The bad marks this game received do not mean it is mediocre; they stem from the fact that its target audience is a narrow one.
Bot for those who delight in traditional point and click adventures and their beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, this game is an absolute winner.
For any one with a sweet tooth for XIXth century fantastic literature, The Black Mirror actually stands at the peak of its genre.
The plot is very good. You control a young man by the name of Samuel Gordon, called upon by his uncle to resolve a grim mystery involving his family's ancient past. The uncle dies before you arrive, and you set to investigate his problematic fall from the Gordon manor's tower before other tragic events occur.
Although the game takes place in the 1980's, prepare for amazing backgrounds drawn straight from Gothic novels and XIXth century weird tales. Here is a wealth of gloomy, atmospheric locations, such as the ancient manor's halls, an insane asylum, a graveyard, or a charming but almost deserted countryside village. The animations have often been described as "sleep-inducing", and truly they are almost hypnotic in their slowness. But it will leave you time to admire the splendid scenes... And the game avoids a common pitfall of the genre: double-clicking an exit does not set you running like a delirious fool; instead it zaps you directly to the next screen, whick makes the incessant backtrackings much less tedious than in most point'n'click games (such as Syberia).
There are a lot of object hunts (the meat of the genre, after all), and a few riddles that are challenging but don't take hours to complete.
This is another game I was so unfortunate as to pick up in a French-only version; however I was pleasantly surprised by the dubbings, which leads me to suppose the English voice work must be good too. The atmospheric sounds are great and chilling (heavy rain without music, water trickling in underground vaults...).
You get my point: if you enjoy the tried and true point'n'click mechanics, and happen to relish a fine plot, full of the occult and reminiscent of classic fantastic literature, this game will prove a great treat.
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