will not visit as many places. The first Black Mirror provided a bigger journey and a better twist towards the end. So while this reboot did not catch me as much I still enjoyed the time and because of its superior atmosphere it is better than BM 2 and 3 in my honest opinion.

Note: I played with a gamepad, but read and heard that M+K controls might not be the best.

American Tragedy
American Tragedy

Well, so here I am. Feeling like I want to play good point'and'click games again. Like an old times. My whole childhood was filled with a bunch of good p'n'c. I remember how I was sitiing on the last lesson at school already dreaming about coming to my place, eating my lunch and solving different puzzles in another adventure, drinking mommy's cocoa.

It was a golden era. If you was stuck - you was stuck. No internet solutions, no easy-get walkthroughs. Like literally, the only source of help you could rely on was your schoolmates. Unfortunately, I was surrounded with kids which were fond of strategy games and CS 1.6, so I was all alone in my adventures.

Then I grew up, my childhood ended, everything changed, including my gaming taste. I felt like I wanted to play more FPS games, arcade, I was a big fan of NFS as well, so I guess I totally forgot about such genre as p'n'c / adventure. Earlier this year I started to play these games again and I had a feeling like I was back in my childhood again. Except one thing - puzzles seem much more easier to solver and, more importanly, it's much more harder to impress me with a plot in such games. Usually, every single adventure game, especially on detective subject, starts really intriguing and the further you come to the end of the game, the better you understand that the story is not that rich actually, and the whole intrigue lasts only for the first couple of hours. Then, most of these games end pretty much fast with a bitter taste.

Black Mirror was one of that unexpected games for me, you know. A game, that I never heard about, just saw it on the store and felt like buying. The only thing that I realized quite fast, was that this game has a connection to the game, which I was never able to get when I was kid, with the same name, 2003 year release. Unfortunately, I must say, that this game is another example of why Steam needs to have a neutral review option ASAP.

Let's start with saying that his game has a great atmosphere and, like I said before, starts really intriguing. You are playing as David Gordon, a young traveler, living in India, which received a telegram, saying that his father died under mysterious circumstances and left him an enormous mansion in heritage. When he comes to that mansion he meets a bunch of strange old people, having a lot of secrets and trying to avoid questions, connected with his father death. So, at this point you start your own investigation to find out what happened to your father and reveal the truth.

The whole game concentrate at one place, that big mansion, obviously. Which is pretty much disappointing, cause you can literally count on your fingers the quantity of locations in the Black Mirror. Another disappointment was puzzles. Don't get me wrong - puzzles are good in BM, but it's just few of them. Mostly, the whole game concentrate on its story and your interactions with surroundings and talking to other characters in game. It can be confusing sometimes, because you can stuck in game for a long time, just to realize after few hours, that you missed a small piece of something in the darkest corner of the library. The worst part of the game is its wonky controls and drunk camera plus it's bugging and glitching time to time. Oh, almost forgot - these 10 seconds of loading between rooms are just one of the most annoying things in gaming history.

But despite all of these problems, I still recommend to try this game, being an p'n'c fan. It has its own charm, atmosphere and the idea, though it wasn't developed to its fullest. This game can be a perfect one to spend two evening with your girlfriend, you know, solving puzzles and trying to unravel all the mysteries together.

So, to sum everything up!
You should grab this game if you:

+ Point and click lover! Though, it's not p'n'c in its usual understanding, because you move your character with WASD configuration
+ Love to solve puzzles and mysteries
+ Love games with its deep dark atmosphere and good graphic
+ Wanna play something chilling, good and short. You can finish this game in around 4-5 hours.
+ Looking for a simple game to enjoy it with your girlfriend, or just someone who is not involved in games that much.
+ Want to have another +1 perfect game in your collection. There is no hidden achievements, no special one, no speedrun challenges - nothing. Easy as that - finish the game, receive all at once, done!

You should pass if you:

- Can't stand wonky controls and unexpected camera moves. Sometimes it can be annoying as hell and if you are easy tilted person - better avoid.
- Expect a deep story with a twist and unexpected outcome. Frankly speaking, the whole story is quite simple and its definitely nothing new or special about it. Additionally, there are not so much characters in this game, so it won't be hard for you to realize who is the bad guy closer to the middle of the game.
- Played previous Black Mirror games and expect something overwhelming and better than its original.
- Not that big fan of games of this genre, better wait till its on sale and patched a bit.

Enjoy!

NobelFiction
NobelFiction

A decent game, but not worth the asking price.
Pros:
- voice acting
- atmosphere
- characters
- graphics
- interactions with visions/ghosts
Cons:
- length – it won’t entertain you for long
- locations – because of the length, you are basically restricted to the castle +1 extra location – there is no map movement
- difficulty – the puzzles don’t pose much of a challenge (and I’m not terribly good at adventure games)
- camera work – often it’s hard to look at something you like, makes walking difficult
- controls – it’s not a classic point and click – you move around using WSAD and interact with object and people by clicking (it’s not a bad idea per se, but in this case it feels like a bad console port)
- movement animations – looks bad, especially when walking up and down stairs (ME:Andromeda flashbacks)
- interactions with objects – there are very few things that you can click on in this game and this makes the locations feel pretty empty. Additionally, the controls make it hard to click on the objects, because you need to walk to the right place for the interaction to be possible and with the implemented controls system, it’s often difficult.
- inventory – because of the limited amount of objects, there really is no need for it, you do pick up a few items but don’t use almost any of them (the overwhelming majority of the things in your inventory are just clues)
- game breaking glitches – in two instances I had to load a save because after ending a conversation the game didn’t allow me to move my characters
- optimization – when ending conversations and object interactions the game has a long “think” before it allows you to do something else – this was especially annoying, but at least you’ll have time to make tea
Edit:
- Quick Time Events – why do we need pointless button mashing in an adventure game. The game finale in just one long QTE.

Unfortunately I’m disappointed with this game. I loved the original series, especially the first part. Sadly this is not the reboot I was hoping for. You are better of buying the original trilogy for a fraction of the price of this game. If the price drops significantly on some sale and you’re a fan of the series, consider picking it up – otherwise stay clear from this.

Lucifronz
Lucifronz

I enjoyed it, but even discounted by 10%, it felt a bit short. It's a little buggy, but I only had two real issues and both were resolved with relative ease (although I had to restart one of the chapters, so these issues should be dealt with ASAP). For the most part it ran just fine.

The story didn't just rehash the original series, or at least not the first game (the only one I have honestly played), and while it wasn't tremendous and the puzzles were a tad bit lacking, I still liked following the story as details were revealed.

Graphically, it looks nice in its aesthetic, but lacks any decent mouth sync (if that bothers anyone, be aware). There is a slight lack of variety in areas to explore, but on the bright side, each area of the house is designed nicely. I hate to thumbs down the game, because I didn't dislike it by any means, but it didn't feel like a $30 game. If you can get it 40-50% off, I recommend it, especially if you liked the original Black Mirror series. It's not perfect, but I genuinely enjoyed it.

ctrevory
ctrevory

i'm playing the Black Mirror Trilogy before and i enjoyed each game.. but this new Black Mirror? BLEAH.

here is the bad thing about this game :
1. the puzzle are SOOOO Easy.
2. Bad camera and control.
3. The Story is not good enough.
4. The Lighting is kinda dark eventhough i already max my PC brightness screen.
5. the face of the main character are annoying. (he looks like a killer to me and never smile)

there are 5 chapters in this game and i finished this game only in 8 hours. such a disappointing games, and there goes my $15

halfmonkey
halfmonkey

Having played the original series several times over the years, you might have-like me-gotten excited when the first announcement for this reimagining surfaced. You probably were in awe when you saw the detailed, highly stylized characters and rich environments. You might have been interested with the new mechanic they introduced, a sort of ghost-vision time loop which the developers showed off extensively. You may have been surprised to see the game finally release without much fanfare and now sits garnering "mixed" reviews. There's a reason for that...

This is not the Black Mirror game anyone was hoping for. Dreadfully aimed at the audience least likely to play it, the gamepad-only console kids who demand button mashing Quick Time Events over reading documents, action over puzzles, and mindless tropes over quality writing.

