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Community Playthrough #28: Gray Matter
I don’t know how it’s happening, but it’s happening!! It’s the 3rd consequtive time I’m about to give the green flag to continue into the next chapter, when a great thunderstorm hits the city I live, causing network and/or power problems. Surely, someone must be playing a Grand Game on me…. 
Anyway, it’s time to move to chapter 8. It is by far the best chapter in the game, at least one step higher in quality terms than what you have previously seen. While I really like Gray Matter in general and I think it is highly underrated, I can only imagine what it could have been if all the chapters where of that quality… (I know.You are intriqued 
) It’s a Sam one BTW. In the Daedalus Club. Do I need to say more? It is also the last chapter. Please, be free to write your final opinion of the game after you finish it or what kind of feelings has left you with. I would like to thank all participants for the help, patience and cooperation you had in this very nice playthrough as well as the very interesting conversations. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the GM playthrough as much as I had! 
No time limits this time! Just finish the game.
Sam says goodbye! 
May I suggest wearing a
Lightning rod hat?
You know, just to be on the safe side, obviously someone has it in for you.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Well, sounds like I need to finally get started on chapter 7 
Just finished the game - Yes, that was fast, and much faster than I expected.
The whole Daedalus Club puzzle was much much easier this time around, probably not because it has gotten easier in the meantime, but because this time I actually understood everything and got all the subtle clues, whereas the last time I just wandered around like I was blindfolded without having the slightest clue about what I was doing - But this time I actually got it.
I found the ending itself a bit anticlimactic, but more on that later.
For now I will just leave you with this:
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Finished the game past night in one sitting, was hooked until the end (and now sleepy… 
)
Enjoyable last chapter, the Daedalus puzzles were good, but kind of left me with a few questions:
1 - How did Helena arrive in the basement of the club if she really was just helping a friend?
2 - The aolution to the mirror labyrinth riddle (at leat I think it was), only worked with the Helena reflection… How did they know she would be there?
3 - The painting where the lady holding the gun was a clue to pointing a gun to Mephistopheles?!? First I thought that was way out of character and radical to Sam, and how did they know that a gun would be needed?
4 - And last how can a magicians club have such a big basement only to reach a private part
The actual ending I liked it, the final twist was good and I don’t think it came out nowhere, some clues about Angela were present in some parts of the game. They did never explain the necklace part…
More thoughts on the game later.
1) The bigger question here is [spoiler]how did she know exactly where the exit was?[/spoiler]
All in all I find the whole Helana part a bit constructed, they needed Sam to talk to Helana and realize that she was not in cohorts with Mephistopheles, but couldn’t find a more natural way to do this than have her appear in the Daedalus Maze - Not good writing IMO.
2) Not actually true!
It worked both for the actual puzzle part: getting to the urn, and for getting to Helana. “Chose the exit that shows your prize furthest away”, that Helana somehow ended up in the maze was not something they had planned and not as such part of the Daedalus Club puzzle.
BTW did you tell Helana to stay where she was or try to steer her towards you? I’m not sure if both is possible and I just told her to stay and went to her instead.
3) Also not true!
[spoiler]No one is holding a gun in the painting, the women is holding some handcuffs and the three man respectively a dice, a wand and something I can’t quite make out what is (just showing he has nothing up his sleeve?) It is also the handcuffs we need for this part of the Daedalus Maze, whereas the gun is just something that Sam decides that she needs and not part of the actual puzzle.[/spoiler]
4)
That it was Angela that was behind it, had been quite obvious for sometime at least for me, also on my first playthrough. That she had real supernatural powers was perhaps not quite as obvious before the end, but knowing JJ’s preferences I always knew that it was heading in this direction.
I don’t know if everybody got this as it wasn’t spelled out in the ending itself, but it was also Angela that killed Laura, and it was her “ghost image” on the blue tiles on the picture from earlier in the game. She apparently used her supernatural powers to fuse the accelerator in another car to the floor and thereby causing it to ram Dr. Styles car. Exactly why she did it is however not so clear, she was mad at Styles for rejecting her earlier that day, and perhaps she was already infatuated by him and jealous at Laura, but I think it is more likely that this came later, perhaps brought on by guilt of killing his wife?
