[cbman]

Originally Posted by millenia

I think 80% is exaggerating "a bit". At first you do a few menial tasks before the plot even takes off, that's just fine.

I don't think that's fine at all. Who wants to do menial tasks before they can get started!? It reminds me of NIBIRU and all of the messing around getting forms filled in and other mundane tasks for the first few hours of the game.

Sounds like this has all of the usual Unknown Identity / Future Games foibles.

[millenia]

Originally Posted by cbman

I don't think that's fine at all. Who wants to do menial tasks before they can get started!? It reminds me of NIBIRU and all of the messing around getting forms filled in and other mundane tasks for the first few hours of the game.

Sounds like this has all of the usual Unknown Identity / Future Games foibles.

To me it just adds reality. You are supposed to be a regular guy having a regular day. Then something happens. The fact that I do a couple of regular things instead of getting thrown into the action the very first second is not by any means a bad thing. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but fixing a fuse box and getting a package is not really hours of mundane tasks. Especially when you are at the same time getting to know the people and the surroundings of the game.

Originally Posted by Lana Cherin

There is everything wrong with that. If you don't complain about this dumb-it-down pandering, you've really opened the door to allowing for all kinds of mediocrity. And it manifests, as you see, throughout.

There is just nothing about this "game" that is anything but a good example of a bad (and ever-worsening) trend.

So first you attack people that enjoy easy games and then you complain that you aren't allowed to express your opinion? Kinda funny.

I don't really get why some people are mad about easy games. Lots of people enjoy easy games, why should they all be extremely hard to please some elitist group? Easy game does not equal bad game and hard game certainly does not equal good game. I play for the story and if the game isn't so stupid it rubs it in your face the whole time I rarely get turned off by it being easy. I don't understand why I couldn't enjoy easy games, think of me and others like me as some stupid sheep then if you like, if it makes your day better.

[Camical]

Originally Posted by Lana Cherin

Are you calling me a troll?

I'm sorry, I forgot to get in line. What's the opinion I should have? Should I just post a "+1" after your posts? Quote your posts and add a "this"? What about a simple thumbs up smiley at everything you say? I'm new here, so please do help me out.

[Lana Cherin]

millenia I attacked no one. I attacked the game for having easy puzzles. And I pointed out that justifying this, as the person I was talking to did, as a way to appeal to a wider audience was the reason the rest of the game was ready to suck, as it did.

If you do want me to respond to your "attack" on "some elitist group", I will:

If you enjoy menial and unchallenging crap, you've got at least 3 new HOGs coming out every frickin' day. Whereas the elitist in me would like to have just a couple of adventure games every few months.

[millenia]

Originally Posted by Lana Cherin

millenia I attacked no one. I attacked the game for having easy puzzles. And I pointed out that justifying this, as the person I was talking to did, as a way to appeal to a wider audience was the reason the rest of the game was ready to suck, as it did.

If you do want me to respond to your "attack" on "some elitist group", I will:

If you enjoy menial and unchallenging crap, you've got at least 3 new HOGs coming out every frickin' day. Whereas the elitist in me would like to have just a couple of adventure games every few months.

I am sorry but you are terribly aggressive and demeaning with your manner. A person told that the game was easy but that wasn't the part that bothered him/her. And I agree. I thought the game to be rather good and even though it was easy, that didn't take the enjoyment away for me. After that you respond as if there had to be something wrong with us for liking the game.

I was really disappointed with Still Life 2 and I have stated it in several places, even stating that there was pretty much nothing in the game I personally found even a least bit worth playing. Yet I don't see the point to go crazy with people who liked and enjoyed the game. Maybe you don't directly say "you are stupid" but that's clearly the message and seriously not needed here. Just say the game was too easy, bad, whatever but let other people think otherwise.

[Lana Cherin]

I think what's not needed here is either you or that other person who accused me of trolling telling me and others how wrong we are for not accepting your opinion of how menial tasks are just fine and easy puzzles are okey-dokey with you and that should be fine even for us elitists.

I'm sorry but that's just really a passive-aggressive manner you have there. You shouldn't be like that. You should be more like me and just be simply aggressive (terribly aggressive). Really, don't be like that and don't post like that. It's just not needed here. It's just so not needed at all. Not here. Not needed.

So, don't be like that. Okay?

[millenia]

Okay then. I just don't get why you seem to be so terribly mad. Wasn't nice that someone called you a troll but your post before that wasn't so nice either. To me it was more like encouraging the poster before you for not taking offense from your offensive response, not about calling you names.

You think the game is crap, fine. Please say so, please give as much details as you wish but don't quote people and tell how terribly wrong they are for liking the game. Or well, you can of course do that too but you shouldn't be surprised then if someone dislikes you or calls you a troll for example.

[Lana Cherin]

Please say so, please give as much details as you wish but don't quote people...

Wow.

Please butt out, please stop being such a hypocrite, and, please, stop telling me what to do, troll.

Okay then?

Okay then.

[millenia]

Well, back to the game itself.

4/5 for me. It is on the easy side but as an experiment still a great game and left me with good feelings. Not a new TLJ or anything but wouldn't be surprised if it stayed pretty high on the list of good adventures for this year. There are quite a few promising titles to come though...

All the negatives mentioned in the AG review and here are rather minor to me. I didn't think the character was too much of a jerk, I didn't think the ending was too rushed or bad in other ways and I didn't really find the puzzles tedious. The amount of backtracking is ridiculously minor compared to the first game. Of course adding a couple of delicious cutscenes and some brilliant puzzles could have surely pushed this game from goodness to greatness.