This game is also so technically flawed that the long list of credits at the end made me feel embarrassed for the developers. Lengthy black load screens for nearly every scene transition, doorway, or puzzle are interminable.
Navigation was developed with gamepads in mind, to the point that the game shows you a controller map to explain movement-all others be damned. Keyboard and mouse users will suffer looking at an always present, distracting giant yellow cursor and poorly illustrated quick time buttons. Despite the words "point-and-click" used on the store page, there is absolutely no pointing or clicking in the traditional sense. Just asinine QTEs.
The worst offender is the "ghost-vision" mechanic added to this incarnation of which there are only a handful of instances...and not a one of them is fun or interesting. Players are expected to line up the character with (sometimes moving) hotspots using the awkward at best controls and pressing a button to interact. Too slow, or unable to spot the tiny white interaction dot on a ghostly white scene means death/game over. There is no clear explanation of how the time loop element works. In fact, thinking back on it, the devleopers spent more time explaining this mechanic in the E3 demos than they do IN THE GAME. Didn't we give up on trial and error "die to win" adventure game puzzles in the 90's?

Black Mirror is a game I really wanted to endorse, but just can't now that I've finished it. [Roughly 8 hours of play time, and I explored every nook and cranny, read every note, did every "extra puzzle" (which are literal mobile-quality torn photo puzzles that feature concept art for the game and can only be accessed from the main menu. They add nothing to the game, and also laughably feature lighting effects that make them impossible to view correctly after you complete them. If this wasn't an afterthought to pad the game, I'll eat a hat.)]

Great looking and some of the finest voice acting I've heard in some time, but not a game I'd recommend to anyone who liked the other three installments.

[slight spoiler] The ONE redeeming feature that this game has over the original Black Mirror 1 is that this time, there actually IS a "black mirror" in the game. When you see it though, you will be sorely disappointed.

lake.kubilius
lake.kubilius

Though a graphical improvement over its inspiration, this game features absolutely unforgivable controls. What puzzles exist are repeatedly made functionally impossible not because they're thoughtfully executed, but simply because the required information is hidden by a trick of the camera you have no reason to assume exists. The game features a litany of ghost sequences intended to drive the story forward. But they don't. Instead, they grind the game to an absolute halt as you helplessly watch your character die, over and over and over and over and over again without any hint about what you should be doing differently.

Expect to hear "You are unworthy of the name Gordon!" at least 20 times. Not because it shows up frequently in the script, but because the game features an absolutely torturous sequence that I have trouble believing made it past any sort of actual beta testing.

A deeply disappointing product, because you can't actually say the game looks or feels rushed. On the contrary, the game looks and sounds INCREDIBLY polished. Which makes it all the more horrifying that, by implication, someone presumably put a lot of effort into the theory that it should PLAY like this as well.

Flyhigh
Flyhigh

Now I finished the game.

It was nice and not so bad as it seems by the other comments and reviews.
But it is far away from the other great King Art games like "The Raven" and "The Book of Unwritten Tales".

Summarized:
- With Steam Controller it's playable but sometimes weird
- Game runs smooth
- Loading time was acceptable on my SteamOS Steam Machine
- No crashes
- Puzzles are little bit too easy
- Game is little bit too short
- Great Music

Stan
Stan

I finished the game and its not the best reboot i have seen, in fact its one of the worst one.

Good things:

- Art work
- Story's idea (too bad its have nothing to do whit the original)

Bad things:

- moving (got stuck in couble times)
- Camera
- Nothing to do whit the original story, not even marcus or modred are mentioned
- Hard to examine things.
- Very short
- puzzles are boring.
Last thing, i speand 48h in original 3 games. in reboot 5h.

Vaxz
Vaxz

Firstly, I want to dispel the horror element. The game is really not scary. There is only a bit of violence and blood. Secondly, the game is atmospheric and I enjoyed the setting of an old scottish castle way out in the middle of no where. The voice acting and dialogue were somewhat good, and the story is interesting, but it starts slow and then -at the climax- suddenly speeds up before coming to a screeching anti-climatic halt.

At first I wondered why it got mixed reviews, but after completing it I can kind of understand why. There are enjoyable elements , but there are also glitches (game froze at least 3 times with me and I had to load my last save to continue, also, controling the main character and getting him to move in the direction you want can sometimes be tricky) however, despite all that I can still say I enjoyed this game.

TLDR
So if you're looking for a 1920s setting with ok dialogue, nice BGM, a beautiful castle to explore and no more than 6 hours of gameplay then do check out Black Mirror. But if you're looking for a challenging horror game then don't even give this game a try.

nncrimsonmoon
nncrimsonmoon

While the story is interesting, and while I plan on finishing the game, there are a number of issues. The controls, as pointed out by many already, are awful...no matter the graphics settings, movement lags behind key response (being slow, as if moving through sludge, difficult to aim in the direction you want to go, and at times continuing to walk even when you stop pressing the buttons). Camera angles, combined with movement issues, make it easy to miss hot spots (which don't show up unless you get close enough to them). On the subject of the hot spots, there are some glitches with them as well. Sometimes, clicking on something to investigate will register as two clicks instead of one, leading to skipped dialogue. Other times (and this is especially occurring during quick-time events), clicking doesn't register at all. When this occurs during quick-time events, the end result has you maddeningly clicking the important parts, only to see the main character die over and over and over again...until you suddenly get lucky enough for it to register. The slow movement also make it difficult to get through the quick-time events, as spending too much time navigating between hot spots and getting to a safe distance leads to a game over (again, repeatedly aggravating).

Other graphical glitches include background blurring during movement (I only noticed this in outdoor scenes), characters sliding into position rather than walking, mannequin-esque interactions (scenes where characters have a dialogue...yet they aren't even facing each other, eyes staring off into the distance, though there are some head and mouth movements), black screens randomly popping up during cut-scenes (not talking about the loading screen, but the actual cut-scenes...though you will still be able to hear what is happening), and the main character disappearing halfway into the ground when moving around some areas.

The game just feels lazily unpolished. If the story was not interesting, I would have refunded this. As it is now, I would say only buy it if it is on sale for a large discount.

Grim_2o0o
Grim_2o0o

Although this is a re-imagining of the original source material, Black Mirror fails to impress me, I've been a fan of the first Black Mirror game and the successors were weaker than the first, but still very enjoyable. Not to mention that they're still loaded chock-full with content. This however fell incredibly short. I have at least 16 hours in each of The Black Mirror games, this one loaded up to 7.
Sluggish controls, barely any clever puzzles, narrative that falls empty and the occasional bug or so.

There's also just convinent plotholes that aren't explained anywhere, for example the murder of the maid, why did Eddie allegedly kill her other than to try and create a murder mystery that really didn't have any purpose either way at the end. Also good lord that ending was something straight out of a cartoon. But hey, what do I know?

Neat soundtrack tho'
Love the bagpipes.

Get it if you like bagpipes, awful lipsyncing and blind gardeners.
But in truth I'd give it a pass, seems like a cruel cash grab on the fans to me.

the420klown
the420klown

I really liked the originals so i tried it out despite all the control issues people talk about. The controls can be a annoying and the slight lag is definitely irritating but its an still enjoyable way to spend a rainy afternoon.

LJS67
LJS67

Played the original when it first came out and loved it. This one? I made it to the greenhouse and trying to get through that time it perfectly or die ghost sequence. I just don't have the patience. When I die and have to re-load 30+ times, I get to the point where I just hate the game (not the purpose of playing) and I'm done. "Uninstall!" repeats in my head over and over until I do it. I see where King Art is going now with their games and don't think I will buy anything from them again. Kinda sad.

EalasaidW
EalasaidW

Probably not the time for a review yet, but when I finish the game, I'll come back and update. Right now, I'm so mixed. But I'm disappointed enough to chose not to endorse the game.

I've played all of the Black Mirror games, and I love the point-and-click genre, the intriguing storyline, the gothic feel, mystery solving and complex narrative that this series has had up to this point.

Having said all of that, I can ask, where the H*LL is the storyline, the complex narrative, the mystery solving?????!!! I spent more time trying to control my character and overcoming vertigo from the constantly shifting camera angles than paying any attention to the story AT ALL. Not to mention, having to replay scenes because IT DIDN'T ALLOW A SAVE before a stupid button-mashing attack and die sequence, which I died frequently, because of the lack of control. I'm running a PC and I'm an animator and graphic designer, so I have a hefty system just for work. I'm running Windows 10 and have an xBox controller as well as a mouse and keyboard, and I STILL have trouble controlling this kooky interface. I play video games for enjoyment, not more frustration, thanks.

For other folks who want to eval the game before forking over 30 bucks, here's some information for you.

PROS
- They actually incorporated some bonafide Gaelic at a few interesting times in the game. It's what drew me to the trailer; nice to hear it. Tha beagan Gàidhlig agam.
- They based the storyline on a point in time at least a couple generations before Adrian Gordon ends the curse, so the evil plotline lives and you get to see the (mis)adventures of some of the other Gordon ancestors.
- I love the artwork, the style of the game, the feel of it, if you will. That included the soundtrack and some of the voice acting.
- The trailers and cut scenes were enjoyable, and some very excellent.
- It was fun to be back in the Gordon world with the ancient curse.
- The stone circle, the references to the curse, the Druids, the really, really cool visions David has!
- Did I mention the really cool visions ??

