View Single Post
Old 03-13-2011, 01:48 PM   #397
Len Green
Senior Member
 
Len Green's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 454
Default

I have already outlined some of my criticisms of the purely technical aspects of the game, and won't repeat them again. These are facts and can be argued about – in particular if they are serious or trivial!
IMO that side of the game is very poor!
I am sorry and wish it were otherwise, but it disturbed me considerably during the whole of my gameplay.
Again, I put it down to the prolonged and tortuous 'labour pains' of this game and the budgetary restrictions involved. This is no reflection on JJ, but IMO the end product is fairly badly flawed!
My opinions on the story aside of the game are more mixed and complex!
Overall it is extremely successful. It is like a good novel --- the whole thing is different, interesting, a page turner, and you want to know what happens next , both to Sam and David and no less importantly to the minor characters. Too many Quest-Adventures these days lack these exciting elements and I often feel I'm ploughing through them joylessly simply to overcome the puzzles and prove to myself that I've successfully reached the end. This is NOT the case with Gray Matter!
All the characters are well developed, living breathing human beings, and interesting – including the secondary folk. The voice acting is no less than superb. It is a credit to Jane, being an American, that every one of the very many UK personalities have bona fide British accents, ranging from London Cockney through Scottish and Irish, etc.
Where I'm not so happy is with some of the inconsistencies of character and plot. I know that in a Quest game one is expected to suspend disbelief – but the dramatis personae are so realistic that anomalies grate on the nerves.
Characters:- Dave's undoubted love for his late wife seem OK up to a point -0 but is this not overdone? Nearly all the married men I know seem to overcome their grief VERY rapidly and remarry within about a year !!
Sam apparently has been robbed of a regular upbringing through no fault of her own. I am very well acquainted personally with such case histories. Yet she quotes a chunk of Swinburne ad lib at the drop of a hat – not the best known or popular poet!!!
Plot:- How does a certain character manage to drag a whole number of extremely heavy weights along and onto the middle of a gymnasium and even pile them up there?
And the other incidents don't seem to fit with the person responsible.
(albeit trivial – but) What about litmus paper not needing an acid or alkali to react – just plain water?
With the greatest respect for the virtues of the underground scenes in the Daedelus Club – but it's a bit difficult to swallow such an emporium in the middle of prosaic Tottenham Court Rd. – or wherever!
~~~~ So, Grey Matter, like diamonds being maybe a girl's best friend and most valuable, a flawed diamond is a very debatable treasure.
Len Green is offline