Gemini Rue

Ugly, clunky, poorly animated game with terrible action sequences and gunfights and plenty of instant death situations where the poor controls undermine any attempt to react quickly. After the wonderful Blackwell series (all 5 parts) and the equally wonderful Unavowed, this game actually made me angry! I played for a few hours and the amazing story others talk about hadn't kicked in enough for me to continue to wrestle with everything else. I found the dialogue flat and unengaging and I didn't care about the lifeless characters and their lifeless, albeit somewhat atmospheric, world (and I like dystopian stuff, loved Beneath The Steel Sky). Nice atmospheric audio though. The game is also buggy, many years after release. After death, I often reloaded to see half the screen completely black with only the rain effect being rendered, sometimes with a purple bar at the top. And why do you have to right click on an item in the environment to get to your inventory? You shouldn't have to right click on a phone box/ladder/poster to examine your gun/lockpick/whatever! Why make your starting location right by a gate you can't open? It's the first thing anyone would try. I found the graphical style too crude to be able to identify objects, and resorted to sweeping my mouse in areas I thought were important. I wish I could have played the game other reviewers did, but the one I played completely alienated me; it was unpleasant to play. I won't speculate on why we have plenty of 5 star ratings (ie. one of the best games you've ever played, of supreme quality, that'll take a lot to top), but I understand the passion behind this genre and its continued pulse. I too love it that these games still get made, but perhaps we are a little generous in our support. As a side note, this is the second time I have attempted to get into this game. The first being a few years ago. I disliked it even more this time!

I found it pretty good for being an indie game, but compared to really awesome games like Beneath a Steel Sky, it's pretty lacking when it comes to story and puzzles.

The story is very well written, but in my opinion they put too many hints so I saw the main arc coming an hour or two into the game. There are many moments where I was looking for a puzzle to solve in order to advance the story, but the puzzle wasn't there and all I needed to do was to go 3 screens back and then back again to see that something new is happening.

If it wasn't for the controller scheme and some minor issues this would be a really solid 5/5. The artwork is fantastic, it's well made, has a very cyberpunk feel to it and is consistent from start to finish. Voice acting is good too, not what I'll remember the game for but still very good. I won't say anything about the contents of the story, but it's very well written and only gets better as you progress through the game. The way you're taught the game mechanics too is integrated very seamlessly into the overarching story to the point that they're barely noticeable. As to be expected with a game such as this it builds up to a crescendo that will leave few disappointed. As previously mentioned, the game is not without it's flaws however. Keep in mind that I played the mac version. Let's start with the interaction control scheme. You walk with the left mouse button (slowly, and you can't run) and interact with the right button. When interacting you have eye/hand/mouth/leg as basic interaction options as well as your inventory for using items. The basic interaction options are way too granulated in my opinion, a lot of the times several of the options do exactly the same thing and it's a little annoying to have to go through a sub menu to do the most basic kinds of interactions such as opening doors. With some doors you can double-click the walk button to walk up and open them, but for some reason this doesn't work with all of them. The puzzles, for the most part, are very good and intuitive. You'll get stumped, but you'll solve almost all of them if you just think things through. Sometimes however the game really insists that you do things it's way, even if other solutions should work as well. For example there are several movements where 20 different doors are possible but only one will actually work, for this reason I really disliked many of the apartment puzzles. These are all nitpicks however, they only become a problem because there're so many of them.

The story was OK. The resolution might have been a little predictable but not ruining the game completely. The graphics fit the mood (even though I usually don't like the "pseudo-retro" style). The music is great and again - fits the game. Great work on that. Overall experience was very positive and I completed the whole game without looking for hints but not finding the game overly easy. On the bad side: 1. The movement is a bit clunky. Especially in that one frustrating timed section. 2. There are some minigames which are not really needed there. Don't add anything important to the game but make it a bit frustrating experience. 3. Timed sequences. 4. Shooting. It's simply annoying. I wanted a point and click game, not some shmup. Luckily the shooting wasn't _that_ bad (I suppose if I set a higher difficulty, could have been more frustrating). And the timed sequences just needed a few tries and save-restore cycles. On the plus side - there don't seem to be points of no return so you can't get irreversibly stuck. Overally - if you like point and click adventures - a nice game to go for.