[Subtitles by danielsangeo] Hey! Welcome to the Halloween
episode of the Game Dungeon. Now this one's going to
be a little different. As much as I appreciate going up against
the forces of Hell with a shotgun, sometimes evil is more subtle than that. So this is going to be a
classier Halloween this year. And with that, we have "The Black
Mirror", a graphic adventure game. Now let's just get this
out of the way right now. This is not "Black Mirror" the show, nor is this "Black Mirror" the
game coming out next month. This is THE Black Mirror. See? The. This game was first. I have to point that out because both of
THESE have way more exposure and marketing. In fact, the new game in
particular I feel like is forcing my hand to cover this RIGHT NOW, because as soon as it comes out, it's
going to join the ranks of "Wolfenstein", "Need for Speed", "Doom"... where
everything becomes a jumbled mess because they can't think of an original name and all information on the original
GAME gets completely buried. So that's it! This is the Halloween episode! I don't have a choice if
I want to beat the rush. This one just got shoved straight
to the front of the line. But don't worry--it still gets
spooky. So let's get going. Ooooh! So, like the last episode, we
begin on a dark and stormy night. An old man is going up to the tower
to do something secretive, no doubt. Actually, he's just writing a
letter to you, the protagonist. This is your grandfather. It's starting off like most letters to
grandchildren go--nothing too exciting here. Uh-oh! What's this? Well, back to writing. The letter says he's been
doing a lot of family research. I have an uncle who has
been doing the same thing. He was researching a lot
of mushrooms before that. Whoa! What was that? Did you hear something? Yeah, we're fine. You're nice
and safe up in your tower here. [ghostly whispers] ["In this envelope, you will find
an ancient ring of our heritage. ["It is very important that
you always have it with you. ["Take extraordinary care."] Okay, that part's a little different
from most letters from grandparents. Hey, you've gotta latch
those windows, Grandpa. [ghostly whispers] They're coming...! Uh-oh! OH! GRANDPA'S GOING TO BED EARLY TONIGHT! And that's the game. No, just kidding. "Chapter I"! ["After the funeral, we jointly
returned to Black Mirror."] So now we get a voiceover from
the protagonist, Samuel Gordon, reflecting on his thoughts. But the screen
is still black. That's kind of weak. "Realms of the Haunting" showed us Adam
staring wistfully from his car window. I think we needed something like that here. But we finally get...uhh...graphics, and we're having a reunion of the
family following Grandpa's death. And I thought that was Henry VIII in
the background for a second there, but no, just a similar style. Anyway, this is like a real family meeting in that no one's talking
about anything that important, but you immediately start getting
this aristocratic feel to everything. The last episode was a supernatural mystery
where rich people were the antagonists. Well now we have a supernatural mystery
where rich people are the protagonists. Well, nothing too supernatural so far. I mean, that symbol on the menu looked like it could've been devil
worship or something. We'll see. Anyway, Grandma doesn't beat around the
bush and asks you to stay with them. This is obviously an old-money
family and husband or not, she'll be damned if
you're going to forget it. ["Don't forget: We are still your family. ["You are a Gordon and you belong here just
like all the other Gordons before you."] Do you truly know what
it means to be a Gordon? ["Sir, I took the liberty
to clean up your room. ["I believe you will be
satisfied with the results."] "I will be the judge of that!" So we head off to go inspect our room, and I need to point out that almost
every screen in this game is gorgeous! We are in the Black Mirror
Castle and damn is it nice! Yeah, in fact, let's just add this
right now. You'll see what I mean. I don't know if I even have
an image of a dream house, but this is certainly one iteration. I'm going to be pointing out things I
like about this place this whole game. In this screen alone, we
have the guard dog statues, some Vigo-looking dude in the background, and a giant globe pedestal with the weird
green lights with the vine-like supports. Just on the way up to our room, we
have these palisade-like spikes, classical paintings everywhere, the upper-floor looks more homey
with this very fancy-looking carpet, and what, that's got to be
a mahogany ceiling, huh? Y'know, I'm not normally someone
who obsesses over architecture-- I don't watch shows about fancy homes-- but man, something about the
Black Mirror draws it out of me. Moving on, we head to our room. Let's
see. Does our room pass inspection? I don't know. That looks like a hole in
the carpet, the mirror's been smashed... Does our butler take me
for a common vagabond? ["I believe you will be
satisfied with the results."] "Satisfied with the results" indeed! Oh well. We're the guest. We'll have to
make do with these meager accommodations. On our way out, we pay a visit to Uncle
Bob here who is obviously up to something. The butler says he
doesn't let anyone inside, plus look at how he's answering the door. He's acting like he kidnapped a woman
and tied her up right around the corner. We are not getting inside this room. Anyway, Samuel here is suspicious
of Grandpa's death. Me, too. ["But really, who would want to kill
themselves in autumn of their life?"] Besides Hunter S. Thompson? ["Look. William was alone in
the tower when it happened, ["and the door was
locked... from the inside."] Oh! Did you hear that?
