i am against the cutscenes for one very important reason: Its confusing as all hell whats going on. When somebody walks, its not clear if they just disappeared, or teleported, or simply walked. When someone talks, no lips moving, who says what? All the cutscene portraits look way different than the characters do in game, its not always immediately apparent who is who. Nobody even really agrees what happens in the intro and what exactly scared the real assistant, because the cutscene animations are confusing and dont clearly show whats going on. I have no problem with the way they look, but they are used very poorly.

Would have been better off, to be honest, if they had used the first GK engine or something similar - it's the engine that let's it down as far as i am concerned. Reminded me of Dreamfall, and let's not go down that road!

On another topic GOG.com has up to 50% some of their adventures this weekend, including The Longest Journey and Siberia, two of the best adventures out there! And of course, they already have Gabriel Knight if you haven't got that yet!

Really? Perhaps a little bit, but that adds to the feeling of the game. And i know of cutscenes in other games which can confuse you more. Hey, it's a mistery game!
Again: mistery game! Why was Samantha at the right time at the right spot? Why had she a medallion that is similar to the one Dr. Styles mother had?

Spoiler:

How is it possible that Laura really seems to have "talked to Dr. Styles? What did she want? Only warn him because there is an imposter? Perhaps she got rid of the wrong assistance to make way for Sam.

This is exactly the point we disagree. I don't think the story is good. Really.

In the end we will always mention personal opinion, no doubt. Ok, pherhaps it is wright. But there is one thing we can say for sure. Gabriel Knight is really unanimous among adventure players. But Gray Matter is not. Wich means there is something GK has that GM has not. Charisma, background story, atmosphere? Maibe.

But im not talking about the mystery of the story. When the assistant gets scared in the intro it looks like she vanished, like something took her. But in actuality she goes to the car and drives away. You dont see her walking. You dont see clearly what she was looking at. This isnt a relevant story point, just poorly executed animations.

Huh? Someone thought she vanished? I agree that the cut scenes are not as clear as day but honestly, you guys must have exeptional imagination to interpret all kinds of weird stuff. What happens is pretty damn clear all the time, just a couple of points where you might mix up characters but they are not really anything crucial, like a surprised face or something.

But yeah, everyone has a right to dislike them. I think they worked pretty well with the atmosphere but wouldn't have minded "real" cutscenes at all.


No it isn't unanimous. GK games are widely respected but they are old classics already. Not everyone loved them back then and no, not everyone loves them even now.

Honestly I felt the story of a good writer right away. I've been playing quite many adventures recently and most of them are somewhat entertaining but GM was right away in a completely different level. I could feel the quality right from the beginning.

Not every story pleases everyone but I'd really want to know what was so horrible about this then, there mostly seems to be very emotional negative responses about the story: "it was horrible!" which to me seems like an overreaction.

The theme, characters and style is different to GK games and GK fans (includes me) should accept that. It is not going to be like GK and I am happy Jensen does something else too. GK4 would still be welcome.

millenia, you hit the nail right on the head.
Or, let's say, i have the exact same sentiments and could not say it better. :)

Well, I'm not very far into the story yet to draw any final conclusions, but I did believe and thought I saw her vanishing, taken by some entity.

Thanks for clearing that up, zane.:) I'm an old seasoned player with good eyesight and excellent monitor. If I can get it so wrong the animations cannot exactly be top notch.:frown:

And with regards to the cutscenes, to me it looks like cardboard cutouts thats is moved inside a shoebox, with some digital effects added afterwards (smoke etc). Yes I think they're that bad, but by no means a killer of the game. They're not adding but subtracting to the atmosphere for me.

Still. I will do what I can to support JJ efforts if they are interesting enough, and Gray Matter is that and then some, at least for me.:)

I am currently playing the game too and so far yea the animations are not that great and the cut-scenes but whatever. Who cares if an adventure game is awesome at graphics? I care about the story and the gameplay which so far seem pretty good. I at least enjoy playing this game and I don't think that this kind of analysis is necessary,nothing to gain from it. Also, so far I can understand who's talking every time at the cut-scenes,it's really not that hard...the voices differ a lot and the style so it's totally clear for me.

