Gloomy day, gloomy gaming

The Three Kegs Inn, The Black Mirror

Just when the heavy humidity, draped over everything, became oppressive, the clouds ruptured and rain sluiced down, saturating the roads and earth.

Hah. Gloomy days always fill me with buckets of purply prose. Summer's coming to an end for sure. Yesterday, evening crept in earlier than ever, and this morning, it's 841 am, and the angle of light coming in my window is flatter, no longer high and sharp as it is during the hot days of July.

It's the perfect morning to play a bit of The Black Mirror. I've been slowly replaying this cult classic, which was released back in 2003. If you read the comments for the review on AdventureGamers.com, you'll see they run the gamut from "one of the worst games I've ever tried to play" to "black mirror ROCKSSSSS." The prerendered backgrounds are detailed and full of atmosphere, but, yes, the voice acting is emotionless at times and nonsensical at others. And the animations; good lord, every time you talk to someone, you have to wait for them to slowly, oh so slowly, stop what they're doing (set down a beer, put down a rake), turn toward you, and then talk. It's maddening.

But.

I love it. I love this game and its two sequels, The Black Mirror II, and the inventively titled, The Black Mirror III, both of which I reviewed. Cranberry Production took the reins from Unknown Identity in the second game and really improved the story, graphics, and game in general, but the original still has all of the atmosphere that I love -- dark secrets, a new, wholly imagined world to explore. I'd recommend checking all three out.

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