Beautiful, low key but melodic, an all around exceptional soundtrack.
First of all, this is one of the all-time great fantasy adventure games. It's beautiful, poignant, the gameplay is unique. You use your musical staff to play notes and solve puzzles. The fantasy world it's set in is wonderous. My only criticism is that the game is too short. I won't go any further because that's all you need to know: Go play this game. So why only 4 stars? The GOG version is subpar. This is the VGA talkie-version, which does improve on some aspects of the game. The VGA graphics are nice as are the voice parts. But this is at the cost of cutting content. There are portions of dialogue missing and it's really a shame. Some folks also think this version feels less magical than the EGA version. I personally would like the changes they made, IF this version of the game was complete and uncut. You can get the better version through other means (I think the FM-TOWNS version is considered the best). Use your favorite search engine to learn more. I'm not saying don't get this version here, it's still a great game, just not quite all it could be.
You play Ord, a cryptologist piecing together the mystery of a writer's suicide and the trail of clues left behind. GOOD: The story is engaging and I was interested in seeing where it went. The characters are reasonably well developed. The puzzles are varied and whether you like them or not, the developers should be commended for at least making them interesting. Some of the game involves playing through a fantasy story left by the dead man in an unfinished book, and those fantasy scenes are some of the best in the game. NEUTRAL: Puzzles range from neat and clever to "how would I ever have known this". The game is hard, occasionally agonizing without hints or a walkthrough. Voice-acting, sound and and music are passable. Writing is okay even if some of it seems a bit amateurish. BAD: There's a significant amount of pixel-hunting involved: objects I didn't know were there, exits I didn't know were exits, etc. There are a few tactical/action sequences which are frustrating. And the ending, which I think is actually great in concept, is not handled with enough seriousness.
Here we have a truly fantastic "adventure" game. But it's more than just an adventure game. It's a game about ideas, about philosophical concepts, society, and moral dilemmas. That may make it seem too intellectual. Thankfully it's fun and incredibly engaging. I won't say anything else except PLAY THIS GAME!
Here's my spoiler-free review: PROS: 1) Epic Production. There are many different worlds to explore and each section of the game has its own unique feel. There are, accordingly, many characters to converse with in these worlds, with (mostly) good voice acting. You'll probably forget about the paltry 640x480 resolution before long, and besides, the pre-rendered cinematics are quite beautiful.* 2) Engaging story. The lead, April Ryan, is funny and believable. Her friends and companions along the way are well developed. The mystery of what is going on with April is established well, and then slowly revealed throughout the game in such a way that suspense is maintained. Extra star for the ending, which was very good. CONS: The game really started to feel like a chore about half way through. I persevered because I wanted to see how it would conclude, but a lot of it was just not that much fun. I blame two things: 1) Conversation. It's good to have a lot of character interaction. It's not good when the voice-acted dialogue drags on and on and on, and you find yourself click click clicking, thinking to yourself *just get on with it already please!" It wasn't much of an issue for April and her friends, but with the secondary characters it started to become drudgery. 2) Puzzles/Gameplay. There are a bunch of pretty good puzzles, and even a few excellent ones. There are only one or two puzzles that I consider *bad* (the solution didn't seem intuitive at all). Bad puzzles aren't the problem though; it's the vast number of merely decent puzzles. It wouldn't have mattered as much except that I didn't have any choice in where the game was taking me. It became a click-a-thon to see what would happen next, instead of giving me a chance to make a difference for April. - - - *It IS possible to force a higher screen resolution using a special utility to intercept the game's DirectX calls (I used 'dgVoodoo2'). And wow the game looks great this way. But it's a lot of extra work.
Gray Matter is a well constructed adventure game with characters that matter, an engaging mystery to draw you in, and most importantly, effective game play. The old sierra masterpieces could be excessively difficult (I'm thinking of you, Gabriel Knight drumming puzzle). Gray Matter finds the right balance between making you use your "gray matter" and being accessible to a more casual audience. Play alternates between the characters of professor Styles and his new assistant Sam as they attempt to uncover the cause of several paranormal events around Oxford University. There's some nice variance in game play. As Sam you will utilize magic tricks throughout the game. You will need to choose the correct trick to use for a particular puzzle and then choose the correct sequence of actions to make the trick work (palm an object, distract, switch hands, etc.). While the paranormal investigation gets increasingly menacing, you also learn more about the Professor's mysterious past. He's shut himself off in a mansion called "Dread Hill House". He wears an Opera mask to hide his presumed facial disfigurations. Who would do that? You're not going to get the "Sins of the Fathers" intensity here. I personally yearn for thrilling adventure game moments of yore, but you can't just go around having characters-cutting-their-own-hearts-out moments in every game. If you want those keep an eye out for Jane Jensen's own remake of Gabriel Knight 1 in progress.
