The Black Mirror

The Black Mirror

released on Oct 17, 2003

The Black Mirror

released on Oct 17, 2003

Black Mirror is a dark adventure game that details the aftermath of the tragic death of William Gordon. Playing as his grandson Samuel players must unveil the truth behind the events of that fateful, stormy night.


Also in series

Black Mirror
Black Mirror
Black Mirror III: Final Fear
Black Mirror III: Final Fear
Black Mirror II: Reigning Evil
Black Mirror II: Reigning Evil

Released on

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More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

An adventure never completed on my teen days, when I was OBSESSED with graphic adventures. I can understand why.

1. It's glaciar paced,
2. it's confusing
3. most puzzles make sense but their steps don't
4. it suffers from inventory hoarding (and most objects are never used again)
5. its english dub is all over the place (everyone in that sanatorium is dead inside and Samuel makes the most shocking revelations being the most relaxed contrasting with several accusations he makes where he sounds quite convincing)
6. animations are waaaaaaay tooooooo slooooooow (even with some weird out of synch framerate where the main character goes 24-ish FPS but the one you're about to talk to goes maybe half the speed).

Nonetheless, its atmosphere works even though there are plot holes everywhere, It's just the main mystery is weird enough to go on. Plot is pristine clear from chapter one: collect some talismans. Everything that happens between that and the rushed ending is just lore with weird connections to the main plot. If any!

So bad it works. Barely. But I want to play the next one so...

P.D. Main menu opens with a phrase: The past is a diverted mirror of your soul which is quite ominous and rather victorian. And it's one of the closing statements of the game. However, past is never confronted, always referred to and, in the end, not important.
Three writers this game had... three! And none of them thought about, I don't know, proofreading their main theme. It's beautiful that it works even so.

The Black Mirror features a great overall story but there are a lot of things gameplay wise that I really didn’t enjoy very much. From the pixel hunting and frustrating puzzle design to the forced pausing of the story and hit or miss voice acting, The Black Mirror has been a rather mediocre adventure experience and while I do praise its story, I feel the overall experience has been a letdown.

low 3.5

its an adventure game! it suffers from the usual Adventure Game problems of obtuse puzzles and general jank but the real pain of this game is from the segments of having to wait for an unspecified amount of time for quests before being able to progress. its annoying and vague and really shouldve been swapped for some other sort of mechanic

but it was fun! samuel is a rude little dunce which was funny. the voice acting is actually pretty good albeit sort of slow but you can just skip over it if you click. some of the character animations are too slow for their own good and made me think the game had frozen but idk if that was just my computer or what. all of the areas look cool and some are just super pretty too.

overall i enjoyed it and will probably try to play the sequels and maybe even the remake out of curiosity

wonderful settings and has a few moments of nice spooky atmosphere but god this was a fucking slog to play sometimes. even when looking at it in context of point and click adventure games and how obtuse they can be.

tons of context sensitive interactive items/objects or even dialogue choices that can only be chosen after other things have been done, frequently without rhyme or reason. there's multiple points throughout the game where someone will ask you to wait and ask them about something later which left you to fuck off through the map pixel hunting for stuff to interact with if you've done everything else that was possible until then.

i'd be willing to give the next two games in the series a go if they keep what was nice about this while easing up on some of the more unpleasant elements.

Was für ein Adventure...

Black Mirror ist nicht mein erstes Point-and-Click Adventure gewesen, jedoch wohl jenes, welches mit seiner düsteren Atmosphäre und seinen wunderschön gerenderten Hintergründen zu meinen großen Lieblingen zählt.

Die dunklen Geheimnisse des Schlosses Black Mirror nach und nach zu lüften, Samuel Gordon dabei zu begleiten wie er langsam den unerklärlichen Morden auf die schliche kommt..

Das alles Spielte sich damals (wie auch heute) für mich immer mehr wie ein guter Roman als ein normales Adventure-Game und so würde ich auch jeden empfehlen dieses Spiel zu genießen. Am besten den Raum in warmes aber recht dunkles Licht hüllen, eine Tasse Tee an die Seite und eintauchen.

Startet man das Spiel, so fällt einem gerade dank der maximal Auflösung von 800x600 gerne auf das es sich hier um ein wirklich altes Spiel handelt. Natürlich können die vorgerenderten Hintergründe mit ihren Animationen nicht mit einem Resident Evil Remake mithalten, jedoch sind diese immer noch stimmig und schön gemacht. Einzig und allein das fehlen einiger Komfortfunktionen, welche man heute gewohnt ist, wie z.B. das Anzeigen aller klickbaren Elemente im Bild (wurde erst mit dem zweiten Teil eingeführt) oder das schnell Lösen eines Rätzels würden mir störend Auffallen, mich jedoch nicht davon abhalten es jedes Jahr wieder mal durchzuspielen.

Die Rätzel..
Nun ja, einige davon sind gut machbar und spaßig, andere wiederum sind so verschachtelt und kryptisch das Sie aus meiner Sicht fast schon nur mit einer Lösung zu machen sind. Über diesen Punkt kann ich aber gerne hinweg sehen wenn ich im nächsten Moment auf die Uhr schaue und merke wie es draußen Dunkel geworden ist, weil ich vollkommen die Zeit vergessen habe.. wie bei einem guten Buch eben.

Der wunderbar passende und stimmige Soundtrack sowie die (in der Deutschen Fassung) sehr hochwertige Synchronsprecherauswahl runden das ganze ab und machen den ersten Black Mirror Teil auch heute noch zu einem zeitlosen Klassiker.