Let me say this. If any of the Gabriel Knight games (specially 3 i guess) where released today after so many years in development they would generate the same opinions and divide players in the same way that Gray Matter is nowadays. I ADORE all Gabriel Knight games, but i can easily rip them apart if i start to nitpick on their flaws, hell i can do that with ANY game ever made. If Gray Matter had decades of nostalgia on top of it, people would be a lot less critical.

I'm not shure about that. I play new games and the old ones too. I loved Black Mirror II and decided do play Black Mirror I again. And I loved playing the first one like in the first time.

GK 1 to 3 were considered great games since when they were released. Today they are classic. Shall Gray Matter be consider a classic in the next decade?

The fact of an adventure game being old or new makes more difference about the graphics. But this is not my point. What I complain about Gray Matter is the story, wich I consider very weak. The Doctor looks so sopy to me. And his behavior does not mach his intelligence in the story. (I can´t tell without making a spoil). Also, the magic tricks are childish. Who can expect to do anything Sam did with those tricks?

And another point I didn' mention. There is almost no puzzle (except in the final chapter). All we have to do is to follow the riddles, to read the instructions of a manual to make the magical tricks and interact with some other few things. That is why the game is so easy.

I remember GK3 had a very troubled release and a lot of people didn't like it that much nor did several reviewers. GK3 is a game that passed the test of time and is nowadays a lot more consensual than it was in 1999.

Not even Jesus was complety unanimous. In that sense nobody is or will ever be. I think you know what I am talking about.

Sorry, but I can't understand what quality you felt since the beginning. This can be a matter of taste. Well, I felt nothing special about the story. Not even interesting. Honestly, I played the game until the end just to see if I am mistaken or not.

In my view Gray Matter would be just another regular adventure if it was not made by Jane Jansen and if it wore not so anticipated for so many (and long) years.

But I think I am not overreacting. I'm just saying this game is not as good I was expectig.

If I remember wright the complain was about the 3D engine, not about the game itself. By the way, many adventure players feel the same about 3d graphics even today.

The 3D engine, some of the puzzles, Tim Curry's voice, the last chapter, too much dialogue, cliched side characters... a lot of things. Most of them were nitpicks, but its the same with Gray Matter. The large majority of people that finished Gray Matter liked the narrative, the most criticised aspect are the technical ones. Ok you didn't like the narrative, and thats ok, it has several flaws, but from the reactions i'm reading seems to me you are in the minority.

If I am like the majority, will I be more wright? On the other side, I should talk for what I think, even thought others can think in a different way. Don't you do the same?

By the way: I don't remember ciriticising the narrative. I meant the story itself.

But, since you mentioned, I thoght Tim Curry's voice was a strong point in Gabriel Knight 3...

About the "reactions", friend, I didn't mean to write that much. But everytime I write something there is one or more replies... :frusty:

I didn't like the game, brother, that hapens! Simple like that! :) The world won't end. Don't get me wrong.

I don't think we will go much far with this... We are monopolizing the topic. :)

This I think I'd have to agree with, pizzo might actually not be in the minority here.

I think I've already mentioned that I was slightly annoyed by the protagonist behaving like a teenage girl -- after finishing the game I feel like the whole thing was written for teenage girls. I'll be very much surprised if AGS gives it more than four stars.

well, i realized something about the game when i was mid-way through: It has an identity crisis. The game cant decide who its audience is. 10 minutes in samantha drops an S-bomb while talking to the maid, seemingly for no reason. And thats the last profanity you hear in the game. The game then constantly tries to balance itself between grim, edgy, and disney. And its largely because of this that the story suffers and lacks direction or impact.
The pieces to a good story are there, but it just becomes muddled, watered down and quickly tries to make up for it in the end.

