Black Mirror
Release Date: November 28, 2017
Adventure, horror, puzzle elements, interwar period, singleplayer
OpenCritic
Steam
A reboot of the popular gothic horror adventure game series, developed by KING Art Games. The action takes the player to Scotland of the year 1926, where the hero – David Gordon – conducts an investigation into the circumstances of his father’s suicide.
Black Mirror is a gothic horror adventure developed by KING Art Games, the authors of such titles as The Book of Unwritten Tales, The Dwarves, and Iron Harvest. The game published on PC, PS4 and XONE is a reboot of the series started in 2003 by The Black Mirror.
Plot
The action of Black Mirror takes us to Scotland, 1926. The main hero is David Gordon who arrived at his family mansion right after his father, an occultism enthusiast, committed suicide. Given the fact that the last few weeks of John Gordon’s life, along with his suicide circumstances, remain a mystery, the protagonist decides to carry out an investigation in order to find the truth. During the adventure, David not only learns about his father, with whom he did not form a true bond, and about family members that were allegedly cursed. The hero needs to face his own nightmares, as he believes that just as his father and other predecessors, he is also cursed, which will drive him to madness.
What is interesting, even though there is a number of references to the previous games in the series (the hero’s name and the theme are most distinguishable ones), you can still derive pleasure from the title without knowing them. Furthermore, the scriptwriters were inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Howard Philips Lovecraft.
Mechanics
Gameplay of Black Mirror released on PC, PS4 and XONE is based on the genre’s basic rules. During gameplay, the player explores different, depressing locations, chat with neutral NPCs, push the story forward by solving more or less complex puzzles, which are mostly based on the correct use of items and looking for another ones, just like in classic point’n’click adventures. Visions and nightmare hallucinations are crucial – the hero can interact with them and hence learn about the past events of his family house.
Technical aspects
The 3D, amazing visuals of Black Mirror have bleak colours, which only make the game even gloomier. The title has a full voiceover and an atmospheric, original soundtrack.
Last updated on September 4, 2017
Last Update: November 27, 2017
Black Mirror Guide
Our guide and walkthrough for Black Mirror contains numerous tips and hints that will help you solve all riddles, secrets and mysteries in gloomy and dark Gordon's house. Discover the terrible truth.
Videos and Screens
[1:38] Black Mirror gameplay trailer #1
[1:59] Black Mirror trailer #1
ZTGD: 6 / 10 by Justin Celani
The Black Mirror is ripe for being that classic creepy haunted manor mystery type setting, but everything surrounding its tale makes it hard to get pulled into and constantly pulls players out of the experience with its follies. This mirror is still worth looking into, but its cracks definitely show.
Xbox Achievements: 50 / 100 by Richard Walker
Despite creating a macabre atmosphere and delivering some decent puzzles early on, Black Mirror is a somewhat insipid and uninspired adventure game exacerbated by frequent loading screens and shoddy presentation throughout. It belongs at the bottom of a deep loch.
TechRaptor: 2.5 / 10 by Courtney Ehrenhofler
Black Mirror starts with an interesting premise and decent voice acting, but the combination of poor controls and atrocious camera angles paired with a garbled story and uninteresting characters drag this experience to the bottom of the abyss.
Black Mirror Summary
Game Series: Black Mirror
Platforms:
PC / Windows
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Developer: KING Art Games
Publisher: THQ Nordic / Nordic Games
Black Mirror System Requirements
PC / Windows
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 940 3 GHz, 8 GB RAM, graphic card 2 GB GeForce GTX 660 / Radeon HD 7870 or better, 11 GB HDD, Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
Recommended: Intel Core i7-3770 3.9 GHz / AMD FX-8350 4 GHz, 8 GB RAM, graphic card 4 GB GeForce GTX 960 / Radeon R9 290 or better, 11 GB HDD, Windows 7/8/10 64-bit