[tarspoon]

Originally Posted by Luther10

80% of the game time, I'm hearing the same instrumental track. Mr. Holmes, I love your music in the GK games, but what's going on here? Maybe a lack of budget???

According to this
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...venturegame-20

there are 22 tracks in Gray Matter soundtrack. Is it too little for you? Huh...

Personally I can't wait to play Gray Matter. And no negative comments matter to me)))). Jane Jensen's game can't be anything but perfect.

[Thorn]

I loved it. It left me with such a warm and fuzzy feeling, I'm now repeating the soundtrack on spotify over and over

The only real issue I had with the game was the little half-portraits by the subtitles.
If you're going to lip sync everything and show it as a portrait-- do it right: WITH eye movement.

Not much fun looking at a character talking perfectly if their eyes are completely dead.

[OCKi]

I absolutely loved this game!!
Just when I thought the adventure-game genre were dead, Jane Jensen comes out with this epic piece.

Terrific story.
Fascinating characters.
Innovative puzzles (maybe a tad easy at times).
And a brilliant, haunting score!
That said.. none of these elements defines a really great adventure-game.. It has to be a great atmosphere that creeps up to the player during play-through that makes the sell - And Gray Matter sold me to the limit!

The concept is pure brilliance; A scientist who believes in the supernatural, and a magician who believes in reason and logic.
That right there screams layered characterisations and storytelling.

The mystery of Laura was engaging throughout the entire game,

Spoiler:

and while the ending left some loose ends, the story gave us enough tidbits to draw our own interpretation.

Just my cup of tea.

Bravo, Jensen! You did it again!
I'm rooting for a sequel in the near future...

[Luther10]

OK, I've finished the game. Chapter 8 was quite a departure from the other chapters, but it did grow on me, and in the end I do appreciate this change of scenery.

The story overall is spectacular, probably the best since Still Life. Graphics is a bit rough on the edges but it's good enough for this genre. Voice acting is very strong, the best one is probably the actor doing Styles' voice. The soundtrack I do like in general, especially the 2 vocal songs, but the overuse of one particular instrumental track for the majority of the game just doesn't make sense to me.

Big problem in this game is the gameplay. Game is a bit short, and the puzzles are not much of a challenge. The first 7 chapters felt very mechanical. I felt like I was performing the same actions over and over again, traveling back and forth to the same limited amount of locations and clicking on everything just to see if someone/thing new is available to interact with. The beginning chapters especially are painfully slow and the magic tricks, even though I like the idea, were not implemented very well.

Anyway, I do like this game overall (it's good enough to enter my top 50), but just not on par with Ms. Jensen's previous works. Maybe my expectations were too high...

[fov]

Just finished, and I have a question...

Spoiler:

Was Angela's father one of the four magicians? I thought his picture looked similar to the picture of the blond male magician. When Sam's watching the video at the end I wasn't sure if the implication was supposed to be that this was Angela's father, or just that "magicians" with special powers can sometimes do things that illusionists who don't have special powers wouldn't expect them to be able to do. But anyway, the magician shown in that video was not the same one I thought was her father... but that could have been due to the different in art style in the cutscene.

Also, just curious, did other players realize what was going on LOOONG before Sam and Dr. Styles did? I think I figured it out back in chapter 5.

[seagul]

Yes, i figured it out at chapter 5, too. I irritated me a bit. Could it be that easy? But there where more details to reveal to understand the whole story.

All in all i loved it. Interesting charakters, not the standart ones, interesting story. I loved the cutscenes in comic stile, they transported so much atmosphere.

[fov]

Whoa, playable demo! That's a nice surprise.

[Sughly]

Originally Posted by OCKi

Just when I thought the adventure-game genre were dead, Jane Jensen comes out with this epic piece.

Haha, oh thanks Jane for giving us back adventures.

It's one thing to like this title but be careful calling the genre dead. There's been plenty of good, if not better (in my mind) adventures of late. With or without Jane, it's not dead

[zane]

wow, really surprized about the demo, and sounds like its a generous one, the tutorial and the whole 3rd chapter, and thats a good one.

[fov]

It's not actually the whole third chapter. When it starts some of the chapter 3 tasks have been completed for you. But it's still a good chunk of gameplay from the point of the game where I thought it started to get interesting. Chapters 1 and 2 are good set-up but they drag a bit...

[Nico Sels]

Well, now that most of you here have enjoyed this game, I hope those who haven't yet legally acquired their games, still have the intention to do so.

I found out there are too many illegal copies downloaded out there, and if you want more of these good adventures you should buy them. Cause consider this.. for every few here who downloaded an illegal copy, there are a dozen non-forumposters out there that did the same thing.

spread the word!

[Origami]

^
I agree. Support your adventure game developers. In a timespan of 1 month I have actually bought all of TellTale's games. Though I exploited some sale discounts.

[zane]

Originally Posted by Nico Sels

Well, now that most of you here have enjoyed this game, I hope those who haven't yet legally acquired their games, still have the intention to do so.

I hope lots and lots more people legally aquire the game. Thats the only hope we have for a sequel. But the way the publishers have handled this completely bewilders me. By releasing an english/german version in like 3 countries, and then saying the other multi-language version would be out in
3+ months, they basically said "come on pirates, heres this anticipated game in english that you cant buy locally, have at it". Plus, we STILL dont know if there will be a NA release at all. Does mamba not realize that in 3 months everyone who plans on paying for it probably will have already done so?

Does anything set this game apart from other 'good' games, is it the brilliant classic everyone wanted in the same way GK3 was? That's the big question isn't it?

[rayvio]

Originally Posted by Roman5

Does anything set this game apart from other 'good' games, is it the brilliant classic everyone wanted in the same way GK3 was? That's the big question isn't it?

well there's nothing ground breaking or revolutionary if that's what you mean. it's a great story with fun puzzles that's neither too easy nor too difficult (though I admit it veers closer to being too easy at times) and which has little to complain about. so I wouldn't say it's the perfect saviour of the genre, but in my opinion it's definitely among the very best of the adventure games of recent years and better than many of the classics (although it's harder to judge against those since nostalgia makes them seem better than they may have been and familiarity makes them seem less exciting)

[cwapitm]

Any idea when this will be out in the U.S.? And will it be in stores?

[zane]

^Theres been no word whether this is coming to the US at all. You can import it, or buy it as a digital download right now, and its 100% in english. In Feb theyr releasing a version with more languages (Italian, Spanish, etc). But appears thatl be primarily in the UK and europe.

[Phod]

A week after completing it I still think this game is incredible.

The soundtrack is amazing, possibly even better than GK.

It's a travesty that Jane Jensen doesn't get to create more games.

[SamandMax]

Originally Posted by zane

^Theres been no word whether this is coming to the US at all. You can import it, or buy it as a digital download right now, and its 100% in english. In Feb theyr releasing a version with more languages (Italian, Spanish, etc). But appears thatl be primarily in the UK and europe.

It's kind of absurd that they haven't even officially released it as a digital download in North America yet, there's no reason it shouldn't be on Steam already especially since we know an English version is completely finished and available on already-released foreign copies. It's a big blunder in the release of your game if pirated copies of it are floating on the net months before it's officially released in the North American market.

[River]

Originally Posted by zane

^Theres been no word whether this is coming to the US at all. You can import it, or buy it as a digital download right now, and its 100% in english. In Feb theyr releasing a version with more languages (Italian, Spanish, etc). But appears thatl be primarily in the UK and europe.

It has been released in Spain a week ago. The voices come in english and the subtitles in spanish.