Adventure Gamers - Forums

Detective Mosely - 23 April 2014 06:34 PM

[ I’ll see if there’s other stuff I can do first.

There is a letter in your office you should read.

Castledoque - 23 April 2014 06:45 PM

Detective Mosely - 23 April 2014 06:34 PM

[ I’ll see if there’s other stuff I can do first.

There is a letter in your office you should read.

Ah, that’s what I was missing.  Immediately after doing that I was able to get the phone number, even though the two should not be tied together.  Thanks!

I just finished it and didn’t think it was half as bad as some made out.

From a technical and visual aspect I wasn’t impressed. I was taking snapshots left and right in Broken Sword 5, which I played prior to this, but only the Venice bridge scene really stood out. I did like the variety of locations/countries, though. And the music was alright, if not as memorable as Gray Matter.

The animations… the less said, the better. The agonizingly slow wait for Malachi to start moving and do something quickly became tiresome. At least it had a quick-move (double click) feature, but as a whole controlling Malachi was a fairly tedious experience.

Story wise I thought it was pretty good, typical Jane Jensen with a paranormal theme to keep you guessing for a while. Though, truth is, I was still confused by a few things even after the game ended.

The deduction system was really well done and I enjoyed solving the puzzles.

I really wasn’t bothered that Malachi wasn’t a nice, likeable guy as some have complained about. I can play a million games with a George Stobbart type good guy. Malachi was a little different - an uptight antiques man with personal demons (covered in the comic), but as the game went on he became less of a snob. BTW I am English and bad English accents can turn me off movies/TV shows/games, but thought Malachi’s wasn’t too bad.

The maze at the end was lazy, dull and unlike Malachi, very cliché. The game should have ended in a better way.

I haven’t read much analysis of the storyline but surely Malachi and David were gay for each other (which is cool and maybe a first for a main character in a well known video game?). The hints were so strong.

But the game didn’t make me regret backing it. It was a solid 2.5-3/5 game for me. I guess I did expect a little more from Jane Jensen than something on par with the Chronicles of Mystery type games.

Gray Matter was a lot better though, IMO, and the pacing was better in that.

TimovieMan - 24 April 2014 02:39 PM

chrissie - 23 April 2014 10:57 AM

I agree that Malachi is clipped

By that you mean his feet in the floor, right?

Naughty you Tim you’ve taken my quote out of context which was about his accent! Seriously I didn’t experience any graphical errors like feet in floor or pixelated bits as has been reported by other players! 

Stuart - 24 April 2014 05:26 PM

I haven’t read much analysis of the storyline but surely Malachi and David were gay for each other (which is cool and maybe a first for a main character in a well known video game?). The hints were so strong.

 

I haven’t finished the story yet, but please tell me there is some kind of resolution to that part of the story?! David is most definitely gay. He pretty much clarifies that when having the conversation with Malachis Assistant. No straight man would leave it ambiguous. He seems to get something out of Malachi being a damsel in distress and being the hero all the time. They also flirt. Would be a bit strange if the story was never bold enough to go there, even a little bit. Malachi does seem the type to be Asexual though but it’d be a good development if David had feelings for him.

In comparison to the GK games, I guess it took three games before Gabriel and Grace finally slept with each other though.

aaroncarney - 24 April 2014 08:44 PM

I haven’t finished the story yet, but please tell me there is some kind of resolution to that part of the story?!

oh no no, there isn’t really much resolution to any aspect of the story.

Just finished the game, and my comments pretty much agree with some of the earlier ones.  The animations could use some improvement.  Controlling Malachi was a bit awkward.  I appreciated the double-click fast move, but it shouldn’t be necessary. The maze was a bad way to end it. The general feel of the game seemed a little low budget.  Some awkward transitions, small locations, etc.

That said, I enjoyed the game. The puzzles could have been a little harder, but they were better than Broken Age and much better than GK3. The premise was good, and the story and characters were interesting. It scratched the adventure game itch, and I would buy/play a sequel.

