Black Mirror Review – Culture of Gaming

After your father’s death, you are called to Sgathan Dubh Castle – Black Mirror Castle, for those unfamiliar with Gaelic – for the first time in your life so you may reclaim ownership of the estate… if that is what you wish. But there is something else afoot, something dark and deadly… and it’s up to you to discover what it is before its poison takes you too.

Black Mirror is a modern re-imaging of the acclaimed gothic-horror adventure Black Mirror and its two sequels. Brought to life by KING Art and published by THQ Nordic, Black Mirror follows David Gordon, who is visiting his ancestral home for the first time in his life following his father’s suicide. Sgathan Dubh Castle is a large and isolated estate set in highland Scotland. And it hides a deep, dark secret that threatens to claim David’s sanity… and his life.

The original adventure trilogy followed Samuel Gordon and Darren Michaels as they searched for the truth behind the Curse of the Black Mirror. Black Mirror is a reboot, featuring a new story and a new character, but it holds true to the atmosphere of its predecessors.

We’re thrust right into it.

Upon opening the game, I was alarmed yet intrigued to find myself in the midst of a rather intense action scene, shattering my perceptions of what this game would be like. I’d believed it would be something to one of those investigative games you would play on Facebook or the like. But no, it isn’t that at all, although it features elements like that here and there.

At the beginning – the prelude, you could say – you play as a mystery man whom I believe to be Edward Gordon, your late grandfather. He is running, he is being chased, and he is afraid. You cannot see what you are running from, which somehow makes it more chilling, although you can hear voices. Whether they are of living or dead, it’s impossible to tell.

And what a prelude it is.

This is a fairly short scene. After hiding a small totem you were carrying, and a few words about ‘your son’, you continue on until you find the spirit of a woman. A brief interaction with her, and she vanishes with a scream. You keep going until you stumble – you are quite literally stumbling – upon a Stonehenge-esque structure. In the very centre is a tablet of stone. You cut your hand and you smear upon the stone a rune with your own blood. After declaring that whomever is chasing you will not get your son, you proceed to eat the paper you carried with you… and then you smash your lamp over your head. Fuel crashes down upon your body, and fire follows.

You burn to death, and something appears beside you, something humanoid but not human. It looks around, but it does not find what it seeks.

I watched this with some apprehension, and could only really think one thing:

What the actual heck is going on here?

After that, it’s time to see the Black Mirror Castle.

The next scene is comparatively lighter than the dark, fiery demise of Grandfather Edward. David Gordon is introduced, travelling in an old-timey car through the sunset-lit highlands of 1926’s Scotland. You are made aware of a small box beside you, and you can check it. Atop it rests a note from your mother, and inside, a piece of a castle model and a scrap of paper. Six clues are scribbled on it, clues that will start your quest into discovering the truth about Sgathan Dubh.

And here’s where the mystery intensifies. You are led to your room after meeting Lady Margaret, your rather cold grandmother. After being startled by a clock and being watched by something in the darkness, you are instructed not to leave by the butler, Mr McKinnon, who cites that it could be unsafe because you don’t know the house. What’s the first thing I did? Leave and go for a wander. Once I had a candle to light my way, of course.

You’re being watched…

What did I notice?

The game features a LOT of wandering about, exploring the interior of the castle. There’s quite a lot to look at… when the camera lets you. It’s a fixed sort of camera, focusing on one area, and shifting whenever you move to another. It allows a little bit of looking around with the mouse (if you’re using a keyboard like I do). The issues I found with the camera in this style is that sometimes I could not go where I wanted to easily because I couldn’t actually see where I was going, and it was difficult to see some objects unless I was essentially on top of them. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great mechanic; I’ve seen it work in games like Final Fantasy X. In Black Mirror, it just needs a little bit of tweaking.

There also isn’t a lot of music. Most of the time I was wandering about in complete and utter silence. The music that did sound in some areas – during cutscenes, mostly, or when I found something of importance – fit in well, however. It was hauntingly ambient and had a rather prominent leitmotif to it. Which adds to the chilling mystery the game revolves around.

Glitches were abound.

After I wandered around, picked up a few objects, and met with a wonderfully grouchy Scottish man named Rory – who is the gardener of Sgathan Dubh – I headed to the library. It was there I discovered that there was more to the mystery of why I was here than I believed. Lady Margaret and the other residents of the estate were hiding things from me.

And this is where my game decided it did NOT want to play nice anymore. Instead it decided to pitch a fit at me. I could no longer flip the notes I got around, something that is important to working out the puzzles. I had to completely reset my game for this to fix. Only to encounter ANOTHER glitch with a little code I had to put in.

It ended up backwards and upside down.

This is what it was SUPPOSED to look like… This was once out of all the times I did it. Once.

Several tries later, I got it by inputting the code backwards, and worked out that puzzle. I was soon able to progress… only to encounter yet another glitch in which my candle disappeared after I set it down on a table. And two very important notes vanished as well. It was enough to disappoint me, although it only took away from the game slightly.

The puzzles provide a great challenge. It’s actually fantastic. And they work well with the mystery of the Gordons.

Any other things of note?

Outside of glitches that break the game, the characters seem well fleshed out. Most of them are quite reserved, even cold towards you. The only exception to this is Rory – who seems friendly in his own way – and the maid, who’s quite terrified of you especially when it’s revealed you can see strange things… just like your father could. That’s an aspect that further draws one into Black Mirror’s rather well-done story.

I also relate to David in a strange way: he babbles in his sleep. I do too. Some very disturbing things, admittedly. But it helped my immersion.

Another thing is that it’s not as point-and-clicky as I believed it would be. It’s a rehashing of that style, allowing for free roaming and exploration coupled with elements of a point-and-click style. For this game it works quite well, so no complaints here!

Final thoughts on Black Mirror:

This is a very well thought out game. It’s chilling, it leaves the player questioning things, and it’s reminiscent of the Eel Marsh House from The Woman in Black. With a lot of inspiration coming from Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, this game is a sure hit for lovers of gothic horror. It does need a few major fixes, especially in regards to the glitches, but above all it’s a great game with a spooky story and a thrilling mystery.