Gray Matter Reviews

This game is a mixed bag - I would give it about 6 out of 10. On one hand, there it's obvious there was a creative ambition to create a layered story with character development. On the other hand, the writing is not very inspired, and rehashes the immortal myths and hoaxes about the supernatural (like that humans can "awaken" the brain to use 100 percent capacity at once in contrast with normal usage). The main protagonist is very hard to relate to - she routinely lies, cheats, and irresponsibly puts others to danger or shifts blame to them, but it could be argued that a young girl from foster care could be like that. The visuals are also a mixed bag, with some anatomically wrong 2D art and really wooden and clunky 3D animation, but the game has unique atmosphere. Gameplay-wise, it's often hard to understand what the player is expected to be doing, there is a lot of backtracking involved when suddenly a previously unusable item becomes crucial, it's easy to get stuck while playing.

great game with intriguing magic related puzzles and a cleaver story.

This was a charming mystery adventure game, but fair warning, it is a bit dated and has some bugs. Cutscene videos would stay on a loop for me until I hit the skip scene button. The inventory UI was also very fickle and only seemed to work on the top half of the bar. And I had to follow one of the steam guides to get it working on Windows 11. Aside from that it was playable enough and I enjoyed my time with Gray Matter. The gameplay is pretty standard point-and-click for the most part, though there is a "magic trick" mechanic to this game that is kinda unique. The two characters you play as contrast each other well, with Sam being sneaky, headstrong, and caring whilst David is somber, moody, and tragic. There is a good variety of side characters you meet, and the story features a great buildup of mystery toward it's conclusion. One thing that also really surprised me was the soundtrack. It not only has some lovely instrumentals, but several vocal themes, performed by "The Scarlet Furies" are featured as well!

Delightful little game. I will echo the sentiment that if you have difficulty starting this game on Win11, there is a guide on Steam that was able to help me overcome that predicament. After which, my experience of the game was exceptionally smooth engine-wise. Loved this game, it fills me with nostalgic joy of the old darker but adventurous tales of video games yore. Unfortunately, it did come with some minor bothers. I wouldn't say I were able to play this game completely without guidance. There were certain actions that were not prompt by the game itself, leaving you quite puzzled on what to do next to progress the chapter. Mostly revolving around the use of your phone. You use it more frequently that you'd think and you wouldn't know when sometimes. Besides that, the puzzles were quite the mix of good ol' logic and occasionally, there was some big braining involved there that requires you to just about bash every option until something works hahaha. But what is an old adventure game without rubbing all your inventory against an interactive location. :P You'd adore the graphics of this game if you're a huge fan of prerendered backgrounds. They're so stunning, much nicer than the preview screenshots the store page has set up. A pleasant surprise. There were a lot of locations that were hardly utilized, their only purpose is as if to make the world seem bigger than it is, but hey, I like prerendered backgrounds so I appreciate the extra flavors. I also enjoyed the usage of real life locations and information, definitely a Jane Jensen production if I've ever heard one. Felt like I had a glimpse of what it'd be like to tour around the town. I'll reiterate that I didn't really encounter any bugs in my experience. I can't vouch for anyone else. All the puzzles functioned as intended and nothing caused the game to crash or lock me in. The magic feature is like a fun test of literacy and not so much a puzzle but it certainly added some interactive-ness to the game. That said, go play the game! It's a fun experience that hopefully won't take you long, I'd say about 6 hours. Don't look at my hours, my mind likes to wander between gameplay. Not because it was boring or anything, just have a life LMAO!