I was going to wait until the official North American release but since that is at least a few months away, if it even happens at this point, I finally gave in and bought it off of that German site. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it, even moreso than a lot of people here seem to be.

The best thing about it is that it's undeniably a Jane Jensen-designed game. It adheres so closely to the same formula the Gabriel Knight games used that even if you had no idea that she was involved, you'd be able to tell her fingerprints are all over it in a heartbeat. And not just in a plot or character way, there are moments of this game that are nearly identical to Gabriel Knight. The whole mid-section of the game where you're trying to sneak into the dorm rooms of your fellow testees feels like a nostalgic revisit to all of the hotel room snooping you had to do in GK3.

It's also just a solid mystery. It gets goofy in spots - especially near the end where it goes off the rails for a bit and sends you to a location that completely breaks any sort of plausible reality - but the core mystery at the heart of the game is a strong one and Jane does a good job of weaving all of the supernatural elements in while keeping it relatively grounded in reality. Although, and this may just be a problem I had, there's a moment in chapter 5 where the identity of the villain is given away a little too clearly which kind of makes the investigation afterwards feel a little too red herring-y.

There are some other problems, most of which have been noted before, but they're more frustrating than detrimental. I like the look of the cutscenes but they sometimes fail to properly convey the story, often feeling rushed and confusing. There's also A LOT of moments where you'll find yourself stuck because you have to hit a certain trigger to continue (a problem I thought the GK games suffered from as well). It can be infuriating to be at 94% completion on a chapter and have to comb a location over and over again trying to find the one tiny thing you need to activate the next portion of the game.

On the whole though, I loved the game and I think it more than meets the lofty expectations you'd expect when playing something designed by Jane Jensen. It has its flaws but there are so many great moments that overshadow them:

Spoiler:

That single scene at the end where Sam sees Dr. Styles without his mask is a more heartfelt moment than anything in adventure games in years.

I'd easily put this game up there with The Lost Crown and Amnesia as the pinnacle of adventure games for this decade (although that's not saying much). I really, really hope it gets the sequel that the end hints at, there are so many possibilities for this series and it's clear that Jane is still at the top of her game.

it might have a little more romance than other games but i don't think that's a bad thing considering there aren't so many like that out there and also it's not that much.

to me the characters are quite fine.Sam is like zane said and a little childish because she didn't actually have the best childhood out there.her parents died when she was a little girl it's perfectly reasonable that afterward she is not gonna be like any girl/woman her age.she most likely will do what she wants instead of listening to others and especially her foster parents.she became goth and does magic,not exactly typical either and since she is not mature enough she acts like a child when she becomes interested in Styles.

Styles on the other hand acts like that because he was madly in love with his dead wife.since the accident he cut all ties even with friends let alone work and began a recluse life.he is rude to everyone and even to his caretaker and only talks a little better after being scolded by her.it might not be as his intelligence directs but i'd say it's pretty logical with those emotional problems.

as for the cutscenes i'm with those that liked them.i also could tell the voices and the faces.at the point where the assistant was attacked yeah it might be missing a frame there but if she disappeared wouldn't sam be a little more cautious,shocked,intrigued as how it happened,spooked,anything?she just accepts it and is only spooked by the house just because it's eerie?

and at last i've read some reviews and nearly all of them said sth to indicate an instant classic.and most of the posts here complain more about technical issues than the story.so yeah even with two people you still are a minority.

EDIT:

Spoiler:

ah and about laura......i think she just spoke because she didn't like styles thinking anything bad(she attacked the sites) about her and also not do anything with the fake laura/impostor thinking it was the real one(she was snooping closer every time and even kissed styles in the end while he was thinking she was laura).

I played the demo for the first time and enjoyed it. Nice atmosphere, mood, voice acting is fine. Graphics, people have complained about, but I play so many adventure games from the 90s that I never judge an adventure game by them and they look just fine to me.