"Locked from the inside", huh? Now I'm not saying this was ninjas, but
c'mon, our possibilities are narrowing. Just what the hell was Grandpa mixed up in? Did he insult the wrong
dojo as a younger man? But aside from clues about Grandpa's
death, nothing much else is happening yet. ["I've been away for twelve years, ["and all that has happened is
that we have two new servants?" ["Though no one is clamoring to live
around here. You know that yourself." ["Yes. Nothing really has changed." ["It's almost scary."] Oooo! But this conversation is important
because now we have an actual objective. Prior to this, we've mostly
been wandering around aimlessly, which, granted, this is a
nice place to wander around, but I don't know anything
about Samuel here-- just that he's been away for twelve years, his wife died in a terrible fire, it's not clear to me if he has a job. He obviously doesn't need one
given his family's wealth, but then what's he doing with his time? I mean, he has to do SOMETHING, huh? Well, now he's solving mysteries because
I agree, Grandpa's death is fishy. He wasn't practicing dance moves
and just slipped out of the window. So we need to get up in that tower with the
birds circling around it to look for clues. Oh, and I have to point out the giant
skull on the front of the archway. Bad ass! But, whoops! The tower
is locked and boarded up. We're going to need to get in there. On the way out though, we make a discovery. What's this? A torn photo in the
fireplace. Could this be a clue? While we're solving this, I should
mention the music is all great. [string music] Nowadays, I'm a little biased
against pure orchestra music since it seems like 90% of
what I hear in soundtracks just sounds very bland and generic, but this game is a perfect reminder
of just how good it can be. [string music] I'm not even sure what these pieces
are doing differently than most other soundtracks out there but it really adds to
this mysterious atmosphere of everything. [string music] I liked it so much, I got permission from
the composer to use it in one of my videos. Although his email address no longer works,
so he's mysteriously disappeared also. And, ta-da! It looks like our
clue is a picture of some hobo. I mean tell me he doesn't
have a crazy look in his eyes. No wonder they tried to burn this. So that didn't help, but maybe
if we solve some more puzzles, we can get this tower opened. Okay, once again, I have to point this out: We have our usual mansion trimmings with
the swords, coat of arms, fancy carpets, but we also have a Greek
statue--that's good-- and I love this.
Look at this curtain holder. Just a friendly foreboding
head sticking out there. Makes it look like this weird
xenomorphic bat or something. Awesome. And let's get a look at these paintings. Yeah, okay. So he looks like a dark wizard. And the family is his brother,
the Vigo guy here, killed him. This certainly looks like a man
who got things done in life. I guess having blood smeared
across your armor will do that. This castle rules. ["The fire has to be maintained
in winter as well as summer. ["Otherwise, it's very cold in here."] I'm glad he mentioned that because
these things are not cheap to maintain. Anyway, we talk to Bates, the house
servant here--no relation, I'm sure-- and he again tells us how your
uncle is being suspicious. He doesn't agree that
everything is the same, though. ["I was under the impression that
nothing had changed here since I left." ["Sir, a lot has changed in your absence.
Nothing is as it was, believe me. ["We are all growing old and
so is everything around us."] Oh come on, Bates. ["I've been a servant here since my youth, ["and I know well how much a man
can be changed by this place. ["During the last few months, ["things have been getting
noticeably worse, day by day."] What are you talking about? ["It is as if the bleakness
within the old walls of this manor ["is gradually taking us over."] Quit being such a downer, Bates! You
need to go play...golf or something. ["I want you to know that you are more
of a friend to us than a servant."] I feel the same way
about my castle servants. So we explore the mansion some more
and...wait a minute. What's this? This dining room feels really
familiar. What's going on here? Ah, okay. Yeah, we have some resemblance. I'm always pleased when
I feel like I'm not crazy and imagining things that aren't there. And speaking of going crazy, you may have
noticed this game doesn't have antialiasing. Well, I tried. I TRIED! I remember getting it to work in the past,
but again, maybe I'm just going crazy. You'd think a DirectX 7.0 game you could
just brute force it, but no. Not anymore. This game would really benefit from it, too, and help the characters
blend into the world better. So instead of getting smooth
graphics, I'm getting Pixel Face. Pixel Face, Ross! PIXEL FAAA-- From here, we need to head
outside of the mansion in order to find tools to
free up the tower blockade. Now normally, a character
such as Samuel here I'm sure would never dream of
doing manual labor such as this. In fact, the butler even offers
to take care of any work for you. But Victoria, your grandmother, was the one who requested this
be boarded up in the first place. So we're going to need to be
clandestine about this whole affair, hence we upset the lady of the manor. I'm sure this is the sort of thing rich
people have to deal with all the time. So back to looking for tools. And, of course, we have dragon
gargoyles on the sides of the castle. Were you expecting anything
different for this place? And damn!
