Black Mirror (computer game)
| Black Mirror | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Original title | Posel Smrti | ||
| Studio | Future Games | ||
| Publisher |
 dtp entertainment Future Games |
||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
April 6, 2004 2003 |
||
| platform | Windows | ||
| genre | Point-and-click adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | mouse | ||
| medium |
CD-ROM , DVD-ROM (Special Edition), download |
||
| language | German, English, French, Italian, Russian | ||
| copy protection | Starforce and activation code, Steamworks | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
Black Mirror is the first title in a three-part point-and-click adventure series that thematically touches on elements of Gothic and Horror . It comes from the Czech game developer Future Games and was published in 2004 in Germany by the Hamburg publisher dtp entertainment . In 2009 and 2011 he also released two successors produced by his in-house development studio, Cranberry Production .
action
The action takes place in 1981 on a coastal stretch of land in Great Britain, near the fictional location Willow Creek. The focus of the game is the old Black Mirror Castle, which has been in the possession of the noble Gordon family for centuries. The protagonist of the plot is Samuel Gordon, the youngest male offspring of the family, who grew up in Black Mirror and lived there until his wife died in fire twelve years earlier. Following the tragic event, he had left the family castle and initially lived far from his old headquarters without contact with the rest of his family. Only the alleged suicide of his grandfather William Gordon by jumping out of a window can convince Samuel to return to the place of his childhood for the funeral.
Samuel himself does not believe that his grandfather committed suicide, especially without leaving a suicide note. He begins - sometimes much to the displeasure of his family members - to research the background. The closer Samuel gets to the truth, the more he is drawn into a vortex of madness and murder and encounters an ancient curse that weighs on the family. The plot is divided into six acts.
Game principle and technology
For Black Mirror, the developers used a classic point-and-click control. With the left mouse button the character is moved on the screen. In every game scene there are usually several objects that the player can interact with using the left mouse button. Objects with which the player can interact are made visible by changing the mouse cursor and fading in the object name. The possibilities for interaction include looking at an object, picking up an object or starting a conversation with another character. In a few cases, with the help of the right mouse button, additional information can be obtained and alternative courses of action can be triggered. The insights gained from these interactions are reproduced by means of screen texts with full audio.
The game offers different types of puzzles, including object, combination, switch and device puzzles as well as puzzle tasks such as the reconstruction of a torn photo. With the latter, the individual puzzle pieces can not only be moved, but also rotated with a click of the mouse, which increases the number of possible combinations. Objects are often picked up by the character for later use. They are then displayed as an image in an inventory bar, which can be displayed if necessary by moving the cursor to the lower edge of the screen. From there, they can be linked to other objects on the screen at any time with a click of the mouse. In a few cases, inventory items can also be combined with one another.
The puzzles often extend over several screen scenes, which makes a scene change necessary. To accelerate these transitions, they can be triggered directly with the help of a double click on the scene exit, without the character having to go there first. These outputs can be highlighted by pressing a button. To switch between several widely spaced scenarios, the player also has an area map available during the game, with which several scenes in between can be skipped. In many cases, objects can only be picked up or further information is only recognized by the character when certain conversations or actions have been carried out beforehand. Although a key is clearly visible on a key board, it is only when asked by another character that it is possible to interact with the object. The game still has the ability to hide the interaction options for objects that are no longer required.
Like many adventures of this period, Black Mirror also uses a mixture of 2D and 3D graphics. While the background images of the almost 120 locations were designed two-dimensionally, the game character is animated as a polygon model in real time and all NPCs and some objects as three-dimensional sprites . A technique called Environmental FX was used for environmental animations such as rain or wind movements.
Production notes
The original Czech title Posel Smrti translates as the messenger of death, but the game was first marketed internationally as Black Mirror or The Black Mirror in many European countries and later also in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The developers cited the adventure Runaway as inspiration for their game, and works by Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe for the plot .
The main character Samuel Gordon was largely modeled after the actor Johnny Depp , who had appeared several times in films with occult or horror themes ( The Secret Window , The Nine Doors , Sleepy Hollow ), to which Black Mirror has a certain resemblance. In the German version, David Nathan, one of Depp's standard dubbing voices, set the main character to music, and there are also visual parallels between Samuel and the actor. The German publisher dtp also hired numerous well-known voice actors for the remaining roles.