I’ve just finished both Serpent’s Curse and Moebius and the best way to express my feelings towards them would be that Moebius is a perversion and Broken Sword is a beautiful sex.

I will add more impressions when the emotions cool down a little.

I’m currently playing Moebius. Just finshed chapter 1 so still very much at the beginning but so far I quite like the game. It’s certainly not a masterpiece. I mean the plot boils down to one “which historical figure are you?” but the puzzles are very nicely done. It’s probably because I went in with extremely low expectations but yeah I like it. I’d say so fat it’s firmly in the three/three and a half star catagory.

Finished chapter 2. (and no I’m not extraordinarily dumb I just did some other stuff as well today) It’s still fun. Like I said it’s no masterpiece but yeah I like this game a lot so far. It looks nice, the puzzles are cool and the soundtrack is super awesome. Will probably play another chapter today and then probably two more or so tomorrow. Man! This game is enormously exceeding my expectations thus far. Don’t see what all the fuss is about. Maybe it’ll go downhill hard later on. We’ll see.

gray pierce - 26 April 2014 12:29 PM

I’d say so fat it’s firmly in the three/three and a half star catagory.

Well I’ve finished it now and I have to admit that my overall view is slightly more negative than it was earlier on…but I fully agree with the three/three & a half star category - I had it as 3.5 initially, but not sure I’d keep it at that by the end.

I’m not nearly as negative as some re the graphics. Sure the animation wasn’t great, but I never found it that big a deal. I get the impression that I didn’t have the response lag which some experienced. The backgrounds were well drawn in general, and I don’t have a problem with the fact that some countries had a limited number of locations - it’s not meant to be a tourist trail, after all.

Where I was fundamentally disappointed with the game is that I felt the story just was never developed in enough detail to be believable. Iznogood’s written quite a bit on the subject and I think makes some valid points. I just felt, compared to all 3 of the GK games, and Grey Matter also, that the amount of background information given on the whole Moebius theory etc was simply insufficient to make it believeable. As has been commented, Ludwig II was not actually a werewolf…yet the level of detail in GK2 is enough to make it seem he could have been - I’ve even checked what the actual backgrounds are in the Singer’s Hall in Neuschwanstein (no, it’s not a lost opera & there are no wolves . Apart from that, it’s pretty similar though). Nothing in Moebius gives the impression of the same level of care & hence the whole thing loses believeability.

Similarly, the characters are never developed in that much detail. I actually think Malachi is a well-created character - snobbish & elitist yet with a certain turn of wit and you can get to sympathise with him as the story goes on. The minor characters are a bit shallow (how many vain female characters?) but Ok with decent voice acting. I don’t think David’s character was ever developed enough to have much of a feel for his motivations.

All in all, much though we disagree(d) re Malachi’s accent, I’ve got to agree a lot with most of noknowncure’s summary re the story - as below:

noknowncure - 22 April 2014 11:05 PM

I think in the case of Moebius, the story Jane was most interested in telling - because she’s horny for her characters - was the relationship of Malachi/David, which, I feel, didn’t receive the time and attention it deserved/needed for it to be convincing. It ended up squashed in amongst all the complicated conspiracy theory threads and both characterisations suffer somewhat through their need to service this overly complex, problematic plot.

why not do away with all the shady Government conspiracies, unstable pre-destination concepts and magic divination powers and, instead, focus on the life of an outwardly cold, austere heartbreaker, who finally finds someone he can, against his better judgement, open up to… and actually show that journey)

As it is, Jane Jensen may have bitten off more than she could chew, particularly with such a small budget. In trying to cram in so much, the overall piece suffers. It would benefit greatly from some editing and renewed focus.

Yet another global conspiracy story is hardly original or (for me at least) particularly interesting - GK & Grey Matter managed to stay away from such clichés. The lack of detail on both the conspiracy story and relationship story meant neither were as believeable as they could/should have been. I do agree with whoever wrote that the scenes where Malachi had his seizures were effective and well-written.