My only problem with the demo is I couldn't finish it! No, it wasn't too hard, I just had to go to bed and the save function was greyed out for the demo, meaning I have to repeat all my progress and finish the demo in one sitting. Questionable if you ask me, but oh well.

I really hope this game is distributed on Steam, I am buying most of my games there now and celebrate whenever an adventure game makes it there.

Another rather favourable GM review has appeared on Consolemonster.com:

http://www.consolemonster.com/article.php?id=0000000967

it was easy to get sucked into, but i think that is because it was easy. people looked like sims1 and from an artistic value totally missed the mark.

Demo of the Xbox 360 version is now available in Europe.

Dang! I've always been able to find Imports at GamersGate that I couldn't find anywhere else, but no love this time.

Who is in charge of the release schedule for this game??? Arghh!

I've played the Xbox 360 demo and love the atmosphere of the game. There are some things about this version that bugs me:

- The sound. The voices aren't that loud, while some music and environmental sounds are. To some extent this is tweakable in the menu, but haven't they tested the demo themselves?
- The screen size. Somehow this game doesn't fill up the whole screen, but leaves a thick black border on all sides. This too is tweakable in the menu, but it just shows bad design/programming.
- The walking. What's the purpose of the real-time walking if you have to use the ring menu to interact with the environment? They could've done without the walking.

I've played the 360 demo as well and basically have the same concerns.

-The sound is adjustable in the options but noting actually changes. The music is powerfully loud compared to the audio and during some scenes the spoken dialog literally cannot be discerned.

-The font type is really hard to read. Even on my 57" HD Screen the font is very difficult to make out, especially on the radial dial. It needs to be increased in size or bordered better. It's almost like watching old Hong Kong films with the white subtitles at the bottom that you could only read 2 of every 3 words.

-I actually appreciate the ability to walk but it needs tweaking. The devs need to simply implement the ability to press A when you come upon a hot spot to allow interaction (like the console ports of Syberia). Walking up to an object then bringing up the radial dial and having to scroll around to find the choice to interact with what's right in front of you is a bad design decision. It literally kills the immersion. Keep the radial dial, it works fine as a mouse substitute for players who don’t want to maneuver the characters and will actually make the experience easier for players not as familiar with the genre. But allow those of us who want to walk up to an object and interact with it (ala the recent Monkey Island 2 remake) the ability to do so. Please! I also still think the option to choose to use an entirely classic point and click style also (ala MI 2:SE) would work well.

That said I loved the demo. The game looks absolutely beautiful on my 57" Hitachi HDTV and I can't wait to play the final version on my 360. Now can we just get confirmation that the game is coming to the US? Oh and a nice collector’s edition like the German version (except for both PC and 360) would be really nice too; even if it’s an online-order-only deal.

Finished it. Nothing groundbreaking, but it was quite enjoyable.
Story is interesting, but I expected more daring take on the main theme and especially more interesting and uniqe characters. At times it almost felt like watching some soapy TV series. Certainly not what I expected from a mature game.
I also didn't like David Styles's character design very much. I just couldn't connect the supposed genious with a profound voice charm of Anthony Hopkins, with some young (almost anime-like) pretty boy, who wears the phantom of the opera mask. Vanilla Sky and Tom Cruise's character springs to mind. The only difference is, in Vanilla Sky his character did make sense (he was obsesed with his look), while in Gray Matter it felt under-developed.

Still, it was a good game.. just not what I expected.

What I've been fearing the whole time. And since MI2:SE already did the p&c very succesfully, there was no reason they couldn't do it here as an alternative.

Now I have some serious thinking about what to buy this for...

Then I guess this will be a much-anticipated game I will never play.

Is there a UK version planned and will it be on Steam? I may as well get the boxed foreign version if not...

February 2011 is the release date.