CONS
- As the rant above indicates, the controls, the blasted controls.
- Horrible load times - I could count to 10 at times staring at a black screen between scene changes
- Plot was obscure. If I had not played the first 3 games, I would have not enjoyed or 'got' the storyline very well.
- The runes used in the game were kinda Eldar Futhark (Norse). It would have been nice for the developers to actually incorporate their meanings into the storyline, instead of David just commenting on them as a 'tree' or an 'arrow'. Please. He didn't even crack open a book to find out the meanings; at least he could ask Rory.
- The silly 'the Druids did it' throwaway remarks. There was so much rich lore that could have happened with that storyline, that just... didn't.
- Developed for consoles, I guess for people who want to jump, fight, wander around and not read, think or investigate much. See bullet point above.
- The (insert string of four letter words here) button mashing die sequences.
- Little to no character development. Most characters were obviously nasty, with few or no redeeming characteristics; wooden and one-dimensional.
- Bizarre plot holes and little narrative about what was going on. It's revealed that John Gordon is a guardian, but, exactly, what does that even mean? I guess, play the other Black Mirror games to find out. Unless they do some SERIOUS explaining at the end, I've yet to see any real story or mystery.

Okay, that's only scratching the surface, and many other posters have the same or similar issues.

I'm playing through, because I love the Black Mirror world and I'm a persistant cuss, for better or worse. My own Scottish clan badge slogan is 'fortitude'. I need it. And if you're an old point and click Black Mirror fan, you will, too.

[WB] MR PANTS
[WB] MR PANTS

This game is the Ulima IX of the Black Mirror series.

It's a somewhat poorly done, 3D-rendered, weird-fixed-camera game that just isn't nearly as good as the others. And unlike the others in the series, when you die, it doesn't autosave so you can try again. Nope, you better save often, just in case. And I'm not sure if the story ties in at all with the others, except in a loose sense.

The camera in particular is really horrible. It sort of sticks to random places, and you have no control over it. So walking across a room can be really majorly disorienting. I'm not sure why they did it that way, especially since most rooms you can see from multiple perspectives so they're not just trying to save money by hiding half the room.

I wouldn't recommend it, and don't plan on finishing it.

GameJeannie
GameJeannie

I actually enjoyed this game and found the characters interesting enough to carry through a story that was intriguing but poorly realised, with controls that were an absolute hot mess. While the setting was interesting enough, I can't recommend this in good conscience; the basic premise had promise and some of the characterisations showed that the game could have been so much more if only what I imagine were both financial and time constraints hadn't seriously hindered the production (seriously, ME: Andromeda would have been ashamed of the facial rendering here).

General consensus would be to buy it if it comes on sale for under $5 because maybe you'll get lucky and enjoy it despite its overwhelming flaws...because I did.

Soul
Soul

This game is truly awful. I played the original trilogy before this, and I really enjoyed them but this game is nothing like them. The story is shallow at best and the characters are forgettable. As for the gameplay it's a poor attempt to mimic a telltale game and you dont even have any influence over where the story goes. The original games had actual puzzles not the mindless slog that was in this game. I honestly dont understand why this game was so bad. I have played the book of unwritten tales games by KING Art as well and those games had fun characters, a decent story and most importantly some pretty good puzzles. This game just feels lifeless.

jaytin
jaytin

I was a big fan of the original games, but this, I don't even know why it's tagged as a point and click adventure. Movement is horrible, I am staggering around like I just came out of a Club on a Friday night, the hotspots are not always obvious and many times I have staggered past them. Why oh why are adventure games becoming action-oriented? If I wanted an action game I wouldn't have chosen this, or the later Sherlock Holmes games either for that matter. I am becoming more and more frustrated by the bugs, I've already had to restart once, why did I have to go through all the introductory cinematics and cut scenes when I already did them once? I have been stuck unable to move twice and had to go back to a previous game save.
The underwater part is just unpleasant to try and navigate and I won't even re-try that until I am less annoyed.
So far it's been an exercise in frustration, I'm finding it hard to be positive. Where are the puzzles?? I mean actual puzzles, not twitch-fests! The voice acting is not bad, that's all I can think of that's a plus! This game does not deserve to re-use the Black Mirror name.

Exile
Exile

Horrible camera and controls that prevent you from moving where you want and orienting in the castle
Annoyingly long loading times between areas
Weak story that doesn't even seem to make sense at times
The game is desperately trying to capture the same dark atmosphere as in the original trilogy but fails completely
30€ price seems ridiculous, it's worth maybe 5€

Dehexed
Dehexed

An alright adventure game - if you get it when it's at least 50% off and don't compare it with the other 'Black Mirror' games.

It's very easy and pretty short, and it also has a few glitches here and there.

Jimmy
Jimmy

I enjoyed the orginal games very much so I bought this game despite of the mixed review.

PROS:
1. Great atmosphere and voice acting
2. Interesting puzzles
3. Writing is decent (about the story)

CONS:
1. Like everyone mentioned before, very wonky control, especially the camera, I felt car sick 10 mins into the game.
2. Graphics is extremely unoptimized, my computer behaves like it was mining in certain area/cut scene.
3. Long loading period from room to room, and it takes awhile for you to be able to take back control when backing out from focus/puzzle/investigation, it doesn't seem to be by design but more like an optimization issue as well.
4. If it means anything, as senior software engineer/architect myself, it is apparent that, either quality control (performace/UI design/user experience) for this game is non-existent, or the management/funding was in such a disarray that developers stopped caring.

Overall, this game has great potential, and I would judge it to be a good game if it was in alpha test, and I would not in my good conscience to have this game released in this state and have the audacity to charge $30 for it.

To be fair, all those issues I mentioned above are entirely fixable, and it can still be worth the money. However, at this stage, I would only recommend anyone to purchase this game if it was under $5, especially if you are a fan of the original games.

meshuggah12345
meshuggah12345

I quite enjoyed this one, despite the negative reviews. I think the game itself could use a bit more polish in general, however given that it's almost 1 year old as of this review I doubt there will be any further support. The story is quite well done, and having not played through any of ther previous games, it was all new to me and didn't know what to expect. The puzzles are very logic based and paying attention to things you see. I think the balance between story, cutscenes and dialogue and exploration was very well balanced and backtracking was limited to a few times. I think this game is worth the $16.99 I paid for it, but wouldn't have paid full price. It took me just under 7 hours. Recommended, but only at a discounted price.

A327
A327

Very small game compared to the original series, this feels like very small, not enough places to go to, not even the town or inn. Shoul dhave been bigger and better. Storywise its ok, seems like an abrupt ending of an expected adventure. I like the new mode of point and click, movement is fine once you get the hang of it. Puzzles were too easy. The devs have missed the shot completely. A lot was expected but only some was delivered. Could have been much better. Recommended but:
Graphics: 8/10
Adventure: 6/10

jmaunsell
jmaunsell

Let me start by saying that I am a big fan of the Black Mirror Series. Was really looking forward to this episode coming out. However, this game had the worst controls ever. I am generally not a fan of the point and click (which the first 3 episodes are) but this episode should have continued with it. I played using keyboard/mouse and it was nearly impossible to get thru some of the scenes because you could not control the character's movements. Also there was several crashes and game freezes. I found this game very frustrating to play and disappointing. It didn't really even folllow along the same story line as the first 3 in the series. Just glad I actually got thru the whole thing. Don't think I will play it again unless it can be updated.

Haku
Haku

If you read this please dont buy the Game if you hope for a Black Mirror Game like 1-3.
This Game feels rushed and has nothing to do with the first 3 Games.

Negativ:
- The controlls for PC are god awfull
- You have like 0 location, you can only visit the castle and the garden
- NPC have almost no dialog and the Synchro (german) has many bugs
- The Story feels like someone had no time to finish it in 5 mins.
- NPC Models are buggy and show zero emtions.
- The Game has almost no Puzzle and the Key puzzle is super dumb.
- You can barely click or check anything in the castle and you cant combine items by yourself

Positiv:
- Almost nothing... i mean the Game could be so much more but it feels like no one even tested it before release..
- The visions with the Ghost seemed okay but some where super buggy...

Please just let this Game be and dont support something this awfull.
30€ down the drain.

