Recent reviews by BatGirlJack

I never knew a game could be so sad and yet so boring.

All right, let me clarify. I didn't actually dislike this game, it's just that its entirety is about trying to evoke an emotional experience and with me being a Vulcan, that just didn't go over so well.

And they walk so slowly. Horribly, painfully, excruciatingly slowly. Uggg.

So yeah, giver a pass unless you're a masochist.

An amazing game series ruined by horrible mini-games and a 'was that it' ending.

I've really enjoyed this series so far and still liked most of this game. They improved the walking speed and jumping to exits. But man, the bad side and this was killer - the mini-games are atrocious. At several points while playing I was so frustrated, I had to leave, not just the computer but my house! For example, at one point there's a mini game to reassemble a skeleton. I took time and did it, no result. Multiple attempts later, even after checking my layout with online guides and pictures of the solution, to which it was identical, but for some reason the game would just not accept it. One piece must have been off by millimeters, didn't matter. The same issue occurs when drawing "walking lines" on the map, off by a millimeter? Game doesn't tell you, it just refuses to let Adrian go down the path you know you have to go down. Granted you can eventually skip some puzzles but it feels so unjustified to do so after all your work on the puzzle.

So moving past that, game play is nice, story continues to be interesting, winding up to a pretty cool ending area always hinting at the final big confrontation, then it fizzles out like a dollar store sparkler. I reached down to pet my cat and pretty much missed the whole 6 seconds of final battle video. That's the climax? 3 games of building story line just to end like that? Ugggggg! Maybe it was one of those, they ran out of money things, but man, I'm so let down.

Don't let this game hurt you the way it hurt me. Go into it with extremely low expectations.

There's really not much to say about this game. It's a solid, decent game with nothing outstanding in any way.

Like its predecessor, it's a very long, story based game, but features a more modern setting with an updated, unappreciated, sarcastic, Bostonian accented youth. There are hardly any mini-game puzzles, which is a shame because those that are there are really well designed and fun to play. Main character doesn't run, but most screens will let you jump to the next screen if you can click on an exit location. The notepad app was a great feature, providing totally clear instructions and accumulating hints if you get stuck and the hotspot screen is infinitely helpful when trying to find small items.

There are tons of bonus features I barely unlocked. So when playing, try to remember to take pictures of pretty much every character in the game.

Playing this game is like reading a 19th century novel; know it's going to take quite a long time and some parts will be very slow but the rich story line and character progression make for a very rewarding experience.

Black Mirror is a very straight-forward, adventure, point and click game where most problems can be solved by repeatedly talking to different characters and finding inventory items. There are very few mini games, but all that are there were really fun.

As always, I must comment on my own personal pet peeve, slow walking protagonists, but in this game it's not just the protagonist that's slow. Every time you click on someone to talk to, there will be an approximately 5 second, animated delay while they stop what they're doing and turn to you. It can get a bit grating but clearly, this is no manic game and is designed for a relaxed game play experience. One small upside is that while Samuel doesn't run and definitely doesn't jump, ha, if you can click on a scene exit, the game will jump to the next screen (though again, after a few second delay).

I also have to warn you about the absolutely most annoying thing in the game, there are two or three scenarios where you have to wait for another character to get back to you about something before you can continue along with the story line. They say things like "Come back later" and well, they really do mean later. There's nothing you can do to speed this along. You can go to every location possible, look and talk to everything or everyone you've already clicked on, or just sit and wait.
Clearly, this does make sense from a story perspective, but having gameplay where the character does nothing but just has to move around or wait is absolutely ridiculous and should never ever be included.

Now regardless of my above complaints, I still really liked this game and I can't wait to continue in the sequel.

The story is definitely the main focus of this game. Playing as two different protagonists, each very well designed with near opposite personalities and extravagant character flaws, yet manage to be extremely engaging while still dis-likable. Easy to play, good controls, characters can run and it'll auto-jump to the next screen.

Two complaints, though they cotain minor spoilers.
One major annoyance is that the dialogue keeps referring to the main dead character being buried alive. Buried alive...buried alive...over and over. But he was never buried alive. He was entombed. Above ground, in a tomb. Ugggg.

Also WTF happened to the ending. The whole time the story builds towards some alter ego/jeykll hyde type reveal but then ends up going no where. No where at all. There was no ending. Blah!!!

Yet, aside from the above two complaints I still really enjoyed this game. I had fun and I'm glad I played it. Totally worth whatever cheapie sale price for which I'm sure it was bought.

Frankly, this game is nowhere near as good as the first one. It's not really a bad game and they did add a still slow but slightly faster than normal walking speed feature, which the first game could really of used. But I was really psyched to continue the storyline from the first game as well as from the 400 days DLC. But no, neither seems to have had hardly any impact on the game. Some of the 400 days characters I convinced to come along, didn't even show up in this game!?! So that's incredibly lame. Even more annoying is the fact that the choices I made seemed to have very little impact on the game. I've loved every other game I've played from telltale, but this is honestly the worst of them all. The whole storyline focuses purely on Clementine being the only useful or intelligent character (until you meet Jane), being responsible for every small job or action that needs to be done and choosing whether or not to help other people, though even if you do help, the outcome doesn't change and in almost every case (the one exception I found being Alvin) whether you help or not still results in every likable character dying.
Bottom line, get this if you're super into the genre and it's crazy cheap. Otherwise, go play Tales from the Borderlands or the Sam and Max games.

There were some major changes to the franchise on this game, particularly the controls. No mouse at all, everything is done on the keyboard. At first I really disliked the controls, but you can't deny there's a simplistic ease to them. There's no hint system, but because everything is so linear, there's not really much you need to figure out so you don't need hints. Like always, the plot and the characters are wonderful, the best part of Broken Sword games are always the interesting if not always coherent story lines. There are a ton of timing/movement puzzles and man, are you gonna get sick of moving boxes. They added some more comedic characters and these were a welcome addition.

The more you play this series the more you grow to love it. Great hint system, interesting plot, oddly foibled protagonists that you'll soon adore, it's a great puzzle adventure game. Only downside is the slow walking speed. Uggg. So slow, but otherwise, I really like this game.

This game is fun. Amusing dialogue, as long as you're not a right wing fanatic. Some small annoyances about how some items must be used/combined. Like you can't just use the item, sometimes you have to get the use option to show up in dialogue, sometimes you have to have the item selected and then click on another item on the main screen, sometimes you have to combine the items while in the inventory... Blah. But still, I had fun, probably so will you.

Short but quite fun. All the puzzels are extremely easy and there's a cool alien. Def worth 0.87.