The German version of the game has been modified in some details compared to the original Czech version. In the original version there was the possibility of getting into a playful dead end, which made a restart absolutely necessary. At some points in the game, the program forced the player to wait, which in the worst case, condemned him to idleness. At the end of the game, some speech output sentences were also added.
The first German version of the game appeared in 2004 on two CD-ROMs. It was followed in 2005 by a special edition on a DVD that contained some gimmicks in addition to the game . All appeared to disk German versions of Black Mirror is subject to both the controversial StarForce - copy protection as well as through a registration code protected from duplication. Since June 17, 2014, the game has also been available on the digital game platform Steam . In the version offered there, only the platform's own account binding based on online license validation is used as copy protection.
In 2009 and 2011, the German publisher dtp published two successors developed by its in-house development studio Cranberry Production . Parallel to the release of Black Mirror 2 , the German audio play label Lübbe Audio released two radio plays for the first part. On the one hand, it is a radio play adaptation of Black Mirror - The Dark Mirror of the Soul (published on September 25, 2009) and, on the other hand, a previous story entitled Black Mirror - The Secret of the Gordons (published on November 14th 2009), which looks at the events leading up to the death of Samuel's wife, Cathrin Gordon. In April 2014, the meanwhile insolvent dtp Entertainment sold the trademark rights to Black Mirror to the Swedish publisher Nordic Games .
synchronization
| role | German speaker | English speaker | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Gordon | David Nathan | Tony Daniels | protagonist |
| Victoria Gordon | Ursula victory | Marcia Bennett | Samuel's grandmother and wife of William |
| Robert Gordon | Bernd Stephan | Patrick Garrow | Son of William, Samuel's uncle |
| Eleanor Gordon | Angela Stresemann | Jennifer Brass | Samuel's great-aunt, wife of Richard |
| Richard Gordon | Rolf Becker | Samuel's great-uncle, husband of Eleanor | |
| William Gordon | Rolf Jülich | Daniel Cash | Samuel's late grandfather |
| Bates | Jörg Gillner | Wally Michaels | Gordons butler |
| Doctor Hermann | Hans Sievers | Thomas Hauff | Gordons family doctor |
| James | Martin May | Robert Hawkins | Williams illegitimate son |
| Inspector Collier | Gernot Endemann | Damon Redfern | investigating police officer |
| Morris | Joscha Fischer-Antze | Robert Hawkins | Groom |
reception
| German-speaking area | ||
|---|---|---|
| publication | Rating | |
| PC Games | 81% | |
| GameStar | 80% | |
| PC world | 84% | |
| 4players | 84% | |
| English speaking area | ||
| IGN | 7.2 / 10 | |
| GameSpot | 5.5 / 10 | |
| Meta-ratings | ||
| GameRankings | 60.76% | |
| Metacritic | 58% | |
While the international ratings for The Black Mirror (English title) were subdued to mediocre (Metacritic: 58 out of 100), the German version enjoyed good reviews.
The good results in the German trade press were justified several times by the testers with a successful synchronization. The professional performance of the German speakers underlines the exciting storyline very well. In comparison, the developer was also dissatisfied with the quality of the English voice output.
The accompanying music was praised to the same extent. The mysterious plot has parallels to the short stories Edgar Allen Poe such as The Downfall of the House of Usher or The Double Murder on Rue Morgue . The puzzle design was described as mostly logical and fair, only the unnecessary right-click actions and the fact that many objects only become visible as interactable objects after appropriate dialogues were criticized. The game is also sometimes too frugal with hints to solve a riddle. The lack of a diary function makes it difficult to keep an overview of the most important events and intermediate steps. The numerous necessary changes of scenery were also criticized, which would drag the game out unnecessarily, especially at the beginning. At the same time, the game was credited with being bearable thanks to a direct change of scene with the help of a double click. The graphics were rated as out of date and the animations of the characters were described as stiff. The individual scenes were also characterized by detailed backdrops and a coherent background in the form of weather events and the like.
The trade magazine Adventure Gamers placed Black Mirror in its list of Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games in 2011 at number 83.
Sequels
Black Mirror 2
The first sequel was published at the end of September 2009 under the title Black Mirror 2 for Windows and was no longer developed by Future Games , but by the German development studio Cranberry Production belonging to dtp. In terms of content, it begins twelve years after the events of the first part. Thousands of miles away from Willow Creek, in Biddeford, Maine, USA, student Darren Michaels works in a photography business during his semester break until his quiet life takes a fateful turn. The core of the plot of Black Mirror 2 is a romance between the protagonist Darren and a customer named Angelina. When they first meet, Darren suspects that Angelina is being followed and threatened. When Angelina suddenly disappears from Biddeford, Darren begins to investigate in Willow Creek and looks for places known from the predecessor. Through countless murders and a mysterious order, Darren involuntarily realizes that there is more to the curse of the Gordons than he first wanted to believe.
