Do i really need to play black mirror 1 first?

[rabela23]

I bought this game and do not intend buying the first black mirror 1 game mainly due to compatibility concerns with newer hardware and OS. My question is, do i have to play black mirror 1 to appreciate and understand black mirror 2's plot? Thanks.

[pinwolf]

You don't really *need* to play it first. But I would recommend to do it. It is kind of prequeI for the story in part 2 and 3. I played through 1-3 in the last weeks on modern pc with windows 8.1 and had no problems.

[rabela23]

ok thanks, I have win 8.1 too....I will give it a shot then.

[Sleeper]

Well I just bought the 3 game bundle, all works fine on my Win10 but aging laptop. Going to start with 1 since I here there are spolers in II.

[DasWulf]

I just came from playing the first one. It was great for the most part. The second one is... cringeworthy. The fat white girl in the post office even speaks ebonics, which is really aliening. If you want to enjoy BM2, playing the first one (which comes across as better) might not necessarily be a good idea.

[rabela23]

DasWulf, is the story/plot of BM2 a continuation of the first however? Are there any links between BM1 and BM2? Would I ruin it if I go straight to BM2? I still have it in my library but have not installed it yet!

[DasWulf]

After finishing the 2nd one just now, i'll reassess my earlier impression. Play the first game, it might be hard to adjust to the second one but once you finally leave Maine and get to Willow Creek, knowing the backstory becomes a bit more important.

Rabela23, the links are mostly related to re-visting locations, understanding motives of some key players and a few "surprises" that only really have impact after the 1st game leaves you with certain beliefs. If I skipped the first, I feel that the story and certain locations as well as "surprises" wouldnt have had as much impact.

Play the 1st one.

[Samael]

I 100% recommend playing Black Mirror 1 first because the second game is a significant improvement mechanically and a lot of the plot developments and puzzles (including some elements that kind of deconstruct things from the first game) feel so much better having played the first one.

The first one is, honestly, not very good. Its a product of a time when adventure games were *dead* and people have been very kind to Samuel Gordon and the quest to open more and more locked doors - I know I was at the time. Seriously. There's puzzles where you unlock a door to solve a puzzle to get a key to unlock a door in the same room that leads to another room with a locked door that you have to solve another puzzle immediately to get a key for. Not to mention all the times where you have to visit every room, solving no puzzles, to make sure the game is convinced enough time has passed so that you can ask someone if they've finished doing a task yet. This happens, perhaps, 4-5 times in the game.

The sequel is, just, like, so much better paced and it wasted my time significantly less with empty busy work. It has characters in it. It fixes pretty much every complaint I had about the first one. I'm sure people can enjoy the first, but its only from riffing on it with friends that I've extracted any joy out of what I've found to be an interminably dry game. I'm much more invested in the sequels but I found it helped that I'd played the first a couple of times before.

[FallenChocoCookie]

I'll recommend playing the first game. The plot will be a lot more engaging and the second and third game actually add some really nice twists and explainations to the story of the first game. It would be a shame to miss that.

I played it on a Windows 10 system, GTX 970 with an Intel Core i5 CPU and except for a couple sound effect hiccups, everything was fine. Don't think you'll have problems with it.