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Gray Matter has just been released. Jane Jensen, the creator of the Gabriel Knight games designed it, and looking at the trailer, it has amazing atmosphere.
A sorrowful plea for everyone: Buy it. Even if it sucks, buy it.
If this game fails we will probably never play a Jensen game again. I also have a weird feeling that if this sells well the Gabriel Knight series will eventually be revived.
It is supposedly cheeper at Wall Mart™ at 19.99 than amazon's 24.99. I'd actually go drive to my closest Wall Mart™ but we currently are going through Snowpocalypse 2011 right now. :/
Is this the Grey Matter that I pirated months ago?
Tried it, but being an emo bitch doesn't really enthuse me and so I never went past the first chapter. Sorry Sceptic, but this is too 'by the numbers' to make want to part with my cash. From Gabriel Knight to this?
Shit, I'll give it another go, and if it picks up I'll throw them a bone.
Some people are always going to be "anti" just to be "anti" what a bunch of people are excited about...
If anyone here enjoyed any of the GK games or the King's Quest one she worked on, you'll enjoy Grey Matter. I guess it does take a little bit to get in to the plot line, rather than starting you off with a werewolf or voodoo murder right off the bat... but have the patience of an 11 year old and you'll manage to get there. It's even fun before that, I think. The magic trick interface is really cool too, and there is also a bonus optional subplot if you are always wanting to do that little bit extra. Art is amazing, voice acting is great too.
If you actually turn off the game because she dresses funny and has Frankenstein in her bag you have some serious problems as far as judging things too quickly. I am about 50% through the game and she has yet to whine about anything even once... Also you do not always play as her. I have never seen an adventure game worth half a damn since GKIII until this.
The story, and its implementation, is good, with some plot problems at the end. Having two characters experimenting the story is, maybe, the best thing in this respect. Specially because it's interesting to see their opposite views of the things that are happening. You have the scientific man but one who wants to believe in the supernatural, and, on the other side of the coin, you have a magician woman but one who thinks that all can be explained by reason. I think this contrast really works. Obviously, there are some flaws:
For example, at chapter seven, it isn't very believable that David continues to think that Sam is the person behind all that is happening after seeing Angela's scan; it isn't believable either that Sam has the same suspicions regarding all the kids when it is clear that some of them aren't behind the weird things that are taking place. And the end is good: trying to provide a scientifical explanation for the supernatural works.
In the technical aspects, the music is good and the graphics were good too, in general. I really like the backgrounds and the character models were ok. Some sites think that the comics cutscenes were cheap and bad; I think that they add to the atmosphere of the game, even if some of them could be more detailed. The opening scene, for example, is very confusing in respect to the reason why the original David's assitant got scared. According to some beta testers (I don't have the link right now) that have the script of the cutscenes, what scared the woman is supposed to be a garbage bag. Another problem here are the animations. There really aren't many of them. I would really like to see Sam performing her tricks and not only listen to the characters say that the trick was performed.
It is in the writing department where the game suffers a little. In general, it was ok and serviceable, but some of them aren't very good, specially regarding the kid's voices. For example, as I already mentioned, it isn't really believable how Sam expresses her suspicions about the kids. She is presented to the player as a smart girl, but then her exclamations about the guilt of some of the characters are exaggerated. Even if one could believe that she could suspect all of them, the "tone" of her doubts isn't realistic.
Finally, we have arrived to the worst part of the game. First the interface. This aspect is bad, very bad. The cursor of the game is an "intelligent" cursor but in the worst sense of the word: it changess according to what the character must do with the objects of the world. So, for example, if an object needs to be got, the cursor is a “get” cursor, and if a magic trick has to be performed, then it changes to the “perform trick” cursor. This eliminates one of the things that are important to the challenge of adventure games: that the player has to figure out what to do with the objects of the game. Now it doesn’t matter if the player doesn’t think to perform a magic trick on a character in certain situation, for example, because the game tells it to you. Obviously, this thing makes that you can play the game almost all the time in “automatic pilot”.
This brings us to the second worst aspect of the game: the puzzles. They are all logical, and that is a good thing. But almost all of them are too easy and not really creative. You can go through all the game without really thinking. The only puzzles that really make you think were the riddles, specially the “C Railer Swoll”. Even the perform tricks, that could be a good mechanic, weren’t well implemented. And what really bothers me is that the game has the potential to have good puzzles. For example, the last chapter of the game was very interesting with the “Game of Life”. The surrealistic environment where this occurs is so strange that here at least they could try to experiment with some puzzles that really “attack” the laws of logic (in a good Lucas Arts tradition, of course), but they don’t: this part was as easy as the rest of the game.
