Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Review - 7 Ups & 2 Downs

6. The Seamless Branching Narrative

Black Mirror Bandersnatch Fionn Whitehead
Netflix

Though the actual storytelling freedom available to the player is somewhat underwhelming, you have to give Netflix credit for producing perhaps the most slickly intuitive interactive movie ever made.

Whenever a choice emerges, there's no judder or stuttering as the pipeline loads up the user interface, and once you've selected an option, it's seamlessly inserted into the story thanks to some meticulous editing.

The brief story summaries which play out following a fail state must've been a headache for the production team to assemble, and some of the smaller details - like picking a cereal and seeing a TV advert for that cereal later on - result in a cute paying-off of even the most insignificant choices.

The system is smooth and robust, so it's easy to be confident that with a bolder approach to choice next time, another Netflix CYOA project could be incredibly special indeed.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.