1979 Revolution: Black Friday

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 81 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 51 out of 81
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 81
  3. Negative: 13 out of 81

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  1. luksonije
    Apr 23, 2016
    5
    The game looks like Taletale game. So, we seen it before.

    It is definitely not for me. The story is about Iran and Islam, and that is not my favorite subject.
    Christ is my Lord and that is it...
  2. aditya1101
    Feb 28, 2020
    7
    Really amazing game - despite the lower production value, I really felt the authenticity in this game and it was a really cool snapshot into the 1979 revolution in Iran.
  3. PublicNuisance
    Jan 20, 2022
    7
    1979 does some things very well and others not so much. It does a great job of presenting a relatively unbiased portrait of history, at least my research couldn’t find many holes. The QTE game play works well for the most part aside from one section. For all but one part you are having to pick options while on a timer but for that other part you must be patient and wait for the right1979 does some things very well and others not so much. It does a great job of presenting a relatively unbiased portrait of history, at least my research couldn’t find many holes. The QTE game play works well for the most part aside from one section. For all but one part you are having to pick options while on a timer but for that other part you must be patient and wait for the right moment. Not a huge issue but the game conditions you to act one way only to swap it on you for one section which made it annoying for me. The game also did a great job of explaining people; events and culture for those who may not be familiar with Iran or much of it’s history. You are placed at various points of history as a photographer and the photos you take populate a menu going into detail about them. I thought the voice acting was fairly strong overall and enjoyed the dialogue choices. I will say that there was at least one faux choice early on. You can choose to not repeat your captor’s name to him but if you choose not to more than a couple times he kills you. While realistic it also made me have to redo the whole part which was annoying. It could have been just as good as a cut scene rather than a faux choice. The graphics weren’t bad but also not mind blowing. Everything from object detail to clothing to faces to buildings were serviceable but not fantastic. My main gripe was with the end part. The game ends very abruptly with little in the way of closure to the story. It just didn’t feel right. There were also other types of game play such as having to work on injured NPC’s. Having to remove glass; shrapnel and then bandage them. It was a nice way to break up the QTE’s and dialogue choices but was also clunky and looked crude. The gentleman whose wound I bandaged probably should have died from my poor quality work.

    I played 1979 on Linux using Wine. It never crashed on me. I did encounter one glitch where I was unable to leave the camera mode which was an issue as I was supposed to help bandage someone. I had to restart the checkpoint and next time it let me leave the camera mode. There was a checkpoint save system which I usually despise but the spacing was done well so it wasn’t much of an issue. There were 3 AA settings; an AF toggle; a v-sync toggle; and 3 other graphics options. Alt-Tab didn’t work. I also would have preferred turning depth of field off rather than just to low. I couldn’t monitor the frame rate but I didn’t feel any lag throughout the game. The upper VRAM usage of 4702 MB also only lasted a minute or two before settling back down to the 1189-1500 MB range.

    Game Engine: Unity
    Disk Space Used: 5.8 GB
    Game Version Played: 2.2.0.3 (GOG)

    Graphics Settings Used: All High except depth of field on low; 8x AA; v-sync and AF on
    GPU Usage: 43-99 %
    VRAM Usage: 1189-4702 MB
    CPU Usage: 9-29 %
    RAM Usage: 2.1-2.3 GB

    Overall 1979 told a good story in an engaging way but fell flat at the end. It is still worth playing though and was enjoyable. I really liked the world building and how the game put you in the middle of history. I finished the game in 2 hours and 8 minutes. The length didn’t bother me but the ending did. I would say the game is worth it’s current price tag of $11.79 CAD.

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 21.0.3 | Linux Mint 20.3 | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 5.4.0-96-generic | Wine 7.0    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

80
#80 Best PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. Eurogamer Italy
    Sep 4, 2018
    80
    A docu-game where the line between right and wrong is never clear nor defined. 1979 Revolution: Black Friday tells a brief but though story with great emphasis on players choices and moral ambiguity. Outdated graphics limit the game potential, but its story and its characters hit the target.
    Read full review
  2. RPG Fan
    Aug 16, 2016
    75
    A documentary in game form that allows the player to experience historical events authentically in a way no film could.
    Read full review
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jun 20, 2016
    60
    Very intriguing documentary about the Iranian revolution, which however lacks in gameplay. But if you want to be entertained and learn something, do not hesitate. [Issue#264]
See all critic reviews »