The Horror Network
The Horror Network

Published by a corporation that needs no introduction, THQ Nordic, and developed by KING Art, a company with a very small list of releases comes Black Mirror (2017). This title is said to be a full reboot of the original Black Mirror trilogy; a set of horror/mystery point and click adventures that came out in 2003, 2009, and 2011, respectively. Though the games did not gain a whole lot of popularity, certainly not enough to garner an entire reboot, they did manage to accumulate a decent cult following.

While the initial series took place during the 1980s and 1990s, Black Mirror (2017) is set in a much earlier time period; 1926, to be exact. Although both the publisher and developer stick by the statement that Black Mirror (2017) is a total reboot of the original franchise, this re-imagining brings with it an entirely new cast and setting. Rather than playing as Samuel Gordon, players now take on the role of David Gordon, a man who has been summoned to his rich family's mansion in order to take over ownership after the death of his father, John Gordon. However, John was an avid enthusiast of Occultism, and many strange circumstances surround his death; David soon finds himself unraveling not only those mysteries but also the dark and forbidden secrets of the Gordon Manor.

Players who enjoyed the older releases will see very little that actually resembles anything from them. While both the initial games and the 2017 reboot focus primarily on point and click gameplay style, this release, in particular, has an additional heavy focal point on a graphic novel style of storytelling; very much akin to older TellTale games. With that said, the plot is despairingly boring. Out of the hundreds, if not thousands, of games I've played in my life, I've only ever fallen asleep playing two different games; one was Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper, and the other one was Black Mirror (2017). Despite any and all best efforts to really get into the plot, there's nothing to cling on to; the cast is worse than lackluster, and there's no real reason to care about any of them since no character building is present. Who cares what happened in a family mansion, when the family themselves are disinteresting?

Those who have played KING Art's The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief will see many similarities in regard to gameplay and graphics. Overall, Black Mirror (2017) is exceedingly clunky for a point and click title, especially when using the keyboard and mouse. It's genuinely easier to submit to using a controller, which is an unfounded thing to do on PC for the genre in question. The graphics are equally as awful, with character models donning wax skin and clay hair; the developer didn't even take the time to sync mouth movements with dialogue. In fact, there's a pretty hilarious scene involving an older lady that's groaning, and her mouth moves wildly the entire time. It's easy to tell that most of the budget went into the environments, and that's not saying much since all of the textures are blurry when you get into a close-up with them.

For a title that launched at AAA pricing, and is still selling for $32.99 CAD just a year later, the lack of polish and care that was put into Black Mirror (2017) is abysmal at best. The game also launched with horrendous load times, but thankfully this issue has been rectified on PC. On console, however, it's an entirely different story; of my 3 and a half hours that it took me to complete the game on my PlayStation 4 Pro, I estimate that about 30 minutes of that was spent waiting on loading screens. Loading screens when you launch the game into the main menu, loading screens before AND after a literal 5-second cutscene (on multiple occasion), loading screens every single time you enter and leave a new location.

If you're really dying to check out Black Mirror (2017) despite all of the aforestated, it's best to bite the bullet and pay more for it on PC than on console; on sale, of course. This generally backward pricing makes sense once one realizes that KING Art decided not to fix the tedious loading times on console, and as such it's selling worse there than it is here. Of course, you could save yourself some money by just avoiding this game altogether, and pretending it never existed at all.

Rating: 2.0/5.0 - It's not awful, but it's not great.

The Horror Network Curator | Group Click for Gore

Grey As Fox™
Grey As Fox™

BUG BUG BUG
Waste of money poorly executed looks worse than a beta version. My inventory items mysteriously disappeared during the end of the game.without the key am unable to open a locker, got stuck and there is nothing i could do, so i have to start this trash from the beginning. Even if they give it for free download please don't play.

skullsandlace
skullsandlace

I see so many negative reviews on here that I thought I should throw in my two cents to talk about how much I actually LOVED this game.

Yes, there was a lot less of a story in this game than in the original series, but it was still good nonetheless. I don't think the developers intended this game to be similar to the original, and that they wanted us to open up our minds to a new story with similar concepts/elements to the original.

This game kept me playing for hours on end. Just when I thought I was ready to put it down and go to bed, I was intrigued by something else, and kept going on.

Pros:
- Like-able protagonist and sidekick
- Interesting characters (though not all are like-able)
- An intriguing mystery that continues to unravel chapter by chapter
- Interesting puzzles that are not too challenging
- Quick controls (I think they must have been fixed since previous reviews)
- Creepy yet somewhat cozy atmosphere
- Very few jump scares (if any - nothing made me jump, and I'm a jumpy person)
- An original story that is much different than the original series
- Quest log (keep track of tasks)

Cons:
- Poor camera angles at times while walking around
- Quick-time sequences that can be pretty difficult to complete (during visions)
- No map (I learned my way around pretty quickly, but it's still helpful)
- Very quick and somewhat unsatisfying ending (lack of a thrilling, prolonged climax)
- Somewhat short (took me 8 hours to complete, but this is half the time than each game in the original series)

Bearitas
Bearitas

For starters, I quite liked the story of this game. It was intriguing to keep going and learn new things about the family. I wasn't sure, at first, if this was supposed to have anything to do with the previous series but soon enough I could tell that it was a completely different story line - yet based around the same premise.

This game was much easier to play than the others, and took place in a much smaller world - i.e. less places to visit. I didn't have to consult a walkthrough even once because of being lost in the game. While usually that is a good thing, this game was far less complex than the previous series, and took much less time to play through. The controls were also very annoying at times, having to stand in certain places to get the "examine" to pop up, etc. Very clunky. Not worth $30 in my opinion.

TL;DR Good story, easy playthrough, pretty annoying controls. If you're interested, pick this up in a sale as I do not think it is worth the full asking price - when compared to the earlier Black Mirror games.

Chr1$
Chr1$

Story is good. The puzzles are a bit easy. The GFX are OK, the controls are horrible. Get it on sale

Tranquillar
Tranquillar

I'm really disappointed by this game. While the previous Black Mirror games were by no means perfect, they were still quite entertaining. So I was really looking forward to this one.

Initially this game looked really good. Nice graphics and atmosphere. But then after 3 hours, just when the story is about to really get going, the game just ends. The game is way too short to be worth more than 5€. Also in the 3 hours of game time the game crashed 3 times... 🤷🏻‍♂️

So overall there is just no way for me to recommend this game to anyone, unless you get it for free.

Sefu
Sefu

A poor reboot of an already epic series that should have continued as it was. Full of bugs, crashes, disgusting visuals... drop this reboot and continue on with black mirror 4, or throw the IP away forever.

FatSackMonk
FatSackMonk

This game is not as good as the other Black Mirror titles, however, it is still worth playing. The graphic is nice, the voice acting is great. I did not have so many problems that others said about the game, maybe it's been fixed or just luck. I did meet a bug only one time, the character could not move after a conversation, and I needed to load the last save to proceed. Saving frequently is recommended. The story is average or a little bit above average. It's too short, the whole story happens in only two nights. Most of the time in the game is at night and making the whole game process in the dark and hard to find the way. Considering the short playtime, I recommend getting it on sale.

Detective
Detective

Could have been a good game . Bugs do not get fixed. No one seems to respond to technical issues. Play if you wish....if you dont mind loosing all of your inventory in chapter 4 with no patch.

^creengy^
^creengy^

It's a game you have to give the chance and time till it gets good or better, depending on how you like it. It was interesting to see how the horror movie remaster trend style was translated into a game. Personally, I've seen all of it before and it's probably not worth your time. - TLDR

This is like every modern horror movie and remakes of old. If you watch a ton of horror movies you'll understand.
At the same time it's all of them. I could easily sit here and write down a dozen of horror remakes this takes atmosphere, scenes and plot elements from.
The general difference, to give you an idea, between this and the original is close to that of Nightmare on Elm Street and it's 2010 remake. So the wires inside this mannequin would be the same, as for the mannequin itself...

Thing is the old Mirrors were horror stylised adventure games, there was nothing scary about them. They try to make it horror here.
A small cast of characters, confined in *insert spoopy place*, spoopy things start happening, secrets, conspiracies, creepy locals seem to know wtf is up but don't tell you. You know where I'm headed with this.

The structure of the plot is reminiscent of Black Mirror I and some scenes, particularly the beginning ones are the same, although the context differs.

The fanservice is admirable. There's not much of it but there are some very iconic things.
Such as: protagonist sometimes making sarcastic remarks thinking to himself whilst talking to somebody.
A familiar sound queue will play at one point in the game.
Collecting torn photo pieces. Eventually even getting to do the jigsaw! Although that would be putting together a torn burned note not a picture. Photo pieces just unlock 3 extra jigsaws for you to do from the main menu but those are very easy and frankly bad.

