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Game Information
- Platform: Xbox 360
- PEGI Rating: Ages 12 and Over
- Media: Video Game
- Item Quantity: 1
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Product details
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Product Description
Manufacturer's Description
Gray Matter is the first adventure game by renowned author Jane Jensen since the release of Gabriel Knight 3: the story mixes eerie goings-on with supernatural events in best Jensen-style. Neurobiologist Dr. David Styles is one of the game’s central characters: since losing his wife in a horrible accident some several years ago, he has become a recluse, seldom leaving Dread Hill House, his English country estate.
When student and part-time street performer Samantha Everett shows up at his doorstep, she unexpectedly becomes his assistant. Hailing from America, she has been travelling through most of Europe the last couple years. Her first task: finding six test subjects at Oxford University for one of Styles’ experiments. The experiment starts off innocently enough, but then inexplicable incidents start mounting. And Styles is visited by his dear departed wife. Now it’s up to Sam and Dr. Styles to solve the mysteries of Dread Hill House.
In Gray Matter, players control both Dr. David Styles as well as Samantha Everett in their bid to uncover the secrets and find out the truth. Gray Matter tackles questions concerning the nature of reality and the power of the human mind in constructing the world we take for granted.
Product Description
Neurobiologist Dr. David Styles is one of the game's central characters: since losing his wife in a horrible accident some several years ago, he has become a recluse, seldom leaving Dread Hill House, his English country estate. When student and part-time street performer Samantha Everett shows up at his doorstep, she unexpectedly becomes his assistant.r>
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Fun:
This is a rare genre for a console - a point and click adventure of the classic Broken Sword, and Monkey Island variety. If you were fans of those two games, then this will be right up your street, even though this game has a lot less humour than those two!
There is lots to like here - a good storyline that will keep you involved through all 8 chapters of the game. The two main characters are playable throughout the game. You get to play as Sam ; an amateur magician seeking an exclusive club who gets waylaid by chance (or fate?) and ends up spending the night with the reclusive Dr David Styles. Dr Styles is into esoteric research which is being propelled forwards by the fact he feels that his dead wife is trying to contact him. The main storyline follows Sam trying to recruit 'volunteers' for Styles' experiments. And i won't spoil it by giving any more away!
The story is good, but is definitely a slow-burner - don't expect action-packed sequences to run through this game. It isn't that type of game!
The controls on the 360 aren't bad, but they can be a little slow, and i have heard from other people that the pc version is a bit more user friendly.
The puzzles aren't the hardest you will ever come across in an adventure game - and you won't have to use your 'grey matter' (pun intended) as much as some of the more off-the-wall games. But they are engaging enough.
Where this game is let down is the polish, the finesse, and the finishing touches. The graphics in the cut scenes are pretty good, but the in-game play graphics are not the strongest you will ever see, and when you perform a task on an environmental feature, you really don't the feeling of great interaction. This isn't a AAA publisher producing this game - and you can tell. Which is a shame, as the rest of the game is pretty good.
Who will this appeal to? Well, anyone who likes point and click adventures and is wanting to play something a little different on a console. If you aren't a fan then i would definitely recommend downloading the demo from Xbox live and see how you get on with the whole 'feel' of the game - from the graphics, to the controls and to the characters and storyline. If you like the demo, then you get more of the same in the finished product.
For me, i thought it was a good, solid attempt at bringing a point and click adventure to a console, and one that kept me going right through the game until the very end. It is very linear though, and you do feel that you are being led by the hand sometimes, so don't expect the feeling that you are controlling the destinies of your characters.
If you hate these kinds of games then this will not convert you, and i would say avoid Gray Matter. But if you fancy a change, or like these types of games, then it is well worth a look.........
Just try the demo first.............
There is lots to like here - a good storyline that will keep you involved through all 8 chapters of the game. The two main characters are playable throughout the game. You get to play as Sam ; an amateur magician seeking an exclusive club who gets waylaid by chance (or fate?) and ends up spending the night with the reclusive Dr David Styles. Dr Styles is into esoteric research which is being propelled forwards by the fact he feels that his dead wife is trying to contact him. The main storyline follows Sam trying to recruit 'volunteers' for Styles' experiments. And i won't spoil it by giving any more away!
