(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

(English) Black Mirror is truly hard to categorize. Compared to modern P&C adventure games it is unforgiving and difficult. There is also a kind of clunkyness in the character animations and voice acting, which, to be honest, is sort of hilarious and grows on you over time; it has a very unique style.

Now let us analyze the difficulty, which is both a positive and a negative. First of all it is refreshing to see puzzles that actually require some foreknowledge of the world. This ranges from the order of astrological signs and their star shapes to the correct way to order basic logic puzzles. Without giving any direct spoilers I will say that these are on the level of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle, give or take. So not overly difficult or anything, but as an avid P&C adventure gamer, it had been a while since I had seen a game 'not hold your hand' to this level. To be honest, this was a great refresher. It felt much more satisfying to complete a puzzle.

The down side of the game's difficulty comes from the forced sequencing it imposes on some things. To give a basic example of this annoyance: You check a box, and the protagonist says there is nothing important in it. Then you encounter a situation that requires an item X, and then if you happen to click that box again (which is at this point 5 zones back somewhere), the protagonist exclaims: "Oh, look what I have found, item X!" At other times, you need to talk to specific characters to 'advance' the story to be able to use an item on something etc. In other words your character is sort of dumb, and he takes time to realize things that you as the player may already be aware of. This can get mildly frustrating when it costs you hours of head-scratching. And the most annoying thing of all is having to 'spend time'. A few times in the game you have to wait for something to occur and you are expected to walk around to spend time. But if you have got nothing to do then it just becomes a chore of clicking through zones for five straight minutes to progress time (which is arbitrary so you have to keep going back to check).

All that being said, the game really does require one to consult a guide/walkthrough every so often to avoid these maddening moments. If you can somehow pace yourself and not overdo the guides etc. the game is very enjoyable and satisfying to progress through. But going in completely guideless would be absolute madness even for a seasoned adventure gamer - trust me! There is bound to be that illogical sequencing or single-pixel item somewhere that will prevent your progress several times.

The unforgiving part of the game is that you can die. There is no warning for this and no take-backs, you just die, and need to open up a manual save that hopefully you had! (First time this happened I had not saved for over an hour). This can be remedied by saving the game whenever you enter a brand new zone.

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(Türkçe) Evet Black Mirror gerçekten kategorize etmesi zor, oldukça değişik bir oyun tecrübesi sunuyor. Standart P&C oyunlara gore ♥♥♥ acımasız, her an hata yapıp ölebilirsiniz. Yanlış yere kafanızı sokup, hatta sadece yanlış noktaya bakarak öldüğünüz yerler mevcut. Tabi manuel olarak oyunu save etmediyseniz büyük dert oluyor bu sonra. Onun dışında, bulmacalar gerçekten kolay değil, ama bu çözünce aldığınız keyfi de o oranda arttırıyor tabi. Eğer daha modern P&C oyunlardaki zorluk seviyesi size fazla kolay geliyorsa (eminim hepimiz bunu hissediyoruzdur bazen), o zaman Black Mirror size göre olabilir. Bir başka pozitif unsur ise oynun bir trilojinin parçası olması. Grafiklerin zamansız bir güzelliği var, 2003 yapımı olmasına rağmen büyük ekranımda bi şekilde düzgün durdu. Oyunda hava durumu, gündüz-gece vs. gibi şeylerin dinamik olması da ne kadar özenle hazırlandığını gösteriyor. Oyundaki en sinir bozucu olay herhalde herşeyin biraz yavaş olması, ama buna da alışıyor insan zamanla.