Characters

All characters in the original were friendly and welcoming, even the baddies. "Imma act like a nice old lady givin out candy but really, I'm plottin".
Here it's a complete 180 and everyone is a creepy ars3hole, "Straight up, I hate the sole fact that you exist and I'll scream: you gon die B!TCH!! to your face" kinda like in "Cabin in the Woods".

The main character is an average Joe with a sense of style.
Inept Samuel from the original or dysfunctional, silly Darren from part 2 and 3 are much better protagonists imho but it works for the vibe they went for in this one.

You get a supporting character who follows you for the better part of the game, pretty cool.

Playability

It plays like a localised telltale game not a point&click.

Soundtrack being this game's strongest suit suddenly just stopped for me (near the start of the game so idk if it was intentional or not) and wandering around the corridors with occasional typical old house noises wasn't too exciting. Very powerful tunes at the times where music did reappear.

Originals had beautiful gothic pre-rendered environments. - This time the game takes place entirely within the manor.
The Black Mirror Castle is now bigger but isn't better. Rooms and main hall look vast and spacious with their high ceilings and whatnot. However, 37% of the castle are pointless corridors you have to shamble through to get where you want to go and here comes the next thing. It's confusing, I felt lost through my entire playthrough, there are dead ends. Navigating initial iterations of the castle from the previous games came natural. It's also less goth and less castle-ly.

Second thing is physical navigation. This game doesn't want to be played with a keyboard nor controller.
From the very beginning you're greeted with narrow passages that are layered with invisible walls.
As if that wasn't hard enough the fixed camera positions come to aid. They're immersive yet it all goes to waste when you get stuck on a mini-pixel of an invisible wall trying to go around it.

Another mechanic indicating the game's lack of desire to be played is death. When you have visions, coming too close to the ghosts gets you killed, yet they want you to 'examine' them at each point of time. It's detective mode on loop. I've been stuck dying over and over the first time I came in contact with this mechanic. Not realising what I should be doing, as it seemed that the ghost would attack me no matter what I did with how the scene played out and where the protagonist was standing. Also the cut to the death cutscene didn't do much to explain what happened in actuality.
It felt as if this was left in there just to extend your time in the game. Just like the supporting character who follows you but she has the light and she doesn't walk as fast as you do. The problem is you can't really see what's in front of you.

Shoutout to TomGamer for his playthrough in the guides section. Had to use it because some of the few puzzles that are presented to you are damn hard. The girl he played with is bae 😳

AnythingQuiet
AnythingQuiet

Remake of original Black Mirror game that helped satisfy me after finishing that series. A new cast of characters surrounding the mystery of the Black Mirror curse. The pacing is actually pretty good this time and it puts you into the thick of it quickly. A shorter list of characters this time around but each one very well voice acted. I found myself more drawn to Rory the gardener. The ending of this game helped satisfy me after the ending to Black Mirror III since it connects the family ties between father and son.

I appreciate the zoom-in interaction where you can rotate the camera around a desk or book shelf to find clues and solve puzzles. The spirit interaction puzzles are a bit of a hit and miss for me. Since if David looks at the spirits too long he passes out so I had to quickly get in and click on the interactable but I end up clicking too quickly through the dialogue.

I haven't experienced many bugs with this but I do suggest saving frequently in case something happened. The one bug I had was a scene wouldn't conclude and I was stuck in it until I reset the game.

hickster_54
hickster_54

Don't waste your time(as short as it is) or money. I really loved this series and when i seen this game pop up after playing the other 3 game i was pumped. But this game fell short on so many levels

1 the camera is disastrous and so frustrating you wont wanna keep playing
2 the puzzles are few and very simple
3 the story line was rushed and honestly brother nothing to the series in my opinion (i would have loved this game been a prequil instead of a re imagination
4 characters for most part are bland and boring
5 this game is a very leisurely 8 hours stretching it out as far as you can
6 collectable photo pieces have nothing to do with story and only unlock a extras menu puzzle total bore
7 also if your not in the right spot when you interact with something it will lock you up and you will have to re load game which is just the cherry on top of the disappointment cake this game is, i cant believe i paid money for this

Now I wont try to end on such a seething note buy saying three things

1 the sound track was great
2 the voice over work was great
3 I did really love the character of Rory

but still these where not enough to make this game even close to be recommendable

** I would love more black mirror games perhaps a a origin game from where the gordons first contact the mirror or something but alas this game fell so far away from anything. if you love black mirror try it but if you getting in to the series skip this completely

morgan.whitcraft
morgan.whitcraft

It's definitely not for everyone - but I find the nostalgia of this game irresistible. I have fond memories of playing this back in, what was it, 2005? It's a great remake with some definite flaws - the facial rendering is poor, and there are plenty of open "seams" in the surroundings. But the heart and soul is still there, and I adore it.

chantrel
chantrel

I don't think this little adventure game is that great, but it's by far not among the worst I've played. The story is interesting, if you see it as a stand-alone part and don't really connect it to the original Black Mirror-series. Just the basic narrative framework is the same. The characters aren't really deep, but not too flat either. I liked the setting, most of the graphics, the atmosphere and the English voice acting. The controls are okay after you got used to them. You should wait for a sale to buy it (as I did) and you'll get a nice occupation for one or two evenings.

blazeag
blazeag

Worst black mirror ever. Nonsense storyline, linear plot with no twists, unusable controls. This reboot ruins the original black mirror titles

funnymatt
funnymatt

Interesting story, but it's very short, the puzzles are very basic, and the control scheme (especially moving the camera) is really bad, and it has much less gameplay than the earlier games in the series.

Tennoda
Tennoda

What a disappointment after playing the other Black mirror games and seeing the trailer to this one.
There were just so many things I didn't like or that drove me crazy it wasn't even funny anymore after a while. The controls while trying to quickly examine fleeting objects, bumping and getting stuck into everything, the characters looking like crap, not to mention being weak (save for Rory, everybody likes Rory), the main character force feeding obvious thoughts to the player in the middle of a dialogue... just to name a few.
The voice acting was probably fine, though staring at the lifeless expressions and strange gleaming ear goo distracted me too much to really pay attention to it.

The best I can say is that at times it's so bad it's entertaining to make fun of with a friend. I regret buying this and wasting my time.

grausehaffelschmittering
grausehaffelsc…

This game is surprisingly

silly,
badly written,
buggy,
lame,
disappointing.

THQ Nord obviously had the cool idea to buy the rights of the Black Mirror game series and it's name just to publish an offensive kick in the face of the fans of the trilogy.
This game has almost nothing in common with the first 3 games.
They changed the background story almost completely. Which is totally senseless and silly since it was one of the best background stories in any point and click adventure series out there.
This game dosn't share the excellent quality in atmosphere, story and programming.

Many reviewers mentioned the bad camera, the bad controlls, the many bugs which won't get fixed since no one seems to care for this game anymore (but tacking the money is a great thing, right?), the non existent facial expressions, the way too long loading times between rooms (yes rooms, not even levels), the confusing storyline, hovering blood, framedrops out of nothing and oh my god this list could go on and on.

But this game is bad in a very special point:
Disrespect.
It doesn't respect the trilogy and it doesn't respect the players who hoped for a new game in the authentic Black Mirror world and storyline.

It seems like one of those ideas: Let's make easy money with a name with good reputation which we just bought. Dungeon Keeper on mobile phones? Yeah, we all remember. This game got the same foul flavour.

Prophet
Prophet

I've played the rest of the franchise, even though it was a while ago, but I remember I loved the gloomy mystical atmosphere these games had and I gotta say, ain't nothing changed in this reboot. It immersed me from the very beginning. Now this ain't really a point n click game, more of an interactive adventure story. It's quite short, the world scenes are not very big either, it's got clunky walking mechanics and a horrible camera, but it was of no consequence to me. Maybe it was my nostalgia speaking, but having a chance to lose myself in the story of a cursed noble family again was fascinating. Just... wait until there is a sale. Buying this full price might make some folks say it lacks content, and they wouldn't be entirely wrong.

P.S. I've just noticed the approval rating of only 42% for this game. Come on, folks, it's way better than that!

honeycat555
honeycat555

this is just a pile of shit game, its so damn slow to move around and the puzzles are just an absolute rage inducing deliberation by the makers. i hope they never get paid work again!

Dr. Robuttedique
Dr. Robuttedique

I hate to say this, but this was a disappointment.
Buggy. I found that I had to restart several times, especially after a certain event happened and talking to a character resulted in the game being stuck in a non-resolution empty dialogue choice screen.

Everything has been downgraded since Black Mirror III and I'm not sure why this adaptation exists if they weren't willing to put in the time and effort to give this series the attention it deserves.

At least the music is alright.

Disappointed.

fiskebridge
fiskebridge

Decent story - true to the previous Black Mirror games. Awful controls detract and some of the ghostly puzzles can be frustrating

confi
confi

I loved the original Black Mirror, so was always going to try this despite of negative reviews.

It's nowhere as good as the original, I got it on sale - it's not worth full price, but if you can get it on sale and you loved the original, then get it.
Controls are a bit jerky, camera doesn't work great and the way it pans across the screen means you could easily miss items. The puzzles were great - not too difficult but there weren't very many.

The game was quite short in terms of game play - it took me 6hrs to complete, which I found a bit disappointing.

Warning about using headsets - there's quite a few high pitched noises that could cause ear bleed!!

Barb
Barb

The story line is fun to experance and there are some twist and turns. The moving could be a lot more smoother. but all in all I loved this game.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I thought this game was pretty enjoyable. It had a decent story line and good graphics. The atmosphere and thematic elements were similar to the other Black Mirror games. I'm a bit surprised that many other reviews were negative, although I can agree with them that controlling movement in the game was a little tricky.

siljoster
siljoster

This is an ok game at best.

There are some good things, the sound, the look and maybe the story...

BUT...

The game is very short!
Loading between screens is long!
Steering of your character and moving around is horrible!!!

And I could even ignore these cons if there was not a big one:
This "reboot" has NOTHING to do with the old trilogy except the family has the last name Gordon and the game has the title "Black Mirror", but apart from that the story has no connection at all. It is not even the same style of game anymore...
Not worthy of the name Black Mirrow, should not even be in the same bundle with the Black Mirror trilogy!

Mayfleet
Mayfleet

Decent point and click adventure game so worth a go. If this is the only Black Mirror game you have played, please do yourself a favour and go play the original three games which are far superior.
This remake version seems to lack in the same depth of mystery and drama. The peril all seems to be from the humans around rather than feeling the threat from the Mirror itself. All the story happens in locations around the manor so limited in range of environments. The actual puzzles/riddles are challenging in an of themselves, however the the whole game feels simpler and shorter than that the originals.
Also why is almost the entire story based at night? relying on a NPC following you around with a candle as the main source of light?

Fauzenfluffer
Fauzenfluffer

This Remake was pretty bad. There were some things it did that I liked, but overall it doesn't even come close to being as good as the original Trilogy. Honestly just go play the original Trilogy if you haven't already. This feels like the equivalent of a bad Tell Tale Games cash-in to me.

Tbh, the only thing about this game that I enjoyed was the voice acting and how some of the characters were handled. Rory was great, Dr. Farber was a tolerable bit of hand-holding when you needed to remember what to do. Though she could have been a little faster trailing with the friggin candle. Other characters that I liked from the original were kind of crapped on for the sake of twisting the original narrative slightly.

There's a far better experience to be had with the Story of the original Trilogy, however for a casual once over sort of game I suppose it wasn't the worst story for you to forget about. Knowing what it could have been and what it left out is part of what really hurts this game for me. What also hurts this game a bunch is the actual gameplay. Buggy, sluggish movement (unless you're outside the Manor)... Awkward animations (like swimming through nothing, not even moving). The decent puzzle was at the beginning of the game, the rest are just handed to you.

kevinscosta
kevinscosta

Nice graphics however, terrible character movement in the game! I'm using the keyboard arrow keys, and at times it's almost impossible to move the main character exactly to the spot to complete a scene in the time they give you before you die and have to start from last save. VERY FRUSTRATING!!!!

zeno
zeno

Game is pretty "meh". Clunky controls, weird camera angles, and generally pretty slow-paced. It gets a thumbs up because they ported it to Linux.

desert_hawk
desert_hawk

A lot of errors in the subtitles, noticed a few places so far where a character speaks and their mouth does not move (not David's inner monologues), the controls are weird (sometimes all is ok and sometimes the character stops for no reason .. ) .
I will finish this because it is to be a part of a beloved for me story but otherwise I think they should have kept the old controls and put more effort in this.

Whiteraven2005
Whiteraven2005

I so badly wanted to give this a good review - despite all of the below issues, I was enjoying it, the story and the puzzles.

Are the controls very clunky? Yes. Does the camera swing around inconveniently? Yes. Does the character freeze after coming out of examination scenes? Yes. Does the occasional texture bug out? Yes. Does any of this matter? No. Annoying but ignorable. What wasn't was when the game crashed right at the end and kept crashing at the same exact point. Such potential wasted.

[EDIT]: I put the game on my gaming laptop and was able to get past the scene causing the crashes after 3 attempts. I was able to finish the game and really enjoyed it. Despite all it's many flaws, I would actually recommend playing it - the story is really good, it's got beautiful graphics and I really enjoyed it. The recommendation is with the huge caveat that you should buy it on sale and ignore the minimum requirements, I only got it working on a GTX 1650 so you could have the same issues as I had if you try it on the lower specs (the crashes happened on a GTX 980).

fehrbehr
fehrbehr

Unplayable on the PC due to the controls and camera movement. I played for 1 hour and felt like I had motion sickness and had to stop. I have never seen movement this bad since Syberia 3 - this is ten times worse than that so just try to imagine how bad it is... The camera swings around randomly making it very disorienting and your character bumps into everything and has to be lined up just right to interact with something. Really, it feels like being on 10 fairground rides at once. I bought it as I didn't believe all the reviews but have since put in for a refund.
Sadly, I cannot tell you about the game as one hour of motion sickness was too much for me.

blamey
blamey

not as terrible as everyone says. not as good as the original series too, but at least part of the atmosphere is still there. simple wandering through the known mansion in 3d with a candle is fun by itself. it's just smth different to the old ones but i'm grateful i could continue playing the set. u can ignore all bugs if u want to; still better than many other games. i'm even considering to give it another round and im quite picky myself. but maybe it's just a fan talking in me :johngordon:

Achrdili
Achrdili

ამაზე შრეული გრძნობები მაქვს, არ ვიცი რითი დავიწყო... ანუ თავიდან დადებითი შთაბეჭდილებები დატოვა და ვიტყოდი რომ საერთო ჯამში კარგი თამაშია, მაგრამ... პრობლემები... პრობლემები... კარგით დავიკიდოთ ის რომ ტექსტურები ქრება აქა იქ(ძალიან ხშირადაც არა) და თამაში რომ ძალიან მოკლეა და ზოგიერთი თავსატეხის ამოხსნას ათასწლეული უნდა მარტო იმიტომ რომ თურმე თავსატეხის "ეკრანზე" გვერდით გახედვა შეგძლებია... ანდაც არ დავიკიდოთ, მთავარი ნაკლებია ეგ თამაშის XD წინამორბედებისაგან განსხვავებით, თამაში რებუთია (რისი საჭიროებაც არანაირად არ არსებობდა) და ამასთან ერთად ანიმაციას რაღაც მულტიპლიკაციური პერსონაჟის გემო დაკრავს მიუხედავად იმისა რომ მეტ-ნაკლებად რეალისტური შესახედაობის არიან. ისტორია ცუდი არაა მაგრამ წინა თამაშებთან შედარებით, ბევრად სუსტია. მიუხედავად ამისა, არის დადებითი მომენტებიც, მაგალითად კამერა ფიქსირებული აღარაა (რასაც ვერ ვიტან პირადად მე) და ატმოსფერული ემბიენსი იდეალურად ადევს, რასაც ვერ ვიტყოდი ჯამურად მუსიკაზე. არ ვგულისხმობ რომ ცუდია, მარა შაბლონური ეპიკურ-ტრაგიკული მუსიკის შეგრძნებას ტოვებს და ინდივიდუალიზმი საერთოდ არ იგრძნობა. ამავდროულად შიგადაშიგ გხვდება "ბედნიერი" მომენტები რომელიც დისნეის მულტფილმისათვის დაწერილი ბექგრაუნდ მელოდიით არის გაფორმებული და რომლებიც საერთოდ ამოვარდნილია მთლიანი თამაშიდან. მოკლედ გამომდინარე იქიდან რომ კაპიკებში ვიყიდე, მაინც და მაინც ბევრს არ ვიწუწუნებ. ჯამში ჩემ ნაწერს რომ ვუყურებ ალბათ უყფრო კორექტული იქნება ვთქვა რომ თამაში საშუალოა, ცუდი ნამდვბილად არა მაგრამ ბევრად უკეთესის პოტენციალი ქონდა. და ასევე გულითადი თხოვნაა გააჯმევინონ ამ მაზალო გადატვირთვებს იქ სადაც საჭირო არაა. მადლობა.

red_dwarf
red_dwarf

This is very good game with dark mysterious story. Again as one of cursed Gordons investigating what happened in the Black Mirror castle.
Graphics is very nice.
I played whole game on Steam controller with no issue.
There are some minor bugs. I used auto-save once. Achievements are not working in Linux version.
I wish it to be longer and walking more world oriented while platforming.

