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No new postsGray matter: retro review
It has been a while since I’ve done a retro review series and I finally decided to give gray matter a chance. The game is installing now and I got it for $9.99. I’m going into the game pretty blind other than the fact that it’s a Jane Jensen game that involves a magician of some sort.
Beat the 1st chapter and well its ok at best so far. Voice work for the two main leads is pretty good, especially the doctor. I find sam more valley girl than emo though. I thought the lack of animations during the cutscenes would bother me, but found them charming. However much like hobs barrow the lack of animations during gameplay is appallingly bad here. Also the voice work for the rest of the cast range from mediocre to downright terrible. Also not a fan of the UI or puzzle design. I find the magic trick gimmick already tiring and lame. Plus since i dont have a mouse wheel, i cant easily zoom in on letters. Background art is nice but way too static. Dialogue is written well but poorly acted. Story also has not grabbed me at all yet.
So far 6/10 i will continue, but it needs to pick up quickly.
I’m going into the game pretty blind other than the fact that it’s a Jane Jensen game.
Be aware that not everybody thinks that every Jane Jensen game is a work of art.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
I’m going into the game pretty blind other than the fact that it’s a Jane Jensen game.
Be aware that not everybody thinks that every Jane Jensen game is a work of art.
K…
It’s far from as good as any of the Gabriel Knight games, but still pretty good. From memory (I played it years ago) one thing that bothered me a bit was the color palette used in particularly the outdoor environments. The colors are too vivid and unnaturally bright to serve in a mystery/supernatural themed game. I felt the same way with the GK1 remake.
But a good game nonetheless and much better than Moebius imo. And if memory serves it gets better along the way, after a pretty “meh” start.
I sure do hope so, I just finished chapter 2 and while the mystery has improved to a small extent, it is still far from great. Like I said the magical tricks have already overstayed their welcome and are tedious and actually not very interesting as you could literally brute force your way through them. The other mystery of trying to find this magician order is handled no better, bc every location only has three points of interest, so once again it’s kind of easy to brute force your way through these “riddles.” The puzzle design in general is just kind of laughingly bad and not interwoven into the scenes very well at all. That was the best part of Gabriel Knight to me, the fiction and nonfiction story, along with puzzles all fit together in that universe. This game feels like a whole bunch of disjointed puzzle pieces that go to different puzzles, yet are being forced together in this one puzzle and they don’t belong together.
Once again it’s not helped by the voice acting. The voice actress for Sam is fine, other than the fact that this character’s voice should not sound like that. She constantly comes across as a Valley Girl. The ending cut scene with the doctor from chapter one was pretty awesome though and I really like the doctor so far as far as his performance.
Still day two has not improved my thoughts much maybe a 6.5/10 but animation is still fairly poorly done, voice acting and performance leaves a lot to be desired, and the puzzle design is not very good to me overall. Even the writing of the letters and books that you can go through and read are not nearly as realized as it was in Gabriel knight, and they’re kind of drab.
From what I remember, it was made on a tight budget by some small idealistic French company that tried to resurrect the genre by hiring famous ag developers (JJ, Steve Ince, Pierre Gilhodes) to produce new original franchises. I didn’t like neither GM nor So Blonde, same as most other gamers I guess since the company’s doors closed soon. I found GM to be too casual in how it looked and played, like Jensen didn’t know how to switch back from her Oberon Media’s casual titles to more “mature” games. Don’t remember much of the story, only that it involved magicians, and I’m generally not a fan of magicians)
PC means personal computer
A lot of people forget, if they knew at all that Jane had a post-Sierra career in Casual Games. Her companies were Floodlight Games and Oberon Media. One of her titles under those umbrellas was James Patterson Women’s Murder Club - A Darker Shade of Grey. There were at least six other titles. Only reason I bring that up is that her comic book/graphic novel style that she brought to parts of Gray Matter were developed while she was designing the casual games. It worked quite well for casuals, but didn’t work so well in Gray Matter.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
From what I remember, it was made on a tight budget by some small idealistic French company that tried to resurrect the genre by hiring famous ag developers (JJ, Steve Ince, Pierre Gilhodes) to produce new original franchises. I didn’t like neither GM nor So Blonde, same as most other gamers I guess since the company’s doors closed soon. I found GM to be too casual in how it looked and played, like Jensen didn’t know how to switch back from her Oberon Media’s casual titles to more “mature” games. Don’t remember much of the story, only that it involved magicians, and I’m generally not a fan of magicians)
I think the idea of introducing magic tricks or “cons” as puzzles is brilliant. But the implementations of said magic puzzles were downright bad to me.
While the puzzles leave a lot to be desired it’s not on the level of a casual game like The Walking Dead aka walk here, make a choice, that doesnt matter, walk there.
