1979 Revolution: Black Friday

1979 Revolution: Black Friday is a cinematic adventure game set around 1979 during the Iranian Revolution. The protagonist is Reza Shirazi, a photojournalist, who is in Tehran during the uprising against the Shah's regime. The game consists of 19 chapters of varying length, historically accurate under the documentary-style banner Vérité Games, and based on the real events and eyewitness testimonies. The frame story takes place in April 1980 at Evin Prison where Reza is locked up and interrogated by Assadollah Lajevardi. The conversation leads to many flashbacks as the main interactive sequences where most of the story is explained.

The civil resistance against the Western-backed Pahlavi dynasty of the Shah brings together many different groups, both religious and secular, and the player's choices shape whom Reza will support. His best friend Babak follows the peaceful protest of the Islamic group led by Khomeini, while his cousin Ali Shirazi urges him to protest violently and fight against the military supporting the Shah. Bibi Golestan and Abbas, part of the civil resistance, ask his help to document the revolution with his photographs. At the same time he needs to keep in mind that his brother Hossein is a member of SAVAK, the Shah's intelligence service, and his parents want to keep the family together.

The game mechanics closely resemble those of the Telltale cinematic adventure games. Most of the game is told through cut-scene sequences, with (timed) dialog choices that are remembered, and those influence events and how characters will interact with Reza. There are also some action sequences with quick time events. If the prompts are missed, Reza can get killed and then that part needs to be restarted. There are several sections where Reza can walk around freely, exploring the environment. During these it is possible to interact with items and these are most often stored as stories in a separate screen where most of the events, history and cultural traditions are explained.

As a photojournalist he also regularly needs to take photos. At certain moments an icon signals that a photo can be taken and then the environment can be scanned through the lens, looking for an interesting event. This turns a marker green. The player then has to time a marker on a bar moving left and right to take the picture at the correct moment to make sure it is sharp with good focus. At certain points smaller interactions are also supported, such as looking for clues in photos, developing film, searching environments, treating a wounded man and so on. Next to the stories based on experiences in the game, photos are also stored in a separate screen.