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The Black Mirror

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Joined 2004-08-01

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Just finished it. I wrote a user review (2 generous stars), but it’s spoiler-free. So, two questions that bug me and are spoiler-ful:
1. Was anyone here really surprised by the world’s most predictable twist ending? The writing was just so unbelievably bad to allow that reveal. I mean, why on earth wouldn’t the police suspect Samuel?
2. That part where you have to throw the helmet and sword into a hole in the ground to make a floor magically appear - was this reasonable in any way? Was there some clue I missed, or is this a bog-standard moon logic puzzle?

     
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Antrax - 30 September 2014 03:12 PM

Just finished it. I wrote a user review (2 generous stars), but it’s spoiler-free. So, two questions that bug me and are spoiler-ful:
1. Was anyone here really surprised by the world’s most predictable twist ending? The writing was just so unbelievably bad to allow that reveal. I mean, why on earth wouldn’t the police suspect Samuel?
2. That part where you have to throw the helmet and sword into a hole in the ground to make a floor magically appear - was this reasonable in any way? Was there some clue I missed, or is this a bog-standard moon logic puzzle?

tho I had watched Angel Heart (the movie) before playing the black mirror, I liked the ending and I was surprised by the guts of the developer to use such cliché , it was dark ending (as it should) and not one of those happily ever after $h%#!

and they suspected him starting from the fourth chapter , with the dic’ Qs it was obvious ‘they suspected’

 

     

Total Posts: 813

Joined 2004-08-01

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I have to disagree. There’s a part where Samuel walks out of the morgue, and runs into the detective. “Oh hey, there’s a body in there” he casually mentions. The detective just thanks him. Does he not think it suspicious Samuel didn’t call 911? That he’s so level-headed? Even barring that, that’s the fourth body Samuel was around, how on earth does he not end up at least interrogated?
And the bit where James writes “SAMUEL” in blood? Beyond wondering where the blood came from, does that not strike anyone as at least somewhat suspicious?

Sorry, no. The writing is awful.

     
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I remember thinking the same before, and I came with a conclusion that it wasn’t that bad writings toward Samuel’s not being suspect and all..
I have to (maybe) replay this part, or watch a playthrough you exactly what I thought of.


but I remember thinking him being a Gordon was what kept him out of any suspicions, living for 15 years away of black mirror/willow creek,  also the fact he had just arrived and doesn’t know any (or at least most; counting Robert) of the dead/killed people, plus the absence of any motive (at least this is how the detective would see, as all those hocus pocas stories of a curse wouldn’t bother him at all) , the short while the game happen/Samuel-stay (within 4-5 days?), as it could have be too early for the detective to come up any suspicious ‘needed’ toward him…

as for James, I don’t quite remember but Bobby did say something to Samuel that had eased my mind toward the fact why Samuel name is written the wall (and why not maybe it wasn’t James at all, writers do this kind of unexplained issues through their stories only them knowing about, all the time!), as for Hermann death and the detective thanking him ‘as you have mentioned above’, I remember he casually asked him to not leave willow creek and something about questioning him later on.

I am not trying to defend the written story and script, but I just remember I had all those questions when I finished but also remember I came out satisfied at the end.. but not much details, tho.
plus the writers job is to keep you as a player away from suspecting Samuel, right? without going overboard with logic, as it could destroy the catch and that twist they intend to hit you with at the end

Antrax I suggest you change the thread name to The Black Mirror Ending (spoilers!)  or something like that Smile

     
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Joined 2013-03-14

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I’ve been trying to plow this one through, as that’s pretty much how the game feels like, and it warms my mind to know that the game actually can get worse than it is.

     

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You should go read my review, towards the end it just drops all pretenses and outright tells you “fuck you for playing me”.

     
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so if you already knowing everything you asked about and sure of it 100%, why the heck you gave this as if it suggests you want some answers! or is that your way for saying ‘this game is fucked up!’ ??

tomimt - 01 October 2014 02:30 AM

I’ve been trying to plow this one through, as that’s pretty much how the game feels like, and it warms my mind to know that the game actually can get worse than it is.

I don’t get it, tho I tried,.. you didn’t play it at all, right?

     
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No, I’m currently playing it, but it’s just so god damned tedious game, that I will most likely just drop it all together, unless I’ll take a walkthrough and muster on whit that. As far game design goes, it has had almost everything in it I hate about adventure games. If it has one big maze somewhere, then it’s a jackpot.

