[ 1 DVD ]
- Published by : Viva Media, LLC
- Developed by : DTP Entertainment , Cranberry Production
- Genre :Adventure
- Release Date : Apr 19, 2011
In a thrilling capper to the dark, haunting Black Mirror series, Cranberry Production has brought forth a fantastic “final chapter” in Black Mirror III. The opening cinematic thrusts you into the midst of an escape from a fiery scene of death, as Darren Michaels is racing through the woods carrying a burning torch. Those familiar with the climactic but abrupt ending of Black Mirror II will know what Darren is racing from. Newcomers should really run out and play the first two games to bone up on the series’ rich history, as anyone who hasn’t will only know that a fire is raging at the Black Mirror Castle. This places them at the same disadvantage as Inspector Spooner, who wants to know what Darren has to do with the blaze, as well as several murders in and around the town of Willow Creek. Either way, all players will be rewarded with a vastly satisfying adventure that spins a fascinating tale that takes us into the mind of someone who may be slowly going insane.
Like its immediate predecessor, you’ll play this game as Darren, an American physics student with dark ties to the castle. Now calling himself Adrian, here he must navigate his way through hounding policemen, secret notes from anonymous benefactors, surly townsfolk, and a tangled, tragic family history. With no tangible link between Adrian and the recent crimes, he is eventually released from custody after someone mysteriously pays for his bail. Seeking to prove his innocence, Adrian explores the sleepy yet sinister town of Willow Creek for evidence that will prove someone else was behind the murders.
Willow Creek is a place that hasn’t really moved forward at all in time, and the history it wallows in is bloody. The town square is still encircled by old timber-framed buildings, with dark swinging wooden signs, but in the three weeks since the finale of the second game, it has undergone a variety of changes, including the opening of an out-of-place modern café, the closing of a town fair, and the addition of a psychotherapist’s office. The village is surrounded by an ominous autumn forest with bare trees arching menacingly over the paths. The neighboring town of Warmhill, which despite its comforting name houses all of the town’s dead in a spooky cemetery, is back from the first game, and you’ll be able to roam the woods and grounds surrounding both towns, as well as a mid-renovation Black Mirror Castle itself. The castle is now ramshackle and burned out, hulking darkly at the top of its hill. It has lost some of its grandeur now, as you’ll notice spent fireworks and used cans left behind by vandals outside the usually imposing front gate. With all of the exploring you do, the interactive map comes in handy, as it allows you to instantly travel to major locations once you’ve discovered them.
Once again, these environs are rendered in a grim and realistic style, with nary a ray of sunshine to be found. In fact, the only real sunlight I can recall is the light streaming through a church’s stained glass window illuminating mourners at a funeral. The prerendered backgrounds can be as unnerving as they are gorgeous, with depth and detail everywhere you look – even when you don’t want to look, like at the decrepit mansion looming in the woods, where hints of hideous human experiments and torture seep through the crevices. The building is home to blood-splashed tile floors with drains for fluids, and in sickening contrast, another level is littered with empty pizza boxes and beer bottles amid the grotesquerie, the sign of a truly callous human being living there. Elsewhere, in a fantastic use of color, Lady Victoria, the ailing Gordon family matriarch, sleeps in her bed illuminated by sickly green lamps, her huge oak bed swathed in blood red covers while red curtains keep the light out from the outside. Every color choice adds to the sick miasma that hangs over the scene.
Small ambient animations set against these 2D backdrops ramp up the creep factor. Many shed light on a character’s psychology or set the mood of a scene: The flickering TV screen in a drifter’s hideaway flashes a sex line phone number, and a Newton’s cradle swings back and forth hypnotically in the psychotherapist’s office. Character animations add realism and interest to each scene as well. Dr. Winterbottom smokes her cigarette as she analyzes Adrian, and Denise, the two-timing waitress at the Willow Creek café, chats with Adrian while her reflection wavers behind her in the modern glass backsplash. There are some shortcuts in the animation, however. For example, when Adrian has to do something complicated with his hands, the screen may go black or he’ll move to a difficult-to-see location. Some of these cutaways are tastefully done: Adrian will thankfully block the player’s view of a torture film as he stands in front of the television watching in horror. Other animations you may wish were hidden from view, such as when Adrian snaps off a corpse’s body part (yes, it’s necessary, and yes, you’ll need it).
