Grey Matter Review

The Game: Grey Matter
Ted Puffer's Review: Let's just put down 5 stars, eh?

Without a question, this game is a gem and had me barely breathing between gaming sessions. This is a point and click style adventure in the same vein as Gabriel Knight, which isn't too surprising when you consider that both games were designed, written, scored, etc. by the same person. The story is fantastic. Deep, moving and everything that a completely engrossing game should be.

There are cons, but they are strange. Usually when a game has flaws they fall into categories that are shared by many titles throughout the gaming world. I think that Grey Matter managed to invent a few. Character pathing is an issue.... sometimes. Sometimes it's not. Certain tasks need to be performed before the story advances, and there were only a few which really didn't seem to fit. More often than not, the story doesn't handle itself well if the plot elements are completed in a different order than the designers had planned. In this case the game still works, but your character will say nonsensical things, or mention looking forward to events which have already happened. It's odd, but not a game killer.

There was only one puzzle which had me screaming 'unfair'! All other puzzles and twists are believable and a joy to work on. But this one... I dunno. I almost felt like it was created by someone else entirely.

It's a fantastic mark of success that I love this game even when one of the chapters delves deeply into Alice in Wonderland. I hate that book, don't care for the author, and find the whole mythos around AIW to be a sad testimony on humanity. In 80 years, I'm sure that there will be similar devotees of Harry Potter, which does make me want to drink. Heavily.

Speaking of, there are a few Harry Potter references in this game as well. And I STILL love it! Wow. I really didn't see that coming. Including any Harry Potter references in a book or computer game is usually producer/developer/author shorthand for "my abilities are feeble, please enjoy this reference to something I think you'll like better..." But in a bizarre way, the Harry Potter shout-outs in Grey Matter actually fit with the story.