What I didn’t really like about the end, apart from no grand game going on 
, was that it didn’t follow up on the whole Laura communication from beyond the grave part, apart from the word “Imposter” on the RNG, then that whole part just fizzled out without any kind of resolution.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Some random thoughts and screenshots:
Ehhh… Not sure I agree, in fact I kind of expected Liberace would walk in and ask what Sam was doing in his house.
That’s the spirit Sam, just focus on the positive things bunnies, instead of the whole creepy atmosphere and the weirdness of the situation.
... just keep focusing on the bunnies!
BTW am I the only one that was a bit disappointed that the whole room didn’t spin around and up became down or something similar, when we press the button.
Oh Goodie - A hall of mirrors just like at the carnival, doesn’t Sam look goofy in the left one?
Somebody please call Penn & Teller, their props have been stolen.
Now what does that remind me of 
Nope - that is not it.
That was what it reminded me off, it is always good when there is a red thread from one CP to the next, otherwise people would think we just vote on whatever game we feel like playing, but no, there is an overall plan behind this
Perhaps a clue as to what happens between Sam and David after the end of the game?
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
For the last photo Izno, I’m just guessing that Dr. Styles will try to ressurect his wife’s body. After all, as his friend said, what good is a raised spirit without a body? Gray Matter 2 perhaps?
2) Not actually true!
It worked both for the actual puzzle part: getting to the urn, and for getting to Helana. “Chose the exit that shows your prize furthest away”, that Helana somehow ended up in the maze was not something they had planned and not as such part of the Daedalus Club puzzle.
Big fail for me I didn’t notice the urn. I solved the first part of the maze by trial-and-error It wasn’t that hard because a mistake would take you to the beginning. I only noticed the “furthest away"in Helena
BTW did you tell Helana to stay where she was or try to steer her towards you? I’m not sure if both is possible and I just told her to stay and went to her instead.
I also told her to stay there, don’t know what happens in the other option
3) Also not true!
No one is holding a gun in the painting, the women is holding some handcuffs and the three man respectively a dice, a wand and something I can’t quite make out what is (just showing he has nothing up his sleeve?) It is also the handcuffs we need for this part of the Daedalus Maze, whereas the gun is just something that Sam decides that she needs and not part of the actual puzzle.
In the jungle room the woman is holding a gun. First room - Atlas clue ; Jungle room - gun?!?! clue ; Light room - maze clue; Last room - Handcuffs clue. Te«he other 3 fit to sold the rooms puzzle, the gun doesn’t I think.
I don’t know if everybody got this as it wasn’t spelled out in the ending itself, but it was also Angela that killed Laura, and it was her “ghost image” on the blue tiles on the picture from earlier in the game. She apparently used her supernatural powers to fuse the accelerator in another car to the floor and thereby causing it to ram Dr. Styles car. Exactly why she did it is however not so clear, she was mad at Styles for rejecting her earlier that day, and perhaps she was already infatuated by him and jealous at Laura, but I think it is more likely that this came later, perhaps brought on by guilt of killing his wife?
What I didn’t really like about the end, apart from no grand game going on
I noticed that part of Angela killing the wife, and Styles at the end saying his sorry and that he would forgive was nice but kind of forced. I liked the twist about being only a Angela paranormal thing, I think the grand game would be kind of hard to explain after the cafeteria incident
3)
Also not true!
[spoiler]No one is holding a gun in the painting, the women is holding some handcuffs and the three man respectively a dice, a wand and something I can’t quite make out what is (just showing he has nothing up his sleeve?) It is also the handcuffs we need for this part of the Daedalus Maze, whereas the gun is just something that Sam decides that she needs and not part of the actual puzzle.[/spoiler]In the jungle room the woman is holding a gun. First room - Atlas clue ; Jungle room - gun?!?! clue ; Light room - maze clue; Last room - Handcuffs clue. Te«he other 3 fit to sold the rooms puzzle, the gun doesn’t I think.
You know… I had completely forgotten about that painting, and yes you are correct that clue is indeed weird. I thought you were talking about on of the other paintings!
So just forget everything I wrote about point 3
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
I’m still at the beginning of Chapter 8. But the “trickster” at the Daedalus Club has grabbed my attention. Not only did he recognize Styles immediately, but he also remarked that “Lady Byron has lost her sheep,” indicating that he knows about the Lamb’s Club and (presumably) what’s been going on with Styles’ experiments. He says that he’s “just a pawn.” And he has a Scottish accent. I don’t know if that means that he has some connection to Angela, or if he’s assuming an accent because Styles might otherwise recognize his voice.
