The Gray Man Reviews

I love the style of the game.

A very unique take on psychological horror.

This game has an interestin premise. We play the role of a serial killer whom is at odds with himself. I had to look for a woman but failed to find her lol. Could not for the life of me find that hidin' spot. Sometimes things can be overlooked with the pixel graphic style here. It features solid animations tho. I wish the game was voice acted. Would add soo much more. Gameplay here: https://youtu.be/IpBFMIoD7YY

Nice initiative, but I'd rather watch someone else play this. I just couldn't stand the gameplay. The interaction is extremely frustrating not mentioning the minor bugs. I even got black screen several times when changing scenes.

Love the art and the emotions spreading through the animation. However, during my play, a serious bug occurred in ACT 1: SPOILER ALERT BELOW [spoiler] After we found the woman several times and captures her again, once the bowl of water was given to her (for the second time), the game comes into a short animation and Anthony's face appears, then the game got stuck. I clicked everywhere and nothing happened, then I tried to click space, two lines of red words appears on the left side of the screen, which can't be read clearly, seemingly not like a hint or something. [/spoiler] So sadly I have to quit playing but still not willing to ask for a refund, for I'm really interested in this story and wish to see what will happen next. Since there're no available guides online for now, if you're seeing my comment and could provide help, I would be much appreciated.

Great story but buggy gameplay, sometimes the game will wait for you to click to progress dialogue, other times it will speed up with notifications popping up for a fraction of a second. This becomes increasingly frustrating when trying to acquire items or make sense of the world as you navigate it. Other times there is simply too much visual clutter to even make out notes written on paper much less find the tiny pixel where you need to click, this goes from intriguing to annoyance very quickly it's hard to recommend this game but it does have promise if all the bugs or "features" are polished.

Well, the game is kind of interesting, but I'm truly worried about the mental state of the author... I met a bug which in the chapter 1, when I turn back from the sink in the kitchen, the whole screen just turned totally black... I can't solve the problem. Waiting for the solution. Besides, the map is kind of chaotic... Got lost in the house several times lol.

Tentative recommendation - the game is as visually strong as the promos make it to be. I have strong vibes of the Interface animated movie. Unfortunately the "gameplay" (the little there is) is janky, the character does not move on click, sometimes the game stops responding, sometimes text stays on the screen and does not disappear and so on. It definitely needs a bit more polish.

Don't get me wrong there is a lot to love about this game and on a personal level I find it a fascinating experience - like a very nuanced 'psychopath simulation’, but there are just so many technical and design issues, it's hard to have a clean experience, there is always something weird happening to the game, and I already got at least 2 softlocks and had to reload saves several times (plus like 20 polish issues). To be perfectly clear, I think the game has some genuine moments of brilliance in the way it portrays the character from multiple angles, but the technical aspect of the game overshadows the experience. I can't give the game a proper review, I am running into all kinds of softlocks and I can't finish it, but hopefully, the dev fixes it or at least makes it more reliable. Edit - the game actually already has a level select, it's in the "extras", go to options and select extras using the bloody signs. Essentially the game puts you into the head of a maniac using a graphic adventure format where you navigate the scenes with a mouse, with a lot of narrative layers I might add, similar to a game like Who's Lila, it sorta has this iceberg mentality, more underneath than you can see on the surface. Like there are parts of the game that I can't even explain in the words, it turns into complete ****** madness like no other game I ever played. While the game starts with a simple graphic adventure gameplay, later on there are all kinds of mind games that make it unclear what is happening, for better or worse. Frankly, the navigation in this game can get so disorienting, even when the game works properly it's hard to figure it out. Under normal circumstances I have seen enough to give it a negative review, and yet, man there is something to the way the game unravels the character, it takes a bit of patience to get going and frankly sometimes the presentation is a bit sloppy, but it's cool, if you stay with it I think you will find a neat psychological experience, assuming the game works for you. You made a big mistake making the exits for the character perspective, like it should be consistent from the player's view instead, down should be back, left should be left, and right should be right, and up should be forward. But not in this game, for some reason sometimes the character has to make partial turns, which is kinda of unique but, it's weird, you have to play it to understand my frustration. The visuals in the game is something else, I was not too impressed at first with just the art style, but there are some really cool segments that are both psychedelic and thought-provoking, in some cases the way the game structures cutscenes is unlike anything else out there, it really has a way of getting into your head. Even just the changes between different levels, like there is so much going on visually and in terms of different vibes, there is this very odd sense of trance, even if it's not always there. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) Even though you probably won't be able to read 30% of the dialogue, there is a lot of depth to the narrative, more than most games out there, and if you have the patience to explore it, I think you will find things in this game that no other game did so well in terms of being complete mind ***** and a perfect exploration of the troubled mind. (+) Now, the game has some really amazing visual segments, granted, you do have play the game long enough for the unique aspect to kick in, there are some things this game does visually that I have never seen before, aside maybe from games like Who's Lila, but even then, this game turns into a complete creative disaster, for better or worse. If nothing else, it's one of a kind game, even if you kind of failed making it. (+) There is more exploration than it seems, secrets and optional things all over the place. I am having a hard time actually accessing the content, but it's there. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] [u] Technical issues [/u] - the game is extremely unpolished at the time of this review, just a variety of bugs. It does have a level select though*, if you go into options, check the signs on top and it's there next to the credits. [u] Font/Grain [/u] - I can't read like 25% of the game, and maybe you can excuse some of that because of the limited resolution, but then you can read some of the dialogue when the game isn't going ape**** on you with the grain, so this is an objective problem in my book, I can't read 1/4 of the narrative, so it does not make the story better. I get why you are using the grain, but do you need to use so much of it constantly? [u] Navigation issues [/u] - the whole thing you did with the character turning partially is a big problem, most people who play graphic adventures just like the fixed idea that down is back, left is left, and up is forward. But you flip with turning around and looping, just not a great way to do that. [u] Some subjective thoughts [/u] - normally I tell devs to add more context and layers to the narrative, but this game almost has the opposite problem, you packed so much shet into it, and don't get me wrong it's all good, but realistically, you think people will actually see all of that? Sometimes it's better to focus on a few ideas and do them well, but here is just like a freak show of creative ideas all over the place, before I even know what happened you already blast me with more metaphors and more complexity, and it just never ends, I don't even know wtf is happening anymore. What I am trying to say is that, you could put less effort and still have the same result, maybe even better pacing if you don't go so over the top all the time. And you should label all of the exits, sometimes you just eh, I guess arrow is good enough. No it's not. [b] Overall Thoughts: Beautiful disaster of a game [/b] I do think this game deserves a more intelligent review, but for the time I am unable to play it properly. Somewhere underneath this pile of technical problems is a game unlike any other and you are a really good writer, but the experience of playing the game is also important, it's so frustrating when every 5 minutes I can't tell if the game has a glitch or if there is some design problem. There are ideas in this game that I have never seen before so that counts for something, the way you would create despair segments is very unique. What can I say, buy at your own risk, it's a neat experience if you don't mind some potential frustration, and I would not be surprised if you run into technical problems. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]