Grandpa really hit that fence hard! At least there's no ambiguity here where there's a plot twist
that he's not really dead. No, he bought the farm! Look at that! So here are the stables. We talk to
the groom and he doesn't know anything. All he knows are horses. However, he IS happy to point out that
he thinks the gardener is full of shit and I shouldn't believe him. ["I knew that florist bastard was
spreading gossip about me again! ["If he tells you anything,
don't believe him, sir. ["He tends to get smashed
and talk out of his ass!"] I don't know if I should encourage
this rivalry amongst the help or not. See, these are the kinds of problems
the wealthy have to contend with. Anyway, in the stable, I get
the tools, but what's this? ["Red wine from our cellar.
How did the bottle get here?"] The stable hand drinking the family's
wine?! This is a most serious development! We must investigate this at once! "MORRIS! What have you to say about this?!" ["I've noticed you have a bottle of
wine on your workbench in the stable. ["It appears to be our vintage
red. Where did you get it?" ["Well, I...I... ["Sir William gave it to me, some
time ago. Just this one bottle."] Mmhmm. ["Really?" ["Yes, sir." ["All right, Morris. ["I do not believe that William would've
given away some of our best wine."] I don't believe it, either! "YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT MY
GRANDFATHER GAVE *YOU*, THE STABLE HAND, "A BOTTLE OF OUR FINEST WINE?! "I MAY HAVE BEEN GONE FOR TWELVE
YEARS, BUT I WAS *NOT* BORN YESTERDAY! "HOW CONVENIENT THAT YOUR
ONLY ALIBI IS NOW DEAD! "IS THAT A MOTIVE I SMELL,
OR IS IT HORSE MANURE?!" So we'd better keep an eye
on him, but you know what? He was really trying to sell the gardener
to us, so let's go pay him a visit. Along the way, we get a
nice shot of the castle, along with spiked urn
things on the railings. We also have a nice gazebo and, of
course, no shortage of Greek statues. I'm all for Greek-looking statues, nude
or not. They just add to the atmosphere. This isn't the first game to recognize
that having some stone or marble statues give your game class and sophistication. [women vocalizing] Actually, I've heard the
original Greek statues were painted and looked tacky as hell.
Thankfully, time corrected that problem. Now even though I think
everything looks gorgeous, I don't have the discerning
eye of Samuel here, who is constantly spotting how everything
has fallen into a state of neglect, like this fountain here. That
will be coming up real soon. And here is the gardener--although
look at those dragon-claw lampposts! Alright, alright. I'll stop for now. So the gardener gives me this innocent-old-me
routine but I'm having none of it. ["Why doesn't anyone
maintain the rear garden?"] Yeah! ["And what about the fountain?
There used to be fish in it, once. ["I have no problem with
the rear garden as such, ["but I want you to clean the fountain."] ["But sir, isn't that rather futile? ["I mean, it can't even
be seen from the front."] "ARE YOU QUESTIONING ME?!" ["Either you clean it by tomorrow, or
you can start looking for a new job."] "QUITE!" ["As you wish, sir."] It's a good thing I arrived when I did. We'll see how long he lasts.
Samuel has his priorities. Damn, that is a nice looking greenhouse! But what's this? Blood in the wood
chipper? Well, that's no good. I think we'd better confront him about this. What is he doing, throwing
squirrels in there? ["Henry, there's blood in the
grinder in front of the greenhouse."] I cannot imagine somebody saying
that line in a classier tone. ["I only put branches in it."] Uhhhhhh, yeah! Play dumb! "I don't know nothin' about
them chopped up body parts." Boy, Samuel really has his work cut
out for him with help like this. ["Perhaps you're right.
I probably imagined it."] No, you didn't imagine it! Don't back
down, Samuel! Look! It's right there! Ah well, it's going to be
that kind of game, huh? Well from here, we go see Grandma,
because even though we have the tools, that door is still locked, so we need
to finagle the answer out of her. ["In the past, we used to have our
own stable of full-blooded stallions. ["Some of them won many races. All
of that fame is long lost now."] Life is hard. Anyway, Grandma gives
us some more information on Grandpa. ["About half a year ago, he closed
himself in that damned tower ["and spent whole days and nights there.