So, to conclude, a game that shows that Jane Jensen continues to be a good story teller to the adventure game world, even with the flaws at the plot and writing department mentioned, but that, as all the recent adventure games, suffers in the puzzle department. A good game to someone who doesn’t care for the easiness of the puzzles; an ok game to someone that looks for a little thinking in his adventures games, even if it is only for it`s good storytelling.
Yes, and I hope whoever decided to postpone releasing the game until 5 months after it was completed burns in hell, as I have no illusions it will seriously hurt the game's sales. Idiots.
being an emo bitch doesn't really enthuse me and so I never went past the first chapter. Sorry Sceptic, but this is too 'by the numbers' to make want to part with my cash. From Gabriel Knight to this?
Well, it's not as if Gabriel was this lovely well-balanced chap; he's a complete bastard in the first few acts of GK1, yet that didn't really bother anyone. And she's not emo; to be honest I had this impression at first too, but thankfully the game manages to deal with all the issues of death and loss without every going full emo. I was pretty impressed actually. Of course the game's much easier than GK, but it still shows the same kind of attention to research as those games (more obvious in the David sections obviously). Give it another try, at least try and finish the first chapter; if it still doesn't click, fair enough.
Manny said:
for example, at chapter seven, it isn't very believable
As for plot inconsistencies, that one that you mentioned is the only one that's bad enough to notice, though it is pretty major. It is however counterbalanced by tons of little very neat touches in the plot (aside from this one inconsistency, everything else, including lots of details you will not notice at first, clicks very nicely).
In the technical aspects, the music is good and the graphics were good too, in general.
Music and background graphics were gorgeous, not just good. The atmosphere they create is just great, very nicely enhanced by excellent voice acting. I actually listened to entire conversations without just reading and skipping the voices, something I very, very rarely do nowadays. Cutscenes were a bit rubbish (and bloat the size of the game way beyond what it should be); the style clashes rather badly with the regular backgrounds too. It really is an extremely minor detail though, and I'm more than willing to excuse a decision that was clearly made to keep the budget manageable.
The opening scene, for example, is very confusing in respect to the reason why the original David's assitant got scared.
Meh, I thought it was more than obvious, and found it odd that so many people didn't seem to realize what happened and thought there was an actual paranormal thing going on. Besides, while it may seem like she's overreacting, plot elements that are revealed later on make her reaction very believable and natural.
it isn't really believable how Sam expresses her suspicions about the kids.
Sam may be smart, but she is an impuslive kid, and in this case she was over-eager to get to the bottom of things and way too over-enthusiastic about her investigation. In this context the way she expresses herself fits perfectly. Overimpulsiveness does lead to rash conclusions even in the smartest people. Besides it makes the contrast with David even stronger.
The cursor of the game is an "intelligent" cursor but in the worst sense of the word: it changess according to what the character must do with the objects of the world.
Eh, this kind of interface is as old as Beneath a Steel Sky, so I don't feel it fair to criticize the game too harshly for going the "easy way". Yeah, the game's pretty easy, but it is a beginner's adventure and everything else is good enough that I don't mind. And even though it was easy, it's still a good length (took me about 10h I think). So yeah, as much as I would love to play a tough and challenging good adventure game, I'll settle for an easy and good adventure instead of nothing at all.
Yeah, David and Sam worked pretty good together and I was certainly glad of that, with Sam being rational yet impulsive and David's methodical attitude towards paranormal.
What bugs me the most though isn't some of the mistakes the characters make, which can be explained by their personalities even if you have to stretch it a bit, but it's the magasine article in which David writes that we only use a fraction of our brain. A brilliant neurologist like David should know that this is a bullshit claim that has been tossed around by some people to justify the existence of paranormal without any of sort of proof. I can easily swallow the stuff about the massa intermedia — which if I'm not mistaken is indeed not present in everyone and doesn't seem to have any use — but the claim that we only use 10% of the brain is too big.
Not that it drags the quality of the character down just by itself — it's a detail after all — but it's still annoying. I don't think the problem lies with David though, more like Jensen.
1. David. He is supposed to be a man of science, but he can't leave his home because of the way he looks? Whaat? And the mask, what a drama queen! People are born with moles worse than that scar. They completely botched his look.
