|
The Adventure Company picks up a praised Czech adventure game.
As with any adventure game, the game’s story is very important to the overall game. Black Mirror takes place in a titular castle. Most of the game takes place here. At the beginning of the game we see your grandfather, William Gordon, writing a letter to you. He is very scared and all of a sudden the lights go out. We hear a struggle and the old man falls from a window to his death. You take the role of Samuel Gordon. Your grandfather has died and while everyone thinks it was suicide, you don’t.
As you’ll soon discover the story is very dark. There are plenty of murders and plot twists to be found in the game. There are times when you’ll be actually scared and the game’s ending is also different than what you would expect. The story moves on in a linear fashion with chapters.
The interface is the usual. You’ll point and click your way to safety. You’ll need to examine what you need and even what you don’t so you can be successful. The game makes it a bit easy for you by disabling clicking on things you will not need after you click on them once. While hardcore adventurists will dislike this feature, it surely makes it easier for the rest of us. Other things to simplify the experience include items that flash if they can be used with an item you currently have. If you click on exit, you’ll be able to get to the next scene.
There are plenty of puzzles in the game. There are plenty of riddles and slider puzzles. Most of them have to do with mix-matching inventory.
The visuals in the game are pretty nice. The backgrounds are rendered from 3D models but are 2D, as expected. Future Games managed to get a lot of detail out of these backgrounds. There is a lot of animation to further immerse yourself into the game. The cut scenes in the game are very nice as are the characters which are 3D. The visuals keep with the game’s dark theme.
The audio portion of the game also shows off the theme. While there isn’t much music, the ambient sounds like rain really move the story along. The voice acting is surprisingly strong as well.
Adventure games are mostly about plot and this plot is very good. There are a lot of twists and turns and just makes you want to know what happens best. The gameplay innovations also help move the game along. Another great adventure title from the Adventure Company.
System Requirements:
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP; Pentium III 400 MHz (Or Equivalent); 64 MB RAM; 8MB DirectX 7.1 Compatible Video Card -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Nov 4, 2003
|