He never told me what he was doing. ["When I asked, he merely stated
that he was looking for the truth ["and that he would not
stop until he found it."] That sounds like me. She
also discusses the servants. ["Bates isn't looking well.
He's old and very tired."] Yeah, better put him down now, huh? ["He has worked here all his life,
just like his father before him."] It's good to have traditions.
So how about that key? ["No one is allowed to set foot in there. ["Why are you talking about
that place to me, Samuel? ["Why are you making me think of it?"] Ah, this is going to be a pain in the ass... So we're not getting into the tower, but we
start tripping over clues left and right, like we find out from a friend of the family that Grandpa had burn
marks on him. That's weird. Did lightning strike the fence too,
just to make sure he's triple-dead? Also the castle was built
upon pagan land! Ooooooo! Again, I like these faces
as part of the architecture. And naturally, we have a human
skull in the library here. So that makes the second human skull so far; you might have missed the first
one from Grandpa's study earlier. Time to pay a visit Uncle Bob again. ["Why doesn't Victoria like Morris?" ["You mean why she can't stand him?
Well, maybe because he's so common. ["Aristocratic prejudice,
you know what I mean."] I know. And after gathering enough
clues, we get to head outside the castle. Look at this front gate! Does this not
say a vampire count lives here? Awesome. So let's head into town to find out
what's been happening from the locals. They're mostly talking about fish or
beer, but there is some information here. We get to the heart of the matter
as any self-respecting Gordon would: with money. From here, it's a complete
web of suspects and clues, with an informative grave-digger, a suspicious man showing up with a package, Grandpa's hidden liquor stash, some sort a glyph inscribed where Grandpa
died... Shit. That one's a bad sign. I'm starting to think maybe
this wasn't ninjas after all. But thanks to adventure game
logic, if you solve enough puzzles, you get to the truth of anything, and we
thus find the key to the tower. Ah ha! So we head up there. There's lots of clues, but the most significant is a long
diary kept by your grandfather. To cut things short, he
says the family is cursed, he's found some secret tombs, and there
was something strange going on in Wales. There, I just saved you seven
minutes of dialog. I'm not kidding. Armed with that knowledge, we head out and drop like a rock from
all the strain, I...guess. "Chapter II"! ...the key... Time to get up! So we get out of bed
after fainting, and we have some news. ["It's horrible, sir! Henry, our gardener, ["they found him dead
this morning in the pond! ["I know what I am saying. I saw
his body being dragged out!"] Ba-ba-bum! Oh, what? You didn't think we were
only going to have ONE murder, did you? Trick or treat! So a detective is here to question us. ["He might've bumped into something, lost
his balance and fallen into the water. ["He wouldn't be the first
drunkard to have drowned like this. ["What's ironic, however, is that it
didn't happen in a lake or a river, ["but a little bit of
water in the back garden."] Oh, so he wasn't murdered.
Sorry to get your hopes up. It's just another drunk falling
into a puddle and drowning. I told you the help is no good around here. And that's what's on Samuel's mind, too. Since he can't threaten to
fire the gardener anymore, he moves on to the stable hand, even though I'm not sure if it's
part of his job description. Remember that well from yesterday? Well, Samuel decides it's a safety hazard because he's had enough of servants
falling down and getting themselves killed. ["Have you boarded up the old well
like I asked you to yesterday?" ["Well, not yet, sir. I'll do it today." ["It should have been done yesterday. I'm
surprised that Henry didn't fall into it." ["Excuse me, sir?" ["You know well how I meant that. ["I want to see it secured today, or
you can start looking for a new job. ["Is. That. Clear?"] Boy, that's his answer
to everything, isn't it? Oh, and it's raining now. I'm as shocked as you are Samuel
isn't carrying an umbrella, or rather, getting Bates to
carry his umbrella for him. We spend most of this day talking to
everyone and gathering more clues. There's too much for me to cover here;
I'll just say the mystery is building. ["You have mentioned often since I
arrived that you have a lot of work. ["So, what are you working on?" ["Oh, I would rather not
bother you with the details. ["Let's just say I am carrying
out...specific research."] Hmmm-hmm-hmm... Mweh-heh-heh... HOO-HA-HA-HA-HA! We do decide to inspect the fountain, though, especially since we saw
that key in our vision, but first we have to head down
to the cellar to drain it. That's naturally where we keep the
battle-axes for unwanted visitors, and I like how completely nonsuspiciously
our butler is sharpening the knives here. ["Yes."] We also have a puzzle here, and tell me this is not the coolest
water pressure gauge you've ever seen. It sure is for me. So we drain the pond and sure
enough, the key is there. But, uh-oh! What's this? It's another glyph! Yeah, okay. How's the saying go? "Once
