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Adventure Game Scene of the Day — Sunday 21 April 2013

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Joined 2005-08-12

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Gray Matter. The magic tricks. The treasure hunt. Sam’s ape-like arms. Discuss.

     
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Joined 2012-01-02

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i wish i can say i loved those magic tricks but i cant , those were already given with how-can-you-do brochure , maybe one i remember near the end was kinda challenging .

as for Gray Matter as a whole i really enjoyed the story ,the atmosphere ; and the classic gameplaying ,of new places that show up lately and old inaccessible places that you can enter not until you made up certain things or reached a certain point at the story.. but more than that, i can say the game can not be describe as the great come back of Jane Jansen .. not even after 10 years from now

     
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Joined 2011-10-21

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The magic tricks were just “copy the steps from the brochure” and you needed every single trick in the brochure just once. They weren’t bad in concept, but needed some more work still. The tricks shouldn’t have been simple copy-pasting from the brochure, and especially:  there should have been red herring tricks in that book.

I don’t get all the criticism with the graphics. The game looked good, the lighting was often great, and the characters moved reasonably well. Only when picking up an item (or another non-walking action) could their movement have been improved a bit.
Also: Sam’s arms could’ve been a few inches shorter, but it was nothing jarring imo. I hadn’t noticed them until someone pointed them out.

Cutscenes could’ve been better. Not that there was anything wrong with the style choice, but it was a bit too different from everything else in the game.

All in all: could’ve used a bit more polish here and there (the facial expressions during dialogues for instance), but as a whole it was a pretty good game. Loved the melancholic atmosphere when playing as Dr. Styles and the great music…
Didn’t care much for the Daedalus club section, though. Not really my favourite type of puzzle.

     

The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka

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Joined 2011-03-14

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The main problem with Gray Matter was not the magic tricks, the treasure hunt, Sam’s ape-like arms, the graphics, the cutscenes, the story, the characters or anything like that.

The main problem was the investigation system!
I can’t remember a single game where these kinds of investigation systems where you don’t have some clear objectives you have to complete, but instead have to reach 100% discovery of something, has actually worked without major flaws, and Gray Matter is no exception.

I remember being stuck for several hours without having the slightest idea of why i was stuck and why the h… the game wouldn’t progress to the next day or next cutscene. In the end in turned out there was some obscure insignificant item in the pool area i hadn’t clicked on, and to make things even worse the system with dividing it into sub-investigations was telling me i had completed the pool investigation 100% and that what i needed to do was in an entirely different area regarding an entirely different sub-investigation.

I remember a similar problem in Gabriel Knight 2, where i was also stuck for several hours without any clue whatsoever of why. In GK2 in turned out the i need to enter a restaurant so i could overhear something, the problem was i had already been to the restaurant about 7 times, and on the last 3 visits the game had made it absolutely clear that there was nothing left to do in that restaurant and because of that i had no reason to enter the restaurant.

It is my profound conviction that this is not just some flaws in the specific games, but that these kinds of investigation systems is erroneous in the very design.

     

You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ

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Total Posts: 198

Joined 2012-08-03

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Quite a coincidence, I just finished Gray Matter over the weekend. It has been on my list to play for a very long time, but for some reason I never felt like playing it. I’m glad that I did, I really liked the story and mood of the game, however the puzzles are never rewarding and the magic tricks get old pretty fast. The cut scenes also feel out of place, but they are still enjoyable. Overall a good game, but definitely not the masterpiece that we all expected from JJ.

     

Anticipating:The Devil’s Men

Recently played:GK1 Remake (4), A Golden Wake (3), Child of Light (4) Memento Mori 2 (4) Face Noir (3.5) Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect (4) Blackwell Epiphany (4.5),Broken Sword 5(4.5), The Shivah Remake (4.5), Monkey Island 2 Remake (4.5)

Top 10 Adventure Games:Tex Murphy: Pandora Directive, Gabriel Knight:The Beast Within, Broken Sword:Shadow of the Templars, Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Fathers, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon, Lost Horizon, Grim Fandago, The Longest Journey, Blackwell Epiphany

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Joined 2012-01-02

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Off-Topic

you had disappeared for a while Niclas, glad you are back Wink

     
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Total Posts: 198

Joined 2012-08-03

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@Advie

Thanks for the welcome back.Smile I have always been logging in everyday reading articles and posts, but for some reason I have been so busy not been able to be involved in discussion. Frown I hope to change that. Smile

     

Anticipating:The Devil’s Men

Recently played:GK1 Remake (4), A Golden Wake (3), Child of Light (4) Memento Mori 2 (4) Face Noir (3.5) Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect (4) Blackwell Epiphany (4.5),Broken Sword 5(4.5), The Shivah Remake (4.5), Monkey Island 2 Remake (4.5)

Top 10 Adventure Games:Tex Murphy: Pandora Directive, Gabriel Knight:The Beast Within, Broken Sword:Shadow of the Templars, Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Fathers, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon, Lost Horizon, Grim Fandago, The Longest Journey, Blackwell Epiphany

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