The Black Mirror

Posel smrti, released abroad as The Black Mirror, is a horror adventure by studio Future Games, one of the most successful and highly regarded Czech games ever. The story follows young nobleman Samuel Gordon, who returns after years to the family estate of Black Mirror after being forced to do so by his grandfather's death, and gradually uncovers dark family secrets and the circumstances of his wife's death, who perished in a fire. The gameplay is classic adventure fare - exploring the environment, collecting and combining items in the inventory, and solving puzzles, all set across roughly a hundred and fifty locations through which the player gradually works from one chamber of the estate to the next, uncovering increasingly dark connections between the family members.

At the time, the game captivated players with an exceptionally chilling, gothic atmosphere, enhanced by carefully crafted music and sound design, as well as intricate, darkly toned puzzles without unnecessary comic relief, which was less common for domestic adventure games up to that point. Technically, it was a very ambitious project for 2003 - the game was released fully voiced in several language versions including English, German, and French, an unusual scope of localization for domestic production, supplemented with subtitles in additional languages. Visually, it relied on beautifully rendered static scenes that still feel atmospheric today despite their age and the limited technical capabilities of the computers of the time, on which the game ran at a fairly low resolution.

Posel smrti became an internationally successful export of the Czech gaming scene and is still mentioned today as one of the best domestic games, proving that even a small local team could create a title competitive abroad. Its success launched the entire Black Mirror series and cemented Future Games' reputation as a key player in the horror adventure genre, not only at home but abroad as well, where the game gained its own loyal fanbase.

Why play it: For fans of horror adventure games, it's one of the best domestic games ever - a title that launched an entire series and succeeded abroad as well.