is a coincidence--twice is witchcraft"? Okay, I think we can
safely rule out ninjas now. Only a witch or...a warlock or....elves
are going to be doing crap like this. So we need to find a witch to burn. But which witch is...uhh...which ? Well, we'll have to find out later
because we just found another big clue: a letter the late-gardener was writing
saying that Morris is a criminal and a thief and he has STEALING OUR
WINE! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! I first consult this with Jeeves...I
mean, Alfred...I mean, Bates, and he confirms our suspicions. ["Henry blames Morris for stealing
the wine from our cellars. ["Did you know anything about it?" ["Tell the truth, sir, yes. I have a
good clue as to who might be behind it."] Is that what the knife's for? ["I didn't want Madam to have to
worry about a couple bottles of wine ["after what just happened."] I agree. No need to concern Victoria
with this. Best we handle this quietly. ["There is so much wine in the cellar, sir. ["It seemed unlikely that anyone would
notice a dozen bottles missing."] What?! You're getting soft in your old
age, Bates! I'll take care of this. So I confront Morris about this and we
shockingly let him off light as a feather. I don't get it. This is Mr. I'll Have
Your Job If You Don't Do As I Say. All I can think here is that
Morris crossed such a line that Samuel is plotting a fitting revenge
and not pursuing so coarse a confrontation. Meanwhile, the suspicion is getting
so thick you can cut it with a knife. We head over to visit the doctor
who's a friend of the family performing the autopsy on Grandpa. We had a short discussion yesterday where he wanted to tell me about a
discovery he made, but in private. So here we are, in private,
and he's playing dumb. ["What you're saying is different
from what you already told me."] So that's selective amnesia coupled
with burn marks from a strange device. This is reeking of witchcraft! You're going
to need a crossbow and crucifix, Samuel. But wait! We're not done! In discussing
Henry's death, we learn more! ["No...blood. Not a
single drop of it anywhere ["as though something
squeezed the life out of him ["like the juice from an orange and
disposed of its skin in that fountain."] So are these vampires? I'm so confused. Well, you're still going to
need a crossbow and a crucifix. And I realize this is a morgue, but this is
a lot of human skulls we're coming across. I'm going to start keeping count. Anyway, since the doctor is acting so fishy, we naturally go digging through his
trash to piece together another envelope to find another mysterious correspondence. And another body, but whatever. We are tripping over suspects.
It's the same all around town. I think we need to suspect everyone of
murdering everyone else at this point. Fishing in the rain, huh?! You
expect me to believe that?! Okay, well... That actually is pretty normal. Now I'm skipping details, but our clues lead us on embarking
on an Indiana Jones-like trail which brings us to the church
built by our ancestors. I mean, naturally; we have
more of those heads again. That leads us to a
closed-off part of the church which leads us to a hidden chamber which leads us to secret catacombs which leads us to falling
down some mineshaft. But wait, let's back up a second. In the last episode, I mentioned
there was no time travel in this game, and, yes, that is true. But think quick. This game came out in
2003, so what year does this take place? I assumed present day, so 2003,
but I didn't really think about it. I mean, Samuel seems to be wearing
reasonably modern clothing, and we're off in an old castle off in
the country surrounded by old people. Time may as well be standing still. 1981. That's when this game takes place. And I only found that out because
of the tombstone of Grandpa. I never would've realized that. I mean, sure, you don't see
anyone fiddling with a smartphone, but that was still normal in 2003. So, surprise! We just time
warped back a few decades! That means Hunter S. Thompson is still alive! So back to the mine, here we find a
journal which, after six minutes of dialog, tells us some miners got screwed. But we puzzle our way out of this
and get various machines working. And after taking a lift up to
the top, we exit to safety. Oh wait, no. I'm sorry. We
get eaten by wolves. The end. Yeah, you can die in this game! Surprise! This sure was a surprise for me. See, Black Mirror is an evolution of
the standard adventure game formula that got big back in the 90s. And during that time, there were two
big players: Sierra and LucasArts. Now Sierra games were infamous for letting
you get yourself killed every five minutes from just about anything, but most LucasArts adventure games, you couldn't get yourself
killed even if you tried. Now I'm not saying this is the first, but Black Mirror is the first
adventure game I've seen to string you along in complete
and utter safety for several hours, THEN take you out into the woods
and kill you. I'm impressed. Nothing to wake you up like
getting yourself killed. So here's what SHOULD have happened. Stone cold Samuel Gordon. ["Hm. Full moon."] Awooooooooo!