The story is good, but is definitely a slow-burner - don't expect action-packed sequences to run through this game. It isn't that type of game!
The controls on the 360 aren't bad, but they can be a little slow, and i have heard from other people that the pc version is a bit more user friendly.
The puzzles aren't the hardest you will ever come across in an adventure game - and you won't have to use your 'grey matter' (pun intended) as much as some of the more off-the-wall games. But they are engaging enough.
Where this game is let down is the polish, the finesse, and the finishing touches. The graphics in the cut scenes are pretty good, but the in-game play graphics are not the strongest you will ever see, and when you perform a task on an environmental feature, you really don't the feeling of great interaction. This isn't a AAA publisher producing this game - and you can tell. Which is a shame, as the rest of the game is pretty good.
Who will this appeal to? Well, anyone who likes point and click adventures and is wanting to play something a little different on a console. If you aren't a fan then i would definitely recommend downloading the demo from Xbox live and see how you get on with the whole 'feel' of the game - from the graphics, to the controls and to the characters and storyline. If you like the demo, then you get more of the same in the finished product.
For me, i thought it was a good, solid attempt at bringing a point and click adventure to a console, and one that kept me going right through the game until the very end. It is very linear though, and you do feel that you are being led by the hand sometimes, so don't expect the feeling that you are controlling the destinies of your characters.
If you hate these kinds of games then this will not convert you, and i would say avoid Gray Matter. But if you fancy a change, or like these types of games, then it is well worth a look.........
Just try the demo first.............
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Fun:
As a gamer for many many years now, the humble Point and Click adventure is a genre which hasn't had much love over the last decade since the halcyon days of LucasArts, with classic titles such as the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango.
Therefore as a lover of the genre, I had to give Gray Matter a rent. Firstly, looking at some of the other reviews this title has had, I am not sure what some people expected when they played it. I repeat for the terminally slow amongst, you THIS IS NOT AN ACTION GAME. Good - now I have your attention I can speak to the true Point and Click fans.
The graphics although nothing special are very detailed and require a HDTV. Some of the detail and text is very small and hard to read even on my 42" LCD 1080p TV. The sound is inkeeping with the genre, lush orchestral scores and background noises for the scenery. Again, very pretty and absorbing,
The game itself is a bit of a slow burner. Nothing much seems to happen at first, but you get heavily get drawn into the plot as more is revealed. I likened it to a good detective novel that you can't put down. Nothing too taxing on the puzzle front for seasoned adventure game fans, but newcomers will be perplexed by some of the logic on display in solving the mysteries.
The main star of the show however here is the writing - sharp, suspenseful and gripping. This is not a game for people with short attention spans. You need to think, you need to concentrate and you need to pay attention to every last clue and conversation.
The only downside as you might expect from this sort of game on a console is the controls. Without the luxury of a mouse, you have to hold down the trigger button which brings up a compass style wheel which you use to point to items of interest in the environment. It feels very clunky to someone used to mouse controls, but you soon get used to it.
All in all a welcome diversion from all the FPS shooters and driving games which have saturated the market.
If you are a gamer in your 30's who longs for something more adult and cerebral, or even a newcomer to the genre - at least give Gray Matter a try. You never know, you might find yourself being as charmed as I was.
4/5
Therefore as a lover of the genre, I had to give Gray Matter a rent. Firstly, looking at some of the other reviews this title has had, I am not sure what some people expected when they played it. I repeat for the terminally slow amongst, you THIS IS NOT AN ACTION GAME. Good - now I have your attention I can speak to the true Point and Click fans.
The graphics although nothing special are very detailed and require a HDTV. Some of the detail and text is very small and hard to read even on my 42" LCD 1080p TV. The sound is inkeeping with the genre, lush orchestral scores and background noises for the scenery. Again, very pretty and absorbing,
The game itself is a bit of a slow burner. Nothing much seems to happen at first, but you get heavily get drawn into the plot as more is revealed. I likened it to a good detective novel that you can't put down. Nothing too taxing on the puzzle front for seasoned adventure game fans, but newcomers will be perplexed by some of the logic on display in solving the mysteries.
