Adventure Gamers - Forums

I didnt really like the game all that much and found it fairly average. I dont understand the budget complaints either as i played Heroines quest earlier in the year which was free, had a handful of people working on it and honestly in my opinion blew this game out of the water but to each their own.

I think a large part of the problem with the writing is the show don’t tell principle isn’t adhered to.

We’re told Malachi is a devastatingly handsome heartbreaker, but we see an awkward, peculiar looking character model who is always unpleasant and doesn’t break any hearts. We’re told he possesses immense deductive reasoning capabilities, but we see him making oddly arbitrary, largely groundless decisions about people. We’re told he’s hugely intelligent, but he has to travel across the country to buy a bottle of liquor. We’re told the great, earth shattering importance of the Moebius theory, but we don’t actually see the real impact of it.

I think the AG review is firm but fair. I’d maybe be more lenient and give an extra half star, because I did enjoy plenty of individual moments - then I remember the ‘maze’.

Briefly reading the comments underneath the review and it’s clear that there’s an overtly hostile attitude to any criticism amongst a small portion of the site. It’s unlike any response to an AG in recent memory - although I’m not here often enough to know whether or not it’s commonplace.

I do love the logical gymnastics required for Amble Dexter’s reasoning behind Malachi’s role as ‘The Savant’. To ensure Malachi became an Antiques expert, his mother had to get eaten by a lion, otherwise he might’ve become a botanist.

noknowncure - 20 April 2014 05:56 PM

We’re told he’s hugely intelligent, but he has to travel across the country to buy a bottle of liquor.

On the whole I quite enjoyed the game, but that part made me laugh. I had a nasty feeling they’d pull something like it when Malachi said that he needed a plane to make frequent trips. I appreciate that the developers were limited in terms of the number of locations they could use, but I don’t understand how stuff like that crept in. Surely when the puzzles were being designed someone should have asked, “is the action we are having our main character perform mind-blowingly stupid in-universe?”

If the answer to the question was yes then perhaps the puzzle should have been redesigned.

On a similar note, did I miss something or was there no particular narrative reason that Dominique had to be a psycho poisoner, other than to give justification to Malachi’s interrogation technique (questioning at bladepoint)? To me it seemed somewhat unlikely that Markham, a man in a prominent position, would have stayed with someone that he obviously wasn’t madly in love with and that had obvious stability issues. As it was, the poisoner angle seemed poorly explored and simply looked like a plot device to avoid Malachi having to act like a violent thug for no apparent reason. Yeah, I think a significant portion of the climax’s narrative and game design choices could have done with re-evaluating.

Kurufinwe - 20 April 2014 04:24 PM

1) The Moebius theory. The whole thing is ridiculous, and the specifics of that particular case are even worse: [spoiler]Senator Whatshisface marrying some woman will instantly lead to 200 years of prosperity for all?!? What?[/spoiler] It could have been possible to sell this, but the execution was lacking, and the game never managed to make the whole thing even remotely convincing (contrary to, say, the no-less-preposterous notion that Ludwig II was a werewolf). I feel that the game really lacked a sceptic. I understand that Jensen didn’t want to go back to the Scully & Mulder dynamic that she’s mined in her previous games, but all the characters instantly buying the theory 3 seconds after being told about it (“Oh, you’ve found Livia Drusilla? Well, I guess I’ll ditch my girlfriend of three years this very minute then!”) robs the game of the chance to convince the player. Ultimately, I could never get invested in the story, because it all felt so daft.

Malachi wasn’t a skeptic? He’s doing what he does for the cash and in the end rejects the whole thing. The politicians are the only ones who are really sold over by the theory and what it means for their own personal gains. But they’re politicians, so why is that surprising?

I don’t think it’s important for the player to be sold over to the theory. The investigating is the interesting part. It’s not like GK2 where you actually see werewolves at the end, making it a far sillier story than it would have been with an unresolved theory.

Iznogood - 20 April 2014 10:01 PM

Oscar - 20 April 2014 08:51 PM

Malachi wasn’t a skeptic? He’s doing what he does for the cash and in the end rejects the whole thing...

No he doesn’t - He eats the whole thing raw.
He questions the theory in the beginning but is later convinced, thereby playing the oh-so-common role of the sceptic that get convinced.