[wolf howls] "Chapter III"! [chanting] So we wake up and then get another
black screen while Samuel says he's off to visit the family manor in
Wales as part of our investigation. Come on, guys. Even just a map
animation would've worked here. But it pays off, because, damn, this certainly looks like
one of the family estates. We have spiked grass fencing, more
nude statues, AND demon wings. I hope you like succubi because
that's what we're getting. Anyway, we enter and spend a few
minutes being cordial to each other before dismissing the help. ["Can we speak in private?" ["I understand. Louis, can you
return to your duties now?" ["Certainly, madam."] "Certainly, madam." We talk
to our great aunt Eleanor here about everything related
to the investigation, which, again, we're in too deep to
even explain. Just roll with it. Outside, I daresay the grounds to their
estate are even nicer than Black Mirror's. Maybe it helps that they have
a groundskeeper who's not dead. Samuel largely approves, but being a Gordon, he's not
going to rest on his laurels and while he can't threaten
to fire the help here, too, he's sure to order them around. ["You really should go fix it
right away. It is Eleanor's wish."] We explore further, and be sure to notice
the demon head engraving--I like that. We also discover a secret
passage from some abandoned house that's also part of the estate. And, tada! It's great-uncle Richard
conducting some sort of science experiment. Since you're here, he tasks you to
go gather some supplies for him, and it's worth currying his favor
so you can get into the tomb, which contains more important
clues for your investigation. But to do that, we need to con the
workman so we can get to his tools. Well that's no problem
for the likes of Samuel. ["Madam has explicitly ordered
that you start to mow the lawn."] Hm. Yes. ["Really? Oh, well. I'll
do it by this evening." ["You must be finished before it gets dark. ["Madam does not want to be
disturbed during the evening."] "DO YOU NOT RESPECT THE WISHES OF MADAM?!" So we get into the tomb, solve some puzzles,
but get caught by the maintenance man so we need to come back at night. And, damn, this place looks nice at night! Inside the tomb, we find
a secret passage and... Seriously, I can't think of the last time
I saw this much skull-themed architecture outside of a "Warhammer" game. I mean,
don't worry. We're still adding to the list. In fact, if we do things out of sequence, we get to add our own skull
to the collection. Whoops! Anyway, if we DON'T do that, we
find another one of our ancestors, get the artifact we came
here for, and head back home. "Chapter IV"! Hey, no weird visions this time, but that doesn't help because
we've been gone for one day and everything's gone to hell. Typical. Uncle Bob is missing and a
local boy got eaten by wolves. Man, I shot one; there's a lot
of hungry wolves in this forest. So we go to check out the
scene of where it happened and--Oh shit. Yeah, "wolves". That's
just what they want you to think. And by "they", I mean "witches". Or "cultists"... Or "elves".... If we stop by the morgue, the doctor
tells us what we already know: It wasn't wolves, it was an elf blade. Well, okay, he doesn't say that, but
he says it's definitely not wolves, so off we go to find our uncle
who works at the sanatorium. This is a well-funded sanatorium! But what else would we expect
for our family members who work? Here we find more clues which
takes us to some ruined tower out in the countryside in a storm at night. What the hell are we doing here?
Well, we're checking out the light and getting hit over the head
with a shovel is what we're doing. Surprise! It's getting
buried-alive time. Da-dada! But if we cut ourselves free
with the combination rook/knife and use the music box, we're set free by
the mental patient who tried to kill us. We find out from him that your uncle has
been conducting cruel experiments on him. I'm not sure who to believe here,
but I guess that's the point. In any event, he gives us another
lead to find the family artifacts. That actually makes more sense
than I'm making it look like here; we've been skipping hours of dialog. And with that, we head to the secret
sewers underneath the cellar of the castle. This is the fanciest looking
sewer I've ever been in. Okay, that is bad ass. That looks like face
on the "Bram Stoker's Dracula" movie poster. Okay, no, I'm wrong. That IS
the face on the movie poster. C'mon guys, you've gotta do better than that. You can't just copy the damned thing,
even though I guess that's what you did. Anyway, we drain the pool, head even
deeper, but start to feel sick so, uhh... "Chapter V"! Oh yeah! Back to Vision Vision. Huh, I'm getting a sense of foreboding here. Whoops! So I wake up in bed again. Boy, they're getting their mileage
out of that animation, huh? So I awaken with the butler banging on
the door to tell me the sanatorium called and wishes to speak to me
about a most urgent matter that they wouldn't tell the butler. How dare they? Don't they
know he's like family? And I love this part. The butler also informs me in
the most cordial manner possible that it's the fucking end-times outside and
the sun has been blotted out from the sky. ["Sir, the weather is truly terrible.
