Gray Matter Review

That's right. For my first shot at a true review, I'm giving a go at the off-the-radar PC adventure game, Gray Matter. I finally got myself a new PC. My laptop is around 5 years old, and having to turn it on, then wait 5 minutes before I could use it had to stop, so I head over to Best Buy and picked up a new Asus. And why not try a PC while I'm at it? Gray Matter is available for $30, but I downloaded it off Amazon for $15. I don't really know why it was that price, though. Maybe just because it was a download, or maybe my account had some kind of credit.

Enough of that, though! Review after the jump.

It would be easy to harp on the problems with Gray Matter (slow-moving, some awkward conversations, leaps in logic), but that would be ignoring what it is supposed to be. Point-and-click adventure games, at their heart, tell a story with the help of the player. So one way to rate the game would be to rate how appealing the story is, and Gray Matter's story is intriguing and well-paced, littered with interesting characters. At times, the voice acting can fall flat, but in a $30 game, this is not a huge problem, and the acting is far from distractingly bad, ala Final Fantasy X and others. 


The heart of the story revolves around Samantha Everett, a stage magician who uses tricks (illusions, Michael!) to get what she needs from others. The magic interface is well done, and you find yourself looking forward to the next time you have to use your magic book and various items to dupe a student or professor. There are actually several things happening in Sam's life, both on her own and within her new "job" as assistant to Dr. Styles, a reclusive ex-professor at Oxford (where the majority of the game takes place) who now stays home and conducts endless experiments in his basement. The game deserves credit for bringing all these plot points together competently.

The other way to grade the game would be the content of the puzzles, and as far Gray Matter goes, the puzzles are not only satisfying, but actually fit organically into the story, a place where many adventure games fail. At no point will you be forced to complete a non-sensical sliding block puzzle just because the developers aren't original enough to come up with anything else. Sure, there are a few puzzles that seem to stretch the rules of ordinary logic, but nothing so jarring that you lose the sense of immersion.


There are minor annoyances, as well. Some were mentioned earlier (and it should be noted that while the game moves slow, the music is good enough that you never really mind), but something that can be particularly bad is that only a handful of areas stretch beyond the confines of one screen, and it can be unclear when you are in one of these areas. If what you need to solve the puzzle is just off the screen, it may take you a while to figure out. Luckily, there are guides to get you through some of the smaller actions you need to take that aren't quite clear, these included.


Overall, Gray Matter deserves your attention if you enjoy this type of game. The story is interesting and well-written, pushed forward by puzzles that never lose their sense of place.


Final grade:  80
(played on PC, also available on Xbox 360)

-dp