The cinematics aren’t cutting-edge, but they are good enough to capture the tortured character of Adrian, his haggard face aged by the soul of Mordred, the ancient Gordon family ancestor who now torments him. The cutscenes are generally short, adding tension and background story where necessary, such as replaying Adrian’s haunting memories with an increasing number of secrets revealed during each playback. Some of these are definitely not for the faint of heart, as violent images spring forth from Adrian’s disturbed mind: a flash of a stabbing pencil or the downward swing of a pillow used to suffocate.
Black Mirror III makes equally great use of sound. Whether it’s the whistling of wind through forest leaves in counterpoint to the sighing of violins, or the grinding of stone upon stone as you push open a sarcophagus, the background effects really add depth to the experience. At times when it seems Adrian is in danger of losing control, you’ll hear the thumping of a heartbeat, which never failed to quicken my own heartbeat as well. The music throughout is subtle and evocative of the overall grim tone of the game, with somber piano tunes and violin strings moaning in the background.
Despite the occasional glimpses of backstory, the amount of background provided is minimal, and new players could find themselves lost in a storyline as deep and involved as this one. How does Adrian relate to the ghoulish Mordred? In the last game he discovered some unsettling secrets about his family history and personal identity that are beneficial for players to already know. The game also relies on established relationships that Adrian now has with many Willow Creek natives, such as Tom, an angry pub owner, and Ralph, a childlike tortured soul. Similarly, certain settings such as a ruined academy and burned-out lighthouse will have a lot more resonance for players familiar with the first two games. However, the story told in Black Mirror III stands well enough on its own, and discovering what Adrian’s true destiny is and what the ancient Gordon curse has to do with him and his current troubles will be interesting to both new and returning players alike.
Much of that is due to the writing, which is full of cynical, dark, and often funny observations. Inspector Spooner comments on a colleague’s bird-brained observation about a murder victim: “Yeah, maybe she was cold and set herself on fire – for god’s sake, am I the only one with a brain around here?” Adrian, exhausted by the town’s fixation on his role in the murders, puts his own special sarcastic twist on a potential venture: “Yeah, right next door is the Black Mirror Special Café with Ritual-Blood cappuccinos and Latte Morbidato.” And the always colorful hotelier Murray notes that he’s a “business man, not a murderer; a small but absolutely fine distinction.”
Like its immediate predecessor, you’ll play this game as Darren, an American physics student with dark ties to the castle. Now calling himself Adrian, here he must navigate his way through hounding policemen, secret notes from anonymous benefactors, surly townsfolk, and a tangled, tragic family history. With no tangible link between Adrian and the recent crimes, he is eventually released from custody after someone mysteriously pays for his bail. Seeking to prove his innocence, Adrian explores the sleepy yet sinister town of Willow Creek for evidence that will prove someone else was behind the murders.
Willow Creek is a place that hasn’t really moved forward at all in time, and the history it wallows in is bloody. The town square is still encircled by old timber-framed buildings, with dark swinging wooden signs, but in the three weeks since the finale of the second game, it has undergone a variety of changes, including the opening of an out-of-place modern café, the closing of a town fair, and the addition of a psychotherapist’s office. The village is surrounded by an ominous autumn forest with bare trees arching menacingly over the paths. The neighboring town of Warmhill, which despite its comforting name houses all of the town’s dead in a spooky cemetery, is back from the first game, and you’ll be able to roam the woods and grounds surrounding both towns, as well as a mid-renovation Black Mirror Castle itself. The castle is now ramshackle and burned out, hulking darkly at the top of its hill. It has lost some of its grandeur now, as you’ll notice spent fireworks and used cans left behind by vandals outside the usually imposing front gate. With all of the exploring you do, the interactive map comes in handy, as it allows you to instantly travel to major locations once you’ve discovered them.
Once again, these environs are rendered in a grim and realistic style, with nary a ray of sunshine to be found. In fact, the only real sunlight I can recall is the light streaming through a church’s stained glass window illuminating mourners at a funeral. The prerendered backgrounds can be as unnerving as they are gorgeous, with depth and detail everywhere you look – even when you don’t want to look, like at the decrepit mansion looming in the woods, where hints of hideous human experiments and torture seep through the crevices. The building is home to blood-splashed tile floors with drains for fluids, and in sickening contrast, another level is littered with empty pizza boxes and beer bottles amid the grotesquerie, the sign of a truly callous human being living there. Elsewhere, in a fantastic use of color, Lady Victoria, the ailing Gordon family matriarch, sleeps in her bed illuminated by sickly green lamps, her huge oak bed swathed in blood red covers while red curtains keep the light out from the outside. Every color choice adds to the sick miasma that hangs over the scene.