Wolfboy
Wolfboy

Rating: 6/10

its not bad at all. Nice voice acting, looks nice, story is ok... but it's rather short.
This game could have been so much more.
Recommended on sale for fans of Black Mirror series or Point 'n click fanatics.

Get Burned!
Get Burned!

Black Mirror is not scary or good. I do not recommend it.

The original BM trilogy is one of the best series of point-and-click adventure games. It had a good story, good writing, excellent spooky horror atmosphere with memorable locations, great deaths, and fun, challenging puzzles. This new one has none of the things that made the originals such heavy weights in the genre.

Before dismantling this game, I do want to say the game looks good. The manor where the bulk of the game takes places is very highly detailed. Sadly, that's really the only good quality worth mentioning. Even that praise does negatively highlight that even the original first BM had so many more locations and even within the manor there were more interesting locations than presented here.

The layout of the place in this game was just a confusing mess. There are fixed camera angles that shift perspective so its difficult to draw a mental map of the game world. Often times, if I wasn't sure what to do next, I'd just aimlessly wander around the manor until I stumbled into the correct place. This game took just over 7 hours to finish, but some of that play time was padded just from navigating this poorly structured game world and also fiddling with the controls.

The controls range from sufficient to really clunky. Moving the character around is kind of half decent. However there are invisible walls everywhere that are not really apparent so the character bounces off them and combining that with the often changing camera angles it could be a chore to navigate the character around and hampered the enjoyment of the game. The other big problem with the controls is manipulating inventory items and getting the correct hot spot to activate. Often times there are multiple points on screen that can be clicked and that's done with a controller button. However, in order for the game to know which item will activate, it has to be in the correct spot on the screen and it was tough to exactly move things around so they were in the right spot on screen to be able to be moved. It was yet another cumbersome mechanic that was full of unnecessary friction.

The story was really boring. It was like a really sh.tty re-telling of the first game with none of the style. I never cared about any of the characters. It's just on auto-pilot the whole time limping its way to the end. They called this game Black Mirror in an attempt to appeal to players that would hate the actual game and resent it for bastardizing an excellent series. Did the developers just take this property because they were too lazy to come up with an original story to tack onto the simplified game play that bears virtually no semblance to the original?

This BM is really dumbed-down from the original series. The puzzles are few and far between and very simple. There was one decent puzzle with opening a desk towards the beginning of the game, perhaps one or two more that I've forgotten about. This game took me months to complete because I would get bored after not very long and just not play it for a few months before picking it up for a little bit again.

This reboot of BM is a complete disappointment and doesn't deserve to be mentioned along with the much beloved original series. It's not scary. It doesn't have a compelling narrative with characters that I wanted to invest in. The controls stink. The game was just plain boring.

slaaneshi
slaaneshi

The walking controls are so incredibly horrible that it renders the game unplayable. And while you search for the stupid butler that suddenly vanished and talks from the off to come to him without any hint as to where he might be, the stupid questlog keeps jumping at your face and you get stuck at every stupid column. There are lot's of columns! This sucks.

Anonymous
Anonymous

so tedious movement navigation/ controls, I gave up. I was more fighting to move David where I wanted than playing game. Didn't enjoy game at all.
I really would prefer simple point and click navigation

SaraficeAB
SaraficeAB

I was able to enjoy my time with this remake of the original trilogy that started in 2003. But - and there is a BIG but - this game has a lot of flaws that made me very frustrated at times.
The game has a dark atmosphere that is similar to its predecessors and the graphics remind of Telltale games and have a style I quite liked. The story is basically closely related to the first game from 2003 which is graphically much worse understandably. They tried to implement the 3D-experience of modern games and combine it with the usual puzzle-game point-and-click style. That didn't work out very well and here's where the cons start. The mechanics were clumsy - and buggy. I had to restart the game many times (thanks autosave at least, I guess), because the picture would just freeze or I couldn't press anything anymore. That annoyed me tremendously - the game isn't 10, but 3 years old! The Witcher 3 was published in 2015! It literally ran worse than the 2003 Black Mirror game, Witcher 1 from 2007 and the absolutely nightmare-inducing Playstation to PC controls port of Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy.

The bad mixture of 3D - and point-and-click puzzle style made walking around look pretty weird and the awkward camera movement made that even worse. I think you can get to the point where you can just "ignore" that once you've gotten used to it, but I understand why it bothers players, and it did bother me a little.
The soundtrack of the game was decent and the story was okay and had interesting concepts. The execution however really diminished that potential quality. That doesn't make it a bad bad game, it makes it an okay game to play if you've enjoyed the OT. But while we're speaking of it, if I take a look at the original trilogy - which I enjoyed soooo much back then - the 2017 remake doesn't even get close to the 2003 point-and-click puzzle game with atrocious graphics. The soundtrack of the original games gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it, and despite the pretty bad graphics of the first game (which improve in the 2nd and 3rd game), everything in the OT had much more depth and quality to it. The story was much more developed and the overall atmosphere is unique among every other game I've played. Much more love and attention was put into detail back then. The puzzles were hard - and I mean really hard - and a core element of the trilogy, while the remake hardly had any puzzles at all and they were very simple (and I'm not one to solve puzzles easily, I often have to check for walkthroughs to solve them).
Conclusion: When I heard of that remake, I was really excited and thrilled. Well, don't be. It doesn't deserve that and it won't live up to any high expectations. But if you've played the original trilogy - I know, not many people have, but you really should if you enjoy dark atmosphere and puzzles in games - go for it and play through it just for the sake of it and seeing what they did. It's roughly 6 hours of playtime. Just don't pay more than ehm. 10-15 bucks for it. It made me want to go back to the original trilogy actually lol.
And I wholeheartedly recommend the original trilogy to every one here who is into puzzle and dark atmosphere games. Don't be too put off by the graphics, I think it is worth it and picks up the pace and quality a lot with the sequel.

DeLuca03
DeLuca03

Sound: 9
Graphics: 9
Story: 10
Gameplay: 7
Commands: 8
Fun: 10
Time to load / lag: 7
Bugs / Problems: 7
Final (my score, my rules - these is not math, punk) - 9

english voice actor are incridible - speacially Rory. The story its fantastic and kind of closure of the series (series of games). The graphics are very good. Unfortnally I've beat it in 15hrs - would be better a 30hrs content.
But lets by honest: the camera its bloody hell - but not to a point that you cant play - its just annoying.
I hope the they launch a 5th sequence - or second, considering this one as a hole new thing.

hellstromme
hellstromme

I really enjoyed the game and I think it has an undeserved bad reputation. If you are expecting a traditional point and click like the original Black Mirror trilogy, or a continuation of that story-line, you will be disappointed. Yes, the controls are clunky and there are a few frustrating points. Also, the game is quite short, so if you wan to play it, buy it on sale. All that said, I found it very entertaining and I enjoyed the graphics, the story and the puzzles. I also thought the voice acting was of a good standard.

If your looking for an enjoyable adventure game for a weekend or so, you could do a lot worse than this.

Lacey
Lacey

Not connected to the Black Mirror trilogy. It's pretty short, but still a nice game to play once or maybe twice.

Bevosev
Bevosev

Not the best example of the genre, with a few glitches and difficult controls here and there, but still a nice little story and a good way to spend a rainy weekend. Best not to have high expectations with this one, but still a fun journey if you like creepy adventure games.

LUKEbiechu
LUKEbiechu

Got sucked into the story instantly and that feeling of complete immersion kept me to the very end. Beautiful artstyle is a perfect mix of gothic horror and Scotish folklore. The puzzles reminded me a little of Tomb Rider which I think really fondly of. The gameplay could use a couple improvements, but overall it was a joyful adventure.

Exterminans27
Exterminans27

Okay listen hey,
I hesitated to buy this game for the past few years due to the bad reviews, but finally decided to get it on sale.
I honestly don't think the game deserves all the bad reviews.
Yes, the controls are a little bit wonky, but it rarely interfers with gameplay.
Really not a bad standalone game, but I do still prefer the old Black Mirror games.
The fact that the plot doesn't connect at all to the original trilogy is a little disappointing,
but if you liked the other Black Mirror games, I would recommend getting this one as well.
I would however recommend getting it on sale, simply because of the relatively short playtime.