Does anybody else find it suspicious that Dr. Helborne (I think that’s how it’s spelled) was trying to remove evidence from Styles’ private lab that Styles had been seeing and feeling Laura’s presence in the house? Why on earth would a so-called friend have any reason to do that?
For the last photo Izno, I’m just guessing that Dr. Styles will try to ressurect his wife’s body. After all, as his friend said, what good is a raised spirit without a body? Gray Matter 2 perhaps?
Perhaps!
As I said the whole Laura part was left unresolved, so perhaps it was meant as a teaser for a sequel, or perhaps just a teaser in general. I however don’t think it is very likely that a sequel ever will be made.
I’m still at the beginning of Chapter 8. But the “trickster” at the Daedalus Club has grabbed my attention….
Yeah I also quite liked him, I however don’t think that there is more to him than what meets the eye. Mephistopheles has been keeping an eye on what is going on and has reported everything to the Daedalus Club, so I would have been more surprised if he didn’t knew about this.
Does anybody else find it suspicious that Dr. Helborne (I think that’s how it’s spelled) was trying to remove evidence from Styles’ private lab that Styles had been seeing and feeling Laura’s presence in the house? Why on earth would a so-called friend have any reason to do that?
I believe that the note Sam stole from him, was just a copy of what Styles had written on the whiteboard, so he wasn’t as such removing evidence as I recall it, just spying on his friend. Spying is of course in itself a bit suspicious, but his explanation for doing so seemed plausible, so no I didn’t really find it suspicious.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
As I said the whole Laura part was left unresolved, so perhaps it was meant as a teaser for a sequel, or perhaps just a teaser in general. I however don’t think it is very likely that a sequel ever will be made.
Why don’t you think that?
As I said the whole Laura part was left unresolved, so perhaps it was meant as a teaser for a sequel, or perhaps just a teaser in general. I however don’t think it is very likely that a sequel ever will be made.
Why don’t you think that?
...Especially since one of the game choices JJ gave to her fans for her to make was GM2 (Moebius was voted instead, but that doesn’t mean that there is no hope. )
To quickly remark on some things, I still haven’t even gotten to play Ch.7, but I just wanted to say a couple things now (based on my previous playthrough) because at the time I will be finished, this thread is probably quite dead - the bane of my life… Anyway, in my opinion Gray Matter, when it came out, was easily one of the - if not the - best adventure games in many years. And in my opinion it still is one of the best AGs in years, although now with much tougher competition than when GM was released.
About the ending, I always felt it was a little bit of an easy one compared to the build-up, but even so it does to a fair extent make sense, and I like how it ties with many events in the game (that one notices on the second playthrough). There are some apparent plotholes, but they are minor in my opinion and didn’t take away much from the entertainment for me. And everything doesn’t need to be explained (especially with a sequel planned )
On some similar contemplations about possible plotholes, you can see this thread in the Pinkerton Road forums. Nothing conclusive, but some nice speculation:
http://forum.pinkertonroad.com/showthread.php?987-Plot-hole-or-my-own-lack-of-attention-to-detail
Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and always felt it was a worthy comeback for Jane, especially considering all the troubles in development. Great plot (and characters, as always with Jane), very enjoyable gameplay and puzzles, a great setting (and beautiful graphics) and of course just magnificent music by Robert. Great job all around.
By the way, did you know that Sam was actually wrong about the syringes in the box in Helena’s room? I don’t remember if it was actually revealed in the game though, but Jane has since said in the Reddit AMA when the Kickstarter was hot that *drumroll…*
Helena is actually diabetic. See http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/tla3z/i_am_jane_jensen_creator_of_gabriel_knight_gray/
(dunno how to link to a certain point on the site, so just do a quick page search if you want confirmation)
As for Gray Matter 2, the setting given in the Kickstarter was that David and Sam go over to Angela’s home island to explore the strange abilities that manifest there. So there could very well be some loose ends tied in GM2 (Which I am fairly confident will see light at some point - at least provided Pinkerton does well enough to continue, and I don’t see it doing that bad. In fact, it’s my guess for their next project after GK remake (well, either that or Anglophile Adventure though I’m hoping for both ))
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