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By Al Giovetti
Price:SRP $29.99 USD
Genre:graphic adventure
Release:Ship October 10, 2003
Platform: PC
ESRB Rating: M for Mature
Developer:Future Games SRO and HQ Line SRO
Screenwriter Dialogues and text:Zdenek Houb
Graphics:Michal Pekarek, Pavel Pekarek
Animation:Michal Pekarek, Pavel Pekarek, Jan Blin
Character Animation:Jan Blin
Film Sequences: Michal Pekarek, Pavel Pekarek, Jan Blin
Music:Zdenek Houb
Sound:Zdenek Houb
Programming:Martin Preisler, Zdnek Houb
AGDS System:Martin Preisler, Michael Grof
Project Supervisor:Martin Malik
Technical Support:Marcel Speta
Publisher: The Adventure Company
Senior Producer:
Acquisitions Manager and Producer:Annette Bechamp
Graphics Department Manager:James Meecham
Creative Director: Desmond Oku
Graphic Design:Elizabeth Petzold
Director International Communications:Nick Malperiman
PR Coordinator:Tara Reed
Associate Producer:
Product Manager:Renata Richardson
The Adventure Company President:Richard wah Kahn
The Adventure Company VP Marketing:Marshall Zwicker
The Adventure Company Executive Producer:Robert Stevenson
Quality Assurance Manager:Mike Adams
Quality Assurance Lead:Mike Mitres
Quality Assurance Staff:Dan Dawang, Matthew Diskson, Chris Elliott, Aldo Fazzari, Anthony Finelli, Yohany Lee, Nick Mucci, Chris Nesbitt, Shing Pang, Matthew Richardson, Matthew Szymanski, Justin Wah Kan
Creative Services:
Phone: 416-638-1170
Website: www.adventurecompanygames
Requirements:Windows 98/2000/ME/XP, Pentium II 400 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 12x CD-ROM or PC-DVD Drive, 4 MB VRAM DirectX compatible video card, DirectX 7.1 or higher, 2GB free hard disk space, DirectX compatible sound card, mouse, keyboard, speakers
Recommended:600 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM, 8 MB VRAM DirectX compatible video card

Voice Talent

Samuel Gordon - Tony Daniels
William Gordon - Daniel Kash
Butler Bates - Wally Michaels
Dr. Hermann - Thomas Hauff
Ralph/Uncle Robert - Patrick Garrow
James/Morris - Robert Hawkins
Detective Collier - Damon Redfern
Countess Victoria - Marcia Bennett
Countess Elenor - Jennifer Brass
Louis the Gardener - David Dunbar
Nurse Marie - Sarah Evans
Villiage Boy - Joseph Marrese
Harry the Pub Owner - Doug Hadders
Tom - David Webster
Mark - Paulino Nunes
Fisherman/The Vicar - Gerry Mendicino
Boilerman/Rowan - Jason MacIsaac
Murry the Junkman/Dr. Smith - Steven Hobe
Richard the Scientist - David Webster
Henry the Gardener - Harvey Atkins

The Black Mirror

Summary * History * Company Line * Game Play * Plot * Graphics * Animation * Voice Actors * Music Score * Sound Effects * Utilities * Multi-player Features * Cheats, Hints, and Walkthrough * Journalists * References * Letters

History

Summary

Company Line

All the suspense of a thriller movie on your PC.

Storyline: Samuel Gordon left his boyhood home many years ago, vowing never to return. The accidental death of his grandfather, William, forces him to make the painful journey back. After reading William's journal, Samuel learns that the death is no accident, but linked to a string of gruesome and mysterious deaths dating back 100 years. Upon investigating, Samuel discovers that he is much closer to the mystery than he thinks; in fact, he is at the very center of it.

Game Play

The game has you explore the Black Mirror castle, a graveyard, the tower where the protagonist's grandfather was just before he was murdered.