A vigorous storm is approaching. ["The sky is entirely overcast
as though it were night. ["I have no previous recollection
of such horrid weather."] Y'know, if world ever ends,
I'd like a butler to inform me in a concerned but formal
manner such as this. So we arrive at the sanatorium only
to find out that Uncle Bob is dead! It seems that crazy head here caught up with him at the
tower ruins and murdered him. The police brought him back so
let's at least question him, huh? So we go to see him, but uh-oh!
He's dead, too! Hung himself. This is getting out of hand. We've
got a case of death going around. Oh, and he wrote my name on the wall! GEE, THANKS JAMES! THAT TOTALLY
DOESN'T RAISE SUSPICION ON ME! I'M THE FIRST NORMAL PERSON
YOU'VE TALKED TO IN MAYBE A DECADE SO YOU DECIDE TO COMMEMORATE
THE EVENT BY HANGING YOURSELF AND WRITING MY NAME ON THE WALL IN BLOOD! FOR FUCK'S SAKE! Let's get out of here. So we go to see the doctor
next. Yeah, that's a great idea, especially since nothing about my
visions ever comes true, right? Oh, gee. What are we going to find here? Is this what--Yep. WHAAAAH! I do like how Samuel calmly walks
towards the sink and vomits here. And with that, I think it's
about time for the second award: Classiest game protagonist. You guys are getting the abridged version
so you may not see the full picture, but Sammy G here is the classiest
game hero I've ever seen. He's well-bred, always polite,
authoritative, distinguished in his tastes, I really can't think of any comparison. And, of course there's a glyph, in case you weren't sure if this
was related to the other murders. Uh, what? What's going on? I didn't press anything. Is it Satan worshiping time already? Apparently! Well, you know what Nietzsche says, "You stare too long at the
abyss, it stares back at you." Well, keep staring. Okay, back to the game, like nothing
happened. No comment from Samuel. Okay. Now there's a big clue in this room, but I'm going to skip that for
reasons that will soon be revealed. But first, now that our uncle is dead,
we can snoop around in his study. Aha! Nice assortment of medieval
weapons on the wall, and another portrait of an ancestor who
totally doesn't look like a dark wizard. And hey! Look! We found a little
devil-o-gram or something. So we open up his safe
with the power of puzzles, find Grandpa's original letter
to me and some more clues... So next we need to do some grave digging so we can dig up another
one of these weird artifacts to activate some devil
lock underneath the castle, because that will solve all
our problems, or something. And--uh-oh! It's that time again. I hate doing this but this is a murder-mystery
so if you attempt to play this game, I've gotta kick you to the
curb before I wrap this up. It's a good one, too. Without saying too much the game fooled me, but it did so in a
logically consistent way. It holds up. That does not happen to me often. I have
nothing but respect for this outcome. So if you like murder-mysteries, go play
this game and come back and watch this later. But just to drop you off
at the very last moment, let's cover everything else first. So that's the game, mostly. I want to say this is an all-time favorite
of mine, but it doesn't quite make it. It's close. Everything about
this game is an acquired taste. But, damn... It's a good taste. It's slow, loaded with long
character-building dialog, your usual adventure game puzzles, and not everyone's going
to want to walk the walk of a young aristocratic man
with too much time on his hands. I love the atmosphere, the
music, the characters are good, it's just a good game. I like it a lot except for one
problem I can't tell you yet. And I'm not the only one, because this
game did well enough to spawn some sequels: "Black Mirror II" and "III". These take place in the 90s following
a bastard child of the Gordons. He's just some guy from
Boston, nothing special. These are both competent games, but they just didn't capture
the magic of the original to me. They feel like sequels that
were made just to extend things but don't really have anything to add. Also, they don't use the same
composer as the original. That was a mistake right there. Unless he really HAS
mysteriously disappeared, in which case, I guess they
had to work with what they had. The music in the sequels
is mostly forgettable, not the masterful work that's here. I'm all for another game in
the Black Mirror universe, but they need to up the ante,
get more nuts than the original, maybe come back to that
storm-to-end-the-world or something. And of course the reason this
episode is coming out now is Black Mirror, the new game
coming out next month. It's unclear to me whether this
is a prequel, a reboot, or both. It takes place in the 1920s
and I'm not sold on this one since I already know how
it ends up from this game. Plus, every shot I've seen of the game makes it one of the darkest
games I've ever seen. I'm mean, literally. All there is
to see is some guy with a candle. Usually, for a prequel to be good, you have to take the story in a
completely different direction. Otherwise, you're just retreading
the same thing over and over. You're not going to hear me complaining if
somebody releases a new "Supreme Commander" or "Castlevania" clone, and