Anyway it wouldn’t have been a problem if Jane had just left it at reoccurring patterns and archetypes, but she just had to add predestination to the mix.

Oscar - 20 April 2014 08:51 PM

I don’t think it’s important for the player to be sold over to the theory. The investigating is the interesting part. It’s not like GK2 where you actually see werewolves at the end, making it a far sillier story than it would have been with an unresolved theory.

It might not bother you that there is a plot-hole in the very foundation of the game big enough to drive a 18-wheeler semi-trailer truck through - sideways, but it does bother me.

In any kind of fiction it is important that the plot is believable, not realistic, but believable within its own setting and logic, and this is something that JJ has always pulled off in the past, no matter how silly that setting or logic has been. But here she fails and that is my main problem with this game.

The plot is about a government organization which believes in a theory of predestination. If there’s a plot-hole, it’s not in the plot itself but the government’s theory within the story. Unless you are talking about something else, but I don’t see it.

I saw Malachi as a kind of idiot-savant (hah), whether he believed or or didn’t (which I don’t think the story conclusively says) he was hyper-intelligent but stupid, and lacked common sense. You could also say his visions or dreams played a part in how he acted, although the story didn’t follow up this matter very well.

Kurufinwe - 20 April 2014 04:24 PM

In any case, I wrote off the GK series many years ago when Sierra fired everyone. But playing Moebius has made me actively hope that we’ll never see a GK4.

I wouldn’t go that far. I think JJ is at her best in old-fashioned supernatural mysteries, and GK games are exactly that. Gray Matter & Moebius both have these more modern, slightly scifi mysteries.

Doom - 20 April 2014 06:29 PM

after a brisk nap - 20 April 2014 04:45 PM

I’ve seen lots of complaints over the RPS review, but I haven’t seen a detailed breakdown of how it’s wrong. In fact, when comparing with other reviews, it seems to cover many of the same issues, and the differences are mainly in subjective reaction. John Walker *really* disliked Malachi and took particular umbrage to some of the parts of the game. You may disagree, but that doesn’t make his reaction invalid. (And I must say it’s hard not to look at the “28% likelihood of rape” screen and not wonder WTF the developers were thinking.)

Well, if you’re asking… First of all, there’s that ridiculous “the game is oh so sexist” complaint that the reviewer brings up (and not for the first time). For me the adequate critique ended at that point. He didn’t bother to dig deep into the story and just retells the basic details, saying something like “he has a wife so he resembles Caesar - ohh, bullshit!” or “the guy is nothing like Sherlock Holmes I saw in the popular TV series, total crap”. Words like “stupid” and “messy” are scattered all over the place. Reviewer also dedicates a long paragraph to the “idiotic” logic behind inventory puzzles met in EVERY 2ND ADVENTURE GAME of the 21 century. He makes a big deal out of the fact that the game sometimes kills you… Need I say more?

Yes, you do. None of the things you’ve mentioned so far sound like invalid criticisms to me. (Yes, lots of games have the “you can’t pick this up until you need it for a puzzle” horribleness, and they ALL get deservedly knocked for it.)

By the way, weren’t you one of the people who were refusing to “dig deep into the story” of Broken Age and insisted it was all just a kiddie cartoon?

And the “rape 28%” scene is supposed to show how ridiculously distrustful and unstable the main protagonist is. The moment it happens it makes sense. Out of context it looks, well, stupid and idiotic.

OK, I’ll take your word for it. No one seems to dispute that the main character comes across as an uptight asshole – only, some fans insist the game manages to turn it around and make him likable in the end, while others never warmed to him.

So decided to play it after all. Start of chapter 4 current impressions:
+ story is ok so far
- game looks terrible and i’m not a graphic whore. Even with the low budget this just looks really bad, they should have gone with something else, design wise
- voice acting is bad
- i HATE the stupid “you can’t pick this up until you need it” thingy, the only thing it does is make the game artificially longer, because you need to constantly backtrack

To be honest i’m getting a bit bored and looking at Malachi walk is getting on my nerves. I’ll try to stick to the end, but i’m really starting to doubt if some people here are playing the same game as me.