Minya
Minya

Are you looking at this game because you liked or loved the original "The Black Mirror" trilogy?
I'll save you the grief and say; Don't. Just... don't. I want to save you from the trainwreck that is a lazy *remake* and not a game made within the same story from the three other games. Somewhat different story, but a short and very bad take on the original trilogy. I've warned you. Don't blame me if you still decide to buy it.

Are you looking at this game because it looks interesting and you've never heard of the original trilogy? Then sure.
It's a bit lazy with its puzzles and a lot of shortcuts has been made in the storyline/plot, but if you get a hold of it for at least 75% off, it's worth the 4-6 hour playtime. At full price, not so much.
Most of that playtime is moving around, if you don't have a controller, because it's not really made for keyboard/mouse. It doesn't even have a keyboard/mouse keybind infoscreen.
I kept running back and forth through the same doorway a lot because the movement was screen-relative and not character-relative, and the scenes kept changing direction all over the place.
The different scenes also changing direction kept me completely unable to navigate the bastard for the longest time. It took me more than 15 minutes to get from one place to a specific other place at one point because I was unable to turn around the 10 or so different areas in my head.
Tbh, I think they could have won a lot on making this a proper original point and click instead of this trainwreck.
I still won't recommend it.

Oh, did I mention that the game trailer on the store page has *absolutely nothing* to do with the entire game?

akanesora
akanesora

I have to say this is one of the worst games I've played in the last few years. I'm sad that they couldn't do more with what was originally a good plot line.
-Somehow, they managed to make one of the worst plots I've ever seen.
-The controls are clumsy, which makes the game difficult in a way that is frustrating but not actually challenging.
-The game itself is very short (I spent 5 hours with no walkthrough)
-The puzzles that define the genre are missing. What puzzles there are, are simple and not very interesting or challenging.
Overall, I'm extremely disappointed. I only finished the game so I could uninstall it from my computer forever. I bought it on sale and I still wouldn't recommend it.

Gwen
Gwen

Save your money and get the original trilogy on sale. This reboot is not even close to the same magic that the OG trilogy was. I have the trilogy and then also decided to buy this one to see it in upgraded graphics, but frankly it's lackluster, glitchy, terrible controls and camera, and even the voice acting and storyline itself felt off in this version. If you are gonna get this, wait for a sale. It's not worth $30.

patanu102
patanu102

Having gone through the original trilogy, I wanted to go in fresh and jumped right into this game. I didn't know what to expect, but I didn't expect to beat in less then 5 hours.

The game on a visual level is well done, the detail in the clothing and characters give everyone a distinct but grim tone to them. Deluded pigments and detailed wrinkles adding distinctness to each of the cast. With the lighting being so well done to help set the atmosphere of the grim mansion.

While the story takes a good notes from the original games, being about the titular Black Mirror and its connection to the Gordon family and estate. The developers took liberty to focus on more linear perspective, having the curse being told from the families perspective and not something of legend from the neigboring village, keeping the number of characters in the narrative to a small handful. While connecting the lore of the black mirror back to more Gaelic roots then original series more Pagan Alchemic origin.

But that is where the compliments end. This game is a mess Despite being developed by King Arts Games who've made a name for themselves with their own series, The Book of Unwritten Tales, making all the issues with this remake that much more baffling.

The act of point of click is none existant as you'll either need to juggle with WASD in order venture around the rather small mansion, as all the object you can interact with are left to segmented circles you can gawk at and fumble around with to find the right point click it. Which was a struggle at first but I adapted to to progress, but in more life or death situation made me die several times in the third chapter because I could find the right spot I had to stand in causing me to rush through dialogue to get to the same point again as you cant save in the middle of these paranormal sequences.

While I complimented the graphics and animation for the atmosphere and cutscenes. The animation in gameplay and conversations were incredibly rigid, characters would show no change in expression and flap their mouths like puppets, more then once a character would be looking in the wrong direction causing their pupils to vanish from their eyes because the eyes were afixed to something just off screen. As detailed as the models could look, it only served to pull me out of the story.

And thats where the biggest issue with the game lies, the story. This tale of a man brought to an old family home to find the answer to the family curse. But the problem being that I didn't care for anyone in the family. The butler was annoying, the grandmother pompous and inconsistant, and the any of the characters I did grow attach to would just end being killed off in some ridiculously dumb ways. Nearly all the events of the game taking place over the course of a single day made the slowly unraveling mystery just feel like a waste by the crash and half-baked revelations. Making you wonder why your trying to solve this curse when nearly everyone in this family is best left to just rot.

I wanted to write not as a comparison to the originally games it was "Inspired" from. But as its own game and story. But the problem is, the game and story is terrible, even when you seperate it from the original material. Its a poorly made game that has no reason to be this bad especially considering the developers, the time it came out, its inspiration and everything else. The only thing I'm grateful for, is that it only took 5 hours to beat. But even then I wouldn't do it again.

white
white

- Story is really nice, but towards the end it seems a bit rushed.
- Controls are realy wonky - with both, keyboard and controller. Camera is annoying as well in some places. It will force the the character to turn even though you're still holding the same direction.
- A lof of gameplay glitches. Experienced twice the situation that I was stuck in a dialog with no options to continue or get of of it. Had to load a older save.
- Another glitch I had was when I could no longer rotate the items in inventory (which is needed sometimes). Even after a complete restart this did not fix the issue.
- Graphics are good but also with some minor glitches (light shining through gaps where none are, holes in the floor when looking through a doorway).
- Translation not complete. In some dialogs subs were missing (or had typos). One scene was completely in English instead of German.

Conclusion: Under 10h gameplay with so many annoyances for that price is not a good deal. Not recommended. Stick with the classic triology.

AlexH
AlexH

Not that bad as bad as most people say, also not really good.

lighting looks fairly decent looking when you screen isn't solid black.
the game play is 100% linear, the story can be interesting but the characters are not flushed out and seem to have no motives for there actions. if you like point and click adventure games you might like this.
Get it on sale if possible

(Full Support on Steam Deck)
While this does work really well on the Steam Deck for some reason i got 0/21 Achievements
after completing the game on the Steam Deck.

Civilization is unsustainable
Civilization i…

The game's not as bad as people make it out to be.
I didn't find the controls as bad as others made it out to be.

Though I played BM 2 & 3 and gotta say this one's story is just okay in comparison.

But overall, I enjoyed the game. The game does a decent job of presenting its world with beautiful graphics, sound design, etc..

Lay
Lay

Last chapter with abyss bugged, watched many videos even after several minutes of trying to walk through as on the videos, following the ghost child, no matter where I turn he is falling down the abyss... not to mention sometimes he walks the whole path on his own. I redid this multiple times, tried all kinds of angles but it does not work. Cannot finish the game properly, sadly had to view the last chapter on YT. Movement of the character is not enjoyable, the camera and WASD do not work hand in hand together as one would wish. However story is very nice and enjoyable. If only the movement with character was different and the abyss would be fixed.

United Federation Of James
United Federat…

Half spin-off, half reboot of the Black Mirror series, and it rights many of the wrongs of that franchise. The atmosphere is dark and brooding, the voice acting (with one minor exception) is excellent and the design of the house more realistic with great attention to detail. The puzzles are logical and realistic.

The criticisms about the controls are valid, and you'll have your protagonist staggering around drunkenly for most of the gameplay. It is also frustrating that the companion is usually holding the only portable light source, and does not keep pace.

What is most disappointing is that the game feels incomplete. It is very short compared to the rest of the series, and the events take place within just two days - there is little time for gradual revelations that you might expect from a thriller. Some things are never explained (what are the photograph pieces for?] and either a bug or a design flaw meant I was not able to complete one puzzle, but still finished the game.

Overall though, this is fun for the mood and intrigue. While it could be played independently of the other games, it may spoil the first in the series.

SaltyIrishDog
SaltyIrishDog

Poor David. He was too fast for the developers to make a solid game.

I wouldn't recommend this unless you've thrown back a few and have a walkthrough open. The puzzles and atmosphere were fine but the actual game made no sense and barely wraps up it's own story.

I'll be honest I was unable to finish the game due to a glitch right at the end. Didn't matter how much I clicked nothing happened. I had to watch the end on YouTube.

What happened to Eddie? Did he die in the mountain? Does David end up with the random blonde who was directly inserted in the game as a companion and serves no other purpose?

Glad the Grandma got revenge. That was sweet. Would have been better if someone saw it.