Like all good adventure games, the main character needs to solve puzzles in order to progress the plot and move into new chapters and new areas. Exploration provides the clues to unravel the puzzles.

One puzzle involves the organization of the symbols of the zodiac in ascending order around the outside of a four by four square (sixteen spaces). You need to know the symbols of the zodiac and the order that the symbols appear in by month that they pertain to. The inner four squares have blank shaped tiles, that must fit the pattern in the center.

The puzzles are not difficult. General knowledge of how to play chess allows you to open a small box. You need to use the chess movements of a knight to get two black knights in the upper corners of the three by three (nine squares total) square chess board puzzle top and the two white knights in the lower two corner squares. Anyone with a basic knowledge of chess moves can complete the puzzles easily.

Other puzzles require a knowledge of permutations and combinations from statistics. For example one puzzle requires you to arrange three levers in one of three different positions. The number of possible combinations equals three to the third power or 27 different combinations, specifically: 111, 112, 121, 122, 131, 113, 133, 123, 132, 211, 212, 221, 222, 231, 213, 233, 223, 232, 311, 312, 321, 322, 331, 313, 333, 323, and 332, where 123 means first lever first position, second lever second position, and third lever third position. You simply have to try all the combinations until you find the one that is correct.

An other type of puzzle is the knowledge of how to assemble jigsaw puzzles. The puzzle is to re-assemble the pieces of a ripped up picture or note. Those with a rudimentary pattern recognition intelligence can do this type of puzzle easily expecially with the frame provided.

In the Black Mirror Manor area an autmap assists you in moving to several locations. The map could have been enhanced with an auto travel within those main locations. Many of the main locations have multiple areas within them and walking back and forth tends to be boring.

The Manor itself has 27 areas, including a main hall entrance, main hall outside library door, main hall outside dining room door, main hall upstairs, main hall near the balcony, old tower area, attick, tower room, upper hall outside Robert's room, upper hall outside old room, front basement, back basement, old room, victoria's room, common room, front library, center library, back library, old garden, entrance to house, stairs outside to front gate, front gate, greenhouse outside, greenhouse inside, stable area outside, inside stable, and area where William died. Putting in a map for the manor house and grounds would have made it easy to select from the 27 locations and travel directly there without delay and boredom. As it is, the only easy autotravel that the game containded was to use the map to travel to the main entrance area of each main location.

The use of autotravel from a map is simply good taste in an adventure game. I am reminded of Rocket Science games who felt that their graphics were so beautiful that the game players would not mind walking around in them. While the Black Mirror graphics are beautiful with many tantilizing nude female statues, the 437th time you walk through the same scene is excutiatingly boring. Have mercy on us game players and put in autotravel to all locations.

Plot

You play Samuel Gordon (the protagonist). The story plays out in six chapters and varies little from the storyline given by the company.

The game is strictly linear. If you vary from the linear plot you die. This is a tired but effective way to organize the game. As a result, if you do not save often, the game has you replaying sections of the game over and over again as you repeatedly fail to fathom the exact order of certain tasks. This error in game design should not be found in an adventure game today. The method of "enhancing gameplay" is really just a device to increase the play time with nonsense. The designers need to add more plot and eliminate this type of transparent device since it only annoys the game player.

Graphics

The 2D graphics are highly detailed and typical of the graphics one would expect for each setting.

Animation

The animations include trees swaying in the wind, birds flying in the distance, and water that ripples and glistens. Character animation is fluid and life-like.

Voice Actors

A cast of twenty professional voice actors do a very good job on all the voices in the game.

Music Score

Zdenek Haub's music score has you on the edge of your seat.

Sound Effects

Zednek Haub has ambient noises like the patter of rain on a tin roof and that hitting the puddles and flagstones of the outdoors.

Utilities

Whenever playing a game you should save often. Just like the character in Tron 2.0, reviewed last month, who said, "I am saving every 30 seconds, you should too."

Multi-player Features