The main star of the show however here is the writing - sharp, suspenseful and gripping. This is not a game for people with short attention spans. You need to think, you need to concentrate and you need to pay attention to every last clue and conversation.
The only downside as you might expect from this sort of game on a console is the controls. Without the luxury of a mouse, you have to hold down the trigger button which brings up a compass style wheel which you use to point to items of interest in the environment. It feels very clunky to someone used to mouse controls, but you soon get used to it.
All in all a welcome diversion from all the FPS shooters and driving games which have saturated the market.
If you are a gamer in your 30's who longs for something more adult and cerebral, or even a newcomer to the genre - at least give Gray Matter a try. You never know, you might find yourself being as charmed as I was.
4/5
7 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Fun:
Point and click adventure games have been a neglected genre on the xbox 360 with only the Sherlock Holmes game to represent the genre in recent memory. I knew very little about this game when I ordered it but being a big fan of Broken Sword 1 and 2 and Monkey Island I thought I would take a chance and give this game a try.
The game has a more adult theme, set in Oxford, you play as both Sam Everitt an aspiring magician and Professor David Styles a recluse who is struggling to deal with the death of his wife. I won't spoil the plot but it does start out strongly drawing you in and making you want to discover what is happening at Dread Hill House.
This draws me to one my biggest disappointments with the game - I got it on Saturday morning and I finished it on Sunday still managing to fit in watching the 6 nations Rugby and the carling cup final. The game is short lasting me just 6 hours of gameplay - one of the achievements itself is finishing the game in under 5 hours. Should you get stuck on a puzzle it may last you longer but they are not that difficult and there is no real replay value as the plot itself is very linear so you would see nothing new on a second playthrough. The plot itself is also full of holes with some of the things you discover never really being explained and characters turning up where they shouldn't without explanation.
My second gripe with this game is the control system - you hold down the left trigger and scroll the left stick to hightlight the item you want then press A to activate. This is all well and good but when you are in a small room with 20+ items of interest it becomes a real effort to select the item you want. This really saps the fun from the game and I spent most of it wishing for a mouse pointer Broken Sword style which would have avoided this issue.
All in all such a shame, I really wanted to like this game and was hoping for a fun point and click adventure to keep me amused for hours, sadly this fails to achieve this and just left me disappointed.
The game has a more adult theme, set in Oxford, you play as both Sam Everitt an aspiring magician and Professor David Styles a recluse who is struggling to deal with the death of his wife. I won't spoil the plot but it does start out strongly drawing you in and making you want to discover what is happening at Dread Hill House.
This draws me to one my biggest disappointments with the game - I got it on Saturday morning and I finished it on Sunday still managing to fit in watching the 6 nations Rugby and the carling cup final. The game is short lasting me just 6 hours of gameplay - one of the achievements itself is finishing the game in under 5 hours. Should you get stuck on a puzzle it may last you longer but they are not that difficult and there is no real replay value as the plot itself is very linear so you would see nothing new on a second playthrough. The plot itself is also full of holes with some of the things you discover never really being explained and characters turning up where they shouldn't without explanation.
My second gripe with this game is the control system - you hold down the left trigger and scroll the left stick to hightlight the item you want then press A to activate. This is all well and good but when you are in a small room with 20+ items of interest it becomes a real effort to select the item you want. This really saps the fun from the game and I spent most of it wishing for a mouse pointer Broken Sword style which would have avoided this issue.
All in all such a shame, I really wanted to like this game and was hoping for a fun point and click adventure to keep me amused for hours, sadly this fails to achieve this and just left me disappointed.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dull, humourless and simplified 'adventure'.
I shall start by saying I have not completed this game yet, and after forcing myself to try it again I felt compelled to review it. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Andrew P. Hughes
something different
like the other reviewers said, this game is like monkey island or broken sword and to be honest you would be better off buying them. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mr. D. Whyte
How disappointingly dull
Having read the other reviews mine comes from a slightly different angle. I only really using the Xbox once or twice a week so am not a hardcore gamer but do enjoy puzzles or... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Courteous Rach
Repeatative shot in the foot
I can't add much more than what these two gent's have already said. However the main selling point at the time was Action Adventure Game and a new pace breaker yet to be done in... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Bis0Razorback
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