     
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Maze :Check (not big at all, if not to be considered a maze in the 1st place)
but then this adventure got all the gameplaying style. of how I think adventure games should be..
remember this post before,http://www.adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/2919/
got many details about BM gameplaying (no spoilers) ,and I remember you replayed otherwise (that ags shouldn’t be sophisticated like this)

     
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There’s nothing sophisticated about the game design of Black Mirror. It’s just an exercise of slowly walking from screen to screen and clicking EVERTYHING so you can go in another scene to do the same. And if you’re lucky you’ll get a puzzle to solve. It also has an UI oddity where you most of the time can go on by clicking left mouse button but at times you need to use right mouse button.

If you really think adventures should be like Black Mirror, then yeah, I can honestly say our view of the genre isn’t even on the same planet.

     

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Joined 2010-08-21

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tomimt - 01 October 2014 10:41 AM

No, I’m currently playing it, but it’s just so god damned tedious game….

At last, people who seem to dislike Black Mirror almost as much as I did back when I slogged through the greater part of it then gave up.  It was not only tedious, it was completely beyond my ability to ‘suspend disbelief’ and I remember wondering if the people who praise Black Mirror actually played this mess of a game. 

 

     

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Sorry to disappoint, the maze is small Smile

Advie, I was hoping there were mitigating factors, like some of the more outlandish puzzles clued somehow or maybe I missed a part of the plot like happened with The Samaritan Paradox.

     
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tomimt - 01 October 2014 11:28 AM

If you really think adventures should be like Black Mirror, then yeah, I can honestly say our view of the genre isn’t even on the same planet.

No don’t say that . we both love colonel’s bequest Grin

you are missing the ‘whole’ point, its not about BM, its about the design that can be done by several features at BM, if tuned in at any adventure making it more challenging for different tastes, and whats nice that these feature in the same time could be excluded (hypothetically speaking) at the game menu same ‘lets say’ as with hotspot revealer case at some ags, these points are like i.e:

-Samuel never says what its needed to be done ever, and that could be a feature, only will make the devs work little harder while polishing the game and then you have a new kind of difficulty design.

-all locations are available all ‘or most’ of the time, also this could be handled at the design to lock useless locations, another design type need more polishing work and another kind of difficulty level.

-Inventory item flashes with the right combination , it could also be an option as its already with many other games (not many really)

-while the story moving on new items/places appear as hotspots, not like all ags hotspots shown, stay the same from the very 1st sec until the end. .. and a couple of things ‘more’ could be very trivial (no need to bring in. I think these are enough for the idea) but they do/could spice up any adventure (imo)

yeah BM got it all on the bad side of casual players, but it also given them all in way for the 1st time, only at BM and the other Future-Games sags, had it this way… and BM was the 1st of them.

so imagine that design/story/puzzles for every ag could be left as it is, but just to tweak them or to tweak the difficulty with those options/features, just like remixing old songs, you take the tracks already recorded and create something better or lets just say different. could be very helpful if considered with all the remakes given or to be given..

that what I like about BM, and dislike because they were never optional, as if the devs didn’t know they have created a nice formula to the adventure gaming design with many features, if all put together (and optional) you create 3-4 different difficulties levels of any ag.

     
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Joined 2012-09-28

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*shrugs* I thought it was a good story. I was always interested to see what happened next and didn’t find it a slog, unlike BM2 and 3. Maybe it’s because I don’t consider the two problems you point out to be very important, or detrimental to the game’s wonderful atmosphere.

     
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Joined 2005-09-29

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Antrax - 30 September 2014 03:12 PM

Just finished it. I wrote a user review (2 generous stars), but it’s spoiler-free. So, two questions that bug me and are spoiler-ful:
1. Was anyone here really surprised by the world’s most predictable twist ending? The writing was just so unbelievably bad to allow that reveal. I mean, why on earth wouldn’t the police suspect Samuel?
2. That part where you have to throw the helmet and sword into a hole in the ground to make a floor magically appear - was this reasonable in any way? Was there some clue I missed, or is this a bog-standard moon logic puzzle?

1.
I had quit PnCs around that time. This game atmosphere was just so apparent from the
screens , i was like i have to play this. I felt lucky to have something like this to get even simple translation. The atmosphere and mystery unfolding was good enough for its time.

I guess people playing this should keep in mind the time it was released.
It probably haven’t aged well but still the manor and its lore are good.

2.

I think GK3 had equally stupid elements in the end. So i didn’t mind.

 

 

     
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nomadsoul - 01 October 2014 07:49 PM

...This game atmosphere was just so apparent from the
screens , i was like i have to play this. I felt lucky to have something like this to get even simple translation. The atmosphere and mystery unfolding was good enough for its time.

I guess people playing this should keep in mind the time it was released.
It probably haven’t aged well but still the manor and its lore are good.

The atmosphere did it for me too & I really liked the story - as for when it was released it did seem like a real treat at the time!

     

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