Just gave the demo a quick spin.

I'm impressed, but not overly. I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to be doing as David, nor was I really a fan of his voice. He sounded a good 10-20 years older than he looked, which kinda ruined it for me. Sam looked and moved better than I thought she would, but I'm not really keen on her tattoo (Minor problem). I was surprised to find out she's voiced by the actress who voiced Faith's sister in Mirror's Edge (One of my favourite games), too!

Controls were OK, but a little backwards compared to Broken Sword (Which I'm playing currently. It's usually LMB to use, RMB to look, but it's reversed in Gray Matter), and the animations seemed alright, but I couldn't tell if they were supposed to be that stilted or if it was just my 7600GT struggling to cope (I'd put the quality up to High).

I'll buy it, certainly, but I'm not going to let the demo marr my view of the game. It seemed disjointed and completely out of context (As did the TLJ demo when I played that), and I can't use it as a base for how the game truly is.

I just hope the part where she picks up the rabbit is fixed. That made me go "What?".

yep, i guess the demo is... chapter 1 and chapter 3??? or maybe just the tutorial of chapter 1 and then chapter 3? Such a weird choice to make the demo that way... i cant imagine it not feeling disjointed.

I finally got the game - as a Christmas gift no less - and I'm now at the start of chapter 5.

All I can say for now is that it's a very interesting experience, but it also has a great number of flaws. Already the very awkward interface is diminishing the pleasure of playing the game considerably.

However, there's lots to like as well and there is no doubt that I'm very happy to be able to play a proper new Jane Jensen adventure game again.

No idea, but if it helps you feed Houdini as Sam, go out of the door and then take over as David, but with absolutely no direction or hints as to what to do. I just walked around looking at things.

The demo starts at the very beginning of the game with the opening cutscene and tutorial (Sam feeding Houdini). After that it switches to chapter 3, which is the first chapter where you play as David. It's the first time in the game where you start to learn about

Spoiler:

his psi experiments and what happened to his wife,

so from that perspective it's a good introduction to his story. (As far as there being no direction or hints about what to do, that's pretty much the case throughout the game...) But it's not the whole chapter -- some tasks have been completed for you -- and depending on what order you do things, the demo can end abruptly.

I think they did a decent job carving out a self-contained experience from a game that doesn't really lend itself to that, but it is a bit awkward. Sam is the playable character for most of the game, so it would have been nice to play a bit more of her in the demo. But Gray Matter's first two chapters (where Sam is the playable character) are pretty slowly paced and non-linear, so I can understand why they chose to show part of chapter 3 instead.

This is more or less how I felt... I was very happy to be playing it, but even the great story and the magic of playing a new Jane Jensen game couldn't make up for the flaws. My review will be up on AG soon...

I agree it was a really weird way to "demo" the game. I agree entirely that David's portion being completely bereft of any direction or context made for a bad way to showcase the game. Once I completed the demo I had a better idea of the mechanics they were going for...but until then it was wander aimlessly around the house until you happen to make something happen. The demo really should have started with a bit of dialog from David indicating his objectives for the day.

As to the Rabbit I agree as well. It's bizarre and completely disjointing. I stopped playing the game on PC because it runs poorly for me (need a new video card) and I thought the rabbit scene was the result this...then I played the 360 version and was surprised to see it again. I really hope the dev takes the time to fix things like this and address the control issues prior to a US release in February (or whenever it's happening). There's so much potential for this game with just a little more polish.

I'm looking forward to reading it. I think I'll write a longer opinion on the game when I finish it too.

Just popping in here to say I'm still playing it, and I'm loving all the litte references the game drop every now and then.

I just stumbled across this one:

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7859/neill2.jpg

I was very surprised. I did not expect to see earth's point of origin engraved on a tree at Oxford :D

Also... can anyone explain how come they managed to get permissions to use "Harry Potter" and "Hogwarts" names, but not Eraserhead? :crazy: