No, not THAT Black Mirror. Although, I can’t decide if this game being tied to the BBC/Netflix dark sci-fi anthology series in some weird or abstract way would make me like it more or even less than I do.
Black Mirror is a reinvention of a cult classic series of adventure games from the early 2000’s. In the mid-1920’s, protagonist David Gordon returns to his family’s home in the Scottish Highlands to investigate his father’s death. Upon a bit of digging, he learns that not all is what it seems, and the world starts twisting around him into a dark nightmare of puzzle solving and adventure game world exploration. If you’re looking for a quick and dirty breakdown of just how Black Mirror plays, think somewhere between modern Telltale games and something like Life Is Strange. It’s a great set-up for a game, but as is usually the case, it’s all in the execution. And that’s where some problems come into play.
Visually, Black Mirror can at times look striking, and at other times look like a budget title, which it is. Now, that’s not necessarily a knock against the game- Life Is Strange, for example, has all the trappings of being built on a small budget, but does great within those confines, to the point where you’re willing to overlook many of its visual flaws. The same can’t be said for Black Mirror. Because it’s individual parts each have their own unique flaws, the visuals often come across as poor, and that’s to say nothing of the game’s visual performance on a technical level. During my time with Black Mirror, I experienced several moments of framerate drop, glitches, hiccups, texture issues, and other problems that all detracted from the experience.
Interacting with the game’s world and the characters which inhabit it, can be taxing. And that’s being polite. I often couldn’t tell if it was in the line deliveries, or if the characters were meant to be portrayed this way, but most of this just felt bored, bland, and uninterested in the plot. Add to that a strict linear story progression with little room for choice or branching paths, and you’re looking at a series of puzzles and dialog exchanges which have little consequence in the grand scheme of things and feel trivial when they should feel Earth-shattering. Additionally, characters also suffer from “places, people- places!” syndrome that you often see in Bethesda games, where they have to be positioned just right before they can actually start interacting with you. It’s all very frustrating.
Let me tell you about this game’s camera. I can’t help but feel like this was never meant to be designed with a free-roaming camera in mind, and it was added at the last possible moment. It is constantly working against you to the point where you’ll with it was just removed entirely. Using it in claustrophobic environments like a small room is next to impossible- clue-hunting becomes an exercise in patience. Add to that clunky character movement which comes off as horribly dated, and you walk away from Black Mirror feeling like the development team haven’t played a single game since the original games were released. There’s a lack of streamline and polish to this title that is impossible to ignore, and that ultimately leaves the game a chore to play.
And that’s a bummer- I see potential here, but the final product doesn’t live up to it. Not in the slightest. It’s technically a game, and it’s technically playable. That’s the nicest thing I can say about it. If the studio were able to go in and overhaul the entire game from the ground up with one or two massive patches, there could be something more enjoyable here, but I honestly don’t see that ever happening. Steer clear.