As far as gameplay is concerned, I liked the interface - effective, with a few more options than a simple 1 or 2 click interface. More like the old GK3 interface. Similar also (unsurprisingly) to Cognition but seemed a bit more intuitive - I’d have to play Cognition again to find out if that’s true & why.

Puzzles were generally solid enough though not in the main especially interesting. As I’ve argued before, I have no problem with the basis that you can’t pick up an item until you’ve got a reason for doing so…but it’s rather a giveaway when the “pick up” item is there for the items you are eventuallyallowed to pick up - a definite flaw there!!

As far as the “deduction” puzzles/minigames are concerned, I liked the ones concerning antiques - required a bit of thought and observation. Those invlving historical figures started off interesting but were used too often so that they were rather a drag after a time. The lack of feedback when you weren’t exactly right probably rather contributed to them also being pretty easy - I think we were only wrong once or twice. The “intuition” minigame when you met someone was flawed as has been commented.

And of course there’s the maze. No, not the worst puzzle, or even ending, I’ve ever seen. But not exactly inspiring either. As has been commented, fundamentally a tedious drag - not really how you want a game ending. The very last couple of puzzles after the main maze part were fine.

Other positives were the music without a doubt, and (as I’ve said before) the voice acting was very solid with Malachi coming over just right. I definitely feel it’s left open exactly what the influences/reasons for the acecent are - there’s definitely no reason why Malachi should have an English RP accent. Indeed, re background he actually comment’s re the flag in the senator’s office about “our country’s forefathers” so from that he seems to consider himself to be American - how long he’s meant to have lived in the States for is (I think) totally open.

So a decent enough game overall but certainly not close to Jane Jensen’s better efforts. Why not is hard to say, hopefully it’ll be successful enough & she can be back to her best next time. I’d put it on a par with a game like Lost Horizon - enjoyable enough but not really going to stick in the memory.

Final comment on game length - Our last save (pretty near the end) had gameplay length of 11hrs 24mins to it and I don’t remember us ever being stuck for any length of time whatsoever. (which says something in itself - I’d say Broken Age Part 1 was harder, actually. Moebius sometimes just gave too much help when it wasn’t needed. The “hints” were totally unnecessary - never used them once.) Hence I struggle to see how anyone could manage to finish it in significantly under 10 hrs unless they were really rushing or skipping dialogue…and I don’t see the point in doing either. No complaints from me re game length.

DaveyB - 26 April 2014 04:17 PM

So a decent enough game overall but certainly not close to Jane Jensen’s better efforts. Why not is hard to say, hopefully it’ll be successful enough & she can be back to her best next time.

i really think if they started with a story concept that was ironed out and air-tight, it would have been a very good game. It just felt like they didnt know where they were going with the moebius theory… and that it was primarily invented for a puzzle mechanic. Its just a really ambitious concept, and if done right it would have been stunning, and if done wrong its a mess.

Finished chapter 3. So far I’d have to say this game is a hoot! All the puzzles are buckets of fun. I will say though that I’m baffled by the ridiculousness of the plot.

I mean I can’t imagine someone taking a look at the plot and saying “yes this is a good idea, let’s make a game that is bassically this:
http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/Fitness/Seeker/what-historical-figure-are-you/
:p

Also let’s add an epic quest to save the world which all hangs on finding this woman whom if I recall the HBO show Rome correctly was a grada A bitch!

Add some Fringe science:
http://fringe.wikia.com/wiki/The_Pattern

And a theory invented by a French comic book artist:
http://www.moebius.fr/

And you basically have the plot of Moebius. (the game, not the artist)

I’m really surprised the characters all except this nonsense so eassily. I know I don’t.

Still the puzzles are fun and considering this is a game and not a movie that helps a lot in overlooking the massive plotholes.