I
didn’t play the original
Black Mirror, but I know it’s one of those games,
like Still
Life, that developed something of a cult following. I
did play the demo,
which I thought was quite atmospherically spooky, with an intriguing,
occultish story. Black Mirror II picks up a dozen
years after the events of the first game. A young man named Darren
Michaels is living in his mom’s small town of Biddeford, Maine, working
between semesters in a run-down photo shop. However, the events of
twelve years earlier are about to catch up with Darren, none of which
he, at first, knows about. The first couple of chapters of the story
take place in Maine, with Darren learning about his mother’s strange
past in England. Events then take Darren across the Atlantic where
the final chapters unfold in the blood-dripping environs of Black
Mirror castle and the town of Willow Creek, the scenes of the tragic
events of twelve years earlier, and also a little bit in Wales. Darren
carries around a great, horrible secret within him — literally —
that he will not fully understand until very late in the game.

Black Mirror 2
has probably the best production values of any adventure I’ve played.
It’s rendered in something they call 2.5D, with 3D sprites cavorting
across luscious 2D backgrounds. Only the backgrounds aren’t static
pictures. They come alive with smoke pouring out of chimneys and clouds
scudding across somber skies and all sorts of other neat animations.
Of course, every time I read a review of a new adventure on one of
those non-adventure gaming sites, the reviewer always bawls that the
graphics of almost any new FPS are way more advanced. That may be
true. Those console games can afford it.

The
music is likewise swell, the voice acting too is excellent, and the
writing and the story are also among the best I’ve ever encountered
in a game. The cut scenes are of cinematic quality. Heck, the interface
is smooth and classy as well. They even give the player a choice of
which cursors to use — the fancy new ones or the not-quite-as-fancy-but-nostalgic
old ones from the first Black Mirror. Of course, it goes without saying
that the most advanced feature of the game is the help system. They
give you a choice here too. You can have the elaborate, hand-holding
never-a-tense-moment help system with the handy switch that instantly
solves the standalone puzzles or, you can opt for the no-help help
system, which only includes the main character telling you what to
do and where to go every few minutes. Either way, rest assured, you
will be able to breeze through this well-crafted, fairly long game
in about fifteen hours. You’ll never have to move your main character
more than a few yards to find the solution, and on those rare occasions
when you do, the main character will promptly alert you to that necessity.

Yes, I know that many people
play adventures for the story and not for the puzzles. As I have granted
previously, one could even argue that stopping to solve puzzles does
in fact destroy the verisimilitude necessary to any good story’s continuity.
But for me, the whole raison d’etre of adventure games is the puzzles.
Yes, I love a good story and great graphics and music too, but the
main course is still the puzzles. Take those out and, IMHO, you no
longer have a game. You have an interactive story.

Which
is not to say that Black Mirror II doesn’t have puzzles.
It is indeed replete with puzzles of the standard adventure game type.
Picking up inventory items, using inventory items, occasionally combining
inventory items, as well as stumbling every now and then across a
standalone logic puzzle. They’re all well implemented. Just try to
solve one on your own and see how far you get before help arrives
in one form or another. For me, the only challenge in this game was
outwitting the help system. Of course I chose “Normal” game
play over “Easy” at the outset. I also tried not to right
click on anything, because the descriptions are often borderline spoilers.
Alas, you do occasionally have to open Darren’s diary at the top of
the screen, as a couple of important documents can be viewed full-size
only there. Otherwise, of course, the diary offers you a whole other
panoply of help, most notably a task menu of what you’re supposed
to do next. Things have gotten so schizophrenic for adventure game
publishers now that they go to great lengths and expense to create
the puzzles, then go to even greater expense to make sure no player
ever has to solve any of them.

For me, there was one telling
moment in Black Mirror II early on. Darren finds
a mysterious box amid his mother’s possessions. The box has strange
symbols on it and he will have to find the correct combination to
open it. So he carries the box around with him for a while until he
shows it to another character — who knows the combination and, presto,
opens it for him. Well, uh, gee, thanks. That’s the whole game. Intriguing,
expertly crafted, gorgeous box. No puzzle.

Be
aware that you can die in this game. In fact, you’re almost certain
to unless you’re playing directly from a walkthrough. There are a
handful of “action” sequences throughout the game. Surprisingly,
for a game so eager to help you everywhere else, you are given only
a few seconds to act before that “Game Over” screen pops
up. I would say that unless you’re an exceptionally good guesser,
you’re bound to die at least a couple of times before you spot what
you’re supposed to do. I don’t like action sequences or dying in an
adventure and I don’t understand the compulsion to include them. The
game is rated 16+ but mostly because of some Halloween fun-house gore.
There is one S&M bondage room depicted, but nothing excessively
graphic.

Technically, Black
Mirror II performed beautifully. My laptop didn’t meet even
the minimum required specs and I had no trouble, no glitches. I didn’t
even have to knock the standard configuration down. One fun wrinkle
is Darren’s camera. He snaps it only occasionally during the game,
but the player can look around in every scene for hot spots to shoot
which unlock images or mini-games in the main menu’s Extras section.
Honestly, the whole game is beautifully made. Unfortunately, since
there was zero challenge in it, I basically passed through in a daze.
No, wait, there were a few tense moments. Because the inventory band
pops up from the bottom into the lower portion of the game screen,
every now and then it was a bit tricky to use an item on a partially
covered hotspot. I finally figured out that I had to click about a
half inch above the edge of the inventory.

Almost
everything in Black Mirror II deserves an A.
The graphics, the music, the acting, the plot, the script, the interface.
Even many of the puzzles are well thought out. If only the game had
let me solve them. Without something to challenge the mind, however,
it’s all just cable TV. Which is why, despite its many sterling qualities,
I’m giving Black Mirror II an overall B.

Minimum System Requirements

• AMD or Intel single-core processor @ 1400 MHz
• 512 MB RAM (XP) / 1.024 MB RAM (Vista) / 1.536 MB RAM (Vista x64)
• AGP/PCI-E Graphics card with Shader Model 2, DirectX9 compatible
  min. 128MB VRAM (ATI Radeon 9800 or NVidia GeForce 6800) / integrated
  (onboard) graphics: Graphics with Shader Model 2, DirectX9 compatible,
  min. 128 MB VRAM (Intel GMA x4500, ATI Mobility Radeon 9800 or NVidia
  GeForce Go 6800)
• DirectX8 compatible sound card
• Microsoft Windows XP x32/x64 or Microsoft Windows Vista x32/x64
• DVD-ROM, mouse, keyboard / ca. 6 GB hard disk space

Recommended
System Requirements

• AMD or Intel Single
  or Dual-Core processor @ 2000 MHz
• 1.024 MB RAM (XP) /
  2.048 MB RAM (Vista)
• AGP/PCI-E Graphics card
  with Shader Model 3, DirectX9- compatible, min. 512 MB VRAM (ATI
  Radeon x1300 (and later) or NVidia GeForce 7000 series (and later)
  / Integrated (onboard) graphics: ATI/NVidia graphics with Shader
  Model 3, DirectX9 support, min. 256 MB VRAM
• DirectX9 compatible
  sound card
• Microsoft Windows XP
  x32/x64 or Microsoft Windows Vista x32/x64
• DVD-ROM, mouse, keyboard
  / ca. 6 GB hard disk space