those don't do much new. But that's because those
are gameplay-focused. You can have endless variations
on roughly the same thing if the gameplay is good enough. But the Black Mirror is
a narrative-focused game. You have to keep the story fresh with those. You can't just rehash the same damned thing. Well, I guess you can obviously
CAN, but you shouldn't. Okay, that's it. I've gotta
kick you guys out now. Only people who want the
ending spoiled can stay. Have a happy Halloween and solve the
mystery of where all the candy is. All right, so who's been
doing all these killings? Well, I was wracking my brain on this
because we had a big clue back in the morgue. The doctor held a clump of black hair, so that rules out several people like
the butler, some of the townsfolk, most people who aren't dead yet... It could be Morris since he's
hightailed it out of here. Now, I know what you're thinking
because I was thinking it, too. It's got to be Samuel himself, right? He has black hair; he was having
those visions of the killings... He's killing people in his sleep! Except, whoa, wait a minute
there, chief. What about Grandpa? Samuel wasn't even in
town when that happened. Who threw him out of the tower and
left glyph marks by his death site? Not me! Samuel is 100% innocent on that! Well, it's what Grandpa was
worried about all along. It's the family curse. That's right, you're all damned
descendants of that dark wizard. So, it WAS Samuel for
everyone EXCEPT Grandpa. Grandpa threw himself out of that tower, except, like Samuel, he wasn't
in control of his own actions. And if you're not sure, the butler
spills the beans on it at confession. He saw you. IT WAS YOU, SAMUEL! YOOOOOOOOOUUUUU!!!! [thunder rumbles]
YOOOOOOOOOUUUUU!!!! "Chapter VI"! Well, the game's not over, so
we may as well see this through. We activate the hell keypad with the
special ring Grandpa was talking about, and now we're entering...
something, I have no idea. I love how nonchalantly Samuel comments
about what may be a gateway into Hell. ["I don't know what the writing means.
Maybe it warns against entering."] 100% class. Now while we're wandering
the hell dungeons here, I should say there are two trains
of thought on this mystery. Some people are going to say an evil
curse is just one big deus ex machina and a lame answer to everything. I get that, but honestly, I'm in the
other camp where this is the payoff to me. I like being surprised in stories, and I'm always hoping in
mysteries something supernatural or else really bizarre is lurking
underneath everything you're seeing, not just some clever plan of a villain. I've never been a big fan of Sherlock
Holmes, or for that matter, Scooby Doo, because I like it when reality breaks down and there's more going on
than just some guy in a suit. So to have the game be 98% real world, then the bottom 2% be a glimmer
into something else? HELL YES! So we make to a hell portal,
go through to some chamber, activate the soul keys or whatever, and I THINK what we're doing is preventing
the curse from affecting future Gordons, even though that's exactly what
Black Mirror II and III are about. And here we are back at the castle, and Samuel kills himself
to prevent further harm, because of course he's going
to be all dramatic about this. You could always just turn yourself in. The police would make sure you don't hurt
anybody else. That's what they're all about. So yeah. That's the Black Mirror and
honestly, this ending kind of sucks, but PC games are notorious for that. I hope we get a better ending next year. I mean, the hell gate is great, but what's the point of a complex
ritual and a secret demon world if all you're going to do
is jump off a building? You don't need a hell gate for that!
You don't even need to be rich! This ending is what keeps this from
being an all-time favorite game of mine, because it would be with the right one. I don't know. Samuel
turns into the antichrist and opens up the hell gates so demons start
spilling out? Now, that's sequel material! Hey, this takes place in
jolly old England in '81-- this could connect nicely into
"Bozo's Night Out", that's '84. So I guess the moral to this story
is if you're born to a cursed family, just leave home and don't come back. Or if you do, don't stay for more than a day. That's actually really good advice.
About half of my family is cursed. Also, weird gothic mansions are
awesome and we need a lot more of them. These estates should be the
standard, not the exception. That's it! Everyone have a classy Halloween. ["I'll go back."] Right. [music] Y'know, somebody's still
going to make a comment on how they thought this was about
the Black Mirror show. I guarantee it. Just look at the comments
from the new game trailer. Yeah, this is from Season 5, jackasses.
You weren't paying attention.
Ross makes really enjoyable videos. They’re both calming and entertaining.
I wish he could put out content faster, but the quality is high and you can tell he really cares about this stuff.
I have nothing really to say here. I have yet to watch the video. I just wanted to say that Ross has never really let out a video that has disappointed me since I first began watching him after the first game dungeon. Its worth giving a shot if you've never watched a video of his.