Dark Mirrors (Part One) by Terry2

Review by sarah4

Hi Terry, sorry for forgetting to review sooner and many thanks again for all your help! This was a truly original game with a mysterious premise and an intriguing storyline which unfolds gradually as the player explores their surroundings. The gameplay is different to any other game I have seen on this site and the game is open-ended enough to allow for exploration of the many fascinating landscapes featured in the game without thinking that every single location must hold a vital clue for solving the game. I also appreciated that you didn't lead the player by the hand, but let them discover their life story gradually through little flashes of memory which are brought to mind as more puzzles are solved and more items and locations are examined. The ending is also excellent, allowing the player to decide for themselves what all that they may have learned about themself might mean without spelling it out.


However, while the game is excellent, I do have a few minor criticisms to make which I hope you will not be offended by! Firstly, a little extra proof-reading would go a long way to improving the flow of the game, although there are spelling mistakes, there are also missing spaces between words and missing punctuation which can sometimes spoil the flow of the excellent descriptions. Secondly, one of the things I enjoyed about the game can also be one of its weak points and this is the open ended nature of some of the gameplay. There are many excellent puzzles (the cinema ticket in particular) which take a great deal of solving but which have, ultimately, no bearing on the outcome of the game. I realise these puzzles are there to help us uncover something about our past, but I can't help but think it would be nice if they also gave a little clue as to solving the rest of the game or a helpful item or something! Many excellent games throw some red herrings and dead-end puzzles into the mix, and this is absolutely fine, however, there were so many of them in this game that it was hard to work out what was worth spending time on and what wasn't, also, I was stuck for ages because, until you pointed it out, I would never have found an absolutely vital clue to solving the game because I would never have even considered trying to take it! Lastly, I really enjoyed the use of two-word instructions (made a change from the usual 'use 'x' on 'x'), but I must admit that I spent ages trying to 'kick bottom window' rather than 'kick in bottom window', so, perhaps in future a little more 'verb flexibility' would be very helpful! However, I still rate this game 5 stars, though, I must be honest, if the rating system allowed, I would have given it a 4.5 star or 9/10 rating as it has some issues which don't quite put it up there with the very finest games on this site, but I was reluctant to give it 4 stars as I believe that it deserves slightly more and, in context, it is head and shoulders above the majority of the games posted here and is one of the only games not by Craig Dutton (my favourite author!) or Peter Edwards posted on the site for over a year which has been of such high quality, so many other games are either buggy or incomplete or lack challenging puzzles, a compelling storyline or both! So, I hope you take these minor quibbles in the spirit they are meant and I very much look forward to your future games!