Twists once again were pretty seethrough (the first game was three-times-underlining-obvious to me) but they weren't completely cut in stone. Even though I had already thought about the scenarios in my head, the ending wasn't the only scenario I could play there. This time I think we got enough hints but had still some small room for other possibilities to be true also. And this was what kept me interested in playing it through.

BM2 is also gorgeous. I loved the locations, although in some places the restrictions to moving seemed a bit silly. The game was way smoother and friendlier to play than the first part. Main character also uses a nice journal. I just love journals . There's a diary for things that have happened and a hint section for your tasks. You have a possibility to get extra hints and use a puzzle skipper if you like to. They are hardly needed but can be a life saver if you just get stuck into one annoying spot.

Shortly:
-easy
-beautiful
-interesting story
-atmospheric
****

[honeycomb]

Originally Posted by Lana Cherin

Wow.

Please butt out, please stop being such a hypocrite, and, please, stop telling me what to do, troll.

Okay then?

Okay then.

Someone went off the deepend here.

Personally I think the games great, the pacing, the visuals and voice acting. Enjoying it a lot. You just have to let yourself get immersed.

[Melanie68]

I would like everyone to chill out. Some people like the game, some people don't. There will be no more fighting over the tone of posts and over the motivations of those posts. Any more fighting in this thread will result in infractions. Please get back to talking about the game only.

[Mohlin]

Originally Posted by Lana Cherin

If you enjoy menial and unchallenging crap, you've got at least 3 new HOGs coming out every frickin' day. Whereas the elitist in me would like to have just a couple of adventure games every few months.

What's wrong with HOGs and other casual games? I played The Stolen Venus today, took a few hours. Just what I needed after spending the morning at the hospital for my husbands radiation treatment.

Sometimes you want this, sometimes that.

[Igor]

I'm at the start of the third chapter right now and so far it's been a very enjoyable ride. Actually, it has some of the TLJ narrative quality to it. It looks like it will be a worthy successor to the first Black Mirror game.

The only thing that bothered me till this point is the lack of any "real" cut-scene. Not that the game would need much of them. But the ending of chapter 2 was very abrupt and kind of telegraphic. Kind of mood spoiling.
Strange, since till that point, the build-up was nicely slow. Some cut scene would come in handy there.

[Denaron]

Originally Posted by Igor

I'm at the start of the third chapter right now and so far it's been a very enjoyable ride. Actually, it has some of the TLJ narrative quality to it. It looks like it will be a worthy successor to the first Black Mirror game.

I agree.

I'm on chapter 4 now. I got stuck in the

Spoiler:

piano puzzle

I'm enjoying BM2 so far. Comparing to the first game, the voice acting improved a lot. I think BM2 is an formidable game for starters on the genre, the hotspot option helps a lot to avoid pixel hunting and the diary thing is an interesting way to organize the objectives.

[Sketch]

I found the game compelling, immersive, beautifully designed and very enjoyable. The setup for the threequel was interesting - I have to wonder where they can go with it now. Just have to hope that it doesn't mean waiting another age!

I finished it today, good fun! Yay, so it looks like there'll be a Black Mirror 3

I agree with various points here, particularly millenia. The difficulty setting of this game was pretty easy, BUT, just what I wanted after struggling through harder games like dracula path of the dragon, keepsake and even some of machinarium (all put on hold during BM2). It was never hard enough to get so stuck that I'd put the game down, I was able to complete the game over a week or so and feel satisfied similar to having watched a good movie.

I've been looking forward to black mirror 2 for a long time and it didn't disappoint. I think one of the reasons the first game had more atmosphere was because the voice acting was bad/stilted which in an odd sort of way gave it a creepier mood imo. Kinda like watching a really really old black and white horror movie like frankenstein or nosferatu where the acting is not good but it makes it very creepy.

The voice acting in this game is far and away some of the best I've ever heard in a game. Darren's voice actor is really good, very professional sounding, with lots of subtle nuances in the way he carries a line of dialogue.
Shame it was let down by some of the appalling english accents by presumably american actors sounding more like dick van dyke's british accent in mary poppins.Then again, I have no idea how someone like tim curry comes across to americans with his american accent in gabriel knight.

The ending is disappointing and abrupt as others mentioned, but the mention of "..to be continued" makes everything ok for me. Graphics are top notch, and it's so nice to play a point and click where you can actually change the resolution, so I was able to play in 1920 x 1080. I've got overclocked to play and having just loaded it and seen what it looks like, it's not as nice, there's no resolution settings. I do hope all adventure games from this point on cater for widescreen and high res gamers. Also, about angelina,

Spoiler:

All the way through the game I still expected her to be alive and to have a happy ending with darren. So for it to be her as the main enemy AND turning out to be his sister ( especially after a prolonged kiss with him earlier) was both a very clever story twist and also a shocking and somewhat sad turn of events

[CoyoteAG]

I just got to Day 3 and I love the game. It's easy, yes, but I'm enjoying seeing where the story goes. Can't wait to play more this weekend.

[Gabe]

I think this the one of lovely good'ol point&clickers that never gets old and deserves 5 stars coz got a map plus double click mojo,yep perfect.

[pizzo]

I'm almost finishing the game, and I can tell it's the best advenure I've already played in many years. It is a perfect sequel for Black Mirror 1.
It's good to go back to places I've been in the previous game. Sometimes I would like to go to some other places, but it's OK. The main caracter is someone that didn't know anything about the past story at the beginnig, so I have to pretend that I have to 'discover' the need to go to such places... When I got to Black Mirror Castle I sayed 'God, Finally!!' I was waiting for that moment since the begining! I still have one chapter to finish the game, and I am already waiting for Black Mirror III.

[Mayboy]

Just got onto day two and I have to say it's one of the best adventure games I've played in a while. I love how the story unfolds, it totally grips you and makes you keep playing.

My winner for 2010!