Small ambient animations set against these 2D backdrops ramp up the creep factor. Many shed light on a character’s psychology or set the mood of a scene: The flickering TV screen in a drifter’s hideaway flashes a sex line phone number, and a Newton’s cradle swings back and forth hypnotically in the psychotherapist’s office. Character animations add realism and interest to each scene as well. Dr. Winterbottom smokes her cigarette as she analyzes Adrian, and Denise, the two-timing waitress at the Willow Creek café, chats with Adrian while her reflection wavers behind her in the modern glass backsplash. There are some shortcuts in the animation, however. For example, when Adrian has to do something complicated with his hands, the screen may go black or he’ll move to a difficult-to-see location. Some of these cutaways are tastefully done: Adrian will thankfully block the player’s view of a torture film as he stands in front of the television watching in horror. Other animations you may wish were hidden from view, such as when Adrian snaps off a corpse’s body part (yes, it’s necessary, and yes, you’ll need it).
The cinematics aren’t cutting-edge, but they are good enough to capture the tortured character of Adrian, his haggard face aged by the soul of Mordred, the ancient Gordon family ancestor who now torments him. The cutscenes are generally short, adding tension and background story where necessary, such as replaying Adrian’s haunting memories with an increasing number of secrets revealed during each playback. Some of these are definitely not for the faint of heart, as violent images spring forth from Adrian’s disturbed mind: a flash of a stabbing pencil or the downward swing of a pillow used to suffocate.
Black Mirror III makes equally great use of sound. Whether it’s the whistling of wind through forest leaves in counterpoint to the sighing of violins, or the grinding of stone upon stone as you push open a sarcophagus, the background effects really add depth to the experience. At times when it seems Adrian is in danger of losing control, you’ll hear the thumping of a heartbeat, which never failed to quicken my own heartbeat as well. The music throughout is subtle and evocative of the overall grim tone of the game, with somber piano tunes and violin strings moaning in the background.
Despite the occasional glimpses of backstory, the amount of background provided is minimal, and new players could find themselves lost in a storyline as deep and involved as this one. How does Adrian relate to the ghoulish Mordred? In the last game he discovered some unsettling secrets about his family history and personal identity that are beneficial for players to already know. The game also relies on established relationships that Adrian now has with many Willow Creek natives, such as Tom, an angry pub owner, and Ralph, a childlike tortured soul. Similarly, certain settings such as a ruined academy and burned-out lighthouse will have a lot more resonance for players familiar with the first two games. However, the story told in Black Mirror III stands well enough on its own, and discovering what Adrian’s true destiny is and what the ancient Gordon curse has to do with him and his current troubles will be interesting to both new and returning players alike.
Much of that is due to the writing, which is full of cynical, dark, and often funny observations. Inspector Spooner comments on a colleague’s bird-brained observation about a murder victim: “Yeah, maybe she was cold and set herself on fire – for god’s sake, am I the only one with a brain around here?” Adrian, exhausted by the town’s fixation on his role in the murders, puts his own special sarcastic twist on a potential venture: “Yeah, right next door is the Black Mirror Special Café with Ritual-Blood cappuccinos and Latte Morbidato.” And the always colorful hotelier Murray notes that he’s a “business man, not a murderer; a small but absolutely fine distinction.”
System Requirements :
Windows XP with 512 MB RAM (Windows Vista x32/x64 with 1GB/2 GB RAM recommended),
Intel Pentium IV or equal processor with 1.4 GHz (Intel Dual-Core or equal processor with 2.0 GHz recommended)
128 MB Graphics card like ATI Radeon 9800 or NVidia GeForce 6800 with Shader 2.0 (256 MB and Shader 3.0 recommended)
DirectX8 compatible sound card (9.0c recommended)
6 GB Hard drive space
DVD-Rom-drive
Intel Pentium IV or equal processor with 1.4 GHz (Intel Dual-Core or equal processor with 2.0 GHz recommended)
128 MB Graphics card like ATI Radeon 9800 or NVidia GeForce 6800 with Shader 2.0 (256 MB and Shader 3.0 recommended)
DirectX8 compatible sound card (9.0c recommended)
6 GB Hard drive space
DVD-Rom-drive