Report 75: No, not that show
Though I think the original trilogy could be a pretty good material for TV or movie adaptation.
Point’n’click game. I really liked that game back when I was a kid, but playing it all these years later, its’ flaws are pretty blatant, especially with puzzle design. It has too many “what the hell do I do now” moments, and utilizes “you have to come back later” shtick too many times. Sometimes there’s triggers you’re supposed to do first, and sometimes you actually have to move between a couple dozens screens before the game feels like “the time has passed”. There’s also a very dumb mechanic of using RMB to take a closer look at things/do something different. It doesn’t sound so bad, but the thing is, this mechanic is used maybe a dozen times throughout the whole game and NEVER explained to you.
The plot seemed very cool to me back then, it sure feels simplier and “just fine” to me. As usual in point’n’clicks, the main character does VERY questionable things all the time to achieve his goals.
And yeah, this one has a classic “key in lock on the other side of the door, slide the paper underneath the door and knock the key out on it” puzzle!
I know for a fact that I did play it, and I remember absolutely nothing about it.
This game now features a hint system, but the “wtf do I do” moments are still there. It’s much easier now since you can highlight all the points of interests on screen, which is really handy since you don’t have to do bullshit pixel hunting all the time. And you can skip puzzles now too.
This one is a direct continuation of the second one, so it doesn’t have an introductory chapter where things get going rather slowly and aimlessly (that wasn’t so bad in the first one, but man, the first hours of BM2 barely feel like a Black Mirror game). It doesn’t add much except for new map system and an ability to control two characters in the latter part of the game. Some of the final puzzles in this one are just infuriating, especially the labyrinth one, which can softlock you (and it’s one of the few you can’t skip, sadly).
The ending for the trilogy was kinda meh, but at least has a short epilogue scene unlike the second one, which just ends abruptly.
Okay, that was pretty bad. It’s a franchise reboot with all-new cast of characters and story.
Now it’s a 3d… adventure where you can move freely and interact with objects when you’re close by. Shitty puzzles, shitty quick time events. One of those “we’re bringing that franchise to the consoles”-games. In fact, it feels REALLY similar to how the last Thief game turned out, but much worse.
The plot has little to do with the original trilogy and it’s pretty bad. There was more than a few instances where the characters just jumped to wild conclusions out of nowhere just to move the plot forward, so it felt really rushed, and none of the twists feel earned.
The visuals are serviceable, but I’ve encountered quite a few graphical glitches, especially when it’s day time in the game. There was a nasty bug that crashed the game when I tried to load my manual save (thankfully, I’ve had an autosave from earlier).
Overall, I can not - and will not - recommend this game if you wanted to see the franchise in modern form, like me. It wasn’t atrociously bad, but it sure as hell isn’t good either.
Backlog progress status:
Oh to bad about the newer black mirror but at least its not like XIII where it turned a very positive into a negative. I looked at the game (black mirror) before and didn’t really know what to think but I’ll probably just ignore it after what you’ve said