Black Mirror 2 also relies on a mixture of 2D backgrounds and 3D characters, for which the developers used the vision engine from the German provider Trinigy .
Black Mirror 3
The third part of the Adventure series, also developed by Cranberry Production, was released on February 4, 2011 for Windows. The plot picks up seven minutes after the events of Black Mirror 2 . The completely disturbed Darren (now Adrian Gordon) is taken into custody in front of the still burning castle of his family because he is suspected of being responsible for the fire and the deaths of innocent people. He is released after three weeks because an anonymous person pays the bail for him. When trying to prove his innocence, he begins to doubt it himself. Defending himself from the beginning madness, he has only one choice: to break the curse of the Gordon family or to become his last victim. Graphically, the game is similar to Black Mirror 2 , so it again offers 3D objects and figures in front of a pre-rendered background.
Black Mirror (2017)
In 2014, the Swedish publisher and developer Nordic Games bought the trademark rights to Black Mirror from the insolvent Dtp Entertainment. The fourth part of the series, a simple black mirror called prequel , which deals with the history of Gordon in 1926, was announced in August 2017 and published in November of the same year. The developer was the German studio King Art . The focus of the game is David Gordon, who travels to the family seat in Scotland after the suicide of his father and there to investigate the background of the death of his father, who turned to the occult . In addition to the classic point-and-click elements, these appearances should also incorporate new game mechanics into the game. In contrast to the pre-rendered backgrounds of its predecessors, the 2017 reboot has a 3D game environment calculated in real time.
Web links
- Black Mirror series at MobyGames (English)
- Complete solution (PDF) on PCGames.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Jörg Luibl: Test: Black Mirror - The dark mirror of the soul . In: PC Games . Computec Media Group . April 20, 2004. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
- ↑ a b c David Bergmann: Test: Black Mirror - The dark mirror of the soul . In: 4Players . freenet AG . April 8, 2004. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
- ↑ a b c d e Black Mirror: Interview . In: GBase . March 31, 2005. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
- ^ Future Games ( Memento of March 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Internet presentation of the developer, accessed on January 13, 2012.
- ↑ a b c Matthias “Creedy” Prinz: Test: Black Mirror - The dark mirror of the soul . In: Adventure-Treff . April 18, 2004. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
- ↑ Review on Adventurecorner.de: Black Mirror
- ↑ Lübbe Audio . Product page, accessed January 13, 2012.
- ↑ Lübbe Audio . Product page, accessed January 13, 2012.
- ↑ Black Mirror - Nordic Games takes over Adventure brand
- ↑ gamestar.de "The Black Mirror" on GameStar (accessed on July 30, 2018)
- ↑ pcwelt.de Test of "Black Mirror" on PC-Welt (accessed on July 30, 2018)
- ↑ 4Players.de Conclusion on "Black Mirror" on 4Players (accessed on July 30, 2018)
- ↑ ign.com Review of "The Black Mirror" on IGN accessed on July 30, 2018 (English)
- ^ Scott Osborne: Test "Black Mirror". In: GameSpot . CBS Corporation , accessed July 2, 2014 .
- ↑ gamerankings.com "The Black Mirror" on GameRankings (accessed July 30, 2018)
- ↑ a b Metacritic.com , Average PC Rating, accessed January 13, 2012
- ↑ Collection of reviews on the German-language games website (Archive.org) ( Memento from May 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ AdventureGamers.com: Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games. Retrieved January 10, 2016 .
- ↑ Bodo Naser: Another change of developer . In: 4Players . freenet AG . April 9, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ↑ Bodo Naser: First Facts: Black Mirror 2 . In: 4Players . freenet AG . September 15, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ↑ gameswelt.de: News: Black Mirror 3 - Not coming this year from August 19, 2010
- ↑ a b press release on dtp website
- ↑ Gamestar.de: Black Mirror - Nordic Games takes over adventure brand. Retrieved April 15, 2019 .
- ↑ PCGames.de: Black Mirror: New horror adventure from the dwarf makers. Retrieved April 15, 2019 .
- ↑ The Game - Black Mirror. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .