1979 Revolution: Black Friday

Part historical documentary, part video game, 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is a solid foundation for a tension-filled story grounded in the reality of a confusing time.

1979 Revolution: Black Friday is a fascinating perspective on a significant historical event that affects the world today. Despite clunky mechanics and sometimes awkward visuals, the title goes above and beyond regarding storytelling by incorporating real-life pieces of media, making a nuanced and varied story out of literal history that most people know nothing about.

1979 Revolution: Black Friday tells the story of the Iranian Revolution in the year within the title. It's a beautiful, heart-wrenching story that makes you quickly fall for every character on screen. The lack of polish and occasional technical frustrations hamper its impact at times, but the message is still loud and clear. This isn't about crafting some experience you're going to sink one hundre...

Despite some inconsequential decision-making and visual roughness, the amount of heart, character, and unflinching honesty in 1979 Revolution’s short two-hour tale is impressive. As an Iranian-American myself, it’s incredibly refreshing to not only see this subject matter explored, but done so in a smart and sensitive way that succeeds in educating as much as entertaining.

As long as I’ve been playing games, I’ve found those that take place in real-life historical periods to be among the most interesting. As a child, I lost many hours to the likes of Age of Empires and Titanic: Adventure Out of Time because they were magical doorways to epochs that had come before. They didn’t really educate me about the specifics of their respective time periods, but they got me to...

At its heart, this is a street-level view with a focus on people and their relationship more than the politics of the situation - which is saying something with the amount of historical content found within. It reveals a timeless truth that we would be careful to heed in our heightened cultural climate: the fires of revolution always burn hot, but they are uninhibited in who or what they consume.

Ink Stories should be congratulated on their tackling of a much misunderstood historical event and doing so with such accuracy, clarity and impartiality. However, with a glut of gameplay issues and a short game length that prevents the opportunity to explore some interesting ideas further, there’s far too much incentive to give 1979 Revolution: Black Friday a miss. This is best viewed as an educat...

Narrative-driven games usually struggle to find a perfect balance between gameplay and storytelling. 1979 Revolution: Black Friday tells a personal tale of a real-life historical event but does it hold up as a video game?