I’m sure they were on a budget but I don’t grade on a curve. the animations are just very poorly done here
A lot of people forget, if they knew at all that Jane had a post-Sierra career in Casual Games. Her companies were Floodlight Games and Oberon Media. One of her titles under those umbrellas was James Patterson Women’s Murder Club - A Darker Shade of Grey. There were at least six other titles. Only reason I bring that up is that her comic book/graphic novel style that she brought to parts of Gray Matter were developed while she was designing the casual games. It worked quite well for casuals, but didn’t work so well in Gray Matter.
Never knew, or would have cared, i loathe casual games/visual novels as a concept. Im sure there are some fine ones out there.
I beat chapter 3 and the game says I have played for a little over 5 hrs. This was the first chapter that I actively enjoyed from beginning to end. this is the first chapter that you play as the doctor, who I think is written and voiced far better than any other character in the game. The puzzles while not all that more difficult, were at least far more interesting to me than past chapters. I did enjoy the banter between him and his maid. And his story at least hooked me a bit. Overall this chapter was a 7.5/10 to me.
These retro reviews are really nice I enjoy reading your thoughts Jdawg445 and remember games I played long time ago or that I would consider playing depending on your review. I actually have fond memories of GM, I did quite enjoy it at the time. Not nearly as good as GK of course and I do remember the casual look and feel here an there but overall I enjoyed it. I remember liking the story and the idea of it (the juxtaposition of the skeptical magician and the “magical” scientist), as well as the idea of the magic puzzles but it did lacked on execution and as you said the animations can be rough as well. But as many other games from this era I was very forgiving of those flaws (or maybe it was the lack of adventures during that time). If I replayed them today I would probably have those issue as well. Also I remember liking the music and that it gradually becomes better as you go along, I think the final section is really nice visually and puzzle wise.
These retro reviews are really nice I enjoy reading your thoughts Jdawg445 and remember games I played long time ago or that I would consider playing depending on your review. I actually have fond memories of GM, I did quite enjoy it at the time. Not nearly as good as GK of course and I do remember the casual look and feel here an there but overall I enjoyed it. I remember liking the story and the idea of it (the juxtaposition of the skeptical magician and the “magical” scientist), as well as the idea of the magic puzzles but it did lacked on execution and as you said the animations can be rough as well. But as many other games from this era I was very forgiving of those flaws (or maybe it was the lack of adventures during that time). If I replayed them today I would probably have those issue as well. Also I remember liking the music and that it gradually becomes better as you go along, I think the final section is really nice visually and puzzle wise.
Thanks, that is kind of you to say. I agree the music is nice, and there are a lot of good concepts and ideas, but the execution is not done well at all to me. The actual magic tricks are tedious to execute, and then we get very little animation when the trick is pulled off, so there is a severe lack of payoff.
I think that’s one reason I enjoyed the doctor section more, the puzzles were more logic, and researched based. For instance in one puzzle you had to figure out what type of wine your wife use to like to drink, so you had to deduce her age, for the wine year. which was not hard but more interesting than doing slight of hand for the 10th time.
Never knew, or would have cared, i loathe casual games/visual novels as a concept. Im sure there are some fine ones out there.
Well, since I kind of moderate the Casual Games Thread I’m a bit insulted. If you loathe them, but are sure there are some fine ones out there. I can only assume you’ve either never played one or you’ve never bothered to search for a good one. References are available at several places on the Forum. Shame on you.
But that is beside the point. You and others have commented on the casual aspects of the game. James Patterson Women’s Murder Club - A Darker Shade of Grey was released in 2007. And most of the other games in the Patterson series and the Agatha Christie series were released by 2009. Gray Matter was released in November, 2010. If you catch my drift, Jensen spent at least 4 years of her post-Sierra career developing casual games. The fact that casual elements found their way into Gray Matter should not be surprising.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Never knew, or would have cared, i loathe casual games/visual novels as a concept. Im sure there are some fine ones out there.
Well, since I kind of moderate the Casual Games Thread I’m a bit insulted. If you loathe them, but are sure there are some fine ones out there. I can only assume you’ve either never played one or you’ve never bothered to search for a good one. References are available at several places on the Forum. Shame on you.
But that is beside the point. You and others have commented on the casual aspects of the game. James Patterson Women’s Murder Club - A Darker Shade of Grey was released in 2007. And most of the other games in the Patterson series and the Agatha Christie series were released by 2009. Gray Matter was released in November, 2010. If you catch my drift, Jensen spent at least 4 years of her post-Sierra career developing casual games. The fact that casual elements found their way into Gray Matter should not be surprising.
Or i have no interest in them, so i have no shame at all. I never used the word casual in describing this game, even if others have. The puzzles are on the easier side here, but this game has more gameplay and puzzles than visual novels as a whole.
I have very fond memories of this game. It is one of the games that I replay from time to time.
I like the story (and yes, it gets more interesting in the end, I think), and I like Sam.
I agree that the execution could have been done better.
Oh and @rtrooney: I am kind of hooked on casual games, the last couple of months. Sp I appreciate your thread!
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