Admittedly, when I first started playing Black Mirror (unrelated to the TV show of the same name), I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. The controls were a bit janky, the animations a bit rough, it froze a few times, and the loading… reminiscent of PlayStation 1, where every new room you enter requires a loading screen.
While the loading issue remained to be a bit of an annoyance until the bitter end, I quickly forgave the game for its other issues in way of how charming and fun, and oddly nostalgic it all felt. After completing the game, and going on to learn more about it, a few things became clear:
The Name — It wasn’t a poorly chosen name after all, considering all the inevitable confusion of having the same title as a massively popular TV show. In fact, Black Mirror (the game) came first, which leads me to…
The Style — The original game (a trilogy actually), which this new remake is based on, is an old, point-and-click style game for the PC, first beginning development back in 2000. That explains a lot in terms of this game’s old-school, throwback feel.
Even so, like I said, the game’s charm had already won me over anyway with its cliché (good cliché) storyline concerning an estranged son learning of his inheritance of an old home where mysteries await. The main character that you play (David Gordon), reminds me of Johnny Depp‘s character in Sleepy Hollow.
The game, today, would probably be described as a walking simulator, but its vibe and puzzles created a uniquely different experience; something special.
My fellow horror aficionados will also no doubt notice several marks of Thorn (ᚦ) throughout the game (and look through my snaps below — I captured most of them). The mark of Thorn (a Druid rune called Thurisaz to be technical), in pop-culture, is most recognized by its fictional link to Michael Myers in the Halloween movies, as an explanation to his purpose and strength.
While I absolutely recommend this game on merit, at its current $30-$40 price tag, I don’t know. This feels more like it should be in the $20 indie price range. Since I received this game for free for the purpose of reviewing it, I would be remiss if I didn’t say, you might want to wait for it to go on sale.
Snaps of My Journey Through the Game
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