2. The dead chick. She is the center of the story but who cares about her? So she's dead, boohoo. Syberia managed to flesh out three characters with one letter, here we have nothing.
3. The "You have completed 20% of chapter" thing. A leftover from GK, but instead of forcing you to do some horrible (yet logical) pixel hunts to get the day to end, here you have to ... click on the pool twice, otherwise the cutscene wont launch. What does Sam say if you click on the pool the second time? "There's nothing else interesting about the pool"
Yeah, and the plot being too obvious in the end, and clunky animation, pointless sleight of hand puzzles (dumb down to oblivion) and so on. Still a pretty good game, definitely worth playing.
being an emo bitch doesn't really enthuse me and so I never went past the first chapter. Sorry Sceptic, but this is too 'by the numbers' to make want to part with my cash. From Gabriel Knight to this?
Well, it's not as if Gabriel was this lovely well-balanced chap; he's a complete bastard in the first few acts of GK1, yet that didn't really bother anyone. And she's not emo; to be honest I had this impression at first too, but thankfully the game manages to deal with all the issues of death and loss without every going full emo. I was pretty impressed actually. Of course the game's much easier than GK, but it still shows the same kind of attention to research as those games (more obvious in the David sections obviously). Give it another try, at least try and finish the first chapter; if it still doesn't click, fair enough.
In my opinion, Sam isn’t an “emo bitch” either. I would like to know what things in the game made people think that she is one. I can only think of her clothes, but that would be a very superficial reason. I was thinking of the first chapter and I can’t think of any dialog or action that resembles that type of personality in Sam.
Sceptic said:
Music and background graphics were gorgeous, not just good. The atmosphere they create is just great, very nicely enhanced by excellent voice acting. I actually listened to entire conversations without just reading and skipping the voices, something I very, very rarely do nowadays. Cutscenes were a bit rubbish (and bloat the size of the game way beyond what it should be); the style clashes rather badly with the regular backgrounds too. It really is an extremely minor detail though, and I'm more than willing to excuse a decision that was clearly made to keep the budget manageable.
Totally agree with you regarding the music and the background, like I said. I forgot about the voices, but yes, to me there were good too. Regarding the cutscenes, I haven’t got a problem with how it´s style “clashes” with the regular backgrounds. I really like that style and I prefer it over some of the 3d animations you can find in other games. I agree they were a “bit rubbish” per se but, as you said, I could excuse them since it probably was a budget decision.
Manny said:
it isn't really believable how Sam expresses her suspicions about the kids.
Sam may be smart, but she is an impuslive kid, and in this case she was over-eager to get to the bottom of things and way too over-enthusiastic about her investigation. In this context the way she expresses herself fits perfectly. Overimpulsiveness does lead to rash conclusions even in the smartest people. Besides it makes the contrast with David even stronger.
Yes, she is impulsive and, in that sense, she contrasts with David. And you are right about her enthusiasm regarding the investigation. Maybe I’m being a little harsh here but
it was so obvious that the kid in the photo was Charles in a past time, when he was fat. Even Helena said that to Sam. Harvey wasn’t a good suspect neither: he was a boy that only wanted to make movies based on his environment. I’m not saying that Sam shouldn’t have suspected them, but the writing of her suspicions was too over the top even for her. At least in these two cases.
Manny said:
The cursor of the game is an "intelligent" cursor but in the worst sense of the word: it changess according to what the character must do with the objects of the world.
Eh, this kind of interface is as old as Beneath a Steel Sky, so I don't feel it fair to criticize the game too harshly for going the "easy way". Yeah, the game's pretty easy, but it is a beginner's adventure and everything else is good enough that I don't mind. And even though it was easy, it's still a good length (took me about 10h I think). So yeah, as much as I would love to play a tough and challenging good adventure game, I'll settle for an easy and good adventure instead of nothing at all.
And here, Sceptic, I totally disagree with you, at least regarding the interface. BASS has a similar interface (that to me is worse than the one of the Lucas Arts or Sierra games) but it's not equal to the one used in Gray Matter. In BASS the player has to at least figure out what to do with an object or a character. The cursor doesn’t tell the player: “Hey, here you have to use an inventory item”. The player has to figure out first what is it that he wants to do with a “hotspot” (from several ones) and then use the object. For example, if I want to open a locked door, first I have three “hotspots” to interact with: the door, the latch and the little window up the door. So I have to think first of what I have to do: try to break the door, try to reach and open the little window or try to do something with the latch. In Gray Matter, the cursor changes to tell the player what to do in the environment. If a situation as the one mentioned above had happened in this game, the cursor would automatically have changed to tell me I only have to interact with the latch (dismissing automatically the other two) and that in this latch I have to use an item of my inventory. So, yes, there is really a difference in difficulty only because of the interface.
And the second part of your statement is more a matter of opinion. To me, a good adventure game has to make me think. It doesn’t matter if the game is short or long, but it has got to have good puzzles in it. And Gray Matter does this only few times. But don’t misunderstand me: I like Gray Matter, I think it is an ok to good game, with some little flaws (except regarding the puzzles, which aren't good of course). I was never bored. But I’m a little tired of almost all the new adventure games being made as adventures to beginners. Even some of the indies are going the easy route. And I’m not asking for ridiculous illogical puzzles, but creative ones that make you think to solve a problem.
Definitely buying it, been waiting to see if there was a Steam version but apparently not. What's with so many adventure companies shunning Steam now, do Valve rape their profits?
Take a picture of me too then. I liked the old Christ bloodline conspiracy stuff before it was 'cool'. Soundtrack was nice too. Grey Matter though with the pierced bitch that is a magician is just trying to hard. I'll give it another go as suggested, but I got such a BRATZ vibe from seeing the chick that it made me go all bleh.
Believe it or not there are some neurobiologists who still throw this one every once in a while. Still, I doubt Jensen meant David to be wrong about this and she probably did believe it, which is odd considering the rest of the game is quite well researched. That said I'm more than willing to forgive her one error, not matter how major - she is after all probably the only game designer that bothers at all with this kind of detail. Still, it would've been nice if she'd found a more believable hook for the paranormal explanation.
Manny said:
I would like to know what things in the game made people think that she is one.
I suspect it's a combination of her past history (orphan), clothing, the goth thing, and so on. That was my impression at first too, and from commie's post I think he had the same reaction. But the parents barely get mentioned, the goth thing is nicely dealt with (she considers herself ex-goth, and while she still dresses that way she pokes fun at goth culture a few times) and she's fleshed out nicely as the game progresses.
the writing of her suspicions was too over the top even for her. At least in these two cases.
I see what you mean, and even agree about Harvey (he's just too clumsy to be suspect). Charles... TBH I suspected him for a minute too. The picture could've easily been a sibling (and I think Sam suspects this at one point), at which point the resemblance would've been totally justified.
BASS has a similar interface (that to me is worse than the one of the Lucas Arts or Sierra games) but it's not equal to the one used in Gray Matter. In BASS the player has to at least figure out what to do with an object or a character.
I do think it's a matter of opinion on what makes a good puzzle, or more accurately what makes a "puzzle that makes you think". This makes me smile a bit actually, because it reminds me of the "puzzle wars" back in the early 90's, when you had the clash between Infocom fans, pre-KQ5 Sierra fans, post-KQ5 Sierra fans, and Lucas fans. It was almost impossible to get two adventure gamers to agree on which one of these had the puzzles that were challenging enough. Then when the Myst clones invaded the market, shit really hit the fan. I long ago stopped minding the difficulty of the puzzles themselves - as long as they were well-done I didn't care as much about difficulty, so even though eg Beneath a Steel Sky was quite easy I thought the puzzles were very well done, while Kyrandia 3's, which were very obscure, were not so good (though that game had other redeeming features in the design area). I think GM's puzzles were well designed mostly, and in fact after reading your post I think what brings them down is the interface, not the puzzles themselves.
I’m a little tired of almost all the new adventure games being made as adventures to beginners. Even some of the indies are going the easy route. And I’m not asking for ridiculous illogical puzzles, but creative ones that make you think to solve a problem.
I hear you, but to be honest I've kinda given up. Adventure games of the late 80's/early 90's variety are dead and will never come back. I think we're faced with a much more restrictive choice: either easy adventures (like Telltale's or Gray Matter), or action/adventure mishmashes in the same way that ME2 is an "RPG", or nothing at all. And between these 3, I am MORE than happy with the existence of the first one. Sure I'd love the 4th option (another KQ6 or GK1 or S&M, or hell another Pandora Directive), more than you can possibly imagine, but that just ain't happening. Gray Matter's a bit like the MotB of adventures: you can rage at the interface (camera) and the easy puzzles (combat), but at least we have something that's actually good (even if it's not great in the case of GM) instead of yet another Gears of War (Tomb Raider?) clone.
